# Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along



## Ridgetop

Ok, I am starting a journal - a little late since I have been enjoying this site for several years and posting on it too.  We have had livestock for 30 years now but never had any time till the past couple years due to kids, livestock, gardens, canning, 4-H, work, volunteer, etc.  This sounds fun but I don't think I can recreate the past 30 years . . . .   Consequently I might jump around a bit as I write.  

Most of what we built 30+ years ago is starting to fall apart, so now we are having to rebuild.  This time we have experience behind us, but at our ages we don't want to invest $$ more than we have to into barns, pens, etc.  The reason for that is our 6 acres in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley, will go for development when we sell out.  Few horses and less livestock left here, we are hold outs.  I am a slow learner in the realm of social computer stuff though so it has taken this long to figure out to post pix, start a thread, etc.  Al of which only happened after LOTS OF COACHING from all you tech savvy people.  The only thing I do well on a computer is type fast and operate word in office mode.  I still haven't mastered my iPhone, and when I got a new ne and the sales rep was telling me all the cool new stuff I could do with it, I understood nothing.  I still don't know how to save or retrieve stuff from the Cloud.  My phone tells me that I have to back up my phone and I follow the instructions, but apparently I am not a member of the secret tech society that automatically knows these things.  My children and grandchildren were practically born with their hands shaped to cradle a gaming console and cell phone,  Go figure. 

That must be why I stick with livestock.


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## Ridgetop

Well. I went back to make this smaller and it posted.  I am just tech disabled! 

So after fires when we nearly got burned out and got evacuated, a giant tree fell on the house during 90 mph winds.  Not a tornado, just normal winds we have every year or so here in the canyons.  The tree smashed all the HVAC, part of the roof, and tore up all the waterlines to the barn.     This was back in January and we have been rebuilding and repairing since.  This weekend we rented a ditchwitch and DH and DS started replacing the water lines.  2 days and all hooked up - just need to wait 24 hours to put pressure on and check that it doesn't blow apart.  DH wanted to put in copper $$$$$$ but wiser heads (mine) prevailed and we put in PVC.  Still $400 with materials and rental of machine, but much less than copper!  

Soon DS want to pull out pipe stalls in barn and rebuild stalls that can be divided into lambing jugs during lambing season, and converted into creep section.  If El NIno hits we will need jugs under cover. 

I guess on the next post I will answer that list of the questions I was supposed to answer first.


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## Baymule

So when you sell out and move, where will you move to and will you still have animals?


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## Hipshot

Ridgetop said:


> Well. I went back to make this smaller and it posted.  I am just tech disabled!
> 
> So after fires when we nearly got burned out and got evacuated, a giant tree fell on the house during 90 mph winds.  Not a tornado, just normal winds we have every year or so here in the canyons.  The tree smashed all the HVAC, part of the roof, and tore up all the waterlines to the barn.     This was back in January and we have been rebuilding and repairing since.  This weekend we rented a ditchwitch and DH and DS started replacing the water lines.  2 days and all hooked up - just need to wait 24 hours to put pressure on and check that it doesn't blow apart.  DH wanted to put in copper $$$$$$ but wiser heads (mine) prevailed and we put in PVC.  Still $400 with materials and rental of machine, but much less than copper!
> 
> Soon DS want to pull out pipe stalls in barn and rebuild stalls that can be divided into lambing jugs during lambing season, and converted into creep section.  If El NIno hits we will need jugs under cover.
> 
> I guess on the next post I will answer that list of the questions I was supposed to answer first.


 your life sounds kinda normal  I like  pex turn it on now . If you clean and prime and  use heavy duty glue you can put pressure on PVC in two hours . Do it all the time . Really sooner than that. As soon as the glue sets we turn it on . But Pex is so much easier to assemble. Every plumber I know is using it as their first choice nowadays  .  So was this page one ?


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## Mini Horses

As a fellow senior who "won't give up" I'm wondering what livestock you have now.  Just sheep?   My horse barn is now a catch all and kidding area when I breed more than a few does. It's hard to change our total lifestyle and I, too, don't know why they send pictures to a cloud.   I often lose things out there.   At least I am told they are there. 

Haven't gone to a smart phone -- but I do have a small tablet.  Seems close to the same without phone calls.   The dots & symbols just aren't fun!  But the tech world forces us to migrate in some fashion.  Yeah, a visit to a phone store is about as clear as mud    I whip out my flip phone and there is a silence that covers the room.....then muffled snickers.   I will NOT pay what they ask for those lovely new phones -- that's winter hay money!  What's wrong with that?

Will follow your newest adventures.


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## Ridgetop

Mini Horses:  Flip phones are coming back!  Soon you will on the cutting edge!


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## Ridgetop

Here is the information I was supposed to post first!

We live in So Cal, hot and dry, but not desert.  When we get good rains, green stuff shoots up like Sleeping Beauty's enchanted forest.  It doesn't last long - once we stop getting rains it dries out and becomes tinder for the fire season.

We moved to this spot over 30 years ago so our kids could have horses and a more country lifestyle.  We always planned to buy a farm or ranch when DH retired but after I counted up how old the kids would be then I realized they would be adults!  So DH worked all over the city and knew where there were horse pockets.  We checked them out and bought  here.  Horrible house, no outbuildings, no corrals, no fences, terrifying single lane 1/2 mile dirt road up mountain to house,  but no neighbors, surrounded by silence.  DH fell in love since he worked as lineman/underground high voltage so always surrounded by traffic and people.  I hated it but I am a dutiful wife so . . . OUCH! Pulled muscle trying to pat self on back!

30 years of remodeling house, building barns, putting in water lines, building corrals and fences, planting gardens and fruit trees, rebuilding sheds, rebuilding animal pens, removing dead trees and plants (PH was 9!) rebuilding soil by digging out all planters and garden areas 2 feet down, collecting manure from neighbors (got reputation as insane), composting, remodeling house, repairing . . . repairing . . .

Just repeat that paragraoh over and over . . . .

So, we bought some horsekeeping books, got used stalls, kids got ponies.  I went to school in Ireland for 2  years so in GB we ride ponies.  It was a good choice since ponies are headstrong little beasts and after growing up riding their ponies my 4 kids could ride anything.  100 falls to make a rider . . . . and then add some more.  If you can't fall off and get back on, don't get a horse.

In our old home we had rabbits for meat and chickens for eggs, fruit trees and a huge garden.  I canned all summer and had a boutique business selling homemade jams, jellies and pickles.  Remember those days when schools could have bake sales and sell homemade stuff?  Aaah, the good old days!  I am soooo old . . . .  Our first plantings all died, I replaced them and they died again.  Took a soil sample PH OF 9!   Began years of soil amendments. 

Next came goats.  Bought more books and studied up.  The kids and I put up more pens.  We love dairy goats!   A wether to eat, and 2 dairy does for milk.  I drove 3 hours to get them because I wanted CAE clean, high milking does.  The breeder was getting her milk stars on her herd so kept them until they finished then sold them to me bred.  Win, win!

They were easy to hand milk, gentle, easy to handle, quickly learned how to get out of the gates, but my 3 and 4 year old boys were able to lead them back to the pens even they were barely as tall as the 2 Nubians.  Milk was delicious and we now had our chickens, milk goats, rabbits for meat.  Sadly I found out that the ground was pretty barren.

First spring rain came and turned the ground bright green!  my children ran out barefoot in their shorts return weeping bitterly since all that lovely green was prickly nettles!  BAD MOMMY!  Wasn't the first time, won't be the last.  

Immediately enrolled the kids into 4-H.  Now we would be able to learn all about the animals we were keeping and I wouldn't have to study my textbooks so much, right?  Wrong.  No livestock leader in our club.  The members only kept market animals and just fed them till fair time.  WHAT!?

More in the saga later . . . .

YES! IT IS A SAGA - 30 YEARS REMEMBER!


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## Bruce

Following 

Sad the property will go to development but that is the way it is in So. Cal and elsewhere. WAY back when, when I was little we went to visit my grandparents on their farm and took a 2 lane twisty road to get over the hills. Grandpa had 2 small farms and Dad ran one my first 2.5 years. When I was in college grandpa was talking about how the high taxes made it impossible for him to keep leasing it out. Yep, tax it for the residential property it COULD be, not the farm property it is. That was 40 years ago and by then there was a new freeway to get out that direction. There are now 2 more "new" freeways. Too many people, I moved to VT when I graduated college.


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## Ridgetop

Developers seem to like the best farmland too.  Also, we have no water here - the San Joachim Valley could (and used to) support the entire state with AG but Sacramento won't let them have any.  Need it all for the Sacramento Delta Strange that there always seems to be plenty of water for new golf courses and housing developments!

We inherited my aunt's small 2 acre ranchette in southwest WA.  Good large barn, pasture, good well, thought about spending summers there with sheep and dogs BUT found out last year that city rezoned to enclose it within the city - no livestock.  Apparently done to allow small housing development next door.  On other side of housing development is ag and on other side of aunt is ag but easier to draw lines enclosing her property - go figure!  So development it must be eventually there too, and we will find another property.

BAYMULE:  WE LOVE EAST TEXAS!  Seriously considering it, but little grandkids 1 mile away here so not sure when or if . . . .


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## Mini Horses

Ridgetop said:


> Mini Horses: Flip phones are coming back! Soon you will on the cutting edge!



Well, fashion does come & go -- if you wait those 20 yr old pants will be back in style!      Flip phones??     It sure would be nice because I will need to replace mine before too, too long...…


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## Mike CHS

I'm glad to see you start a journal. Don't feel too tech impaired.  I was around computers back in the 60's before most people knew what they were but when I retired I did a data dump and now all I know is what's on our farm.  

By the way - I'm a flip phone user also but it's all I need since I don't usually answer it anyway.


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## Bruce

Mini Horses said:


> Flip phones??


That is what we have. Tracfone flips. Costs us about $65/year per phone. Don't use it much, I have about 4,000 minutes.


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## Baymule

DH, me, DD and DSIL all have Apple I-phones. Finally dragged DH kicking and screaming into the modern world. Now he loves his I-phone. 

Just round up the kids, spouses and grandkids and move them to east Texas too. There is no place I'd rather be.


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## Ridgetop

Ok, I'm back.  It took me 5 minutes to find the list of questions I am supposed to answer - here are the answers to the ones I remember.  I only have an hour until I have to go out with DS and change the crayon in the ram's marking harness.

So, we live in So Cal, SFV, I am 2nd gen born in the Valley, grandkids are 4th gen.  Since California is riddled with valleys and the residents of same just refer to "the Valley", this won't tell you much.  my grandparents settled here just before the depression, on an acre across from a dairy.  My great grand parents lived with them and their 4 children.  My great grandmother was raised n a farm so she had dairy goats, chickens, etc. fruit trees and garden.  By the time my mom got divorced and moved back in with them, the goats were gone, my great grandmother was gone, but my grandpa still had ducks and geese.  My uncle was a rodeo cowboy during the season and signed up to do ranch work off season.  He would bring his horse with him when he came to visit since he lived in a trailer drawn by a horse truck.

Both my DH's parents grew up on farms in Kansas but he did not have any animals because his parents said they knew how much work it was and "no thanks".  But they went back each summer to the farms and he spent a lot of time with cousins doing farm work.  Work for them, fun for him.

Our first animals were rabbits for meat and hens for eggs.  We lived in town so no roosters.  DH got into showing his NZW rabbits and did very well at it so when we decided to move so the children could have horses while they were still kids, his dream was a large rabbit barn with at least 100 or more "holes". 

We bought our place 1 3/4 acres of just the older  house, nothing else.  It was 1500 feet smaller than our original old house and needed a lot of renos.  DH had done all of it on the first house and promised it would only take "a few months".  The man has a golden tongue and 30 years later we are still doing renos.  Escrow no sooner closed than the utility company (DH is Lineman/cable splicer) instituted mandatory 12 hour days/6 day weeks and sometimes 7 day weeks.  The overtime was welcome but in that trade you have overtime and $$$ or plenty of time and no $$$!  First the barn - we started building the 24' x 36' pole barn as soon as we moved in.  Once the framework was up, DH would work all day, come home at night and cut plywood sheathing for the roof and lay it in place.  next am I wiud take older kids to school climb up on the brn roof and nail down the plywood.  Repeat, repeat, until it was finished.  Then run water lines and hang cages - my job while DH was at work.  I learned to run PVC piping.  I hung the rabbit cages from hooks in the barn rafters - first put in the hooks then balanced the cages on my little ranch hands' heads while I connected the chains to hang them.  Then we build manure pits under the cages and I finished it off by laying short lengths of 2 x 12 over the top edges of the pits to make walkways.  DH had to cut the boards for me since I was still afraid of the saw - I hadn't progressed yet to being comfortable with large noisy powerful tools - that came a number of years later.

Next animals were dairy goats, 2 nice milkers but no where to out them so before we could pick them u oldest DS and I strung 4' chain link onto some old existing pipe posts.  I bought a "come along" like DH said we needed but when we put up the fence, he was back at the dreaded 12/7 schedule so it really did nit get stretched very tight.  DS was only 8 at the time and I was still incompetent.  I think at one time the previous owners had an animal pen since there was a sort of tumble down open shed attached.  It is still there although with a new roof and reinforcing over the years. 

Got to go for now - DD arrived . . . . Back later

Got to go


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## Ridgetop

Back now - favorite animals are dairy goats.  Favorites are LaManchas and Nubians, Alpines are ok, Toggenburg have icky milk for the house.  When the youngest sons sold their herds we had over 100 and were milking abut 20 daily, on test, herd evaluation, buck collection, etc. etc.  Used the milk to raise bull dairy calves from our friend's dairy for veal to sell at Fair, and then after Fair brought in 4 and 5 at a time to raise on milk and leftover dairy goat hay (so picky) to 2 months then sold at cattle auction for hay money. 

Kids raised market hogs, lambs, meat  goats, veal calves, rabbits and turkeys for the Fair.  Breeding projects were in goats - dairy and Boer, sheep & rabbits.  Rode their ponies all over the place, went horse camping, etc.

FAVORITE TIME OF MY LIFE WAS RAISING MY CHILDREN FARM STYLE - OUR FAMILY HAD SO MUCH FUN AND SO MANY CRAZY THINGS HAPPENING!


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## Ridgetop

Back now - favorite animals are dairy goats.  Favorites are LaManchas and Nubians, Alpines are ok, Toggenburg have icky milk for the house.  When the youngest sons sold their herds we had over 100 and were milking abut 20 daily, on test, herd evaluation, buck collection, etc. etc.  Used the milk to raise bull dairy calves from our friend's dairy for veal to sell at Fair, and then after Fair brought in 4 and 5 at a time to raise on milk and leftover dairy goat hay (so picky) to 2 months then sold at cattle auction for hay money.

Kids raised market hogs, lambs, meat  goats, veal calves, rabbits and turkeys for the Fair.  Breeding projects were in goats - dairy and Boer, sheep & rabbits.  Rode their ponies all over the place, went horse camping, etc.  After first 2 dog attacks got our first guardian dog - MaremmaxAkbash, then added a Pyr.  HaLGDs ever since with livestock.  On rare occasions when none, lost animals - that tells you!  Now we have a 6 year old Anatolian bitch and 2 year old Anatolian male, looking to get 3rd later this year.  Just talked to breeder and bitch is definitely pregnant, due end of month.  Estimated pick up in October/November since she likes to keep them 16 weeks to  make sure they get a good start.

Married to same darling exasperating guy for 48 years.  FAVORITE TIME OF MY LIFE WAS RAISING OUR 4 CHILDREN FARM STYLE - OUR FAMILY HAD SO MUCH FUN AND SO MANY CRAZY THINGS HAPPENING!  DH'S FAVORITE WAS FAMILY RIDES WITH ALL KIDS MOUNTED AND THE LITTLEST UP IN FRONT ON HIS SADDLE.    GOOD TIMES, BUT THEY ARE NOT OVER.

I learned to lay PVC water lines, install sprinklers, we laid our own sheet vinyl in the house, did everything ourselves, learning as we went,  Pre-computer I bought how-to books and read them over and over.  No 4-H livestock leader when we joined so I had to buy more books and study up on all the animals my kids finally got.  Leaders offered to help us so I would load the kids in the truck, cross tie the sheep in the back and drive 2 hours to do a showmanship lesson.  No trailer yet, and it would take me another 10 years to learn to drive one.

Yes, we would like to move to FLAT acreage with plenty of water.  My cowboy uncle told me once "no water  - no nothing" and I remembered it.  When we buy property we will have the well tested for water quality and GPM.  Flat acres or slightly rolling, means we can actually use a tractor.  That way we could continue having our animals and maybe get a herding dog for the sheep.  Probably not any more dairy animals since milking is soo much work for us and we don't need all that milk.  We love east Texas towards Dallas.  I would love to move there, but we would be leaving our darling grandchildren behind.  Don't know if we could handle that until they are older and we become surplus.  LOL

We have learned over the years to do everything ourselves, we spent 8 years renovating a 7 unit apartment building, have completely rebuilt and renovated 4 houses, can build anything and have taught everything we learned to our sons.  DD didn't even want to learn to cook but that is why our grandchildren want to come and live with us!  

I have to go hunt for the list of questions again. . .  better write some of them down.


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## greybeard

I too have a flip phone and am happy with it, tho I am pretty proficient with all things digital. Have a tablet and a laptop too, but they generally stay in the house or shop. My flip stays in my front wrangler's pocket and I never have to worry about anyone stealing it or me making an accidental call. 
I don't need gps or any of the other crap. Get lost? I just do it the old fashioned way.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule:  Have been trying to do that for a couple years now but no luck.  Son-in-law has computer Phd and I told him Austin is new Silicon Valley but no go.  Other son just moved up near San Luis Obispo, coastal area, new house on 5 acres and good riding trails, they love it so not happening there.  Last 2 sons and daughter unknown factors, although DS currently working with ranch animals but hates hot weather so . . . ?  May just have to leave them behind and go to Texas ourselves. 
DH just got an iPhone too so I have to work it for him.  Only person in our family more tech challenged that me!


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## Ridgetop

I prefer maps when on the road since my maps app does not tell me how far I am from certain things like the towns where Flying J is. 

True story - a friend did not show up on time where a bunch of us were horse camping for a week.  We were getting worried when she finally pulled into the campground.  She said she was driving along when her low gas light came on and she realized she was almost out of gas with no towns or stations in sight anywhere.  She pulled out her trusty phone with the GPS map app and asked where the nearest gas station was.  The GPS sent her off the freeway and along miles of roads, then it announced she had reached the gas station.  Looking around there was no gas station, but there _was_ an oil derrick pumping away in a field!  We asked what she would have done had she run out of gas on the way back to the freeway and she said she would have unloaded here horse, saddled up, and ridden off with her spare gas can and found a gas station!  Truly the old ways are best!


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Yes, we would like to move to FLAT acreage with plenty of water. My cowboy uncle told me once "no water - no nothing" and I remembered it. When we buy property we will have the well tested for water quality and GPM. Flat acres or slightly rolling, means we can actually use a tractor.


I know just the East Tx place for you, and it's going on the market this year too. You won't have to worry about water. Got nearly 100" of rain last year. (of course almost 1/2 of that was in a 4 day period...........)


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## Ridgetop

DH is hearing me laugh and says I have too much fun with you guys!

When El Nino comes (if it ever does) we get that much rain here all at once too.  I want a constant water source, thank you, gentle rains, green pastures, good fences, pleasant temperatures, oh wait, that is heaven!  And I am not ready to go yet!


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## RollingAcres

Hello @Ridgetop. I don't believe we have "cross path" yet here at BYH but glad to see you started a journal. Following now.
I will come back and read the rest, just wanted to say hi for now.


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## Ridgetop

Hi back at you RollingAcres.


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## Bruce

greybeard said:


> I don't need gps or any of the other crap. Get lost? I just do it the old fashioned way.


Sadly DD2 can't get anywhere without the Nav in her car. I swear she would drive into the ocean if it told her to. And it always wants to use the biggest roads so often a much longer than necessary route.  She can use maps but doesn't have a clue of where things are relative to others. She had to go feed and water a cat last week, many miles, never been there before. We showed her what route to take, she didn't put any route markers in the GPS. Missed the turn, continued to follow the GPS's instructions, WAY longer route  Oh well, it is her time and her gas.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> When El Nino comes (if it ever does) we get that much rain here all at once too. I want a constant water source, thank you, gentle rains, green pastures, good fences, pleasant temperatures


Yeah, but you aren't on flat land. There isn't 12" difference in elevation from the highest part of my property to the lowest (except the bottom of the pond of course. It will be 96 here today. I consider that pleasant, and I have good fences and good cross fences and more cross fences and about 25 gates. My pastures are green right now, except the black bahia seed heads on 15 ac of it. A river is my eastern property line 2200 ft to the East*. Small but has never dried up and as much water as I pumped from my well in 2011, I never ran out. I had a 1 1/4" line blow off of it between to pump riser and the pressure tank last week and it ran all wide open all night.

*sometimes I walk across the pasture and down to look at the river,

 and sometimes the river walks across the pasture and up to look at me.










Sometimes too, the iceman cometh



Most of the time tho, it looks like this





As a special deal just for such a good BYH member, I'll let you have it for it's new, post-Harvey appraised market value.


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## Bruce

greybeard said:


> A river is my eastern property line 2200 ft to the East*.


Or sometimes closer


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## Ridgetop

Greybeard:   Hmmmmm . . . .  Thinking about it.  That much water to dry So Californians is tempting.  And not having to actually walk to the river when my arthritis is acting up might be ok too.  But, another of my requirements is not to actually be in Tornado Alley - I forgot about hurricanes.  On the plus side is the prospect of cross fencing and GATES for pasture rotation.  On the minus side is high ground to move the sheep and horses/mule to hen the lake comes to call.

How much damage did Harvey do?  And where did you move your cattle?  How long did it take for the water to do down?  We have our own types of weather problems here but having grown up with them (several generations) I know about them - I don't know about east Texas problems other than the intense flooding near Austin where my friend lives.  His creek floods and he can't get his stock across or get to them.  However, he has Anatolians and the dogs stay with the goats and sheep so no problems.  The dogs are also big and strong and can usually swim across once a day to get fed.

I did talk to DSIL last night about the wonders of east Texas.  He was transferred to Austin by his company right out of college before going back for his Phd.  He loved the city so maybe there is hope . . . ?  I told him that closer to Dallas the weather gets less humid.  Also, that I heard lots of tech companies had moved to Texas so since he wants to change companies may be he will start looking.  He and DD sold their home last year and have not found what they want yet so are in a rental - this could be the time for a relocation.

Bruce:   Yes DH loves his GPS toy.  However, I often use my phone while he is trying to figure out where the GPS is sending us - often very different ways to go!  Sigh . . . I wish DH wouldn't throw out all my maps when he has the car detailed before a long trip!  Daddys "short cuts" used to make our small children cry.  The words "short cut" still sends a shudder through them.  LOL

Well the new water lines are in not BUT we can't turn on the water because the old broken line is still leaking and we just ran a new line.  Now we have to remove all the ferns from the planter where the original water valves are and cap the line,  No problem but those ferns are the only living plants in any of my flower beds.  Even weeds won't grow in baked clay.  The ferns survive from the trickle from the hose connection when we turn on the spigot to fill the field water trough.  I hope they will survive the transplant process.  My old house had lovely flower beds with minimal watering but here in this soil (clay and shale with 9 ph unless amended) I have a problem keeping the stuff alive without constant watering.  And we have a water shortage remember.  I think I will fill them in with concrete and then just use pots - maybe even artificial flowers.  LOL

So we turned out the sheep for the first time since losing the lamb and they did very well.  We didn't feed in the am, they grazed o forage all day and came in during early afternoon into their shelter for shade.  they went out again but ran back in when we brought their hay and grain feed into the corral.  Looks like they will be able to clear everything before lambing time in (hopefully) 5 months.  I think everyone is bred since no one is marking anymore but will change the crayon again next week just in case.  New Dorper ewes were exposed to this new ram a week before we picked them up.  Memorial weekend we put him in with all Dorset ewes and one marked.  Then he slipped that marking harness two days later and we ordered anther.  One ewe remarked and one Dorper marked.  The other Dorper was not in with the ram because her papers said she was a spring lamb but I called the breeder and he said no, she was definitely a yearling ewe, so put her in but she hasn't marked yet.  She has only been in 10 days though.  Anyway, I like to leave the marking harness on for several months with crayon changes to make sure.  Anyway, if the last Dorset doesn't mark then she will have been bred after the ram took off his harness - a 1 week window.  If the other Dorper doesn't mark than I will know that she was bred during the week before we picked them up.  So I know the breeding dates of all of them, and am selling 3 of the 6 remaining Dorsets so only will have 4 ewes bred for lambs.  All Dorper ewe lamb born for the next few lambings I will keep, then sort and cull.  I will sell all the Dorset crosses to my meat customers.  I have been looking at the Dorset lamb that I kept from my ewe that tripled but although she is nice and thick, I don't like her rump which slopes too much compared with my best Dorper ewe lamb.  I think I will be culling heavily over the next 3 years.  I can buy another Dorper ewe(s) at the sale next year to increase my flock and keep quality high.  The problem with just a few sheep is that I cannot cull like I used to with the rabbits.  Then I kept 1 out of 8 and sometimes 0 out of a litter if they were not up to my standards.  Easy when you have 32-40 kits from a rabbit doe per year as opposed to 2 lambs in a year from a ewe. 

Well, with feed prices what they are, and forage minimal without rains, I console myself with a lower feed bill.  On the other hand I also have to contend with DH who wants to keep them all (and buy more) to make sure he doesn't have to cut fire control on a 45-60 degree slope.  A rancher's wife's lot is not an easy one.    LOL

Moving to a larger ranch in east Texas with pasture and water (in reason), would mean we could raise more lamb and sell more.  But we are getting older and maybe we shouldn't be thinking this way.  Maybe we should be thinking bout retiring to  condo like our children suggest.  YUCH!  After living away from close neighbors I just can't stand the thought of being so closed in.  We do need to think about good medical treatment close by - we both are cancer survivors. 

Today DH and DS dig out the ferns and cap the broken lines so we can turn on the water! They have made pointed remarks about "not knowing how" and being "afraid to kill them" but it is just a ruse to get me to do the digging for them.  But I am wise to them.

Today DH and I have ben married 47 years!   I plan to celebrate our anniversary by finally clearing off the patio where we were storing all our supplies while we converted the garage into an entry, bedroom, and large utility room.  We added this 5th bedroom so we could move my aunt in with us last Christmas.  Sadly, she knew but never told us she was terminal, and passed away in November.  Anyway, she stayed on her ranch till the end so that was good too.

Now I will remove all the junk, shelves, fencing (to keep the dogs out of the groceries) etc. and move our patio furniture back into place so I can once again relax in front of a sunset with a glass of wine!  It has been 2 years since I have been able to do that!  But no fireworks this year in the dam - first year on our hilltop that we will have to go somewhere else to see fireworks.   Look on the bright side, our friends invited us to play bridge and watch their firework - they live near the school where they have fireworks, and have a great view from the front yard.  We will bring lawn chairs - and wine!   And next weekend our first patio party in 2 years - BBQ for DS birthday with family.  Gotta go to work.


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## RollingAcres

Ridgetop said:


> Today DH and I have ben married 47 years!


Happy Anniversary!!!



Ridgetop said:


> Maybe we should be thinking bout retiring to condo like our children suggest


Tsk tsk tsk....Now why would you even think that?


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## Mike CHS

Congratulations on your anniversary.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> to make sure he doesn't have to cut fire control on a 45-60 degree slope. A rancher's wife's lot is not an easy one.  LOL


You can hardly blame him!!!! 47 years is a long time, you wouldn't want to lose him in a horrible mowing accident.


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## Ridgetop

Thank you!

Bruce:  Yeah but try to tell a man that he is too old for anything!  You should know that!!!

Of course, I was the one that went into the gully and fell down the 60 degree slope and ended up with a sprained knee!  I guess you can't tell old women anything either.  LOL

We keep forgetting how old we are which is why moms and dads still call our children "girls" and "boys".  Sometimes we have to differentiate between the "little boys" and the "big boys".


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## greybeard

Before I answer any of the other questions, you should absolutely positively, fully understand, that neither Dallas nor Austin are in East Texas. Austin (which few real Texans even claim) is in the Hill Country, and Dallas is in the Black land Prairie region. East Texas is generally considered to be anywhere between  East of I-45 and the Sabine River which it the Tx/La border, tho the farther North you go up I-45, the more distant from I-45  East Texas becomes.
https://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/states/texas/map-of-east-texas.html


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> We keep forgetting how old we are which is why moms and dads still call our children "girls" and "boys". Sometimes we have to differentiate between the "little boys" and the "big boys".


So true! My DDs are 23 & 25. I guess that makes them women. But nope, they are girls to me! And me? Yeah there are things I might have thought about doing 20 years ago that I just say "I don't think so!" now. Not nearly as flexible, balance is OK but not what it was then. Better safe than sorry.

I wouldn't have any interest at all in living anywhere near Austin, Dallas, Ft.Worth, Houston. Has nothing to do with politics, etc. Just too dang many people. Plenty of places like that in East TX as well.


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## Ridgetop

I apologize Greybeard!  Texas is so large that I didn't realize that was much beyond Dallas.  I know Austin is in Hill Country and very humid.  Is east Texas where all the Tornados are?  Maybe I should rethink my ideas.  BUT I still LOVE Texas!


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## Ridgetop

Ok, so the water lines we thought we capped were not the lines going to the leak.  We have water in the barn again but until we find the actually leak we can't turn the water on except to fill water troughs.  Water is coming up in 3 spots, by the barn, on the driveway, and close to the house. We think we have identified the spot closest to the house and water pipes that the line may originate from.  Tomorrow DH and DS will dig down to try to find the ruptured line.  Unfortunately the line may be an old galvanized line original to the house built in 1954.  And if they can't locate the broken area far enough from the patio, then the break may be under the patio.   They are hoping that they can find a joint to unscrew the line.  I am afraid they will rupture the old pipe that is under the house.  They have said that if necessary they will go under the crawl space to access the pipe.  Both of them are BIG men over 300 lb.  I think they outgrew the crawlspace a few years ago.    I suggested a plumber but they looked at me with derision and sent me away.  Living in fear . . . .


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## Bruce

As long as you can find a skinny plumber!


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## Coolbreeze89

I live midway between Austin and College Station. Stil Central Texas, but not Hill Country.  Far enough from coast that humidity is better and hurricanes don’t cause as much trouble (and still south of tornadoes in Dallas!).  Beautiful area with great ground water.  Convenient to Austin and Houston.  Just a thought for you to consider!

Thanks for your thread. I’m new to livestock, and love hearing your experiences.


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## Baymule

We live in Lindale, Texas. We are about 10 miles off Interstate 20 and 1 1/2 hours from Dallas. Tyler is the nearest big city. We love east Texas. Yes there are tornadoes, get a storm shelter. We used to live 30 miles from @greybeard in hurricane country. Phooey on hurricanes.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> I apologize Greybeard!  Texas is so large that I didn't realize that was much beyond Dallas.  I know Austin is in Hill Country and very humid.  Is east Texas where all the Tornados are?  Maybe I should rethink my ideas.  BUT I still LOVE Texas!



Austin, is NOT humid, not compared to places in Texas farther East anyway. 

Tornadoes can and do happen anywhere. I saw way more tornado warnings issued when I lived in the West part of the state than have happened here. "Tornado Alley" for Texas is generally a big rectangle the width of the panhandle beginning in the panhandle and stretching down to I-10.

Coolbreeze89 said:


> I live midway between Austin and College Station. Stil Central Texas, but not Hill Country. Far enough from coast that humidity is better and hurricanes don’t cause as much trouble (and still south of tornadoes in Dallas!). Beautiful area with great ground water. Convenient to Austin and Houston. Just a thought for you to consider!



The Lexington/Dime Box/Giddings area? I lived and worked that area in the 80s. Home was just west of Caldwell on Highway 21 at Deanville. Nice area, but land is sky high there now. 

I'm not much on easy living. I like rough, hard country, something with a challenge. This place was, but now it's too 'soft', but a place covered in trees and underbrush is non productive.  

I see way too much of Texas being turned into tiny farms and "ranchettes" ..'farms' that are nothing more than than the same as living in town with a big backyard, with all the conveniences and amenities city life offers, and it is often by immigrants from other places that bring all their idiosyncrasies with them.  It won't happen in my lifetime but this place will someday be the same way, sub-divided up with a half dozen different residences on it and a like number of big fancy "El Rancho Grande" or Lonesome Dove signs above the gateway entrances, a couple dozen goats or sheep and a bunch of chickens while all the while everyone laments real ag being tied up in so called "big ag' or 'corporate farms' as they drive into town in their SUVs and econo boxes. 

My county is still cow and horse country. If I were to  bring goats or sheep on this place, I wouldn't be able to go to town without having to sit off at a corner restaurant table by myself away from the other ranchers and hay farmers or be able to go to the feed store without the snickering and snide comments about my choice of livestock. I know..I've been in those places and saw the looks and hear the comments when my brother in law (raises hair sheep and chickens) came in and left. 

Sometimes, I think if I were to buy sheep or goats, my neighbors might even burn me out. (I know they would if I brought and planted fescue here) 
Not much chance of that on either account.


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## Coolbreeze89

We’re on 120 acres, near a town of 400.  Definitely cow country.  When we drive to Austin, my husband and I wonder how long til suburbia’s tentacles extend out to impact our home....


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## greybeard

Coolbreeze89 said:


> We’re on 120 acres, near a town of 400.  Definitely cow country.  When we drive to Austin, my husband and I wonder how long til suburbia’s tentacles extend out to impact our home....



Just to clarify, the last 4 paragraphs of my previous reply were not directed at you or anyone else specifically. Just my observations and thoughts on the general state of things in Texas.


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## Mike CHS

Our area was anti-sheep not many years ago but in the last 5 or 6 years there are more sheep operations every year.  I know of several farms that have added sheep to their cattle setup and two that have converted from cattle to raising sheep.  Both of those cases were in a similar situation as I am and they were getting up in years but still wanting to have livestock that they could continue with for quite some time.


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## goatgurl

reading and smiling.  i'm enjoying your journey.


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## goats&moregoats

I lived in Texas for about a year, way back in my younger years. South of Lubbock in the little town of Post. then in NM for about 4 months, Hobbs, NM. Now sitting in my AC in VT where the heat wave has struck. Just wanted to let you know I have enjoyed reading your journal.


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## greybeard

Most cattlemen/cattlewomen here are about my age or older, tho I do see more younger folks beginning to get in to it since the 2011 drought but they are in it as a business either full time or to supplement other income and not as a hobby tho some do run cattle because it takes so many of other species to meet the ag exemption regs. You can't put 5 pairs of sheep or goats on 100 ac here and get on ag, but you can with that few heads of cattle.


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## Bruce

Coolbreeze89 said:


> We’re on 120 acres, near a town of 400.  Definitely cow country.  When we drive to Austin, my husband and I wonder how long til suburbia’s tentacles extend out to impact our home....


Depends on how far you are from suburbia and how unaffordable housing is in suburbia, how "affordable" land is where you are and what road infrastructure exists from there to "the city".

Many years ago a new freeway was built from the LA area to San Bernadino county in So. Cal. Not many people lived out that way (relatively speaking). Whoo hoo, cheaper property and a nearly empty freeway to get to work. Tons of houses built, gridlock on the freeway.


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## Ridgetop

I have to look into things carefully before making any changes.  We are not young anymore, so how much longer our bodies will actually take the physical labor involved has to be seen.  But I would rather have a couple sheep and goats and be able to have work with some livestock than none at all. 

Years ago 2 of my husband's uncles each had 140 acres dryland farming in Kansas and could raise a family on the income.  Those days are long gone.  Now, even the "specialty organic" farms need more revenue what 140 acres can bring.  Large ranches get broken up for a lot of reasons, death and having to pay off heirs, a couple years of drought or flood, lots of reason cause farming operations to go under.  I believe that most farmers/ranchers/dairymen live on the edge like a lot of small businessmen.  Any bad choice or misfortune can break them.  I really respect the working farmer/rancher/dairyman.

Yes it is sad to see large operations get broken up and I don't like it either.  Especially when the "AG properties or horse properties (the latter  where I live) get divided into smaller horse properties with mini mansions on them.  The required designated horse footage is then filled with a swimming pool and the complaints about flies, noise, and smells start.  Soon goodbye horse property.  The problem is that there is a lot more taxable revenue from a housing division than from a large AG property.  There is also very little support for agricultural business from the elected officials who usually run on values more important to cities where the majority of voters live. 

And while I also like living secluded, I value things like electricity, gas, indoor plumbing, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and dryers, etc. so living "off the grid" is not for me.  But then, I am a woman and cursed by the housework no matter how much the male members of the household think they help me.  I also used to grow all our own food for a family of 6, and canned all summer _without air conditioning_ in 110 degree heat.  I had to can at night during most of the bad months.  We still have 2 large chest freezers for our meat - used to have 3.  When we first renovated our house here, we were without a kitchen for 6 months and had to bring in water from either the hose bib outdoors or in the bathtub.   We had a big Doughboy pool and the kids would swim instead of taking baths. We had firsthand experience of fetching water from the pump.  Our heat went out too for a year and we heated with our fireplace.  That is the reason for small rooms in early cabins.

Anyway, got to get off the soapbox and check my DH and DS on their excavations.  DS says they think they found_ one_ of the broken pipes . . . Uh Oh . . . that sounds like there may be several . . . .


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> The problem is that there is a lot more taxable revenue from a housing division than from a large AG property.


Yep. Each "house on a 1/8 acre lot" brings in many thousands of dollars in tax money. Funny how people don't seem to think about where the food comes from. It sure isn't the McMansions. 

With enough money you can live a "normal" life "off grid" a lot more easily now that was possible in the past. The biggest hurdle is affordable storage.


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## Ridgetop

Maybe those people think their food comes from factories.


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## Bruce

Nah, it just magically gets made in the part of the grocery store the public doesn't see. They probably have those food generators like on Star Trek.


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## Mike CHS

We are under an hour south of Nashville but the vertical solid rock landscape north of us will make it hard for developers.


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## Coolbreeze89

greybeard said:


> Just to clarify, the last 4 paragraphs of my previous reply were not directed at you or anyone else specifically. Just my observations and thoughts on the general state of things in Texas.



No worries.  I did escape the city after working/living in Houston for 20 years... I don’t have “country credibility” yet, but I have great respect for what is required to live a rural, ag life. I’m humbled often, but I am thankful to learn each day (both from personal experience and from people here at BYH/BYC, etc).


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## Bruce

Mike CHS said:


> We are under an hour south of Nashville but the vertical solid rock landscape north of us will make it hard for developers.


They can blast anything. However that sort of terrain wouldn't be the first choice for development.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce:  Actually, there are days that I wouldn't mind having a food generator.  After working side by side with the family, for instance, when we finally finish some back breaking task and everyone goes in to take a shower and they all turn to me and ask "So Mom, what's for dinner?"  

Anyway, the water pipe have nit been breached yet.  One of our triple digit heat spells hit the San Fernando Valley where we live.  Burbank had record breaking temps of 114 degrees.  The car shoed temp was 116 driving home, climbing to 118 by the time we got home!  Temps stayed in the 90's for the past 2 nights, although they usually drop when the sun goes down.  Normally I open all the windows after dark and turn off the AC but last night decided to leave it on.  DS thought I forgot so turned it off and during the night everyone woke up from the heat!  

They have dug out around the pipe but it is so hot outside they don't want to work in it until the heat breaks.  It was 100 degrees by 9 am today.

So I checked on the questions I was supposed to answer - here is more about us.
We have been married 47 years, and have 4 children of our own.   Oldest is a girl, then 3 boys.  DH and I started breeding rabbits for meat at our old house where we had great soil for a huge garden and fruit trees.  I canned all summer.  We also had chickens.  We loved our old 1920 house and had spent 15 years rebuilding it.  The glass panes fell out of the upstairs window frames as we were moving in.  But although it had been across from a dairy when my grandparents bought it in the early 20s, the zoning had changed to apartments and we were a little 1/3 acre island in traffic central.  DD wanted a pony, every girl's dream, so we moved to our current home on 1 1/2 acres in Shadow Hills in 1988.  Ages of children then were 11, 8, 4, and 2.  All had ponies and horses, were in 4-H, sports, school activities, etc.  Normal round of life for a family with active kids and animals.  Crazy and fun! 

Originally we raised rabbits for meat but  DH really got into rabbits, and we ended up running a semi commercial 100 hole rabbitry with show stock and meat sales for some years.  We built a 24 x 36' pole barn for the rabbit.  We just had a couple of Nubian milkers that were high productions (milk stars) for household milk, and our chickens.  The garden and fruit trees I planted on the acreage died since the heavy clay and shale soil had a ph factor of 9!  It took years of amending the soil to get it to grow anything and is still not productive.  As the children got older, we added more horses, and they started exhibiting their goats as well as market animals.  Our Fair allowed the kids to exhibit 1 animal of every species so of course, our children did!  Ponies and pigs escaped their pens and invaded our house, baby goats were brought in to cuddle while watching cartoons and abandoned on the sofa when the children ran out to the pool!   Chaos!
However everything settled into a routine as more animals were added to our flocks and herds.  Baby goats in the numbers of 20-30 are no longer cuddly on the couch, but fun to turn out onto the field and run with.  Market lambs must be halter broken and pigs taught to follow the prompting of pig canes.  Christmas was easy since everyone got animal equipment that would have to be purchased anyway.  Our lives revolved around milking every 2 hours, kidding and lambing schedules, 4-H Field Days, and activities, meetings, and Fairs.  Record Books took weeks to get ready to turn in with their photo stories, etc.  Those record books are still the things I rush to get when we have an evacuation -  they have the children's lives in them.  Shopping for those darn white jeans for the kids to show in for 4-H showmanship became a dreaded experience and if I ever saw any I grabbed them no matter what size since eventually they would fit someone!  Gradually as we needed more space for the larger animals the rabbits were pushed to a smaller area.  2 dog attacks before we got our LGDs had pretty much destroyed DH's breeding program. He had been one of the top winning So Cal NZW breeders and had people buying breeding stock from all over So Cal.  Losing 10 years of breeding broke his heart.   
Underlying all of the livestock and horse stuff was the continual renovations to our house.  The day after we moved in the kitchen cupboard doors fell off.  We had bought it to renovate and remodel. The house as 1200 feet smaller than our old house but had the requisite number of bedrooms and enough space for us, plus it had a real garage!  30 years later we are still improving , repairing, renovating, it never ends. 
In 2009 my cousin died leaving a 14 year old adopted daughter who we took to raise - 5th child and DD2.  Sadly, by then 4-H as dead in our area.  We still had horses and she learned to ride.  She had her own story which was really sad and not for sharing here.  Suffice it to say, that after mega counseling she has overcome many of her challenges and is currently going to college.  She is thrilled to be getting A's since she has some learning disabilities and never thought she could make it in college classes.

So, DD1 and DS1 were gone, DS2 had started college and DS3 was a senior in high school.  DS2 came home from college to go to the County Fair and announced that he had decided that he could nit continue showing his goats in the open classes because he would be too busy with college.  At the time we were milking about 24 goats.  DS2 was the designated milker, while DS3 did the feeding, etc.  I handled the kidding since I arranged to be home during those times.  At the fair he put up a sign for herd dispersal sale.  His goats were well know since he had been showing all over So Cal since he was 9, he was really into his bloodlines and breeding, and his herd had improved from a couple LaManchas to a huge herd of beautiful winning animals.  He sold the entire herd to a breeder in Yolokern.  When they picked them up (in 2 trailers) we were amazed that we had over 100 animals, counting the bucks, and kids.  It had been a kid year.  Anyway, DS3 announced that he was not going to bother showing anymore if his brother was not going to be with him.  They were 1 year apart and did everything together.  DS3 had ben much more only for fun with his small herd of Nubians while DS2 took it very seriously.  The sheep flock - registered Dorsets, Hamps, and market crosses had been sold several years previous when the younger 2 boys decided to focus on their dairy goats.

Suddenly, we were stunned by the silence from the barn.  We were no longer going through 1 ton of hay per week!  We had been buying it by the field and bringing it in as we needed it.  I was going to the mill 50 miles away once a month, buying loose grain by the truck load, bringing it home and the boys would shovel it into metal drums for storage.  All of a sudden I didn't have 3 pasteurizers running 2 loads of milk all morning.  I wasn't fixing milk buckets for 50 kids each morning!  Talk about empty nest syndrome -  more like empty barn syndrome!  

Ok that is all for now - next installment - return to our roots - how we got more sheep!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Bruce: Actually, there are days that I wouldn't mind having a food generator. After working side by side with the family, for instance, when we finally finish some back breaking task and everyone goes in to take a shower and they all turn to me and ask "So Mom, what's for dinner?"


Similar here only it is "Dad, what's for dinner". And there isn't a lot of side by side working, not much volunteering to help. More like "no but I will" when asked "who wants to help with ....."

Empty barn syndrome for sure!


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## Ridgetop

Yes, the good old days when the children could be ordered out to heavy manual labor, and rewarded with a rental movie, root beer floats. and popcorn!

Now we still have our adult unmarried children work with us, but since we are much older, the work seems more backbreaking than usual.  It takes longer to get them out there with us.  I think sometimes they work with us because they are afraid if we do the work without them we will get hurt and they will have to take care of us as well as do all the work.  LOL  

However, I no longer live in fear of the 65 year old rusted water pipes breaking under the house.  I had D use WD40 on the rusted joints several times.  The next day he was able to get them apart, replaced the tangle of old piping with a single run of PVC and repaired the leak.  We now have water in the barn and to the outside areas again!  

Sadly, in spite of constant watering, the 112 degree temps fried the sword ferns that we had to remove temporarily from the planter where the pipes were.  Once we are sure that the leak is repaired and that no other lines are ruptured anywhere, DS will fill in all the trenches and eventually I will replant the flower bed.  We have other flower beds surrounding the house that I designed when we poured our large patio.  I have decided to concrete them in with salt finished concrete to match the patio.  They are beautiful when planted but take too much water to stay nice.  I will concentrate my limited watering on heat and drought tolerant plants and herbs and on the few vegetables I decide to grow.

Today the grandchildren saw a small snake crossing the path.  They rushed to look at it while DH and I shouted at them to get back since we couldn't tell if it was a rattlesnake or not.  The LGDs saw it too.  They rushed to get to it before the children.  After DH and I got the children back to where the dogs decided was a safe distance, I managed to get close enough to identify it as a California Kingsnake.  I pushed the dogs off and picked up the snake to carry it to safety.  I thought it would be dead but although it was slobbery, it was not bleeding anywhere, so hopefully it will live.  I put it under the shed to be safe from the dogs.  We have never had rattlesnakes on our side of the boulevard, but lots of Kingsnakes which eat rattlers.  Our other dogs have always stayed between the children and the snake but kept their distance, and barked hysterically to summon me.  I had never seen dogs jump on a snake like the Anatolians did.  Erick Conard had told me that many Anatolians will try to kill snakes if they find them.  It was a good lesson for the children about instant obedience when we ordered them to back off, since if it had been a rattler it could have bitten them.  They were even more upset to hear that it would have bitten the dogs many times since the dogs would not have left the snake while the children were in danger distance.

I am going to tell the story how we got back into sheep after getting rid of all livestock except our horses.

By the time the last 2 children sold off their goats, we had already bought the adjacent 4 and 1/2 acre parcel from a developer. He wanted to grade off the top of the ridge starting at the property line (undermining our property), fill in part of the gully with a 12" culvert to divert the run off water onto our property, and the build 3 houses on a hillside only capable of holding 1 with the new horsekeeping restrictions.  The houses wouldn't cut off our view, but 3 5,000 sf mansions right on our property line would severely impact our lifestyle.  We had licensed our horses all along the property line but he was a problem.  We kept our gate locked to prevent him from driving onto our property without permission but his constant phone calls demanding to be allowed to access his property by driving across ours and threats to sue us for better access to his property were making our lives miserable. Luckily we have an active property owners association dedicated to maintaining our horse areas and we were able to fight several of his bids for variances in the building restrictions.  Finally we simply over paid him for the property after the 3rd time the planning department turned him down at a hearing.  It was worth an empty bank account to finally have peace of mind.

So now we had 6 acres and where we did not have to cut much brush for fire control before we owned that property, now we did.  Also, around that time we had constant winter rains resulting in massive growth of weeds and brush!  First we fenced the property with welded oil pipe for the horses and covered it with no climb livestock wire.  We turned our 5 horses out figuring they would graze everything down.  _Noooo_, they peered into the gully and then stood outside the hay barn waiting for dinner to be served.  We tried not feeding them for a day or so.  The mule tore the door off the hay shed.    We put up a corral around the hay shed.  Finally, with only ourselves and 14 year old Kassy to clear 4 acres, we summoned our children back from college to help us cut the brush.  After cutting and taking loads of brush to the dump 2 weekends in a row, we were so exhausted one night we left the cut brush sitting in the trailer.  That is when we discovered that as long as we cut it and dragged it to the top of the hill, the horses and mule happily ate it.   At least it cut out the trips to the dump, we just had to drag it up a 60 degree slope for those equine freeloaders.  I swear they were grinning to each other.

The next year DH hired a company to cut the brush - $5,000 later we had a clear field.  The next year it cost $3,500.  Then late rains came and we had to cut again.    DH was clutching his checkbook and hyperventilating, so I told him we would get some animals to graze the field.  I thought I heard a snicker from the mule.  DH wanted goats but we decided sheep were a better bet.  They pursue a scorched earth policy which was what we needed for fire clearance.

It took 6 months to find a small family commercial Dorset herd who would sell me breeding stock.  Most commercial Dorset herds are under contract to processors for all their lambs and cannot sell privately.  Best of all, these were fall lambs - Dorsets are known for out of season breeding!  The breeders were in No Cal but were coming south to judge a herding dog trial.  They offered to bring the sheep down for the price of gas.  

The day came when our 4 legged weedwhackers were due to arrive.  The barn was ready for them.  We would keep them in the barn for several weeks while they learned it was the place for hay and grain - ovine nirvana!  The truck pulled into the driveway outside the barn.  We lined up to herd the lambs into the barn.  The lambs were in a wire cage built into the pick up bed.  The breeder opened the gate of the cage and we braced to catch the lambs.  3 ewelings and a ram crowded as far away from us as they could get.  4 pairs of ovine eyes stared out, 7 pairs of human eyes stared back.  I got a bucket of grain - there were no takers.  This was an anticlimax.  Finally it was decided that someone would have to get in and herd them out.  All eyes turned to DD2.  She was the youngest - it's our family tradition - in she went, protesting.  The lambs crowded away from her.  Finally one lamb broke and rushed for the gate.  DS2 caught her on the fly and carried her triumphantly into the barn.  Eweling 2 and ram lamb followed.  The final lamb was determined not to come out.  Finally DD2 crawled into the cage and the lamb came out in a rush.  Hitting DS3 in the chest, it knocked him flat in the driveway with a hoof print in his forehead.  As we all lunged for the lamb, she evaded us and dashed out onto the field!  4 acres - 60 degree slopes - massive gully with plenty of brush to hide in since it had grown back.  In a lightning dash our high school track star DS2 raced to cut her off from the edge of the gully.  6 people joined in the chase to recapture the escapee.  Shouting conflicting instructions, lamb and humans circled the flat acre on top of the ridge!  4 horses and the mule stood frozen in astonishment.  Suddenly becoming aware that a fuzzy white thing - possibly a dog - was trespassing on HER PRIVATE FIELD Josie The Mule raced along in pursuit.  Passing the humans she caught up to the lamb who had paused to seek an escape route.  Seeing the big red molly approaching the lamb mistakenly took her for a rescue party, and ran to her.  Big mistake!  Josie kicked the lamb in the head.  Horrified 7 people froze in place as the lamb dropped to the ground.  One could almost hear Taps playing in the silence.  One nice breeding ewe was now just a large pile of lamb chops and roasts! As we approached in silence, we were astonished to see the lamb get to her feet.  Shaking her head she took a few stumbling steps.  Before Josie could finish her off we converged.  I drove off the murderous mule.  DS2 picked up the lamb and we all retreated to the barn.  Upon examination it was clear why the lamb had sustained no lasting injuries.  As all sheep owners know, sheep's heads are solid bone throughout.  

With the lamb safely locked in the barn with her flockmates, everyone retreated to the patio for bandaids, cold beverages, and war stories of other hair-raising animal adventures.  With a friendship forged between those who go through a hellish experience together and survive, our new BFFs departed for their dog trials.

Next installment, sheep, no LGDs, and predators. . . . (here insert Jaws soundtrack!)


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## Baymule

Keep it coming! Loving this!


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Bruce: Actually, there are days that I wouldn't mind having a food generator.



Tea, Earl Grey...Hot!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I had D use WD40 on the rusted joints several times.


Next time get some PB Blaster. WD-40 is really just a lightweight lubricant. Blaster eats through the rust.


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## Ridgetop

I'm making a note since lot of things get rusted on.  We use another kind of white lithium spray on some things since WD40 doesn't do as well.


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## Mike CHS

A little trivia for the day - WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th formula. That's the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed the product back in 1953.


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## Ridgetop

It is also one of the few things that will remove So Cal beach tar and oil from your feet!


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## Ridgetop

Sooooo . . . The new lambs are in the barn training to return to the barn for their delicious grain feeds at the end of the day.  We will leave them there while we discuss other occurrences over the years on our place. 

I will be jumping around chronologically on this thread as I think of other things to talk about that have happened here.   Back when we first moved here the only thing standing in this place was the house which needed renovations, a strangely placed 10 x 20 flat roofed concrete block building, and portions of unconnected chain link fencing at random intervals.  There were also a couple of flat, or rather semi flat areas, that had apparently been graded at some time.  There was also a lot of trash that the previous owners were suppose to remove from the property but "forgot".  The house sits on a private road because the street it is legally on does not exist.  It is a "paper street" only in the imaginations of the city map makers.  We are hard to find even by people who were born and brought up in this area.  Our little town has a lot of these private roads winding around the hills and canyons. 

Anyway, our old house was being torn down to build apartments so we retained the right of salvage.  We tore out all the ceiling fans, light fixtures, kitchen cabinets my FIL had made for us, the antique glass door knobs and cabinet knobs, sliding mirror closet doors, the solid mahogany front door, the HVAC unit, the rolling chain linkgates and hardware, our 18' x 36' Doughboy pool, and the entire 400 sf brick patio that DH had laid in sand.  Sadly we couldn't bring the 100 year old orange trees or the 75year old Camellia bushes that lined the drive.  I did dig up and bring as many of the landscaping shrubs that I could.  Sadly, they all perished since our soil in the middle of the valley was beautiful and the soil at our new home was clay and shale with a PH of 9.  Once we were on the property, with all our possessions, DH went back to work. 

Culture Shock!  I quickly found out that just because you have the same number of rooms in the new house, it won't compensate for the loss of 1,200 sf!  Too late now.  We had moved with 4 children, 2 Weimaraners, 2 cats, 27 breeding rabbits, 12 chickens, and all their assorted equipment.  We set up a temporary rabbitry and poultry yard on the driveway surrounded by our kennel runs.  There was no patio, no complete fencing, no towel rods, and we were down a bathroom since we told the owners we did not want them to finish the 2nd bath they were renovating.  We didn't like their plan and planned to change it. 

Our city dogs had never been around coyote filled hills.  For the next 6 months they barked every time coyotes yipped or howled. DH was working 6 and 7 10-12 hr days every week.  I got up in the am, fixed breakfast, drove the kids to school, brought the toddlers home, unpacked, did school pickup, unpacked some more, cooked dinner, put everyone to bed, and unpacked.  We moved into the house in mid October.  Halloween came and the children got ready to trick or treat BUT we had no lights on our private road and the nearest house was 1/4 mile away!  After driving around we realized that our new rural neighborhood had no sidewalks or streetlights.  The only lights in town were at the neighborhood park.  There was a small Halloween carnival inside so the kids got to go there.  The following year we learned that there was one neighborhood where everyone went and took the kids there.  30 years later that neighborhood is still the only place anyone goes to trick or treat.  They have an HOA, the residents hire security guards, and close the neighborhood to automobile traffic - only trick or treaters and parents are allowed to walk in. 

At first everyone was unpleasant which really surprised us.  Then we bought our first ponies.  Suddenly people smiled at us.  We gradually met our neighbors.  We learned that they all feared new people moving in, suspecting them of wanting to do away with the horse keeping and livestock.  Once they saw that we had horses and animals, we were accepted.  Our kids joined the local 4-H club.  Where I thought my children would learn about animal keeping from their leaders I found out that there were n livestock leaders in this club anymore.  We were on our own.  I bought books and ordered them from the library.  Every animal the children wanted to raise, I had to learn about it.  4 children raise a lot of livestock, and not just terminal for the market auction.  We wanted dairy goats for house milk.  I read everything I could about them and we fenced in a yard with a shelter for them.  I found a dry yearling for sale locally and went to see her.  She was very pretty, friendly, and would make a nice showmanship goat for DS.  I bought her and she came home in the back seat with us.  That night the mother of the only other dairy goat project child called me.  She said, I just found out that since you want to drink your goats milk, you should NOT buy a Toggenburg since their milk is the least palatable of all the dairy breeds.  I wanted to warn you.  Unfortunately, the goat I had already purchased was a Toggenburg.  I eventually got 2 Nubians, twin sisters and both exceptionally high yielding does on milk test.  The breeder wouldn't let me take them until they had completed their milk stars.  She then bred them before we picked them up.  So now we had our chickens, rabbits, milk goats, and the children had their ponies.  The house as still falling down, but we were optimistic.  Our last house had been falling down too and we had rebuilt it - no problem!  We had graded off one of the flat spots and installed our huge Doughboy so the kids were able to swim.  They had to wade through the nettles to get to the pool, but farm kids are tough. 

A year later we began building our rabbit barn.  24' wide by 36' long with a shed roof sloping from 16' to 14'.  DH and I built it our-selves using power pole cross arms.  The LADWP has its own training center for linemen to teach them to climb the poles.  They relocated the climbing yard and we could have all the cross arms we could carry away.  Our property drops 4' down to the level where the barn was to be build.  The goats were located another 4' down from there.  there were retaining walls but no stairs.  The children and I had build rudimentary steps down so we could feed and milk.  DH was working those terrible hours and did not have time to build proper steps.  Our family does not believe in hiring people to do what we can do ourselves so the make shift steps were going to be there until DH had a few days off and felt like they were important to build.  He decided to go down and check the feed situation one evening.  After the steps collapsed under him and he returned from the emergency room on crutches, he made a call.  We had concrete steps by the end of the week.

While he was on 2 weeks of sick leave, I drove DH in the truck back and forth to the climbing yard and loaded 12' and 14' crossarms into the truck, came back and unloaded them.  Cross arms are 4" x 5" creosote soaked lumber.  After DH decided we had enough cross arms to build the barn, we started bringing home pole butts.  These are 10' pieces of creosote soaked power poles, 12' TO 14' in diameter.  Naturally I could not load these like I had the cross arms.  I drove DH down and he hobbled into the "pole cat".  Once in the seat, with his crutches balanced on the side of the machine, he used it to pick up the pole butts and load them into the pickup.  Our poor little 1/2 ton extended cab was a bit overloaded and I had to drive carefully.  Once we got the load home DH rigged a line around each pole butt and tied it off.  Then I drove slowly forward while he balanced on his crutches and guided the pole butt off the truck.  Now the driveway was filled with giant poles and we had to move them into an area to store them.  Summoning all the kids, we rolled the pole butts into a pile.  Back and forth several times a day, load after load, for the 2 weeks DH was laid up we brought home the materials for his rabbit barn.  Then we started the work.

More later . . . .


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I'm making a note since lot of things get rusted on.  We use another kind of white lithium spray on some things since WD40 doesn't do as well.


White lithium is longer lasting. Good stuff. I think one place it is used is on car door hinge slides.

Friend of mine had a small set of bolt cutters (maybe 14" handles) in the back of his truck that were all rusty and could not be opened. He had tried WD-40 a bunch, no joy. He was going to toss them as they were unrepairable. I sprayed them with PB Blaster, waited 5 minutes. All fixed. 



Mike CHS said:


> A little trivia for the day - WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th formula. That's the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed the product back in 1953.


And yet it isn't recommended as a lubricant for electronics, it isn't water displacing enough I guess. Fun and interesting info though!


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## Ridgetop

On we trudged . . . .we spent 6 months building the barn by ourselves since DH was working 6 and 7 day weeks and the kids were small - oldest 11 years old.  After breaking 2 manual post hole diggers on the concrete we call our soil, we rented an electric post hole digger.  We sited it in and prepared to dig our first post hole for the barn. The post hole digger began its mechanical rotations and DH couldn't hold it in place (and this was when he had muscles strong enough to pick up a washing machine by himself!)  He yelled for me to grab one side of the handle to help him keep it in place.  The 2 of us were twirled around by the machine as it tried to bore into the shale.  The children clamored for their turn on this nifty ride.  DH returned the post hole digger ad returned from the equipment rental yard with an electric jack hammer.  This did the trick.  DH jack hammered.  I cleared the loose soil from the hole.  He jack hammered again until we had a hole 2' deep.  We repeated this procedure for several days until all the support posts were in the ground.  Now to plumb them and set them.  DH used fiberglass pole set to anchor the poles in place.  Cross arms have holes drilled in them to bolt them too the poles.  We bolted our entire barn together.  Once the framework was in place, DH started to lay in the plywood loft.  He would come home from work, cut and fit the pieces until dark.  The next day I would take the 2 older children to school, come home and nail down the loft decking.  Day after day . . . .  Then he put the rafters on for the roof.  This was our first building of this size so he put each rafter on then measured for the next, cut the fireblock, then laid in another rafter.  Now we know better.  We cut all the fireblock spacers at once, then use them to space the rafters - so much faster.  H could only put in a few each night as the days got shorter.  Once the rafters were in place he started the roof plywood.  Again he came home every night and cut and laid the pieces of plywood until the light failed.  Each day I took kids to school, came home and nailed down the plywood.  Day after day, over and over until one day we had a barn ready for the roofing! 

In the meantime, we had aToggenburg, luckily she was a dry yearling.  I shopped around for another milk goat.  I found a lady in Ramona, Ca, who was selling a couple of 2 year old Nubian milkers.  Nubians had the best milk apparently.  I drove 3 hours with my 3 and 4 year olds to see them.  The breeder and I talked inside while my children played outside.  the milkers were twin sisters, in the process of obtaining their milk stars.  the breeder did not want to give them up until they got their stars.  Milk stars are awarded in a program where you milk for 10 months and have a tester come out once a month to test your milk, check the output, then you send in the reports with a milk sample from each goat currently milking in your barn.  if the goats produce enough milk while "on test" they qualify for a milk star.  The milk star carries down to each daughter if the daughter qualifies for her own milk star.  Some breeders have does with 4 or 5 stars after their name.  A buck earns a milk star when a certain number of his daughters qualify for a  star.  The breeder was putting a star on her buck so she wanted to keep both does until they finished qualifying which would be in another month.  If I bought them I had to wait that long for my goats.  In return the breeder would breed them back to her other buck.  I tried the milk and it was good.  My sons tried it and asked for more.  I bought the does. 

When it was time to pick them up, my husband and I drove down alone to pick them up.  We did not have a horse trailer but DH was confident that it would be ok and "we would figure it out".  and did not feel comfortable cross tying them in the bed.  We hired a sitter and drove 3 hours south to the breeder.  Once there we got all the paperwork and went to load the goats.  Dh was uncomfortable with them riding in the open bed of the truck.  The breeder tried to convince us that we could cross tie them in the bed and offered us ropes but DH decided to put them in the cab.  With the goats loaded in the back seat of our extended cab pickup we set off for home.  Sparkle, the red roan, rested her head on DH's shoulder, occasionally letting out an aromatic burp as she brought up her cud.  Halfway home, DH realized in all the excitement he had not eaten any breakfast and decided we should stop and pick up food.  The goats were travelling as though they constantly went in road trips so I agreed.   Oblivious to my suggestion that we use the drive through lane, he into the parking lot.  I suggested that we might want to get the goats out for a potty break.  He laughed at me, saying they could probably hold it for another hour.  As he parked the car and swung out of the cab the sound of running water from the back seat taught us that when you stop a vehicle it is a signal to animals to release their bladders.  As I tried to mop up the goat pee with napkins, a lady in the next car asked what breed of dogs we had.  Our stop was short.

Once we got home we put the goats in their pen.  Everything was fine except Sparkle could open any gate latch.  At least once a day my 3 and 4 year olds brought the news that the goats were out.  After the first 2 weeks, they just returned the goats to their pen.  Sparkle and Firecracker were large Nubian does, but 2 of the calmest does we ever had.  They were easily led around by anyone easy to milk, and the reason we ended up loving our dairy goats so much.  Each of them routinely had 3 or 4 kids, gave 6 quarts a day for the first half of their lactations, and 1 gallon for the second half  I had trouble drying them off.  Their daughters were just as high yielding as they were and their milk was delicious and very high in butterfat.

The Toggenburg was dry but was a precocious milker.  She milked as a dry yearling - our first experience with that!  She also came down with a case of goat pox!  This was the start of what we called our family experiences in animal husbandry.  If it happened, it happened to us!  But only once because as soon as it happened I ordered the equipment to deal with it if it ever happened again.  Of course, it seldom did!  So, over the years, we had broken legs which we had to set ourselves, cuts which we had to stitch ourselves, a rectal prolapse taken care of with Prep H, a uterine prolapse which we washed with cold water and iodine, then replaced and stitched with a carpet needle and dental floss, and 2 cases of hermaphroditism.  This was in addition to the normal go round of pink eye (annually after L. A. County Fair in September), pneumonia, nasal bots in an older purchased ram, mastitis, etc.  and that is just goats and sheep.  Oh yes, and dehorning (not dsbudding) 2 wethers when our Fair suddenly decided to allow kids to show meat goats.  And 4 premature kids whole mother died within 3 days after kidding. 

We saved 3 of the kids.  They were practically hairless so I cut neck and leg holes in DH's socks and made preemie blankets to keep them warm.  We had to feed them laying across our knees since they couldn't stand for a week, then massage their bellies so they would poop and wipe them with a paper towel to keep the rectum from blocking up.  The 2 does were lovely and 1 eventually freshened with a beautiful show udder.  Eventually we castrated the buckling, whom my 9 year old youngest son kept as a pet.  He grew into a huge wether whose name was Goatzilla.  DS bought a carting harness for him and converted a skate board and beach chair into a "cart" using electrical tape.  He would harness Goatzilla and then ride down the steep hillside road on his "cart" until he reached the bottom.  Then he would attach the harness to the chair and the goat would run home pulling DS with him.  They would do this until Goatzilla got tired and didn't want to pull the skateboard chair quickly.  Then DS would unharness him and put him away.  He explained that he did not want to take a chance that Goatzilla would decide not to pull him back.  DS didn't want to walk 1/2 mile uphill carrying the skateboard chair and dragging Goatzilla!

Our Nubians were always bred for January kids and the Toggenburg was bred for late spring kids, figuring we would be able to drink the Togg milk while our Nubians dried up before kidding.  Yes, Togg milk tastes horrible!    It is supposed to be excellent for making sharp cheese, but in order to drink it I had to mix it heavily with chocolate milk powder.  Later we had a couple Alpines and their milk was not as good as Nubian milk either.   In the end, we sold the Toggs, and the Alpines and just kept our Nubians and LaManchas.  We still bred for January kids but decided to just drink store milk for 2 months.  It was cheaper than the price of the chocolate powder I went through with Togg milk!  LOL

Our oldest son and daughter got market lambs when they were 9 and 12.  They were told to tame their lambs, halter break them, and exercise the lambs by walking them.  DD would faithfully walk her lamb down the steep 1/2 mile road from our house to the main street, and back up.  DS would walk with her until around the first bend, then sit down and let his lamb graze in his halter until his sister walked back up to where he was.  Then he would jump up and accompany her back to the house. 

Halter breaking lambs is an experience in itself.  The entire family would turn out for the show.  First, chase the lamb around and around the small pen until it is tired enough (or dizzy enough) that you can jump on it and wrestle the halter onto its head. Now that you have the lamb in a halter, you have to convince it to move.  Once it is moving, it does not move ahead, but often jumps from side to side, backwards, or sometimes just straight into the air.  If they let go or the lamb tore the halter out of their hands it was an hour chase into the brush to drive it back up and retrieve it.After losing the lamb twice, DS decided to tie a second rope around its neck and around his waist.  He was very impressed with his foresight as his sister fight with her plunging, twisting lamb.  Did I forget to say that occasionally the lamb would throw itself to the ground and attempt to strangle itself with the halter rope?  In fact, many times. . . .  Remember that sheep have solid bone between their ears - there is little or no brain inside their skull.  As DS sneered at his sister working diligently with her lamb, his lamb started walking on the halter.  Impressed with skill at training his lamb he forgot that lambs are unpredictable and you have to watch them all the time.  As he took a step forward his lamb bolted onto the field.  Caught between steps, he flew horizontally through the air behind the fleeing lamb.  Occasionally there was a bounce and cloud of dust as he made contact with the ground.  Helpless with laughter I could not move to help him.  About the time the lamb stopped, and DS climbed to his feet, his 2 small brothers ran onto the field shouting to "get a turn".  The lamb took off again, this time circling around and heading back toward the driveway where his sister stood trying to keep her lamb on the ground.  I was able to catch the lamb as it scrambled through the gate.  DS, covered in dirt got to his feet, and walked his lamb twice around the driveway.  The exhausted animal staggered after him.  DS announced that the lamb was now completely trained, put him away.  Seeing his older sister's hysterical lamb again flinging itself to the ground in an act of attempted suicide, he told DH she still needed to do a lot of work with her lamb.

As time went on, the children learned to handle their lambs more confidently.  Towards the end of their time in 4-H they did not work with their lambs much since a tense lamb tightens its muscles and gives the impression of harder muscle.  All tricks of the show ring learned over the years. 

One year when DS1 was showing his breeding sheep in Visalia we needed another handler in the youth ring for Grand Champion judging.  DS2 had a lamb and all the other 4-Hers were busy with their own sheep.   I grabbed DS3, age 8, whipped his t-shirt off and turned it inside out so it was all white, and handed him a lamb on a halter.  "Go in the ring with your brothers and show this lamb" I said.  "But I don't know how" he whined.  "Of course you do" I said.  "No I don't!" he complained.  "Don't give me any back talk" I said, "you have been working with sheep for years".  "But you never taught me how to show" he whimpered, "only them".  Suddenly I realized that he was right!  He had been working and handling the sheep since he was 5 but he had never learned showmanship since he was only 8 and he couldn't show market lambs until he was 9!  OOOPS!  Quick lesson and I shoved him into the showring.  No pampering around here worrying about positive experiences and self esteem!  

So many experiences, so much we learned, so many memories, SO MUCH FUN!

Next time, some of our hog experiences - this little piggy went to market . . . .


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## Ridgetop

Well, the barn was up.  The rabbit cages were hung, water lines in and automatic waterers working.  Worm pits established, and the rabbits breeding like - well, like rabbits.  Our kids had been to a couple of SFV Fairs where we became friends with one of the Ag teachers.   Their rabbit meat pens had taken Champion and Grand Champion 2 years in a row.  DH had set up the FFA rabbit program with several trios of good New Zealand Whites, then the standard of meat rabbits.  DH was really into showing them, and was clerking at the rabbit shows.  He had learned to judge meat rabbits and consistently bred, raised and showed the best.  DH went to the school and taught the kids and their instructor what to look for in choosing meat pens and replacement stock.  This was the first of many such trips to help the FFA kids with their rabbits.  In many rural areas FFA kids come from farm families, the kids in our local Ag programs are city kids.  They may have pets but have no idea of meat animals, breeding, etc.  The trios were lovely quality, show animals in their own right, to get the kids off to a good start with quality stock.  Show meat rabbits are good meat producers.  The animals the FFA had been working with were bony stock, cross bred with non-meat types.  The only claim they had to being NZWs was they were white rabbits.  Several months after the trios (show animals in their own right) had been delivered, and housed in the rabbitry, I got a call from one of the students.  She was practically in tears.  The students were breeding their rabbits for the first time and had discovered a large growth in the stomach of one of the bucks.     Was it bleeding?  No.  Did it have any discharge?  No.  The students were afraid the rabbit had developed a disease or cancer.  DH was at work so I drove out myself to the school 20 miles away.  Anxious faces looked me as I removed the buck from his cage.  Turning him upside down, I examined his belly for the lump.  There was nothing there.  I placed the rabbit on the exam table and palpated him gently.  Still nothing.  I asked if they were sure this was the right rabbit.  Yes.  Where they had seen the lump?  I turned the buck over again and had them look.  Right there!  They pointed at Mr. Bunny's testicles. Rabbit testicles are placed on the forward side of their penis instead of behind it like other mammals.  They had gotten the young rabbits at the end of summer after the Fair.  It was still hot then and rabbits often suck their testicles up into their bodies when the weather is too hot or too cold!  This was the first time the students had seen them hanging free.   After checking both of the other bucks, I reassured them that the rabbits were normal and so was their equipment!  Happy students, happy bunnies.  

Having announced I would be telling tales of piggies, I went off on discussing rabbits.  We can come back to them later as they run through our farm life consistently.

So, barn built, rabbits and chickens housed (we brought our chicken coop with us and fenced it in), we decided that the next thing would be to get a pig for meat.  I mentioned that our 4-H club had no livestock leaders anymore, didn't I?  So I brought home all the library books on hog raising I could find.  Now we just needed the pig.  I had no idea where to get one.  Finally, DH said that a guy he worked with lived in the Antelope Valley and there were some pig breeders near him.  Armed with the cross streets and the vaguest of ideas where to go, we packed a picnic and set off.  We didn't find the pig breeders we had been told about, but we did find a U-pick peach orchard and picked lugs of peaches for me to can.  As it grew dark and the street signs disappeared, we navigated the roads from gravel to asphalt and back.  DH can find his way anywhere - he is like a human homing signal!    All of a sudden he slammed on the brakes and swung a fast left turn.  He had seen a sign for a swine breeding farm.  When we drew up in front of the house, the owners came out to tell us that they were not allowing anyone in to see their pigs because of disease.  Saddened we confessed that we wanted to buy a pig to raise for meat.  We were invited in and the couple sensing a couple of city suckers said that they might have  pig for sale.  Apparently a sow had savaged her litter and they had been able to save only one of 15 piglets.  They were rearing the 2 week old piglet on formula and baby cereal.  If we wanted it we could buy it for only $20. Now I realize they wanted to get out from the chore of feeding this piglet round the clock and probably did not expect it to survive.  This crazy couple with 4 small kids cooing over the tiny Duroc piglet were easy pickings.  It's ears were already notched and it had been vaccinated, etc.  DH handed over $20, the farmer carried the piglet out to the car in its cardboard box, and we had our first pig.

Ham Hocks thrived on our nice rich goat milk.  Pretty soon she was eating pig pellets soaked in got milk.  The children would play with her, and she would follow us around the farm like a dog.  Our friend, the AG instructor, came out to look at her since we thought she might be large enough for the Fair.  He told us she would not large enough and it would take another 200 lbs of feed to get her to butcher weight.  I bought 200 lbs. of pig feed and we sat back to wait for her to grow.  When she finished the last of the 200 lbs. of feed, we made arrangements to take her to slaughter.  We had located a fellow on the other side of Antelope Valley who did slaughter and cut and wrap.  We had no horse trailer, but DH's dad had located a free camper shell that would fit on the Datsun bed trailer he had made years ago.  We would transport the pig in that. 

The day came that Ham Hocks would take her last ride.  According to my pig book, we could easily get her to load by dragging a pan of corn in front of her into the trailer.  She would follow it right in.  Getting the pan of corn, I dutifully dragged it to the back of the trailer where I came to a sudden stop.  The floor of the trailer was on a level with the top of her back.  This had escaped our notice when planning to transport our sweet HH to the butcher.  We had also neglected to train her to leap into the bed of a Datsun pickup which was what the trailer had originally been before its second life as a utility trailer.  Since she was now docilely eating the corn at the back of the trailer,  DH said we would just lift her into the trailer.  After all, she only weighed 225 lbs.  Together DH and I put our arms around her.  We tried to pick her up together but couldn't get her off the ground.  In fact she didn't even notice us trying as she continued to gobble her corn.  DH said we would just lift her front feet into the trailer and then heave the rest of her in.  She noticed this.  Not happening.  I think DH said he thought she weighed more than 225 lb. but although his mouth was moving I couldn't hear anything over the shrieks of porcine rage in our ears.   As she slipped through our arms, she caught sight of the trailer with its camper shell door looming open.  Ham Hocks announced that she would not enter the trailer, nor would she ride in such a vehicle, and in fact she would stay home.  She ran straight back to her pen.  

We discussed new plans to get her into the trailer.  We needed a ramp so she could walk up into the trailer.  DH and I hauled 2 long 2 x 12 planks over and propped them on the back of the trailer.  I scattered corn up the ramp.  Once again we brought her to the trailer and the new ramp.  She greedily ate all the scattered corn as she walked along the side of the ramp.  DH tried to push her onto the ramp.  She resisted.  One side of the ramp fell off in the struggle catching DH on the shin.  Squealing insults Ham Hocks retreated to her pen again.  I offered DH ice, he angrily refused .    We needed reinforcements.  Our children were summoned from play and informed they must act as side rails.  Dubiously they looked at Ham Hocks who was much larger than they were.  DH limped into position, DS1 and DD went to chivy Ham Hocks up to the ramp again.  Hocks Hocks snorted and charged through us, scattering small children like bowling pins.  Satisfied, she returned to her pen, refreshed herself with a long drink of water, and waited for our next assault on her person.  She gave a whole new meaning to "Just Say No!"   Strange that I had never noticed that she had a particularly malevolent stare.

After a 15 minute break to bandage up and pacify the troops.  I went inside to my trusty library and retrieved  "Everything You wanted to Know About Raising Pigs" Volume I.  Apparently I should have ordered Volume II as well, it probably had the recommendation _*not*_ to raise pigs.  Under the heading "Moving and Loading Your Pig", after the bit about dragging  pan of corn into the trailer and happily shutting the gate on the loaded pig, I noticed it continued on the next page.  There was the next chapter, What To Do When Your Pig Won't Load.  It said to put a bucket over her head, tie a rope around her rear leg and guide her backwards into the trailer.  Right.  I went outside and told DH this news.  When he finished laughing, demanded to see the book.  I went to get a bucket, he went to get the rope and we sent DS1 for the large push broom which was also mentioned in the chapter.  Maybe to sweep up the pig poop that was beginning to accumulate n the drive way.  Once armed with our weapons we sent the children to retrieve Ham Hocks.  They came back pigless.  Apparently she was napping and refused to wake up.  I went down to get her.  Finally, she agreed to come up to the driveway again if I would stop slapping her butt.  I hoped I was not bruising the ham but it was all I had.  Walking triumphantly along she saw the refilled corn pan sitting enticingly on the driveway.  Measuring the distance from it to the trailer she swaggered up to it and dropped her snout into the corn.  Gently we scratched her back and murmured endearments as DH swiftly tied a loop around her rear leg.  The rope ran through the back of the camper shell through the window and was held by DS1 and his sister.  At a signal from DH we sprang into action.  DS1 and DD pulled on the rope, I swung a large rubber bucket over Ham Hock's face and pushed her back.  Keeping her steady, DH maneuvered her feet onto the ramp.  As I backed her up the ramp, DH struggled to keep her feet on the boards and pulled the rope backwards and into the camper.  Quickly kicking the ramp boards aside, DH slammed the tailgate and camper shell gate on the surprised porker.  Running around to the front of the trailer he quickly tossed the rope end into the camper and slammed that window shut.  Loud squealings and grunts began as Ham Hocks tried to break out of the trailer.  The little trailed rocked back and forth as the enraged hog tossed back and forth.  The camper shell gate  started to open as she thrust her nose against it!  As I leaned on the gate to keep her in, DH grabbed another length of rope and tied it shut.  We were exhausted, but couldn't stop to rest.  We had to get Ham Hocks to the butcher before he closed, he was almost 2 hours away, and we had wasted most of the morning trying to load our pig.  Shoving all the children in the truck, we drove off.  Once on the road, Ham Hocks settled down a bit.  When we arrived at the butcher, after the fateful deed was done, he weighed her.  So much for our friend the Ag instructor judging weight - Ham Hocks clocked in at 340 lbs.!  She was delicious by the way.

Other pigs have come and gone.  We bought a used Miley 2-horse trailer eventually.  We had 2 pigs for DS1 and DS2 to raise for the Fair.  They lived in the old wire chicken coop with a little house in the middle.  The rains came late and the pen flooded leaving them sitting in their house like Noah's ark.  During the day after feeding time they would seem to vanish only to reappear in their pen at supper time.  I thought I just didn't see them in their house since I did not go in during the day.  But one day I went out with a load of fresh fruit scraps from canning and decided to give them a treat instead of throwing them to the chickens.  No pigs in the pen, no pigs in the pig house, NO PIGS.  We didn't have any LGDs yet, could a coyote have gotten them?  They were only about 35-40 lbs.  That afternoon after school I had the children all go out looking or the pigs.  DS1 and DD came in and said the pigs were in their pen.  Impossible!  I looked and there they were, oinking for supper.  The next day, same scenario.  Pigs gone then mysteriously back in the pen at supper time.  Finally, I decided to accept it.  Some sort of pig magic, apparently.  Then came the day the children came in and said that the pigs were not in the pen.  We went searching and there they were sitting under a bush disconsolately eyeing their pen where their dinners sat.  We opened the door and in they ran.  I did what I should have done weeks before.  I searched every inch of the pen, only this time I pushed and pulled every bit of wire.  Nothing appeared to be out of place until one overlapping piece of fencing wiggled.  It looked perfectly fine, not bent, It overlapped another piece of fence wire which was firmly attached to the posts.  The top layer however, was not firmly attached and when it was lifted, a small pig could squeeze out between the 2 sections of wire.  They came back into the pen at night the same way until - _*they got too big to fit!*_  Once out they couldn't get back in!     Case of the disappearing magic piggies closed.

Then there was the case of Devil Pig.  After several years of our kids raising livestock somehow I was promoted to livestock leader.  Until then I had been livestock leader in default of anyone else.  If your kids wanted to do a project and there was no leader, guess who became the leader?  So, I was the pig leader, and the lamb leader, and the veal leader, and the goat leader, and the dairy leader, and DH was the rabbit leader, and a few other things if there was ni other parent doing the project our kids wanted to be in.  Of course, once there was a leader for the project other kids joined up.  If you build it, they will come . . . .


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## Bruce

Fun stories!


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## Latestarter

You had me rolling picturing your child bouncing through the yard while roped to a flighty sheep!  Thanks so much for sharing your stories and the humor associated! The pig story hit close to home as well, which you may have realized if you've read through my journal. My episode didn't work out so well however.


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## Baymule

We have a stock trailer and we load pigs the day before we take them to slaughter. Soured corn in the trailer after missing a couple of meals, plus lobbing boiled eggs in the trailer, and they hop in with no problem. I got a good laugh on your pig loading! LOL LOL


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## Ridgetop

I had now become the Livestock Leader of our 4-H club.  Lucky me.      Where before I only had to learn enough for my own children and keeping our market and breeding animals, I now had to learn EVERYTHING about ALL market species.  Apparently being the livestock leader for all kids who know nothing about livestock entails a whole new skill set.  In addition, as each market animal project grew, I had to plan meetings for each species.  In addition to our monthly general meeting, I now had to set up meetings for dairy goats, meat goats, market lambs, veal calves, rabbits, etc.  We had the only breeding sheep so that project meeting met when we had to do something extra with the sheep.


In addition to those meetings, my children were also in rocketry, shooting, cooking, sewing, film, horses, dogs, junior 4-H, leadership, self-determined, etc.  If it was a listed project at least one of my children signed up in it.  We participated in all the activities, Field Day, Judging Day, parades, etc., and, because I was a leader, the Leader’s Council.  I eventually held several offices in the Council, was on the camp committee for our district, set up and ran the Field days, Judging Days, etc. that each district in our County was required to run.  This entailed finding the premises, people to bring animals and exhibits for judging, finding people to man each station, and set up the questions, then finding people to correct each set of answer pages to find the high scorer in each category, on and on.  There were years where I counted the days we did *not* have evening meetings instead of the days we did.  While doing all that, I also taught at a preschool, and my family was called on to do school visits with our animals to publicize the Fair and 4-H.   In addition, as the children's interest in their animal projects grew we attended seminars on showmanship, ethics, and market animals.  These seminars were always over 2 hours away since there was no longer any farming in our area. 

Once a year I took the children from our club to H summer camp where I was a chaperone and ran the camp store.  This entailed shopping for the merchandise, setting up the store once there and keeping track of each kid’s money that they had to spend.  At the beginning of camp I collected all the money, listed it on a card with name of the kid, and kept the cards.  When the kids came to buy something at the store I marked off what they spent then at the end of each day, checked everything, and at the end of camp figured out how much money they got back, counted it out into envelopes to hand out as they went home.

Looking back, I am amazed at the work load I carried!  In addition to keeping a clean house, we were still renovating our house, and I ws driving kids to school and picking up, ran a high school car pool, drove to after school activities – yes, they did those too !  I was raising rabbits semi commercially, DS2 was milking 12-15 does each morning (machine by then), running 3 pasteurizers twice through each morning, raising all the doe kids on bucket feeders, and raising feeder calves for sale.  Once a month I drove to the feed mill, the dairy supply store, and either the auction yard to drop off buck kids for sale, the dairy to pick up new bull calves, or the cattle auction to drop off feeder calves.

It was exhausting, exhilarating, and the best time of our lives – we had so much fun with our kids living that life! So many stories to remember and put down here.  I should try to copy them off these journal pages to keep them for my kids to read after we are gone so they will remember their childhood.

So back to the first sentence- I had now become the Livestock Leader of our 4-H club.  Since I now had additional project kids who wanted to show market animals at the Fair, and since we were the only ones with a trailer, you can figure out where I am going with this . . . .  

DS1, age 11, and I set off to pick up pigs for my 4 children and the other 2 kids who wanted to raise pigs for Fair.  In addition to the sale pigs, DH had a friend at work who wanted a hog for his freezer, and we wanted a hog for our freezer.  We raised our hogs on pig chow and rolled corn soaked in goat milk for 12 hours twice a day.  They carried a little too much fat for Grand Champion but the ate so much better.  We had bidders coming to fair just for our pigs.  So, we needed 8 pigs.  I had contacted a breeder in the Antelope Valley, an hour away, who had weaner pigs ready to go.  These were not the normal breeds used for Fair pigs, these were Poland Spot hogs.  These Spot pigs are not as lean as Durocs, Yorks, Blue Butts, or Belted hogs.  They put on marbled fat instead of normal hogs that layer it on top of the meat.  This was the first time we had ever raised them, but the breeder assured me that once we tried them we would be back.  Besides, the other hog leaders would not tell me where they got their hogs, so I was on my own to find a breeder.  

We arrived at the ranch via the normal ranch directions – get off the freeway at exit **, go 3 miles to where the old gas station used to be, go east???    OK turn right, go to the dead tree, turn left . . . .   Arriving at the ranch, we met with the breeder who was a very nice fellow and he took us back to the pigs.  I had brought our muck boots which was a good thing.  Although pigs will usually potty in just one spot of their sty, they like to dump their water and make a mud hole out of their pen.  Pigs do not sweat or pant so covering themselves with mud is the way they stay cool in the heat.  These pigs had decided they wanted to be very, very cool.  DS1 and I put our boots on preparatory entering the muddy pen to catch the pigs.  The breeder was limping on a cane, so we told him we would get the pigs if he wanted us to.   First, we looked them over while the breeder gave us a lesson on what we should look for.  I had studied my books, but it is harder to judge fast moving little weaner pigs.  Having decided on the first pig, a nice long barrow with large hams and width across the loin, DS1 started the chase.  DS1 tried to catch the pig but his hands kept slipping off the smooth sides.  Study a pig and you will see there is really nothing to grab hold of.  The breeder told him to catch the pig b the rear legs and  pick him up that way.   Finally catching him by a rear leg DS1 held on for dear life as the ornery porker tried to kick loose, meanwhile deafening us with his ear-piercing screams.  Grabbing the other rear leg, I helped DS1 lift him upside down.  Surprisingly, he shut up.  The silence would have been equally deafening except his siblings were oinking and squealing too.  Tossing him into the trailer, we returned to the pen.  The breeder apologized for not being able to help, but DS1 was enjoying this chase & capture adventure.  Another few pigs were discussed as possible picks and DS1 went into action again.  Now we had 3 in the trailer.  I was writing the ear numbers down as the breeder graded the pigs in order.  By now DS1 was really getting into the spirit of the chase.    As each pig was identified by the breeder, DS1 approached it slowly and captured it.  Now there were 6 in the trailer, only 2 left to choose.  But as the number of pigs in the pen decreased it meant they had more space to run.  They were getting harder to catch and DS1 was getting tired.  He also had slipped in the muddy pen several times and there was a good bit of pig pen on him.  Determined, he approached the remaining pigs.  He eyed the pigs, the remaining pigs eyed him.  Just as they broke from the herd and scattered he pounced and grabbed another pig by the hind leg.  Unfortunately, it was the wrong pig.  Turning it loose he caught the right pig and into the trailer it went.  Only one left to select - it was quickly identified and caught.  The breeder, meanwhile, had been giving DS1 lessons on choosing the best market hogs in the pen.  DS1 was a quick learner and enjoyed pointing out the pigs he thought would be best.  By the end of the experience he was doing a pretty good job of selecting pigs.   The breeder was a 4-H dad himself, with his youngest daughter approaching her last Fair.  As I pulled out my checkbook and prepared to pay for the market pigs, the breeder quizzed DS1 on what he had taught him to look for in a market pig.  Impressed with DS1’s pig catching skills and willingness to cover himself with pig mud, as well as having had a good laugh, the breeder now offered to give DS1 another pig for free, if he wanted it.  A free pig?    Why yes, he did!  Leaping back into the pen, he prepared to go into battle once more.   With a limited selection now, he approached the pigs.  They had decided they did not like this game of catch, and having had a rest while we took care of business, scattered.  Catching that last pig was more like a game of keep away.  DS1 got hold of a leg but his hands were muddy and the pig kicked free, dumping DS1 in the mud again.  Finally, bruised, muddy, and tired, DS1 caught his pig and carried it triumphantly to the trailer.   Unlike his siblings who had stopped screaming once they were hoisted upside down, this particular pig squealed all the way to the trailer.  It was a sign of things to come.

Standing a good distance away, we hosed DS1 off as well as we could.  We tossed our muck boots were in the bed, along with DS1’s shirt.  He refused to shuck his britches though, so we drove home with all the windows open, breathing through our mouths.    On arrival, we sorted all the pigs.  DS1 got first pick, DD1 got second pick, the 2 younger boys chose their pigs based on cuteness.   There were now 5 pigs in a separate pen for the other 2 pig project members to chose from.   Over they came and DS1, now a master pigman, shared his newly acquired knowledge (and smell) with them.  Based on our (minimal) market hog knowledge, we showed the kids what to look for and they chose their pigs.  DS1 grabbed each pig by the hind legs and showed them how to carry it to their car.  Impressed by DS1’s masterful handling of their hogs, and hoping to escape from his odor, they quickly climbed inside their cars with their pigs.  As they drove off we could hear their pigs squealing all the way down the hill.  Taking the remaining pigs to the barn we tossed them into the pen we had built.  They had plenty of room, we thought. 

Remember the mantra of animal keepers? – always go bigger . . . .    We would learn.


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## Bruce

Another fun chapter in your life!


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## Ridgetop

If you can't laugh at yourself about life's mishaps, you just end up in tears.  Our family prefers to laugh.  We have a lot to laugh about as you will see.


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## Baymule

Ahhh…..PIGS! I raised a hog for FFA and got Reserve Grand Champion! I didn't get pigs again until my husband and I retired and moved to our 8 acre paradise 3 years ago. We went to get 3 feeder pigs and they were in a muddy, sloppy pen. DH took one look at that and volunteered me to go in the pen and be a pig wrangler. The breeder was a very large, overweight man and moved slow. But when he got one, he held onto it. DH had pulled the trailer up next to the pen with the side door open. His job was to open and close the door. Me and Mr. Pig Breeder chased piglets around the sloppy pen, grabbing and carrying them to the trailer. We each grabbed a hind leg, lifted the pig over the fence and 1-2-3 swung the pig back and forth, tossing on 3, into the open door of the trailer. I get you on the driving home with the windows down!


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## Ridgetop

Congratulations on your RGCh! 

Yes, over the years we have become intimately acquainted with pig muck!  One year DS3 was the only one who wanted a pig for Fair.  We would load it in the trailer every week and took it to another 4- H club whose leader specialized in pigs.  She taught him to show it and he had a good time.  He rode it in the field, trained it well, and it was rather sweet.  Then it came inside the house and ran down our long wall leaving a large smear of pig mud for 20 feet!  By the time we got it out there was lots more pig mud and that pig was no longer so sweet or cute!  

I will have more Tales From the Dark Side soon about our pig adventures.


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## RollingAcres

Ridgetop said:


> The day came that Ham Hocks would take her last ride. According to my pig book, we could easily get her to load by dragging a pan of corn in front of her into the trailer. She would follow it right in. Getting the pan of corn, I dutifully dragged it to the back of the trailer where I came to a sudden stop. The floor of the trailer was on a level with the top of her back. This had escaped our notice when planning to transport our sweet HH to the butcher. We had also neglected to train her to leap into the bed of a Datsun pickup which was what the trailer had originally been before its second life as a utility trailer. Since she was now docilely eating the corn at the back of the trailer, DH said we would just lift her into the trailer. After all, she only weighed 225 lbs. Together DH and I put our arms around her. We tried to pick her up together but couldn't get her off the ground. In fact she didn't even notice us trying as she continued to gobble her corn. DH said we would just lift her front feet into the trailer and then heave the rest of her in. She noticed this. Not happening. I think DH said he thought she weighed more than 225 lb. but although his mouth was moving I couldn't hear anything over the shrieks of porcine rage in our ears. As she slipped through our arms, she caught sight of the trailer with its camper shell door looming open. Ham Hocks announced that she would not enter the trailer, nor would she ride in such a vehicle, and in fact she would stay home. She ran straight back to her pen.
> 
> We discussed new plans to get her into the trailer. We needed a ramp so she could walk up into the trailer. DH and I hauled 2 long 2 x 12 planks over and propped them on the back of the trailer. I scattered corn up the ramp. Once again we brought her to the trailer and the new ramp. She greedily ate all the scattered corn as she walked along the side of the ramp. DH tried to push her onto the ramp. She resisted. One side of the ramp fell off in the struggle catching DH on the shin. Squealing insults Ham Hocks retreated to her pen again. I offered DH ice, he angrily refused .  We needed reinforcements. Our children were summoned from play and informed they must act as side rails. Dubiously they looked at Ham Hocks who was much larger than they were. DH limped into position, DS1 and DD went to chivy Ham Hocks up to the ramp again. Hocks Hocks snorted and charged through us, scattering small children like bowling pins. Satisfied, she returned to her pen, refreshed herself with a long drink of water, and waited for our next assault on her person. She gave a whole new meaning to "Just Say No!" Strange that I had never noticed that she had a particularly malevolent stare.
> 
> After a 15 minute break to bandage up and pacify the troops. I went inside to my trusty library and retrieved "Everything You wanted to Know About Raising Pigs" Volume I. Apparently I should have ordered Volume II as well, it probably had the recommendation _*not*_ to raise pigs. Under the heading "Moving and Loading Your Pig", after the bit about dragging pan of corn into the trailer and happily shutting the gate on the loaded pig, I noticed it continued on the next page. There was the next chapter, What To Do When Your Pig Won't Load. It said to put a bucket over her head, tie a rope around her rear leg and guide her backwards into the trailer. Right. I went outside and told DH this news. When he finished laughing, demanded to see the book. I went to get a bucket, he went to get the rope and we sent DS1 for the large push broom which was also mentioned in the chapter. Maybe to sweep up the pig poop that was beginning to accumulate n the drive way. Once armed with our weapons we sent the children to retrieve Ham Hocks. They came back pigless. Apparently she was napping and refused to wake up. I went down to get her. Finally, she agreed to come up to the driveway again if I would stop slapping her butt. I hoped I was not bruising the ham but it was all I had. Walking triumphantly along she saw the refilled corn pan sitting enticingly on the driveway. Measuring the distance from it to the trailer she swaggered up to it and dropped her snout into the corn. Gently we scratched her back and murmured endearments as DH swiftly tied a loop around her rear leg. The rope ran through the back of the camper shell through the window and was held by DS1 and his sister. At a signal from DH we sprang into action. DS1 and DD pulled on the rope, I swung a large rubber bucket over Ham Hock's face and pushed her back. Keeping her steady, DH maneuvered her feet onto the ramp. As I backed her up the ramp, DH struggled to keep her feet on the boards and pulled the rope backwards and into the camper. Quickly kicking the ramp boards aside, DH slammed the tailgate and camper shell gate on the surprised porker. Running around to the front of the trailer he quickly tossed the rope end into the camper and slammed that window shut. Loud squealings and grunts began as Ham Hocks tried to break out of the trailer. The little trailed rocked back and forth as the enraged hog tossed back and forth. The camper shell gate started to open as she thrust her nose against it! As I leaned on the gate to keep her in, DH grabbed another length of rope and tied it shut. We were exhausted, but couldn't stop to rest. We had to get Ham Hocks to the butcher before he closed, he was almost 2 hours away, and we had wasted most of the morning trying to load our pig. Shoving all the children in the truck, we drove off. Once on the road, Ham Hocks settled down a bit. When we arrived at the butcher, after the fateful deed was done, he weighed her. So much for our friend the Ag instructor judging weight - Ham Hocks clocked in at 340 lbs.! She was delicious by the way.


You had me laughing reading about your Ham Hocks story. I'm sorry I laughed at your "troubles" with her! And I love the fact that you actually went inside and started to look into your book trying to find answers!  It's like picturing a doctor, during an emergency, trying to flip through his/her book looking for an answer on how to sew up a wound or something. Hahahah


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## RollingAcres

Ridgetop said:


> I will have more Tales From the Dark Side soon about our pig adventures.


Can't wait!


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## Ridgetop

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our heroes . . . .
Relying on our trusty pig book "Everything You wanted to Know About Raising Pigs" Volume I, we had built 2 feed troughs for our pigs.  Taking two  4’ pieces of 2” x 12” lumber we nailed them together in a V shape then nailed a square piece each end.   We filled this with pig grower in the morning and each evening.  We also put 10 lbs of rolled corn in each of 2 5 gallon buckets.  filled the buckets with goat milk.  We let this sit all day and fed it in the evening.  We did the same thing again each the evening, letting it sit overnight and feeding it in the morning.  By now  our pigs were growing fast and we couldn’t keep enough feed in the troughs for them.  Apparently the writers of the pig book had meant one feeder to each hog.   Since we seemed to need more feeder space, the kids and I built three J feeders out of plywood from a plan in my pig book.  With DH working so many hours I had overcome my terror of large noisy power tools since I was doing some construction work of my own.  Using the jig saw I had made keyhole feeder boards for taking to the Fair.  DH and I had also constructed a large feeder outside the block wall building window.  We were keeping our hay in there and easily fed the goats through the window into the keyhole feeder.  Using the Skilsaw, we built 3 “J” feeders 2’ wide.  Each one held more than 50 lbs. of feed.  We kept the feeders full at all times, using the two 4' troughs for slopping the hogs with the milk and corn.  I am sure it was an optical illusion, but our roomy pig pen seemed to be shrinking.  I know we had measured it and it complied with the minimum square footage recommended for 7 hogs.  Wildly optimistic!  We had 7 growing hogs in a pen 8’ x 25’.  Yes, not enough room, but it was our first (and last) attempt at keeping this many hogs.  The pen was crowded and very muddy.  It was getting dangerous to go into the pen at all.   Now we had to get the pigs out for the kids to work them and teach them to obey the pig canes.  This was a real chore.  DH’s only day off now was Sunday so that became pig working day.  

In the meantime, the pig breeder had called me and offered to sell me his pig scale for $200.    It was a walk -through scale that could be moved on wheels and used for both lambs and hogs.  His daughter would be out of 4-H after the summer and he decided that our need was greater than hers.  I drove out to pick it up right away.  We had also bought a pig cart from a graduating 4-H member in another club after the last Fair.  This was a welded metal box with a drop gate on each end.  It was mounted on large industrial wheels, so you could transport your pig from the Fair pen to the ring and hold it at ringside in the cart until it was time to enter the ring.  You could also wash or shave  your pig in the cart through the bars.  Super handy although super heavy.  Pigs will not enter a closed space – remember Ham Hocks?  With the pig cart, you pulled up both gate panels and dragged a pan of corn to the cart.   Corn was sprinkled in the cart, the pig, seeing an escape at the other side, hopped in and you dropped both panels, trapping the pig.    Unless the panels jammed, at which point you had to quickly wrestle the panel down, while balancing in one leg and frantically kicking the grunting hog in the face as it tried to muscle its way out.    Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.   Once the hog was successfully contained in the cart, you could push it wherever you wanted to take it.  The scale worked in a similar way, with a drop panel on each end.  These 2 pieces of equipment suddenly made our work a lot easier.   Sort of.

Sunday after church, we approached our first pig weighing enthusiastically.   We were so young and naïve.  We still had sooo much to learn.  Our barn sits 4’ below grade and is crowded to work in.  First, we barricaded all escape routes from the barn, except the one leading to the sloped 4’ wide walkway up to the driveway.  We positioned the pig cart at the opening onto the driveway.  The two younger boys sat on top, each holding a drop gate up.  We practiced with them dropping the gates on command until they were quick.  DH, myself, and the 2 older children manned the walkway and pig pen.  Turning one pig out of the pen, we sent it up the walkway.  At the top it paused, puzzled by the tunnel with kids on top, but entered the cart.  Instantly the panels were dropped into place.  One jammed, but it was the one behind the pig and we were able to get it down before Porky backed out.  Now we pushed the cart across the driveway to where we had the scale leveled and calibrated.  We had used 50 lb. sacks of feed to calibrate it to the weight closest to the pigs’ approximate weight.  Placing the pig cart end to end with the open scale we pulled up the drop gate and the pick seeing daylight walked through.  Again, we dropped the gates, trapping the pig in the scale.  Then we read off the weight, marked it down on our weight chart and repeated the process with another pig.  Success, who said pigs were hard?   

This sounds soooo easy, but we are talking hogs here remember.  Not only hog but lots of hogs.  We figured this job would get easier, but it just got much harder.  The pigs were growing, and they wanted to get out of their small pen, so it meant that DH had to man the gate,  He was the only one with the strength to hold back the pigs who all wanted to get out at once.  Each week the job got less like a fun adventure and became dirty, annoying work.  We were still renovating and we had to share the only bathroom.  After fighting with 7 muddy hogs to get them into the cart and then into the scale and do it 7 times, we were all covered with pig mud and pig other stuff.  Everyone wanted to get into the shower as soon as possible.  As soon as the last pig exited the scale and was in the pen, 2 adults and 4 children raced madly to get to the bathroom first.  First come, first showered!  You know how in an emergency it is women and children first?  Not so on a family farm when the denizens are covered in stinky pig muck!  It is every man for himself!  Shouldering his way through his small children, and giving no quarter, DH often made it into the bathroom first.  Occasionally, he would trip over one of the children and another child would slip in ahead of him.   Parental authority could not be exercised when the door was locked and the shower running.   Claiming an inability to hear, the victorious party cheerfully scrubbed away.  Only a threat of no supper emptied the bathroom.  The last one in the bathroom had to make it quick or end up with a cold shower.

The once cute little spotted piggies were now large malevolent hogs.  One particular pig was very hard to work with.  We used chain link gates to move our pigs.  We had not yet learned about solid pig boards to move our hogs.  This was apparently covered in Volume II, which had yet to make it's appearance on the feed store shelves.  Remember this is pre-Amazon.com and pre-computer.  We made solid wood pig boards after the Fair for the next pigs, and eventually became proficient in their use.  For now we used chainlink gates, heavy and awkward.  This pig learned to put his nose under the gate we were using as a barrier and toss it up and over his back, so he could escape to areas of the yard where is was hard to capture him.  The whole time we were working with him he kept up a mind-numbing squeal of rage.  He would bite us, so we had to wear our tall muck boots to keep from getting mauled.  He was the smallest one with the nastiest temper.  The larger hogs, while they did not have the sweet temperament of Ham Hocks, were manageable.  They oinked with pleasure when we scratched their backs, and rubbed against the pen when we brought their slop.  The smallest pig was the opposite.  If we trailed our hands inside the pen the other hogs came to be scratched, he charged at us gnashing his teeth.  His little piggy eyes gleamed with evil.  It was obvious, we had somehow brought home a sociopathic pig.  He was possessed by the devil.

Each time we weighed pigs we put off Devil Pig for as long as possible.  Finally came the day when Devil Pig reached his pinnacle of destruction.  Tired and covered in pig mud, the 6 of us stood by the pen looking at the hogs.  6 had been weighed already; tiring, muddy, but it was done.  Only Devil Pig remained to be weighed.  We knew it had to be done.  He knew it had to be done.  His eyes were trained on us like lasers daring us to try.

We managed to get him out of the pen.  The little guys were perched on top of the pig cart waiting to do their thing with the drop gates.  By now they were wise in the devious ways of Devil pig and carefully kept all parts of their anatomies from getting inside the cart bars.  Sneering at the corn we trailed up to the cart, Devil Pig charged at each of us.  We drove him back towards the ramp.  3 times we got him to the opening of the cart.  3 times he broke away, knocking DS1, DD and myself aside like bowling pins.  Each time DH, powerful and strong, wielded his gate and drove Devil Pig back.  By now we were all scratched and bleeding as well as covered with pig muck.  There was no time to relax or render first aid.  6 humans faced off to the evil that was Devil Pig.  You could almost hear the strains of “Onward Christian Soldiers” as we entered battle.  We prepared for one last drive and pushed Devil Pig up the ramp, he was getting into the cart!  Triumph!  

But No, No!  Just as he was half way into the cart he lunged backwards, jarring the cart and knocking DS3 off onto the driveway.   DS3’s drop gate clattered down.  Devil Pig in an ncredible athletic display twisted around and ran straight at DH!  Putting his snout under the edge of the chainlink DH was bracing he flung it into the air.  DH has a bad leg from Vietnam.  Trying to recover his balance and contain Devil Pig, DH was knocked to the ground with the gate effectively trapping him under it.  As DH tried to get to his feet, hampered by the gate on top of him, Devil Pig with a hideous squeal trompled over DH and headed back into the barn.  DH shouted some very unpleasant things.  Abandoning Devil Pig we rushed to help our beloved husband and father.   Getting to his feet, he continued to rain down curses on Devil Pig.  We all looked at Devil Pig, laughing his diabolical laugh.  In silence I opened the pen gate for him.  Sneering, Devil Pig sauntered in.  I would not swear to it that he did not give us the finger, except he only had 2 toes.  That was the last time we tried to weigh Devil Pig.  We no longer cared what he weighed. Soon they would all go to the Fair and NONE were coming home.  

As we hobbled, broken, to the house, I could feel Devil Pig's eyes following all of us.  I felt a shudder pass through my body at the thoughts of horrors to come.  Soon, the Fair . . . .


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our heroes . . . .




Doesn't make one want to get pigs Ridgetop!


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## Baymule

People just don't know just how smart pigs are! We have had feeder pigs 4 times now, I am never sad at taking them to slaughter. I like pigs, but I am under no illusions about them. We picked up and delivered the two we took to slaughter two weeks ago. I don't have pigs now.....been looking on Craigs list.....LOL


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## Ridgetop

That was the ONLY time we had more than 2 hogs.  It was definitely a learning experience and taught us a lot.  Nothing like being thrown in deep water to teach you to swim or drown!    However, we persevered and had many more hogs after that.  Most of them very fun experiences.  DS2 and DS3 used to have pig races with their hogs and rode them around our field.  Those pigs were much tamer because with just 1 or 2 pigs they get very affectionate. 

But you have not heard the last of Devil Pig - coming soon - Devil Pig The Fair!


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## frustratedearthmother

Can't wait to hear the next installment!  You should write a book - no wait - you are!     Best seller if you ask me. ​


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## Bruce




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## Ridgetop

We are leaving for Yelm, WA. next Saturday so don't know how much time I will have while getting packed, etc. to do much on line until we arrive there.  DS1 is loading our traveling Wi-Fi doohickey (technical term much in vogue with persons of my age) so I will be able to check up on you guys and respond to any emails.

OK.  Here is the next installment of our fateful tale - Devil Pig - The Fair.

Pandemonium gripped the barnyard, there was a whirlwind of activity.  Children ran to and fro with purpose, or maybe just to annoy their mother who was approaching a nervous breakdown.   Instructions were shouted and countermanded. Children called by the wrong names until just a pointing finger and "You" was used to identify each child.  Bales of shavings, straw and hay sat in untidy piles to one side of the driveway.  Bags of grain and feed leaned drunkenly against them.  Feeders, buckets, keyhole boards, shovels, rakes, muck buckets, wheelbarrows all gradually grew into a mountain of equipment.  Large wooden chests with the Ridgetop logo carefully stenciled on them sat to one side to be packed, unpacked, checked and repacked to make sure that nothing was forgotten.  Every so often someone would drag a piece of equipment out of the pile and spray paint blue and yellow stripes on the handles.  Yes, dear readers, it is my mournful duty to tell you that it is a law of nature that equipment at a Fairground grows legs and walks away.  Thus, always spray bright paint in a combo of colors signifying your ownership on EVERYTHING you take to the Fair.  Ridgetop uses bright blue and chromium yellow, easily spotted as it walks across the livestock barn from many yards away.  Easy to retrieve from “borrowers” who use your stuff, discard it elsewhere, or attempt to hide it in their tack shed because they have forgotten their own equipment.

Because,_ YES!  _This was the 3 DAY LEAD UP TO THE FAIR!  Over the next 3 days, informational signs, and posters would be drawn for posting on stalls.   The hated all white 4-H uniforms would be washed, and washed again.  4-H hats, scarves and ties would be found, lost, argued over among 3 boys, then collected by mother who put them safely in the uniform garment bags hanging in her own closet.  Emblems not yet sewn on hats would be hastily applied.  Equipment carefully put away after the last Fair would be found to have unaccountably vanished!  Only to resurface, dust covered, in the corner of the barn where “NO ONE” had put it.  “NO ONE” and his brother “NOT ME” spent a lot of time at our house getting my innocent children in trouble. 

Over the previous week the dairy goats had been clipped, washed, and their hooves trimmed.  The market lambs were shampooed with Dawn (to cut the grease), slick shorn, then rinsed with a little laundry bluing, and squeezed into their stretchy lamb show coats.  They looked a little like sausages on toothpicks in the tight elastic coats.  The driveway was now covered with frothy rivulets of blue carrying occasional floating clumps of wool. 

On the day before check-in, the veal calves were bathed.  Naturally, as soon as they were bathed, they immediately laid down.  They were pulled up and hosed off then tied to the railing to dry.  Finally, the 4 show hogs were the last to do.  Loaded into the pig cart, one by one they were bathed and driven into fresh dry stalls filled with shavings for the night.

Now, the truck was loaded with bales of straw, hay, shavings, bags of feed, goat milking stands, lamb grooming stands, milking equipment, grooming equipment, showing equipment, folding chairs, tools, tack boxes, etc.  With 4 children all showing multiple animals, that is a LOT of stuff.  We made the first trip to the Fairgrounds, where we checked in, received our ID wristbands, and our stall numbers, including the extra stall I paid for to use as a tack room.  We were being housed in the horse barns so had large loose box stalls for the animals.  Unloading all our stuff, we dragged it to the appropriate livestock pens.  Then made 2 more trips home to bring the rest of our belongings, including the posters and signs we had made for the different projects.  Now we set to work converting empty stalls into homes for the animals for a week.  In the barns we attached keyhole feeder boards at an angle across corners of the goat pens for hay.  Water buckets went in locations accessible for the hose.   50 gallon water barrels with Lixit spigots went into the pig pens.  We had 3 barrels.  We also brought our 3 J feeders.  When we had most of the stalls set up, we went home for the livestock. 

DH was getting home from work as we arrived.  Quickly he hitched up the Miley.  It was small so we rushed to load as many animals as we could.  It took 2 trips but we had now brought the goats, sheep and calves to the Fairgrounds.  It was after 7:30 pm, and the sun was on its way down.  We needed to have the hogs on the grounds by 10:00 p.m.  The light was going, and the office said they would be turning the fairground lights off at 10:00 pm.  DD and DS1 were now feeding and beginning the milking.  DH and I had to go get the hogs, load them, bring them back, unload them, and sort them into their stalls.  Remember Devil Pig?  Oh yes, he was waiting and plotting at home . . . . 

As I started to lose what control I had over the situation, several of the other Grange and 4-H dads, finished with their livestock unloading, strolled up to chat with DH.  Hearing that DH and I had to get the hogs still and were worried about being able to get them into the trailer, they laughed.  DH and I tried to tell them that these were hogs like no others, they were governed by a dark force named Devil Pig.  The men all had years of pig experience between them.  They decided to go along and show DH how proper hog herding was done.   Although I offered to go and help, they told me to stay at the Fairgrounds with the children.  You could almost hear the patronizing, but unspoken, words “little lady”.  Five 6’ 200 lb.+ men climbed into the truck.  I reminded my husband where the first aid kit was as he pulled out.  “Back in half an hour”, one fellow gaily called out as they drove to their doom. 

With DD and DS1 milking, straining, filling calf bottles, and feeding the other animals, I busied myself unpacking and setting up the tack room.  A place to hang all the uniforms, check, set up the table and run the cord for the coffee pot, check, chairs, check, feed neatly placed, cleanup equipment neatly placed, check, check, check.   I didn’t notice how the time had slipped away until the kids came whining about how hungry they were.   Naturally, we hadn’t eaten since lunchtime and it was now - 10:00pm?!!!  Looking outside the tackroom, I realized the exterior lights were shutting off all over the grounds

WHERE WAS DH?  WHERE WAS HIS MERRY BAND OF EXPERIENCED HOG HANDLERS?  I had not brought any food with us since I had planned to pick up burgers for everyone on the way to get the hogs.   Luckily, I had packed a box with bottled water and granola bars that I planned to keep in the tack room for the kids for emergencies.  Well, here was our first emergency.  Doling out the granola bars and telling the children to stay in the tack room I made my way through the dark to the gate where I was relieved to see the security guard on duty.  I had been worried that we might have been locked in and DH and the hogs locked out.  Pre-cell phone times remember.  Telling the security guard to watch for DH, I made my way through the dark barns, occasionally tripping over someone’s stuff, to our hog pens.  There I turned on the stall lights and opened the doors so DH would see where we had to put our hogs.

Back in the tackroom, I listened for the truck as I tried to pacify the grumbling children with false promises of going home “soon”.   DS3, age 5, was already asleep on a pile of feed sacks in the corner.  The magic had worn off and the kids WANTED TO GO HOME NOW!  I would have made a pot of coffee, but the coffee grounds were sitting in a box that was half packed on the kitchen table, due to come tomorrow.  Finally, a truck motor and the crunch of tires on the dirt road between the horse barns, signaled the return of my intrepid warrior.  I ran out to greet them and waved them to the stalls.  DH backed up to the first open door. 

“Good, now we need to put these numbered hogs in here”, I started, waving my paperwork, but stopped as the 5 silent men climbed out of the truck.  The lighting was bad, but I thought they looked a little pale.  On the other hand, that could have been the contrast with the large splashes of pig mug across their faces.  One by one they looked at the open stall door, then turned to look at me.  “You want us to sort them?” one quavered hoarsely.  I noticed he had a large bloody rag wrapped around one hand.  It was reminiscent of one of Devil Pig’s souvenirs.  The largest man seemed to shudder.  A third leaned against the side of the truck.   He seemed to be crying. 

“Honey, I think we can do that tomorrow when we have more light”, said DH calmly.  “it’s getting late and these guys have to get home.  Let’s just get them all in here for tonight.”  The men seemed to revive slightly.  Moving with more purpose, they positioned themselves around the trailer gate.  As the hogs came out of the trailer, they herded them into the pen.  Then I heard a soft curse “It’s that little crazy *%@^**&!  He’s just standing there staring at us!”  The man wearing the bloody rag flinched back.  I thought he made the sign against the evil eye, but it was dark.  There was a pause.  Then DH took a breath, “I’ll get him”, he said bravely and climbed into the trailer.  The trailer shook, Devil Pig squealed, then came rushing out gnashing his jaws.  The men jumped back, slammed the door and threw the bolt.   As they moved slowly into the light of the headlamps I could see the extent of the damages they had suffered.  Several seemed to have been bleeding, all had lots of pig mud and stuff on them, one had a large tear in a delicate area of his pants, the fourth was limping badly.  “Thank you so much!  But are you guys OK?” I asked, “I have a First Aid kit in the tackroom”.  “We’re fine” they assured us as they limped away.  “It was no trouble at all.”  I am surprised their pants didn’t burst into flames!

DH and I drove around to the tack room where now all 3 boys were sleeping on the feed sacks, while DD slept sitting upright on a straw bale.  As I washed off DH’s scrapes, he spoke of the horrors of loading Devil Pig.   His voice was low and shook slightly.   I promised we would not speak of it again.  We loaded the children into the truck for the trip home.  “We only have to get through weigh in tomorrow” I told DH as I snapped the padlock on the tack room door.   

Tomorrow.   With Devil Pig.  We drove home with the windows down.


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## Ridgetop

Time out for a visit to the present!  I now have a countertop on my new utility room cabinets!  Only a year finishing the room after construction.  We needed a new washer/dryer and decided to get a stacking model to save space.  However, in our notable tradition, after making sure it could be ducted out the side, and spending days reading all the reviews on the differences between Maytag and Whirlpool (none) we bought the Maytag since we saved about $400 with the sales prices.  Both Maytag and Whirlpool take the identical side venting materials and attach the same way, but the store refused to install the side venting dryer.  They would stick it on top of the washer, BUT apparently the side venting feature REQUIRES YOU TO COMPLETELY DISASSEMBLE THE DRYER, REMOVING THE TUB AND INTERNAL MECHANISM! 
  So DS1 went on line to figure it out.  He is my go-to-guy for anything needing difficult work.  After studying the instructions on line for a day or two, DS1 ordered the internal parts to convert the rear vent into a side vent.  Then he went back to the store and bought the side vents that the appliance department had sworn they did not carry. Now it required the efforts of both DS1 and DS2 to wrestle the machine around and disassemble it.  I took photos of each step, terrified that my sons would not be able to put everything back in place.  Memories of previous assemblies with multiple parts left over haunted me.

   
A perfect job!  Go Team!  And it only took half a day . . . .      And no leftover parts   

I am finally putting up hooks for the brooms, etc.  All the finishing touches to a perfect utility room.  Today the new freezer arrives to replace our old faithful.  RIP. 
Pix 1 of new laundry room with dead freezer at end waiting removal - HVAC unit over freezer at end of room - preexisting skylight in garage gives daylight in room and can LED lights give bright light into freezers! 
I just love my utility room!   
      Pix 2 of new barn style doors closing off laundry room from entry hall - they have glass panes to allow light from skylight to come into hallway.            
The garage was always dark, full of dirt and junk.  It was messy and a tripping hazard.  If we came home after dark, we had to feel our way through it to reach a light switch inside the house.   Keep a car inside it?    There was no room for a car!  Our truck would not fit even if the garage was completely empty.  Which it never was.


The garage door you see was designed and built by DS1 to look like an old fashioned side swing barn door.  The opening next to it is our new porch front door entry.   OK, so it isn't painted yet - at least it is a door!  And I have chosen the color.  In fact, I have the paint, have had it since last October.  Soon, I promise. 

For over 30 years we had no accessible front door.  To enter our home, our guests had to fight their way through swarms of dogs eager to greet them, or post Anatolians, warn off our guests.  The garage was the preferred entry for most of our friends.  But now they can actually walk into the house unmolested.  There are exterior lights and a porch light!  We still need a doorbell, but we have big dogs so no rush on that.  We have wrought iron fencing around the front 35 feet of the house, and a 6' wrought iron electric gate with an additional swing gate to give ore room for our 5th wheel trailer to get into the yard.  We have a walk through iron gate with a deadbolt in the electric gate, and another iron gate with a deadbolt on the other side of the house.  This is because of my over protective nature against lawsuits.  I was a legal secretary for years and people sue over everything.   We had a woman come up one day and try to walk into our yard with 2 snarling Anatolians on the other side of the gate!  Luckily DH was coming up from the barn and stopped her.  Her excuse?  She wanted to see the view from the other side of our barn!  She liked dogs!  Too bad they didn't like_ her_ coming in uninvited!   DH suddenly saw the point of keyed deadbolts on the gates.  They are keyed to match our front door so not a problem. 
The entry hall still needs paint, closets, flooring, and molding.  Then we will be finished!    Probably take another year. 
And then I can start painting the inside of the entire house.     Sigh . . . .   Does it ever end?


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## Bruce

To answer your final question - NO!

What a PITA that dryer conversion was!!! They should let you order them that way.


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## Latestarter

So once you get everything finished it will be the perfect time to sell out and hit the road to live full time in that 5th wheel!


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## Ridgetop

Bruce:  I was afraid that would be the answer to  THE QUESTION.  And if the manufacturer advertises the machine is available in side venting model, you would think you could order it that way from the factory, right?!
Latestarter:  What?!   Draggling my stock trailer full of sheep and LGDs?!  No, I will have to find a more animal friendly alternative like EAST TEXAS!!!  Or maybe northern Nevada.  Or maybe . . . .

However, after reading my last post and seeing how excited I got over having a real utility room, I think I need to get out more.  

Soon, the final adventure with Devil Pig . . . .

Lest you think this was the only crazy experience we have had with our animals, let me remind you that I am covering 30+ years of kids and livestock . . . .  SO MUCH FUN!!!      So much more to come . . . .


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## Latestarter

Oh gosh... I thought you had a 5th wheel trailer like as in "live in" trailer... I wouldn't haul a 5th wheel livestock trailer cross country to pick up a few animals or a puppy... A crate in the back seat (if you have a 4 door truck, for a puppy) or a livestock insert in the bed (sheep/goats/piglets/puppy crate) or combo of both would be my choice... Can only imagine the MPG you'll get hauling that big trailer long haul... Waiting for the next installment of devil pig.  Guess for your trip to deliver the wood, you have no choice. Does your sister realize how much this is costing you to support her?


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## goatgurl

I have laughed out loud at the adventures of devil pig and the boys.  nothing like a crazy pig to take you down a notch when you get to big for your britches.  I love your writing style. 
    when you get to Washington look to the north and wave hi to my dd and sil.  they just moved up about 2 and hour and a half months ago.  they live an hour or so above seattle.  so far they are loving it.  we'll see how they feel when winter get there.
  congrats on the new utility room make over.  I have a stack washer and dryer too, its a make room thing.  I love mine.


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## Latestarter

I'm presently upset with my upright "washer" as it was purchased new when I moved in here 10/2016, and I'm finding dried/caked soap on the upper drum wall and clothes that don't appear/seem to be actually "washed"... The machine makes the appropriate noises and I hear water and "sloshing" as well as spinning, but I don't think it's filling the drum adequately and without enough water, I don't think all the clothes are getting properly sloshed around. More of this damned govt mandated save the planet, water restrictions stuff most likely...   I even push the button for "deep fill" but it hasn't seemed to make a difference. I hate the damned locking lid too as you can't open it to see what's happening inside as everything has to be stopped for you to open the lid.


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## Ridgetop

Latestarter:  We do have a live-in 5th wheel trailer.  It is not a stock or horse trailer with living quarters.  DH wants to take it on our trip to VA because we can do the trip cheaper.   We plan on the trip to VA and back taking 4 weeks.  DH wants to do some sightseeing on the way, and we have friends to visit in DFW and Austin.  With the 5th wheel we stay in a campground with hookups if we are going to be in one spot for a few days.  We unhitch and use our truck to sightsee.  While traveling we stop at truck stops to sleep in our trailer which saves on motels.  Also no bedbugs, and it saves dragging a suitcase and dog crate in and out each time.  Once we pick up the puppy, we will probably drive straight home via Austin to show Eric the new Anatolian puppy.  We can fit a large wire crate in the trailer for the puppy to sleep in at night.  It will be more comfortable for all of us.  Our diesel gets about 12 mpg on the open road towing the 5th wheel.
For the trip to Yelm (outside Olympia, WA) we are pulling our 16' stock trailer with all our tools inside to do whatever work we need to do to get the little house ready to rent.  We definitely need to fence off the acreage and the barns so any tenants don't just dump stuff there.  The zoning was changed so no livestock is allowed.   We will also be using it to take old furniture to Goodwill, and also to bring some of the furniture back home.  I think my DD also left some boxes for us to bring home for her when she went up two weeks ago.  She helped my sister clean out a storage unit and got the stuff my mom left my niece that my sister had not given her.  She found a lot of stuff that my mom had packed for her so took it to my brother' house.  I think we have to pick it up and bring it home for her.  I don't think there was room for it in her car with the 3 kids.  This will probably be our last visit there.

Goatgurl:  Thanks!  We have had a very entertaining life - I am glad you are enjoying our Tales From The Dark Side.  I prefer to remember our adventures as fun and funny.  If you can't laugh at yourself, you shouldn't laugh at anyone else either.  One of my brothers lives north of Seattle.  The winters are not so bad, mostly rain only colder.  Of course, the summers are mostly rain too, just warmer.   You never seem  dry out in Seattle.  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Latestarter:  Al the new appliances are supposedly "Low Energy" but I have found that where my old dishwasher used to wash and dry a load in 30 minutes, it now takes 90 minutes and the dishes are not entirely dry.  The same with the new washer and dryer - used to be 30 minutes for a wash cycle and 45 minutes for a dry.  Now I am lucky to get the clothes washed I 45 - 120 minutes and the dry is at east an hour.  This stacking Maytag set are at least shorter wash and dry times than my last set which were Bosch.  I hated them.  How does running the appliances twice as long save energy?


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## Mike CHS

We converted our dryer to a side vent and although it was a pain in the rear we didn't have take anything off except for a couple of panels.


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## Bruce

Sounds like a better design than having to take the drum out. Clearly whoever designed that one didn't think about the poor schmucks that have to disassemble the machine to change the venting. They should be forced to do two for every one a homeowner has to do.



Latestarter said:


> or a livestock insert in the bed (sheep/goats/piglets/puppy crate)


Just no full grown pigs, they jump out.



goatgurl said:


> we'll see how they feel when winter get there.


Winter? That is a calendar season up near the coast in WA.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce:  When I lived there all it did was rain around Seattle.  You had to go inland and up in the mountains to find snow.  I agree about the poor dryer design.  They are making them look good instead of being user friendly. 

Mike:  What brand was your dryer?


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## Ridgetop

In which Devil pg makes his last appearance . . . .

The next morning we all turned up at the Fairgrounds early.  DH had started to take vacation time during the Fair so he could be on hand with the other dads to help with the various chores that need an abundance of large strong men.  While DS1 fed and cleaned stalls, DD milked the goats, strained and made calf bottles.  The rest of the milk went into our ice chest to chill.  We had brought sandwiches and drinks since this would be a long day.  WEIGH IN!

All large animals destined for the market auction had to go through the scale with their purchase paperwork.  Steers, including veal calves, had to have transport paperwork for the brand inspector, while sheep and hogs just needed sales receipts showing date of ownership.  60 days of ownership for all species except steers, they required 180 days of ownership.  Tags and ear numbers were checked against the paperwork, and a new auction tag was placed in the animal’s ear.  These days most fairs require DNA samples from the animals several months in advance.  If there is a complaint about an animal that has been judged, the earlier sample can be checked against the animal actually showing on the grounds to verify it is the same animal.  Sometime, depending on the Fair, a large amount of money is at stake.  At our Fair, each child was allowed to enter 2 of every species, and sell one, unless they won Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion in the same species.   One year a child who had entered two, lost one to a dog attack within weeks of Fair.  Luckily, she had her second lamb entered to fall back on.

The noise level on the Fairgrounds was deafening.  Between the bawling of cattle, bleating of sheep, and squealing of hogs, parents yelled instructions to their children, children yelled at their friends, and a mad, glad time was had by all.  Most of the 4-H and Grange fathers had taken time off work to help out at the Fairgrounds.  The Junior Livestock Auction is run by a volunteer group of parents and their help is always needed.  Early that morning, all water buckets had been upended in order to get a true weight on the animals.  A couple of dads manned the ear taggers at the scale.  Others worked in the barns helping children and parents get to the scales.  Occasionally an animal escaped and was pursued madly through the crowded walkways.  It was a typical Junior Livestock Weigh In.  As the animals were run through the scale, the children waited breathlessly to find out the weights on their animals.  Had they fed correctly?  Too much?  Too little?  Coming out of the scale the knowledgeable older kids compared weights and sized up their competition.  Younger kids just handed over the weight slips to their parents.  Since the auction sale prices would be per lb., everyone wanted a heavy weight on their animal. 

As the sun rose higher in the sky, the temperatures climbed.  First the lambs went through, then the calves and steers.  Sometimes, an animal would shoot through too quickly and have to be run through again.  This caused groans from those next in line.

Finally, it was time to weigh hogs.  The various FFA schools each had their own pig carts, Grange shared 2 carts, and we had 1. Luckily, we didn’t have to use any of them to weigh the hogs.   First the men set a long run of fencing between the scale and the pig barns.  Then, pen by pen, the men with their pig boards ran the hogs to the scale and back again.  The owners walked along the outside of the run with their paperwork, that they handed in to the weighmaster at the scale.  DH was handling his pig board with aplomb.  Having been bloodied in the Devil Pig wars, handling these pigs was like handling guinea pigs!   From my position on the sidelines, I could judge Devil Pig's progress through the alleyway.  Hideous squealing, occasional wobbling of the fence panels, and anxious cries to "Hold him - hold him - watch that fence panel!" signaled his location.  Once I thought I saw his evil face and a hoof appear over the side wall, but a father with quick reactions blocked him with his pig board.   

Finally weigh in was over, andall the hogs returned to their stalls.  DH came back to the tack room for a cold drink and a sandwich.  As I looked over the weights of our hogs, I noticed that Devil Pig had not made weight by a couple pounds.  Too bad, but the kids had their show hogs, none of which were DP.  Mentioning to DH that we would have lean pork from Devil Pig, he casually told me that he thought he would take Devil Pig back home for another month to put more weight on him!   Laughing at his little joke, I suddenly realized he was serious!   Shocked and horrified, I could hardly say anything at first.  Buoyed by the easy experience of herding Devil Pig through a long sturdy alley assisted by 20 other fathers with pig boards, DH seemed to have forgotten the horror that was Devil Pig.  As he casually spoke of putting another 50 to 100 lbs. of feed into him to "finish him off", all I could think of was that Devil Pig would have another chance at finishing us off.

With a high pitched, shaking voice, I told DH that Devil Pig was only leaving this Fairgrounds on the slaughter truck. There was nothing wrong with lean pork, I said.  DH could choose, I said, it was Devil Pig or me!  I would throw my body under the wheels of our pickup truck if he tried to take Devil Pig home, leaving him with 4 small orphans to care for!  To this day, I am not sure whether it was the thought of having to care for 4 small children on his own, or having a hysterical wife on his hands at the Fairgrounds that changed his mind.  Suffice it to say, Devil Pig took his last ride in the slaughter truck and our marriage has lasted 47 years. 

Devil Pig is long gone, but his name lives in infamy.  Was he just a misunderstood juvenile porker, a sociopath, or truly possessed by the devil?  Could he have been saved with psychotherapy and love?  I just relate the facts, draw from them what you will.  Those of us who were there know what we saw . . . .


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## Bruce

You were overly dramatic telling DH what would happen if he tried to take DP home ... the kids wouldn't be orphans, they would still have a father!

In any case, you made your opinion abundantly clear. Was DP lean and tasty?


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## Ridgetop

Why yes he was!  And DH was very sweet as I burst into tears, he is very comforting in bad situations.  We have had many more hogs, but none like Devil Pig.  Live and learn!  We did!


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## goatgurl

poor misunderstood devil pig.  i'm sure with love and therapy he could have become a useful member of pigdom.


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## Ridgetop

Had I had access to an animal psychic at the time possibly we could have held an intervention.  On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with lean pork.  

Subsequent pig tales will show how far we have come in our journey.  First lesson learned, never have 7 hogs in one pen.  In fact, never have 7 hogs ever again!      Later hog raising episodes were much more fun with only one or two pigs.  Of course, those hog keeping tales were normal, not the stuff of which legend is made!


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## Ridgetop

Perhaps he was crying out for attention?  

Subsequent pig tales will show how far we have come in our journey.  First lesson learned, never have 7 hogs in one pen.  In fact, never have 7 hogs ever again!  Later hog raising episodes were much more fun with only one or two pigs. 
On the other hand, they never reached the level of family legends!


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## frustratedearthmother

Maybe he had "little pig syndrome."


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## Ridgetop




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## greybeard

Move to East Texas, you'll see people rope and handle feral pigs that make 'devil pig' look angelic. 

It's how we used to get some of dad's more ornery farm pigs loaded too.


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## Ridgetop

Greybeard:
The promise of feral pigs like Devil Pig is hardly an inducement to come to east TX!  On the other hand, we don't have to weigh them and can catch them with a rifle.  Sausage is sausage!


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## Bruce

That is a good point, I doubt many people try to move feral hogs with pig panels.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Greybeard:
> The promise of feral pigs like Devil Pig is hardly an inducement to come to east TX!  On the other hand, we don't have to weigh them and can catch them with a rifle.  Sausage is sausage!


Better start buying ammo now.............there's no shortage of them critters, tho to be honest, most people I see that move here from other than Southern and some midwest states, are loathe to shoot anything...they tend to bring their idiosyncrasies with them..or, are  so woefully inexperienced that they aren't at all successful with it.


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## Bruce

Perhaps they change their minds when the feral hogs destroy their property?


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## greybeard

rarely


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## Mike CHS

They must all be Gentleman Farmers (or wannabees) that don't need to make a profit?


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## greybeard

"Oh, look at all the cute little piggies!"
"Yeah, look at your flower beds and the holes in the lawn and your hibiscus"
Oh!! 
"Well don't just stand there, why aren't you shooting the sobs?"


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## Ridgetop

People the move from other places usually bring their beliefs with them until it really affects them personally.  Then they often change, or die, or go broke. 

I would have no problem getting rid of the feral pigs since I have read about and seen on TV the damage they can cause.  Also, thanks to devil Pig, we know that they are not all cute pigs like Babe.  I also saw Ol' Yeller - hogs are mean.
DH went with friends to see the movie Babe    when it came out and nearly got thrown out of the theater for her indignant talk about the unreality of the movie.  She kept telling everyone that _Babe_ should have gone to slaughter _not_ his mother who was a valuable brood sow and who would be too tough for anything except sausage.  She came home still angry about the inaccurate way it portrayed farmers "who are just trying to make a living, Mom!"  

While I know that technically predators are designed to pick off the weak and sickly animals in a herd, I also know that they go after domestic animals PDQ since a field of sheep or calves are just so many Happy Meals to a hungry cougar or pack of wolves/coyotes.  I would have no problem shooting anything who tried to eat my animals.   Sadly, many city people have been taught that all animals are our friends.    Until they come face to face with a coyote or cougar.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Are you being impacted by all of the wildfires in California?  I know most of them are in Northern California, but are there any near where you are?

Senile Texas Aggie


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## goatgurl

we have a lot of wild hogs around here, they come within 100-150 yards of the house and cause a lot of destruction for me and my neighbors.  I  am only afraid to 2 things in the woods around my house, the pigs and the mountain lions neither have any fear or respect for humans.  thank God for big barky dogs, they keep them at bay from around the house.


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> Latestarter:  We do have a live-in 5th wheel trailer.  It is not a stock or horse trailer with living quarters.  DH wants to take it on our trip to VA because we can do the trip cheaper.   We plan on the trip to VA and back taking 4 weeks.  DH wants to do some sightseeing on the way, and we have friends to visit in DFW and Austin.  With the 5th wheel we stay in a campground with hookups if we are going to be in one spot for a few days.  We unhitch and use our truck to sightsee.


In Dallas, you will be 1 1/2 hours from us. Y'all could come spend the day, we'll invite @Latestarter and @Devonviolet, cook a bunch of food, have lunch and talk a lot!


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## Bruce




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## Latestarter

That would be a great get together Bay! I hope you'll consider it RT! I'd look forward to joining in the festivities!


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## Devonviolet

Me too!


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## Ridgetop

SenileAggie:  There are fires to the south of us, to the north of us, and probably other paces as well.  At he moment they are not close to our place yet.  On the other hand, on our trip to Washington State, we drove through the Shasta area (the Car fire) and the smoke was bad.  We passed it and thought the going ahead would be clear of smoke but it got worse.  Apparently the state of Oregon was on fire too!  Now we are in Yelm, just outside Olympia, WA.  Hot and no sign of Mt. Rainier which is only a few miles away.  Not sure if that is from smoke drifting north or what!


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## Ridgetop

So after a killing drive of a day and a half to do 1200 miles we got here to find the gate still chained shut, but the old fence kicked over next o it and the house broken into.  The thieves had first pulled and stolen the electric meter!  No electricity and of course, the fridge was a mess!     We may have interrupted them because lthough they had taken the new TV and stereo, they had also taken all the new bath sheets and towels, including the new kitchen towels!  Clean thieves?  Then while I was inspecting the empty closets wondering what was missing I realized that all the giant economy packs of paper towels (3 bundles) and toilet paper (2) that I stock up for my aunt were missing, along with some cleaning supplies, blankets, and my son's beloved miniature grandfather style wall clock that he and his great aunt used to joke about.   Oh, yes, they also took the forks from the kitchen but left the spoons and knives!  They took several bottles of wine, but left the full case of beer!   The police officer felt it might be one of the neighbors that had been in trouble before, but he was stumped about the theft of the meter.   The electric repair man said the he has been seeing a lot of the meter thefts since they pull the meter and then wait several days until the back up batteries in the burglar alarms run down.  Then they can come in and have all the time they want!  

Anyway, thanks to the Good Lord, they did not vandalize the house.  DH thinks they were disturbed because they had been through the outbuildings, and had the new wheelbarrow hidden behind the house filed with all the new tools we had left here.  It looked like they were coming back for more stuff.  They also left a bag with a bunch of tie down straps in it.  To use to carry away the furniture?  Oh, well, the house will be rented by the end of the month and hopefully that will be the end of that. 

One good thing about the loss of the TV, we are in bed by 9:00 pm.  We would go earlier but it stays light here till 9:30 pm!   All this work is playing heck with our bodies we feel soooo old!    Of course, if we lived here full time and had animals here we would not have to do all the grass cutting with a weed wacker, and would have the berry vines controlled, we would be able to use DH's tractor, so I guess it would not be as bad as it feels now!  LOL  We do take lots of Ibruprofen.

My apologies to you BYH members who live in WA, but I am appalled by the prices here.  Tomatoes are $2 lb!  At Walmart!  Frget the garden stands - $2 a basket OK, but only 2 peaches in the basket!   I complain in CA when tomatoes reach $1 lb.  I really feel sorry for everyone living here.  I had to replace 6 small panes of glass in the windows to get the house ready to rent.  The panes are about 8 x 10.  The cost to replace them is over $600.00!  Extortion.  What really kills me is that there is an identical window in the shed that has 5 good panes.  I cold remove those panes and reset them in these windows for nothing except the putty.  Sadly DH refused to let me add anymore work to my schedule. 

We have been moving right along with our lost of repairs and fixes to get ready to rent the house.   Have taken care of all the appointments with the rental agent, bank, insurance, etc.  Now just the carpet, window, pest, HVAC, etc., appointments to do all the little fixes and check ups before renting.  Right on schedule.

I am hoping to get a chance to make more mulberry jelly this  year.  We like it better than blackberry and easier to pick.  The 2 old apple trees still have a few Golden Delicious.  Not the best for applesauce, but I might try to do some.  When you walk out behind the barn you can smell the falls that are fermenting.  It smells like hard cider!

All I can think of is that we need a pig to clean up the fruit!  Not Devil Pig, a sweet gentle pig more like Freckles.  he could clean up the apples and his meat would taste like it was cooked in applejack!  .

I make lists of the things we still have to do each day.  DH's side does not get checked off as fast since his stuff takes longer.  he made me add 'Eat Lunch" and "Take Nap" in several places so he could cross off more!  If he does anythingnot on the list he makes me put it on and cross it off so we feel more is accomplished!
 
So we have loaded another full p/u load of wood for my sister and there are still 2 more loads in the trailer!  DH is annoyed because after driving an hour (in the heaviest traffic you can imagine - another problem in western WA!) and unloading and stacking the wood she did not even ask him if he would like a glass of water!   Luckily I had a bottle in the truck.   I told him I would bring our own water this time and he doesn't have to offer her any!  LOL  He cheered up!


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## Ridgetop

Baymule, Devonviolet, Latestarter:  That would be wonderful to meet you all!  DH is really stoked about meeting the people he only knows as "my friend, she is so funny", "my other friend" or "No, not that friend.  My other friend!"  Or by the hysterical laughter at your jokes!  All you BYH guys have become very good friends.  There are not so many people outside our family anymore who understand the basic tenets of hard work that go into the lifestyle we have all chosen.  Every now and then, DH and I look at each other and ask why we don't just sell up and move into a condo.  Then the reality of condos hit us - the people, the proximity to neighbors, no space around us to enjoy life's goodness, city life.  No animals to enjoy watching, our LG dogs would not be able to go with us, they would be so sad without their charges.  No Josey The Mule looking over the gate for DH to rub her ears and give her a hug.  

No, it has to be Texas - Go East Old Folks!  to misquote Greeley


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Holy cow, Miss @Ridgetop!  It seems when it rains, it pours!  I hope they find out who the thieves are.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## greybeard

One of the reasons thieves pull the meter is so they can more easily strip all the wiring and hard wired appliances (outside hivac units/well pumps etc) out of a residence. If it's not a 'call home' type meter, it also allows them to have free or reduced elec bills at their own homes, by substituting the stolen meter in place of their own a couple of weeks each month or all month, putting their own meter back in right before the meter reader shows up. Meter readers here are 3rd party contractors....they don't pay any attention to whether the safety lock is on the meter any more or not...probably don't pay any attention to the ser# on the meter either.


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## Ridgetop

The police didn;t seem hopeful since it could have happened anytime in the past week or few days, but like I said NO VANDALISM!    God is good.  We can handle this, and the loss will be tax deductible since this will be a rental property so we are OK.  Of course, I sleep with the hammer next to my bed and DH has the heavy chains we locked the gate with.  Oh, and there is an ax in the closet, so although we didn't bring our firearms we are heavily armed.  LOLThe down side is that when we leave we have to lock the tools in the trailer, and take our computer, etc. with us.  Annaaoying but doable.


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## Ridgetop

Absolutely, Greybeard!  First things we checked were the well pump (brand new last year) and the split system HVAC (3 years new).  Both still in place.  Did not take the new stove or MW either.  We think we disturbed the between trips.
The police officer wondered why the meter was missing and DH said right away that the reason they took the meter with them was to steal electricity on their own meter.  He is a retired OH and UG lineman/cable splicer.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> I had to replace 6 small panes of glass in the windows to get the house ready to rent. The panes are about 8 x 10. The cost to replace them is over $600.00! Extortion


$600 for just the 6 panes or $600 for the materials + labor to get the panes replaced?
8x10x1/8" Single panes are $2.11 each at Lowes.......


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> The panes are about 8 x 10. The cost to replace them is over $600.00! Extortion.


Are you sure that was regular window single pane glass?? Shouldn't cost $10/pane if custom cut to size I wouldn't think. Heck a whole triple pane window wouldn't cost $600.



Ridgetop said:


> he made me add 'Eat Lunch" and "Take Nap" in several places so he could cross off more! If he does anything not on the list he makes me put it on and cross it off so we feel more is accomplished!


Oh, I like the way he thinks!


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## Ridgetop

Supposedly it is because they are old fashioned windows that need puttying.  The glass itself only comes to $84.00 but the labor and time to put them in is the difference in price.  I have an old original window that was replaced by a dual pane one in the house that is back in the shed.  It has 5 good panes of glass exactly the size and age I need.  It seriously annoys me that I could replace them for nothing.  The only panes that I need to order are the door panes since they need to be tempered glass.  I should have just replaced the door!  The entire new double glazed window we put in the bathroom only cost about $125.00!  I just think that WA state is extortionate on all work you need done here.  It could also be that we are not used to paying anyone to do stuff we usually do ourselves!   DH is worried that we will not be able to finish all the work we have to do here before we have to leave for home.  He has finally gotten a hearing on a VA claim he filed _over 5 years ago_ so we can't miss it.  He was a load master in the big transports during the Vietnam was and has lost most of his hearing so needs to see if they will take responsibility.  He is already disabled with a torn up knee.  Anyway, since this will be a rental the costs will be deductible.  I just would rather do it myself and save the money!

Bruce:  DH is exceptionally savvy, and appreciates your support!    I have now added "eat lunch" and "take naps" to all his lists.  LOL

May have gone too far!  DH just got a drink of water  and wanted to know if it was on the list.


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## Mini Horses

This winter our electric co-op installed new meters on EVERY customer location. They are read electronically.  Maybe there is such a device in your stolen meter and they could then locate it from a signal.     We used to have to self read and report.  Now, we just get a bill -- text, etc. & we can check the reading our selves if in doubt.


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## Latestarter

Yeah, smart meters are the wave of the future. They installed one at my place in CO the summer I left for here. I have one here as well, so no meter reader, and no real need to communicate to them when the power goes out (though I still do and have had to twice in the past few days).

Sorry for the losses and extra time/work/expense involved for y'all who are doing a good deed. Hope you can get it all accomplished in time and good luck to DH with his VA hearing! Drive safe going home. Sure hope we can set up a meet and greet for when you're here in TX! That would be a blast!


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> The glass itself only comes to $84.00


$84 for an 8x10 pane of glass?  I've changed/replaced a crapload of the the ones that need putty and push points, and there's nothing to it. 20 minutes each at the most and that includes removing the old pane and scraping out the old putty.


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## Baymule

I hate thieves and I hate vandals. Our place was a HUD repo, halfway through the process, thieves struck. They ripped out the breaker box, cut as much of the copper wire that they could. They stole the inside and outside AC/Heat units, even went under the house and cut out all the copper wire they could. HUD allowed us a $1,000 allowance off the purchase price---for repairs that cost us almost $10,000!! I blew up and it wasn't pretty, DH calmed me down and we somehow got through the process. I hate government offices the have no idea of reality....


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## Latestarter

Those window panes must be manufactured by the same company that makes military toilet seats...


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## greybeard

Latestarter said:


> Those window panes must be manufactured by the same company that makes military toilet seats...


Kinda apples and oranges. 

When you've spent your day dodging bullets, and finally get back where you can take care of biological business, you won't care one bit how much those toilet seats cost the taxpayer.


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## Latestarter

Valid point...


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Supposedly it is because they are old fashioned windows that need puttying.


I know you have time constraints but as @greybeard said, glazing windows isn't hard. I would find the time to do it before I paid over $500 for them to do it. How much do they charge per hour - $250?


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## Mike CHS

I went into an old style hardware store last year and asked if they had glazier points and the owner was surprised that someone not in the trades knew what they were.


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## greybeard

I have several little boxes of those points  in the back of a junk drawer. (try not to drop 'em on the floor if you tend to walk around your house with no shoes on..almost as bad as stepping on a jack)


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## Wehner Homestead

Following along...


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## Ridgetop

Haven't been on in a while.  Too busy in Yelm but back from Yelm now,  House finished.  DH grabbed one of the original windows and ran it off to Habitat before I could stop him.  The window guy charged $200 less because the panes came out easier than expected.  He commented on the original 100 year old glass and i told him that I had another original window and he was able to use the original glass.  If DH hadn't dumped the original window I was saving in a shed, it would have reduced the price another $200 since he charged less for the pleasure of using the original window glass from 100 years ago!  A craftsman who enjoyed his work.  I gave him the remnants of the old window which he was thrilled about.  Told us he was the son and grandson of glaziers and he owned the shop. 

Poor DH cut 1500 lbs of grass and brush with a Stihl weed wacker.  MJ used to rake it and store it for livestock feed, but no time to do that and no need for livestock feed in Yelm.  We just loaded it into the truck and took it to dump.  Lots of junk removed from property, too.  Good Will and habitat didn't want any furniture - they had too much on hand so it went to the dump too.  Useable stuff but . .. .   3 trips to my sister with about 5 cords of wood tied onto truck.  I told DH since it took us 5 hours to load the wood into truck, drive to her house about 45 miles away (Seattle has worst traffic in world), unload and stack wood and get home to Yelm each time, I was going to make sure all the wood went in 3 trips!  Did it too!  DH should not have doubted me since _he_ taught us all how to load a truck!  LOL  We had another 3 cords of wood at the Yelm house so donated them to local St Vincent de Paul organization that supplies free wood for poor families and elderly that use wood heat in the winter. 

Minor painting, touch ups, carpet in office, anyway, really pushed to get finished and out on the 20th and MADE IT! 

We had a tenant for the house before we left which was good.  He came by on a classic Harley on his way to the rental office with all his financials and docs.  Made enough money - steady job - no pets - so far so good.  DH and possible tenant discussed motorcycles.  He needed room to put up a canvas 2 car garage for his classic cars and motorcycles.  DH showed him plenty of space behind the house for it.  Then he mentioned having a 35' RV he was living in until able to find a rental.  There was a moment of bonding as DH showed him the 35 amp outlet we had just put in the previous August for our 5th wheel to use when visiting MJ.  You could almost hear the celestial music play.  Of course, he had to qualify but he was quickly approved and we told the rental office to let him move in early (gratis) after all agreements signed and money paid.  That would protect house from burglars.  Should work out well since I heard since from rental office that tenant loves the place and they had a good report on him.

So, home by 23rd August, DH had VA hearing on 24th, then unpacked all weekend, did laundry, etc.  DD had cleaned house before we got home and it was spotless.  Thank Heavens, because on Tuesday night I was in hospital with Diverticulitis!  I thought I just had an intestinal flu bug, but hospital IVs, cat scan, future surgery when infection is cleared up!  Home on Saturday with more antibiotics and weak as a kitten although I have seen most kittens with more energy than I had!  Anyway, doing better.

Today vet came to look at Cammie.  He came while we were in WA for checkups.  He had to pull a couple of teeth, then put her on antibiotics hoping to remove infection and solidify 2 other loose teeth instead of having to pull them.  Clean bill of health today, she had gained a lot of weight and her ribs are covered nicely, she is shiny and teeth are solid.  Tiny piece of broken canine in lower jaw needed to be removed but it was loose, came out easily with needle nose pliers, and no sedative needed!  She is doing great, coat shiny, chases Josie the Mule away from the feeders, and hopefully will have another couple years of happy retirement with us.  However, I am covered in shame since looking at my precious horse and mule.  I have not spent any time with them in many months and really need to give them baths, groom them, and cut out tangles in Josie TM's tail.  Of course they will immediately go roll in dirt and manure, but I can feel that at least I have done my job as a good horse owner.   I am hoping to be strong enough next week since I was worried that they would knock me over just by brushing against me in welcome when I went out with the vet.  It felt wonderful to be able to love on them and have them softly nose me.  Luckily my girls are well behaved and well trained.  I really need to spend some time with them.  I wonder if I can recover enough ride again.  Cammie is too old, but Josie the Mule is a great ride and she is young.  I probably should get her a little tune up with the trainer before I do it though since she has not been under saddle for several years.  My daughter in law wants me to come up for a few days and ride with her.  Lovely trails, don't know if it will happen or if it is just dreaming.

Everything happens when we are out of town!  Remember - Death of Old Ram, Predator Kills, Creek Fire, Tree Falls On House, now we got news that our last Dorset ewe lamb had died.  DS out of town for several days, both DDs caring for animals, noticed that lambs looked bloated (Dorset and Dorper in same pen) pulled all grain n my suggestion, DS returned and said Dorset looked weak, then she seemed to recover.  Then dead in pen!  Dorper lamb in same pen fine.  ???

Down now to 2 mature Dorset ewes, 2 yearling Dorper ewes, mature Dorper ram all together (ewes seem to be bred, all marked so due to lamb November/December), 1 Dorper spring ewe lamb and 1 Dorper spring ram lamb, separated.  Hoping for ewe lambs this lambing season of course.  This winter (we have to do most work in winter when it's cooler out) we will set up some additional pens for the rams while all ewes and lambs are out grazing.  During lambing season we need lambing pens too and rams can go out together on field while ewes are confined for lambing.  I need to get out with family to do the work then we can wait for lambs to arrive.

Just got a call from surgeon's office holding off on surgery until GI does colonoscopy and they review - maybe no surgery???!!!


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## Bruce

No surgery would be nice!



Ridgetop said:


> 3 trips to my sister with about 5 cords of wood tied onto truck.


Must be a BIG truck!


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## RollingAcres

Sorry to hear about Dorset...

No surgery would be good. So


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

    Glad to have you back.  I have missed your postings and glad to see you back on the forum.  You and your DH have been quite busy during your time away.  I hope you don't need surgery, but if you do, I hope it goes well for you.

    Again, glad to see you back!

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Baymule

You have been busy! Like on a dead run at the racetrack! Glad that y'all got so much accomplished and got a good renter. 

Sorry about your ewe. I know that there is mortality on a farm, but I don't have to like it. May all your lambs be ewes!


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## Ridgetop

I know, it really is bad, but I think about the ranchers who depend on their animals to make a living.  Cost of feed, bad weather, sale prices, etc. can all drive ranchers and farmers to extinction.  I just lose the cost of replacement (and feeling bad about the animal).  I really pray for our family ranchers and farmers.

Bruce:  We have a 350 dually and we split the 5 cords between 3 trips.  I really loaded our truck down.  DH and I felt her groan in relief when we finished the final load!  Did not want to waste half a day on a 4th trip!

So I am back now, the Dorpers are doing well.  These white Dorpers seem more docile and friendly than our old Dorsets which were born and raised here.  Both the rams will come up to be petted - not so sure about that - I prefer my rams to be more leery of us but they are not pushy.  The ewes will come up to DS1 when he feeds.

On a happy note, the vet came out for a recheck of 30 years old TWH Cammie and gave her a clean bill of health!  He had pulled 3 teeth and was concerned that there were 2 others slightly loose but wanted to clear up the infection and hoped they would solidify in the jaw once the infections were over.  They did and she is eating both her senior feed and alfalfa with relish.  She has put on a lot of weight and lost the bony sunken look that worried us.  I think she was also mourning for Jubilee who we had to put down about 6 months ago.  They had been together since we got them 13 years ago.  She is much perkier and even chases Josie the Mule away from the feeders now!  I was so worried that we might lose Cammie too because she had lost so much weight and her coat was harsh and dry looking.  Amazing how necessary yearly floating and dental care is to a horse.  In particular to older horses.  If the weather stays hot, I think I will let the grandchildren help me give Cammie a bath.  Josie also needs some "hair care" - for some reason her mule tail gets super snarled and I will have to pour a bottle of Mane and Tail into it to untangle it.  If that doesn't work, the scissors may have to come into play!  At any rate Cammie has another while to enjoy with us.  I have decided to have the vet out to her every 6 month to check her teeth.  That will prevent any weight loss in future.  People will ask why I keep an old horse that I don't ride anymore - I guess ike dogs they have a way to wind around your heart even when they are in the pasture.

So I have been clearing off the pantry jail and storage facility that was my front patio for 3 years now.  I finally unearthed the patio furniture, broke apart the rotting storage shelves, and removed most of the stuff to its proper place.  I do have some stuff that has to go to hazardous waste, and I have to wash off the wrought iron furniture. If there are any rust spots I will just touch them up with black matte spray paint.  Soon we will be able to sit on the patio and enjoy the sunsets again!Of course, since we don't water anything, there is no longer any landscaping but I am going to install artificial turf - no gophers for the dogs to excavate and kill - the dogs urine will not affect it, and carefully arranged pots of flowers will look just as good as flowerbeds.  in fact I lan to get some Redi Mix and concrete in my flower beds around the house and patio since I can't keep them growing, don't want to spend the water, and again large pots of plants will do the trick.  I have one flower bed with a large Rosemary growng and I might plant water tolerant herbs around it - sage, etc. and maybe lavender.

DD and DSIL have stinot found a house although they are raising their budget to 1.2 million!   DH has been suggesting Texas and I am holding my breath.  I told DD that she and DSIL should start sending out resumes now to see what is available.  He has a Phd in computers and she has a MA nd is a teacher.  She said that they could not just pack up and move to Texas to find jobs - I TOLD HER THA WAS WHY YOU SEND THE RESUMES OUT FIRST!  Sometimes I think that advanced degrees take away common sense in ratio to how much education you acquire!  At lest DSIL is not beginning to consider a house that has most of what they want and then put in a pool, do some painting etc. if they can get it for a better rice.  They saw one that they could reno, put in a pool, and make work and the sellers would have come down in price, but it was on the wrong side of the boulevard.  The Boulevard cuts through Shadow Hills and you can only cross it in about 2 or  places in the 5 mile stretch.  It is a very busy road with no sidewalks and the only horse trail is on our side not on the side where that house was.  DD and DSIL want to be on our side so the grandkids can bike, walk or ride horses to our house.  Also lots of rattlesnakes on that side of the boudevard.  We have Kingsnakes here and no rattlers in 35 years.  Story goes that original owner of area near our house about 80 years ago had large poultry farm and hated rattlers.  He brought in about 100 or 1000 (depends on storyteller) of baby Kingsnakes.  Kingsnakes love to eat rattlers- result no rattlers in our area - mucho rattlers across boulevard!  If we get some, we will some more Kings too.  Love Kings hate rattlers.  The Kings may have also cross bred with Gopher snakes here too - we get some oddly colored Gopher snakes or maybe they are just a variety.  

Anyway, DD crying a lot because cant find house and she hates teaching now.  LA public schools have decided no punishments for kids - it is deleterious to their self esteem to be disciplined!  DSIL under tremendous pressure to work 6-7 days/week to complete projects for government for which the government keeps changing protocols and requirements. 

DH keeps pushing Texas.  DD is weakening.  I  am hopeful.


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## Baymule

East Texas is a really nice place, it_ rains_ and we have_ green_ vegetation......


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## Ridgetop

I heard that Tyler is gorgeous.  I keep mentioning that it sounds like a really nice place and it is not humid like Austin. DSIL worked in Austin for a time and hated the climate while he enjoyed the city. Hopefully they will realize that sending out resumes is appropriate since they are not entirely happy in their current careers, dislike the political climate in California, and can't find a house for less than 1.3 million here!  They could buy a lovely home on on acreage with barns and a pool for half that in Texas even with the prices going up!  DD wants horsekeeping area even though she does not have a horse yet.  I really don't want her to keep her horses on our property since we will end up caring for them for here.  The 8 and 5 year old are here Monday through Friday and could feed their own horses at night, but we still have to do the morning feed and weekends. I have gotten old, crotchety, and selfish.  We already have the kids 5 days a week and feed them 2 out of the 5 evenings.  I must be an unnatural grandparent to think enough is enough!

Oh well, DH keeps telling DD that they will never find a house and they need to check out Texas, but I hate to see her crying and so depressed.  I think it may be Novena time!

Tyler sounds like heaven.  Water and grass.  Sometimes I think we have left it too late and we are too old now to make the move.  I know on flat land we could use a tractor to ease the work load.  I would love to have fruit trees again like we had when the kids were young.  Of course, I would not make as much jam and jelly or do as much canning as I did when they were small, but the windfalls could be fed to pigs and sheep by turning them into the fenced orchard.  We could do a lot with cross fencing and gates to make the work load easier too.  I need to stop being such a pessimist - 70 is the new 40 after all!


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## Latestarter

Would love to welcome you to our area! It DOES get humid, but nowhere near as bad as down in south/SE TX. And you'd have some "ready made friends" to boot! Hope things work out for your DD and spouse. Sounds like you're making some real progress on your place as well. I suppose the changes you are making are also keeping in mind what will increase sales value?


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I really loaded our truck down. DH and I felt her groan in relief when we finished the final load!


She's a sturdy girl!



Ridgetop said:


> DD and DSIL have stinot found a house although they are raising their budget to 1.2 million!






Ridgetop said:


> Sometimes I think we have left it too late and we are too old now to make the move.


And just HOW old are you? @Mike CHS and his wife moved to TN in their middle 60's and then started a sheep farm.


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## Mike CHS

Ridgetop said:


> Sometimes I think we have left it too late and we are too old now to make the move.



We faced that also and when we bought our place I was 63 and knowing we had several years of work to make it usable.  We talked about it and since both of us had wanted this life for as long as we could remember we decided that if we didn't do it then, we would forever be saying "what if".


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## Mike CHS

I see Bruce and I were writing at the same time but the point is that once you let that dream go, there is no getting it back. All that is left is wondering how it would be.  I go out every day and check on my flocks several times and walk with the big guardian dogs and often have to ask myself, how would it have been if I had stayed in that subdivision with my 10' x 10' garden bed.


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## Latestarter

Thing is, Ridgetop has lived and is still living to some degree, a farmer's life. I believe it's more a function of where the kids move or if they stay in CA. Coupled with the sheer amount of work involved in simply moving in the first place. Getting everything cleaned up and ready to sell, followed by moving, then getting averything re-established and back to what you want when you get to where you're going.


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## Bruce

Yeah but even somewhat flat land!! I shudder at the description of their current property.


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## Latestarter

Have to say... they and the kids would be able to live much more comfortably (money/space/freedom) virtually anywhere other than the state they are presently located in. Of course they won't have access to the same paychecks they can get there, but their earned $$ will go much farther here. And yeah... that little gully that has been described would turn me off.


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## Bruce

Not everywhere in CA is stupid expensive. Only the places that are stupid overpopulated. Of course that is where the high paying jobs are so (some) people can afford the stupid expensive postage stamp properties.


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> I need to stop being such a pessimist - 70 is the new 40 after all!



I am 63, my husband is 73. We uprooted from where we had lived for 30+years and moved. We are so glad we did, we're having a great time and the farm work keeps us in good shape and healthy. 

Just land, no house.

https://www.landsoftexas.com/property/TBD-CR-442-Lindale-Texas-75771/5631121

This one has a house, but distant pictures and no interior pictures...….

https://www.landsoftexas.com/property/18845-CR-223-Arp-Texas-75750/3459238

Ready to move in!

https://www.landsoftexas.com/property/21087-CR-2115-Troup-Texas-75789/5526262


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## Ridgetop

Thanks everyone for showing me that our dream can still be attained!  I am 68, DH is 75.  We both have had cancer but are fine now.  DH has a knee replacement but if we were not on this extremely steep property could use a tractor (he has driven large equipment during his work life as a high power lineman, and we could also get a 4WD mule.

Latestarter is right.  We have been living this life for 35 years now and LOVING it.  We are not tired of it, but know the work required to make the dream reality in another location.  Leaving our grandchildren and DD would be rough.  We are the only relatives they have in this area and it is important for me to be able to attend the little ceremonies and events that are in their lives.  My children had no relatives to attend those for them when they were small and I feel it is important to be there for them.  Once gone, due to the prices of property, we will not be able to come back if we don't like the new location.

Being in a location where we would have friends and neighbors whose interests are the same would be wonderful.  I am sure there are plenty of bridge players there too.  LOL 

Tentatively we planned to wait 2 years and sell the Yelm property.  It is currenty a rental, but on 3.6 acres, so we can 1031 into another piece of acreage property in Texas.  That will be a rental too until we complete the fencing, barns, etc. while living in our 5th wheel.  Then we can roll it over into our primary residence.  If we decide we don't want to stay we can eturn to our 6 acres in California which we will be renting out.  OR if we want we can then 1031 that property into a larger ranch with more acreage for hay or pasture rental as we get older and can no longer ranch ourselves.

I plan everything to the last detail, but maybe there is too much planning and not enough leap right in.  When we come to Texas next year, we wanted to allow some time to look at properties, check out medical facilities, etc.  When we were young the only medical facilities we were interested were pediatrics and obstetrics.  Now it is geriatrics. 


The laws being passed in California are increasingly hard to live with.  New "fees" because they cannot raise taxes more than a certain amount (Proposition 13).  Increasing state taxes which cannot be deducted over a certain amount from federal taxes, all have to be taken into consideration for people who are retired. Luckily, DH and I scrimped and saved for all our lives to save money for investments to help us in our retirement.  But will it be enough in a new state?  California is becoming harder to live in with increased population, many illegal and receiving free services and welfare which comes out of our state taxes, a frankly insane group of liberal lawmakers, and more interest in making life easier for non working indigents on the backs of taxpayers.  Northern California has a lot more farm area but they also suffer with water regulations and our constantly raised state income tax.

Texas has no state tax, but the property taxes are higher and go up each year, requiring owner to appeal.  On the other hand the values are lower than here in southern California so maybe it woud all even out. 

Surprisingly, the move itself does not worry me.  I have packed and gone into storage numerous times on behalf of my relatives and also when we have done large renos here.  We would come to the new property for several months to get everything fenced, fixed, etc. before moving.  I would ship the horses out commercially, leaving the stock trailer (3 divisions) for the sheep and dogs.  Rotating 3 Anatolians between the front compartment of the stock trailer and the back seat of the truck would hopefully keep them reassured.  The fencing would be most important for the dogs since they will be hyper on guard until they are accustomed to the local perimeters and dangers, etc.  We want a larger piece of property in order to grow hay or pasture, whether we rent it out or cut it ourselves.

Thanks everyone  for showing me that our dream does not have to be abandoned.  You guys are wonderful and y greatest pleasure is being on here and reading all your posts.  Humor and kind help for our problems is what everyone here is all about!

Love you guys.


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## Bruce

IIRC, folks here living in TX have said that property taxes have caps for senior citizens.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Bruce said:


> property taxes have caps for senior citizens.



That is true.  Once a citizen reaches 65, they can freeze (defer) their taxes until either they die or sell the property.  Then the backlog of deferred taxes becomes due and payable.


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## Bruce

Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> Then the backlog of deferred taxes becomes due and payable.


OH, painful!!!! I wasn't aware that the taxes were accrued. One could potentially owe a ton of money!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

What gets accrued is the amount of tax that is over the amount that is frozen.  But, yes, it can add up to a lot should taxes go up a lot and there are many years that the taxes are frozen.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Why don't you and your DH come for a visit to Texas and meet @Latestarter, Miss @Baymule, Miss @Devonviolet, and others.  They will show you two around the area, and you can decide for yourself.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

That doesn't sound good.  If you need to sell to go into assisted living or a convalescent home for the last years of your life and are planning to use the equity in your home to pay for it you could find yourself destitute and in debt after you sell!


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## Ridgetop

STA:  We are hoping to do that when we come to Texas next year.


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## Baymule

I have never heard of that. Our taxes are frozen due to DH being over 65. My mom was 88 when she sold her home and moved in with us. There was no deferred tax bill for her. The taxes went up for the buyer, a 30-something young man. I have never known anyone who had to pay up, neither they or their heirs.

STA not saying that it doesn’t happen, but I have never heard of that.


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## Ridgetop

I will definitely check it out.  I know that many counties (they are usually the ones setting the property taxes) and or states have limits or reductions for either disabled, elderly, or military veterans.  My DH is a disabled military vet and is over 65.  Naturally, California doesn't do this.  But California Prop 13 keeps the taxes down until the new owner who then has their taxes fixed depending on the purchase price.

There is some new bill coming out in our next elections about the government setting up "Rental Boards" which sounds like it will set the rental prices if you want to rent out your house.  It also sounds like the government will inspect the property and of course there will be fees for all this.  I have to look on line and read the proposition.  Governments!


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## Ridgetop

Ok, just read the bill.  It amounts to a statewide ordinance that can regulate rents.  This means that if the owner rents to someone the state will tell him or her how much they can charge, prevent annual raising of rent to cover increased costs, taxes, etc., Charge fees on the owners of rental properties, etc.

Santa Monica and other areas already have rent control laws.  The rent control laws have lead to properties not being kept up since the landlord eventually does not get enough rent to offset the costs of utilities repairs, and raising taxes.  People wishing to buy rental properties for investment often cannot pay the value of the property since the rents will not support the new taxes and mortgage.  People wishing to sell rental properties cannot sell for the value of the property home since you cannot get rid of the tenant without having to pay relocation expenses until the lease ends.  Also, the bill contained something about having to pay fees to remove your rental house from the rental rolls if you wanted to live in it yourself or sell it! 

Big NO vote from our family!  DH wants me to start packing.  

However, lots to do to get this place ready to sell for maximum $$$.  Very small amount of level yard spaces where we will install artificial turf (looks like real grass but requires no water).  Small amount of area where I will plant rose protected from gophers.  Need to empty all storage areas (10x20 shed, 2 24' containers, 5 large storage sheds, a large commercial rental storage unit off site, 14 x 30 tool/work shop, the barn loft, and a 12 x 12 barn stall that is being used for storage).  All are packed with furniture, paintings, equipment, antiques, memorabilia, and my 5 children's leftoverbelongings.  I have tried to give the belongings of my 2 children who have families their own boxes of items back, but since DD has sold her house and is in a rental lots of her stuff is once again back on my property occupying one of the storage containers we purchased for our own use, and one of the smaller storage containers!  I already emptied one large off site storage unit and sent everything to charity, and Habitat.  (3 stock trailer loads)  I am working on emptying the 10 x 20 block building (originally the hayshed and milk shed) and the other large storage container.  Lots of that is furniture, some antiques, but I am tired of refinishing furniture (one of my hobbies) since I am running out of house room for it.  Also, a close friend plans to sell a lot of his deceased wife's antiques so if I want already refinished pieces, I can get them from him.  I have not gone to see these pieces since I am afraid I might want to acquire some of them!  Don't dare go over although he keeps asking me to!  China, crystal, silver, none of which his 2 children want - all of which I have plenty of.  Sadly, I am acquisitive by nature and have to fight against it.  My uncle who owned lots of lovely homes in different areas where he spent different parts of the seasons, said the all his beautiful belongs were just a millstone around his neck.  When I was younger and did not already have so many family possessions, I didn't understand how he could feel that way, now I do.  LOL

I also want to take apart our horse corrals since we no longer use them.  Then we can grade off the now uneven areas and reinstall the stalls in different configurations with covers for the sheep.  The barn also needs to be empties and dug out before the winter lambing season.  We need to empty the new storage container of all the stuff that is in it so we can start stocking up on hay before the prices go to winter heights.  We will probably buy another one to use or hay, then we can gradually empty the one we are renting and get out from under that cost.  We also have to empty the other rental storage unit so we don't have to pay for that one.  We had bought the last storage container to do just that but my DD and SOL got in there first with "just a few things" when they moved.  I am torn between wanting them to find a nice large house so they can get their stuff and my stuff they want me to keep for them and hoping that they can't find a house and will consider Texas.  

DH and I were discussing the possibility of letting DD and SIL rent our house and moving to Texas anyway.  That way we would not have to worry about selling house and would have time to fix up new place.  Much of their stuff is already at our house anyway!  LOL 

Timeline - 1 or 2 years depending on what we see in Texas next spring or summer.  Got to go and get to work!


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## Latestarter

Yeah, that's a surprise to me as well... I wasn't aware that taxes accrued. They don't here in TX, at least not in my county. I was under the impression they were simply frozen at that level until death/sale of the property. The new owner would have the property taxes re-established at current rates for their situation.

Having been active military for a career, I moved many times. Each time I was amazed at the amassed... And each time I unloaded and promised myself "never again!" For the most part, aside from tools I've acquired to run this and my previous place, since retiring, I've done pretty well. I STILL have stuff that I'm holding for the kids when I'm gone, but I loath "collecting" stuff for the sake of collecting it. If I don't have a use for it, no thanks!

With the way CA is going govt wise, I'd try for sooner rather than later... Just me. I HATE the govt telling what I can and can't do with my own personal belongings... rent schedules set by govt... a VERY bad idea! Would love to have you folks here in our area! There are a lot of really nice places and close to "civilization" while still being private and removed from the hustle and bustle. I couldn't live too close to/in/around the DFW metroplex... way too much traffic, higher costs, etc. But I can reach it quite easily in about 2 hours if I want to.   For all intents and purposes, I'm out in the middle of nowhere, yet within 6 miles of the center of town and can be there in 15 minutes. Aside from lacking high speed internet/TV via cable, that's about the only downside. I have to have TV and internet via satellite, which is slower, more restrictive, more costly. But since I don't stream videos (normally) or movies and no longer do online gaming, it works for me.


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## Ridgetop

We have satellite here instead of cable since the high winds we get can knock out the cable.  Everything can be dealt with.  I read a lot.  And of course, lay a lot of bridge.  DH just found out that with 2 computers (his desktop and my laptop) we can play partners on line bridge too.

Hurray!  The catamaran sailboat that a "friend' asked us to keep for "a couple weeks" until he could get it to his daughter's lake place finally was towed away today!  It has been here for 12 years uncovered.  The sails and trailer tires had rotted away and it has been sitting in the field.  Although we have consistently asked him to remove it he kept putting us off.  Since it was in the field, we kept getting busy and not pushing the issue.  We were just talking about hauling it over and dropping it in front of his house when we heard that he had  died!  I sent the widow a sympathy card, then waited a month before asking her to remove it.  We had mentioned it to her several times over the years and she kept telling us that it was her husband's problem.  Since he is dead now, it has become her problem.  She was rather testy about me asking her to remove it when she and a friend came over to look at it.  Then her friend opened the locker and the last registration was from 2002!  It has been here for at least 12 years.  The friend had to go get 2 new tires and a rim, then came back and forth several times to fit them on.  Finally, even though DH had told them repeatedly that it took a 1 7/8" ball they tried to tow it away with  2" ball and had to go away again to get the correct ball. 

Each time they came over (5 times) we had to kennel the dogs and I was nervous about having the sheep out on the field and in the gully without protection.  Especially since they would come over, spend about 20 minutes, leave, then several hours or a day later come back again, necessitating locking the dogs up each time.  Rika was getting a trifle annoyed at having to be removed from guardian duties and locked up.  She is usually pretty good  with people but I don't like to take chances and I don't know these people.  Bubba has to be locked up since I don't trust him around strangers.  So many people think that just because an Anatolian isn't growling or snarling in the kennel that they are friendly to strangers.  One of them went to the kennel to pet the dogs and when I told him not to get too close told me it was ok that all dogs liked him.  That was before Bubba lifted his lip and growled low.  Oh well, no good deed goes unpunished and it is gone.  Now I just have to convince DH that the 53 year old Glaspar ski boat that belonged to Daddy should be junked.  DH spent $5000 redoing everything on it 15 years ago and then it sat in the field since we don't boat much.  It has deteriorated completely but according to DH "It is a classic". . . .  Lots of memories from when we used to boat and ski all weekend.  We have the space so it might as well sit there until it falls completely apart.  DH still keeps it registered and licensed.  Even if we could use it the engine takes 2 cycle gas and oil mix which can't be used on most lakes here anymore. 

I already got rid of tons of stuff and am getting rid of tons more.   I am not interested in spinning any more, and have about 50 lbs of processed Dorset wool that I want to give away.  It equates to 5 huge plastic bins of wool.  Any BYH people that want it, let me know!  I already gave away yards and yards of good cotton quilt prints - in 5 yard lengths - that I bought to make square dance prairie skirts before my ankles gave out and we had to stop dancing.  I donated it to the senior center quilting group.  Come to think of it I have 4 large plastic bins of square dance skirts, blouses and petticoats in the loft that I should get down and donate to the square dance club members.  I have 30 glass centerpiece vases and 100 tealight holders that I bought for my daughter's wedding that I have loaned out many times over the past 12 years.  Still have 2 more kids to marry off but I will donate them anyway.  Tons of picture frames, some lamps, decorative baskets, you name it I have it.  I could open a store but sadly because of the location of my house I can't have a garage sale!    No through traffic and no parking anywhere.  I could post on Craigslist I suppose.  I really don't have to worry about strangers finding out where I live since we are completely fenced in with our 2 large Anatolians.  Someone is always home and Bubba really doesn't like strangers.  LOL

I took all the toddler toys to Good Will and am trying to get rid of larger items like Little Tyke picnic table etc.  Still have to go through the shed and get rid of the strollers, crib, portacrib, etc.  Lots of saddles, pads, horse tack, summer and winter blankets, etc.  Even some calf show sticks, pig show sticks, rabbit equipment, portable milking stanchion, 3 sets of electric show clippers and dozens of blades, etc.  Some stuff we will need in Texas on our new place and some I need to give to grandchildren when they get into 4-H (DS3's boys, ages 7 and 4).  If DD moves to Texas with her kids, they will join 4-h since she wants them to be in it but no more here in our area.  I also have electric fencing supplies and solar charger in the shed as well as a bunch of electric fencing parts still in the shed at my aunt's house in Yelm.   Corral panels, shelters, feeders, dog kennel panels, etc. will come with us to Texas (rent a big U-Haul truck).   Actually, the metal shipping containers we own can be sent to Texas filled with our equipment and belongings. 

So, first we visit east Texas next spring, check out places for sale, pick up our puppy and meet our friends.  Then we buy a place with a good well, electric, and hopefully with outbuildings.  If no large barn, we will build one first thing since we can live in our 5th wheel.  Guardian dog proof fencing and livestock enclosures before the house.  We can renovate, rebuild, and remodel a house but the livestock needs to come first.

DH is getting restless.


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## Goat Whisperer

If you want to sell any of your show clippers give me a holler


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## Ridgetop

I need to keep all my show equipment just in case my grandchildren decide to join 4-H and keep livestock.  The Nipomo, CA, grandkids will be joining 4-H in another couple years and their father, DS3, wants them to do market lambs, market goats, hogs, and poultry.  They will probably eventually do steers too.

14 years ago my last child graduated from 4-H and sold his herd of show milkers.  I sold all my of Sydell lambing jugs, creep gates and one of the folding portable stanchions with lamb head holders, and other large equipment - field feeders, etc.  I have regretted it ever since.  We have to build the jugs and equipment since then and they have not been as useful.  Everytime I suggest buying more, my DS1 builds something.  Sadly, the wooden built ins are not as useful as the pin together panels which can be taken apart, reconfigured, and stored when not in use.  I plan to get more secretly some how.  They are located n Burbank, North Dakota so maybe on a trip to Dakota I can casually direct us to that location.  I original got all the equipment when Sydell came out to National sheep show at the L. A. Fair.  I saved a lot of shipping costs.  They post when they will be attending events in other states and I keep watching for one in a location within 2 days drive.  I might just break down and check on the cost of having them sent via truck.  I replaced my rear trailer gate several months ago and that heavy gate only cost $35.00 to ship from WW in Oklahoma.  Might not be that much more expensive from North Dakota for the jug panels.  I need to check it out.  However, since I only have 4 ewes to lamb out this year, I can wait another year.  Need to get the barn cleaned totally out and build new jugs and creep for lambing.


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## Mike CHS

I really like the Sydell components. We wound up getting our handling gear from D-S Livestock Equipment but only because we got a good deal on a tilt table and their handling systems are based on the table.  We get commercial shipping rates by having things shipped to our local feed store and dropped off there.


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## Baymule

YAY!!! Hang a sign on your door....G.T.T. GONE TO TEXAS!!!

Tyler is a good job market.....for your DD and her husband....jus' sayin'

     


ETA; You could find a place between Tyler and Longview, then they would have a choice of two large towns to find work in and still be able to live in a rural setting.


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## Mini Horses

Ridgetop said:


> I have regretted it ever since.



And this is WHY we have so much "stuff".  Been there, done that!   I have some portable panels from the old mini horse show days and still use them!   Have 11 and wish it were 3X that.   Not only are these now hard to find but far more costly.  They are not as light weight as the panels you use but, sturdy and contain anything I've put in them.  I rarely regret keepers.

So you have 4 ewes and those creepers...you will build.  Maybe the cost of more panels would not be more than cost/time to build.   I LIKE the shipping to feed store for less expense.  OR know anyone at a show the supplier attends?   We used to move some horses with such low cost rides -- helped pay their gas. 

Dang -- everyone moving to TX ??     I don't think the long, HOT, summers & "far ants" sound as good as the mild winters.  Short winter, I might add.    Always enjoyed my time there in past visits but, been years since any.


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## Mike CHS

We are obviously close enough to Texas to visit as @Latestarter recently demonstrated but I think we will stay in Tennessee.


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## frustratedearthmother

Mini Horses said:


> Dang -- everyone moving to TX ??  I don't think the long, HOT, summers & "far ants" sound as good as the mild winters.


They come for the awesome people here!!!


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## Mini Horses

frustratedearthmother said:


> They come for the awesome people here!!!



Probably true!


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## Baymule

Mini Horses said:


> Dang -- everyone moving to TX ??     I don't think the long, HOT, summers & "far ants" sound as good as the mild winters.  Short winter, I might add.    Always enjoyed my time there in past visits but, been years since any.



that is pronounced Fahr Aints   Speak slowly and drag out the FAHHHHR


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## Bruce

Mini Horses said:


> Dang -- everyone moving to TX ??  I don't think the long, HOT, summers & "far ants" sound as good as the mild winters. Short winter, I might add.


Not to mention the just enough rain every year where you are now


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

All you have to do is put Miss @Baymule on the hunt for you a place.  She is like a blood hound when it comes to real estate!


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## Ridgetop

Well, we get very hot here, just not humid.  But we have almost no rain, and when we do get rain it comes like tropical storms - all at a time - from Mexico.   Also, because of no water, we can't irrigate or water landscaping.  New plan by governor is for 55 gallon per person allocation daily.  This is for household water which includes drinking, cooking, washing, cleaning, laundry, etc. Then the plan is to reduce the amount little by little.  This is to "encourage" water savings by _residential _customers.  Since we don't have separate meters for household and outside irrigation how are they going to decide how much water we can use?  Oh, I know!  The water companies will have to install additional meters for which we will probably be charged a fee.  We already do not water anything on our property except the livestock.  I haven't planted a garden in the past year and won't be able to with the water rationing. 

One good reason to move is WATER.  Wherever we go we need a good pure unlimited water source.  Seasonal rains also help with pasture and gardens. 

Practicing my Texas drawl right now.  Check out Rosetta Stone . . . . ?


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## RollingAcres

Ridgetop said:


> Practicing my Texas drawl right now. Check out Rosetta Stone . . . . ?



Since you're practicing. Please also get yourself familiarize with @Baymule 's "advice" on moving to Texas
https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/herd-humor.34271/page-24#post-566212


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## Wehner Homestead

Make sure you learn how to say fahr ant!!


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## Baymule

You'll get the hang of it in no time. Texas are friendly people!


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## RollingAcres

Baymule said:


> that is pronounced Fahr Aints  Speak slowly and drag out the FAHHHHR





Wehner Homestead said:


> Make sure you learn how to say fahr ant!!



Funny thing is, when I saw Bay's post about how to pronounced it correctly, I actually said it out loud... Fahr Aints


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## Baymule

I'm hit with a double whammy. I have both the Southern accent and the slow Texas drawl. If I cross the state lines, I get nailed as a Texan real fast. Ain't no hiding it! I write with good grammar, but I speak with slang and dropping  the "g" on words with ing ending. Writing makes me sound intelligent--speakin' makes me sound ignert.


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## Wehner Homestead

I can only imagine! When I get tired, I talk more Southern and it cracks DH up!


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## RollingAcres

@Wehner Homestead but Indiana isn't that Southern. Were you originally from a Southern state?


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## Wehner Homestead

Nope! Born a little north of here but Hoosier born and raised. (Side note: not a Hoosier fan! Lol! Boiler Up!!!!)


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## Ridgetop

Just realized I have been posting our activities elsewhere.  Got caught  up in other posts. 

So to catch up, DH is packing for Texas as I write this.  He would have finished his packing, but he can't find the suitcases.  He is furious with some of the California propositions on our ballot.  Particularly #10 which establishes *539* new "Rental Boards" which will have large staffs of state employees earning large state salaries.  These "Rental Boards", which are touted to make housing affordable, come out and inspect your house if you decide to rent it, then tell you how much you can rent your home for.  No matter what the going rate is, or what your home is worth, the rent is set by these RBs and can not go higher than what they determine.  In addition, when a tenant moves out, you cannot raise the rent to whatever is current, because the RB will not allow any rent increases.  For this, you must pay a fee to the RB (state), they will send tenants to you.  When you want your house back to move back in or sell it, there is another fee to remove your property from the "for rent" status of the RB. This is touted as making homes more affordable for renters, and as making property more affordable for buyers because it will lower the value of your property.  On the other hand, there will be no corresponding lowering of property taxes!  Rent control in many cities has resulted in rents being held artificially low which has prevented some landlords from doing upgrades or improvements. 

Luckily we no longer have rental property in California, having sold it and relocated our assets to  Texas !
However, since we are thinking seriously of moving to Texas and renting our property, this would affect us negatively.  On the other hand, DD and SIL still are in a rental so they could rent from us without notifying any Rental Board since it would be family living there.  They are interested - of course, I did not mention that DS1 and DD@ would also be sharing the  house with them.   

Anyway, I started cleaning the barn stall that we used extensively 2 years ago during the rainy season.  Our rainy season (when it comes) consists of tropical storms from the South Pacific and Mexico.  We don't get pleasant rain, it is like someone upended a bucket over us.  The ground can't soak it in fast enough and there is a lot of flooding, especially in burned hillside areas.  We can't clean out the stalls in this type of rain, since the barn tends to flood so we keep adding straw to the stall, layered with Dri Stall, and lime between kidding/lambing.  The layers in this stall had been there 2 years, had dried in stratified layers, and were 14" higher than the rest of the barn floor.  Last year DS2 started digging it ut but didn't get very far.  The stall floor was still kind of wet, and the manure layers were extreme heavy.  We could only fill the barrels halfway.  He got about 2' of the 12' stall done.  Now he is off working in northern California.  I took the mattock and started working at the layers.  It actually was pretty easy since I stood on the high layer and dug the blade between the layers and under the bottom layer.  Then I had to pick up the dried layers.  I think it must be like the old buffalo chips, layers of flattened manure with dried grass in it.  Probably could use it for fuel it the smell didn't kill us!  LOL  I filled 3 huge trash barrels before I went inside and collapsed.  I have apparently gotten weaker in my "late middle age".  the next day DS1 found me hacking at the layers ad took away my mattock.  He dug out more and I filled the rest of the barrels - 7 of them.  Now we were out of barrels.  We had only done one third of the stall.  I suggested to DH and DS1 that we just chuck it all over the edge of the gully but they insisted on loading it in the truck for the garbage pickup.  The truck will only hold 8 full barrels.  They had to lift the barrels into the bed, make 2 trips done the hill half a mile to the street and unload all the barrels.  Then 2 trips tomorrow to bring the empty barrels home.   DS1 refused to consider dumping it into the gully saying that it would "cause dust".  We live on 6 acres of dirt, the sheep have eaten everything that did not burn, and we are surrounded by another 100+ acres of burned over dry hillsides.  Our neighbors have horses.  But dumping the equivalent of 20 wheelbarrows of dry manure into the gully would "cause dust".  If I had suggested that we dump it into the front loader of the tractor, DH would have been thrilled to drive it 100 feet and dump it off the edge.  Go figure. 

However, now DH and DS1 are on board with cleaning out the barn so I can order my new Sydell lambing pens in time for lambing season in November.  I typed up a list of all the storage areas we needed to clean out.  TWELVE OF THEM!  4 are 10' x 20', 2 are lofts in those buildings, and the rest are smaller sheds about 8' x 8'.  After 3 hours of discussion (loud arguing) THE MEN decided on a sequence of the work . . . .

First, we would finish cleaning the barn.  The rest of the manure stratae would be dug out with the mattock, and the barrels filled again.  The other 3 stalls which just have sheep berries and straw will be cleaned.  This sequence will take 2 weeks because the trash and manure barrels only go down once a week.  After the first stll is dug out, DS1 will take apart and remove the 2 pipe corral stalls.  First I have to cut all the wood and wire panels loose from the pipe panels that have been attached to keep the sheep and lambs from escaping through the bars.  Once the stalls are removed a more thorough cleaning of the barn floor can be done, ready to set up the lambing pens.

While waiting for the weekly garbage pick up of the manure and barn cleanings, we will move out attention to the old milking shed.  This is a 10' x 20' block walled building that is now used for storage.  Most of the junk is old building supplies that are unusable, heavy, and need to go to the dump.  DH said he will hitch the utility trailer and park it on the driveway so we can drag all the junk up 2 short flights of steps and put it in the trailer for a trip to the dump.  So far so good.  There are also some large pieces of furniture in the back of the shed.  DD2's boyfriend is moving into an apartment soon so he can help remove the furniture up the stairs, and take them to his new place.  Some of the stuff is DD2's large bins of "important stuff" which will be moved out to one of the other storage units.  The remaining stuff - lots of it - is rabbitry carrying cages, new cages never assembled, cage parts, water system parts, electric fencing chargers, wire, set offs, etc., and miscellaneous horse waterers, tank floats, etc.  All of that needs to be sorted into plastic bins for storage.  The final step for the old milking shed is to water proof the walls, put in commercial style shelving units, then the shed will be used for current building materials (not many), the rabbitry equipment, hot wire stuff, and other livestock equipment large and small.
I am hoping to get the barn emptied by the time I have to have my surgery, and have a good start on clearing out the milking shed, and sorting the equipment.

Whether we move to Texas or not, this needs to be done.  If we move to Texas we will have a start clearing out our junk and packing up the livestock equipment we will bring with us.  I will be starting on the milking shed tomorrow since we will not have any available barrels until tomorrow night. 

The ewes look like they are pregnant.  I have checked my calendar and taking the last date they each marked I will calculate the lambing dates for them.  Two of them are the new Dorper yearling ewes and I am excited to see their lambs.  The 2 Dorset ewes I kept were bred to the Dorper ram and hopefully will deliver nice meaty lambs.  I chose the ream based on his evaluations scores so am hoping for good stuff.  I bid on a couple ewes at the on line sale yesterday.  I was outbid which was ok.  There will be another on line sale early May and the following weekend there is a show and sale in Modesto.  DH and I are tentatively planning on going to the Modesto sale just for fun.  I really need to learn to read the NSIP evaluation records better.  They are confusing.  I prefer the evaluation scale used by Wes Patton 1-2-3 low to high, and the order is frame size, shed, and pigment.  I also learned my way round the sale catalog better this time so next season I will be able to really choose some good stock.  Too bad I already have 2 good rams for my tiny flock since there were some fantastic rams that went for $700 with excellent evaluations scores out of South African import bucks.    I won't need another buck for at least a year and there will be more good ones coming up . . . I only have 5 ewes now, since one Dorset ewe lamb died, I lost another Dorset ewe last year and I sold 3 Dorset ewes over the summer.  I really like the temperament of these Dorper sheep.  The ones I have are slightly smaller framed than the Dorset ewes, but that is probably because they are yearlings compared to mature ewes.   Also the Dorsets are growing wool again while the Dorpers are still fairly slick.  I plan to sell the Dorper X Dorset lambs for meat and keep the Dorper ewe lambs (if any ) in the flock.  With 2 rams I can breed back and forth for a few years, then keep the best ram, sell the other and buy another better ram.  I really want to upgrade the quality of the flock breeding for meat, weaning weight, complete shed and maternal traits.  The Dorsets were really good and I really loved them but I just can't do the shearing myself anymore, and at $40-50 a head, I don't want to pay for it.

Greybeard told me a 2 years ago to look into Dorpers, so I hope he reads this.  Better late than never! 

I haven't finished writing more of the adventures of the Ridgetop gang, but plan to finish more tales of our crazy lives soon.  Meanwhile, I am till laughing about the wild adventures of the rest of you, and enjoying everyone's activities.  Life is good, keep laughing.


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## greybeard

Calif (and a few other states) will never get fixed because too many are willing to just move off instead of staying there and fighting to fix what's wrong with it.


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## Ridgetop

Wrong!  There are too many liberals that overtake the rest of us.  We vote every election and even when we get a conservative or republican elected, the liberal legislature in Sacramento prevent any changes.  Our manufacturing and business base has been destroyed by crazy and restrictive laws, illegals are given more rights than citizens, and our taxes and bond issues are voted in by liberals, paid into the general fund, and used for whatever the politicians want.  We have voted in several water bond issues to repair our dams, and help our water problems.  The money went into the general fund and Gov. Jerry Brown used the money for his High Speed Railway.  Oroville dam almost collapsed last year because the repairs that the water bonds were supposed to cover were not done. There is no money left in the general fund for repairs, the dam is in danger of collapsing, so there is another water bond on the ballot!  Our gasoline taxes are the highest in the country and the tax money is supposed to be for repairing our roads.  The money disappears into the general fund, the politicians spend it how they like, and we have another bond issue on the ballot to pay for repairs to our roads and bridges.   If you read the propositions all the way through you will see that they say money goes to certain programs, but compare the percentages and keep reading and you will see that only a small percentage goes to the programs that are touted and the majority of the funds go into - you got it! - the general fund for that vague  "infrastructure" spending.  For that read High Speed Rail and other special projects.  The taxpayers have very little power here.   Think Feinstein.

Feel free to move here and try to fix things.


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## Latestarter

You can only beat your head against a stone wall for so long... Eventually it's time to leave the head banging to someone else. Lots of Californians moved to Colorado because it was so much like CA weather wise. They then proceeded to do their best to turn CO into what they left back in CA. Part of the reason I moved here to TX.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> The taxpayers have very little power here.


Congratulations.
You've already accepted defeat. 
Little by little.

Dunno why people want to move here anyway. First thing they do when they get here is start whining and complaining about our laws, customs, regs, and habits. They could have saved themselves the $$ and trouble by staying where they were and complaining there, but they do move, and bring all their little idiosyncrasies with them. 
My sister turned around in a cafe booth just last week and told some whnnybutt vocal woman behind us that she "_need to take your fat *** back to Michigan if you don't like how things are done here..that same highway that brought you here will take right on you back to that ****hole and we won't miss you one bit._"


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## Rammy

You couldnt pay me to live in California. Besides the fires, floods, and earthquakes, what you posted about the rental prop would make me want to move. Where does anyone get off telling me how much I can rent my property for or to? Government is taking away every right and people are becoming complacent. People think there is nothing they can do.
That mindset is becoming all too common. It just seems as our rights are being taken away from us little by little, nobody wants to say , hey, wait a minute, or they shrug and say, oh well. Move, Ridgetop, as soon as you can! @Latestarter , @Baymule ,@Devonviolet  are already in Tx and I know theyd help you find a nice place.


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## Devonviolet

@Ridgetop.  You go girl!!!  As a proud transplanted Texan, who grew up in California, you couldn’t pay me enough to move back there!  The liberal left is destroying the state!  And all those liberals are so self centered, they can’t see beyond their own noses, to care one iota about anyone else, but themselves and their agenda.  As Latestarter said, you can stay and vote, but when you are so totally outnumbered by the liberals, you might as well be hitting your head against a brick wall.

There is no way a conservative (who is concerned about repairing the infrastructure) can effect change, when the majority of the self-centered liberals are hell-bent-for-election on destroying the state.  And, I can’t help but wonder . . . Doesn’t CA have term limits, for governor anymore? It seems like that ultra-liberal Jerry Brown has been in office WAAAAAYYY too long.  But then, if he didn’t run, Diane Feinstein would run and things would be worse still!!!

And don’t get me started about the “alternative lifestyle”, encompasssing multiple aspects of philosophy, which is part of the reason for the self-centered “my way or the highway” attitude, that you can’t fight with voting on legislation. I have a family member, who is in one of the alternative churches, there in Southern California, and their whole philosophy is, the world revolves around me.  If you don’t like it .. .. TOUGH!

I would be thrilled for you to move to Texas!!! I, for one, would be happy to keep my ear to the ground, for a piece of property, that you could buy. There was a really nice 20 acre property, that recently sold, for around $180K, not too far from us.  And I have seen lots of for sale signs, on properties around here. Actually, the property next to our little country church is for sale. I don’t know how much property is there, but when I get a chance, I will stop by and get the realtor info for you.

I’m sure @Baymule and @Latestarter would be happy to look, for property around them, as well.

I think if you decide to move to Texas, you will find not all Texan are rude, and condescending.  For the most part, I have found that Texans are the nicest people I have met, in all the states, in which I have lived, and they have welcomed us with open arms.

We love it here.  Yes, the summers are hot and humid, but that is what central air is for. We do the bulk of our work early in the day, and hibernate inside, for the hottest part of the day. You won’t find water rationing here. Average rainfall, for our area is 42”. Although, we have already had 49”, and we still have 2-1/2 months left. If I’m not mistaken the last two months of the year, are among our rainiest months. Tomorrow we are supposed to have heavy rains and should get 2+”. So, we will easily go over 55 inches. And you won’t get the flash floods, earthquakes and forest fires, that you have in CA.

I left CA 40 years ago. But, back, when I still lived there, we joked about California having an earthquake and falling into the Pacific ocean.  Hmmm, I wonder . . .


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## Devonviolet

BTW, I just looked up Shadow Hills, CA.  You are just a hop-skip-and-jump from my old stomping grounds.  I used to live in Burbank, Glendale, N. Hollywood and Whittier.


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## Rammy

If anyone has heard or seen the Earth changes maps, you ought to look them up online. One of the major changes is that CA will pretty much be gone. Shows it as a bunch of islands. Will it happen? Who knows. All I know is I would get out if it were me. If you dont want to move to Tx, Tn is pretty nice.

P.S. I hate having to edit three times because I missed something. Darnit! Stupid small phone keyboard.


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## Ridgetop

Thanks everyone for your support.  I am third generation San Fernando Valley girl - mother's family has been here for 100 years.  I know the water, flood, fire, and weather patterns.  I love our weather, summer heat but rare humidity, beautiful winter weather, and we have learned through 3 generations how to work early and late in summer, stay inside with fans or AC during heat of day.  I don't run my washer or dryer during the summer days, don't do much oven cooking during summer, draw blinds and close windows by 9:30 or 10:00 am to keep house cool.  Growing season 11 months of the year, August-September heat kills last of garden but you can replant for winter garden in October.  Proposition 13 keeps property taxes low for long time howeowners in same property so why not try to stay and change things  . . . ?

Our legislature just _passed_ 2 new bills, people were not given a vote, first was to allow illegal aliens to vote, second was to allow illegal aliens to hold political office!  Surprisingly, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed both.  That was a shocker since he was in favor of both originally.  This is his last term but the new Democrat running is worse that JB.  Legislature passed law a couple years ago that the two people running in the primaries who got the most votes would run against each other for the office in general election.  For the last couple years 2 democrats have run against each other.  This year (surprise to the dems) a republican got 2nd most votes and will be running against a democrat.  Maybe that is why JB vetoed those bills, so moderate dems would not be so angry they voted for the republican candidate.  For several elections we have had only two democrats on the ballot to choose from - which is the lesser of 2 evils - conservatives and republicans have no ability to vote in a change under these rules.  Pollworkers are forbidden to ask to see identification when people come in to vote.  We have more names on the voter rolls than we have living legal voters.  Illegals do vote in our elections because we can not ask to see identification, people vote twice in other names because we cannot ask for identification.  Voter fraud is big.  As a "sanctuary state" we are flooded with illegals who then can apply for and receive state paid aid and services.  Another law enacted by our legislature without a vote is that it is now illegal to ask for legal ttus of your workers before hiring.  The Feds will arrest you if you employ illegals and the state will arrest you if you don't.  No wonder our small businesses are fleeing California.  Consider our universities - we have about 5 of the most liberal universities in the country - look at the professors who indoctrinate our youth - you have seen them screaming obscenities on TV.  Against this, how can honest citizens change anything?

We never met a rude Texan in the months we stayed in Weatherford.  We _have _met a lot of rude liberals here.  Liberals always want to change every thing to their way or the high way.  No other point of view is allowed because only they are right and moral!   They forget that they are moving into an area because they like what it offers, and it is the way it is because of the people who live there.  When they have changed it they don't like it any more, but instead of admitting their way might not have the correct way, they just whine that there is more to do and it will be nirvana once the entire liberal agenda is in place.  Have you ever met a liber that was willing to foot the bill for the social programs they want?  It should all come from "the government" and that means the price is on our backs - the working man and woman who pay the taxes.  It is easy to vote for expensive programs if you don't have to pay for them. 

We want to move to Texas because the people, values, and ethics are the same ones we hold.  Hard work, independence, moral standards, acceptance of people's differences, and allowance of other opinions.  There is a reason the silent majority is called that - they politely allow others to have different opinions from their own.  Since they are not screaming in the streets, they are considered silent and indifferent.  Not so, we are alive and well, and exercise our civil right to vote.  We accept it when the vote goes against us since there will be another in 2 years, or 4 years, or whenever the term is up.  It is only when the people's will is disregarded for decades that we eventually accept the fact that in spite of voting for change our legislature has taken so much control that we will never be able to vote change in.

Be careful not to lose control of your state!  Do not become complacent - make sure you continue to keep control of your politicians and government. 

Getting off my soapbox now.  Maybe the wall should be around Texas to keep it safe.    Love you all.  No, love y'all!


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## Ridgetop

Devonviolet;  BTY Burbank is still conservative for now, a hold out surrounded by liberalism . . . . We have many friends there and play bridge there 2 x week but it is gradually changing as the demographic changes from older people to younger.


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## Ridgetop

Tired of politics!  Makes me too depressed.

Got most of the pipe corral panels out of the barn today.  Now clearing off the new loft over the milking shed and will be able to store leftover sheets of 3/4" plywood left from repair of roof and overhang where tree came down.  Starting to pull stuff out of sheds for dump.  This work cheers me up!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> In addition, when a tenant moves out, you cannot raise the rent to whatever is current, because the RB will not allow any rent increases.


So if they say you can rent it for $1,000 a month now, it will be $1,000/month in 20 years? Yeah that doesn't seem right.


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## Baymule

Been rather a lively discussion going on here..... I am a Texan, born and raised, many generations back on my father's side. His ancestors rode down on horseback from Kentucky to check things out, then went back to get their families. I have never lived anywhere else and don't care to. We need people who hold dear our conservative values and I don't give a hoot where they come from. We have liberals born and raised here, so having a couple of conservatives moving in ups the ante in our favor. Y'all come on now, ya' heah?


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## Ridgetop

Thanks Bay.

Well, I was going to post pix of the barn work and our pregnant sheep but have sad news instead.  DS1 went out to feed and couldn't find my old mare Cammie.  30 1/2 years young, dead on hillside.  She was fine last night and this am.  She had been putting on more weight and had just had the vet to her 2 weeks ago, she was doing great, clean bill of health.  DH said she didn't finish her Senior this am before he turned her out, but thought she just wanted Josie the Mule's hay.  Poor Josie isn't eating tonight, she is grieving.  Bubba and Rika are guarding Cammie's body.  Crow will be out tomorrow am early to pick her up with his truck and winch. 

Too sad to write any more.  Just happy that she died loose on the pasture, not sick having to be put down.  Gotta go cry a little.


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## Devonviolet

Oh Ridgetop!  I am SO sorry!


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## Mike CHS

I'm so sorry also and never have words to make you feel better.


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## Latestarter

Sorry for your loss. It never gets easier.


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## frustratedearthmother

So very sorry...


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## Baymule

I am so sorry that you have lost your heart horse. There are those that give us so much, the best we can do in return is let them live out their lives in peace, happiness and knowing they are loved. 

We have two old seniors. Joe, the love of my life, that's his blue eye in my avatar, has Cushings and laminitis. He has dropped weight. We are making him comfortable, he is 29 and we won't pull out all the stops to make him live longer. I see that as only extending the misery and I refuse to do that to him. Sparkles is my 31 year old Tennessee Walker and she has COPD. Sometimes she gasps for a breath and coughs. I haven't ridden her in years. Likewise with her, we won't extend her life and make her suffer longer. We may have tough decisions to make this winter. Both are leaving us a little at a time. 

So while I might not "know how you feel" it looks like I will join that unhappy club. Kudos to you for letting Cammie live out her life and giving her the retirement she earned. Far too many put their aging horses on a one way ride in a truck going to slaughter in Mexico. I am not against horse slaughter, but damned if I would ever do that to our two old horses that gave us the best years of their lives. 

Sending hugs. Hugs for Cammie. She knew she was loved.


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## Wehner Homestead

I’m so sorry for your loss! I am glad she went peacefully though!


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## Bruce




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## Rammy

Im so sorry. I lost my horse, Chase, two years ago on May15th. Found her down in her stall. She was fine the night before. No words can explain how you feel when you lose something you loved so much. So very sorry.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie




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## Ridgetop

Thanks for all your kind wishes.  I took a bit of tail hair from her.  I always keep a little and tie it up in a ribbon -I am almost embarrassed to admit it because I like to think of myself as a hard hearted met raiser but . . . .

Sweet Cammie was actually *31* and a half years old!  I pulled her papers in her file when I put the tail piece in her file.  Here is a picture collage from a camping trip to Montana de Oro 10 years ago.  It is a horse camp in the mountains overlooking the ocean with both mountain trails and beach riding.  Our local ETI group goes every August for a week.  DH and DS2 loaded the camper on the truck, I hitched my stock trailer, loaded Cammie and our gear, and drove the 5 hours to camp.  Just Cammie, me and about 15 other ETA members.  What a fun trip!  my friend and I got lost on a series of trails when the wind blew away our trail map!  I will never forget the look on her face as the map swirled away and we and were left looking at the scrap she was clutching.  We finally found our way back to camp. The other picture is of my darling Dazzle as a yearling.  She was my very first horse and I loved her to death.  She was 32 when she died. 

I was blessed with both of these horses.  They taught me a lot and I became a better rider from dealing with both these opinionated ladies.  They were both sweet tempered and willing to do whatever I asked but that didn't stop them from having PMS fits often enough to keep me on my toes.  More fun to ride!  I have a painting at the foot of my bed of a trail winding through piney woods into a distant meadow and I think of them traveling that trail into heaven.  They will be waiting for me with all my dogs when it is my turn to follow that trail. 



Ok, on to happy news!  All of my ewes are pregnant and due on various dates between the end of October  and December before Christmas.  No since I used a marking harness and we were diligent about checking them and writing the dates on the calendar, I have all the dates noted.  The reason there is a big spread is that they remarked several times.   Since I wrote all the remark dates down though, I will be able to lock them up when they approach that date, if no lamb they can go out again.  I will check udder tissue too before putting them in the lambing pens.  So much easier than counting the ewes wen they come in at night, and then climbing into the gully to locate the ewe.  Carrying a couple of lamb up that steep ravine is rough.  You actually need 1 hand to help you up, but you need 2 hands to carry the lamb or lambs.  Then you need a 4th hand to catch yourself as you start to fall back down the slope.  The ravine seems to be magical, each lamb gains 10 lbs. in the time it takes to reach the top!  LOL

I am attaching pictures of the ewes.  You can tell the new Dorpers from the Dorsets.  The Dorsets are 3 years old now and fully mature, also they are growing more wool.  The Dorpers were yearling ewes and are just starting to grow back their wool.  The ram is easily identified - no that is not a poorly attached udder!   Bubba is in some of the pictures - he loves his sheep.

    Yes, Bubba _is_ that big!  Just love these Dorpers - they are so sweet.  I haven't named my sheep in years, just ear tag numbers, but I am going to have to now.  These are not bottle babies, or trained show sheep, they were raised in the field on mom, but unbelievably tame!  7088 walked right up to be petted, then followed me from place as I did a few chores, asking for more petting.  7040 is a little more shy, but also came right up to be touched.  The ram is docile and comes up to DH and DS1.  Our current Dorsets were pretty wild but after being with these gentle sweet Dorpers, they are even more mellow!  So 7080 will be "Sweetie", trite but that is what I called her when I was petting her.  I need a name for 7041.  I think I will let my 5 year old granddaughter name the ewe lamb 8040.  The ram lamb is Lamborghini.  They are penned separately since I don't want the ewe lamb bred till she is a yearling and I don't want to run 2 rams with breeding ewes!  Especially a mature ram and a baby.      I think I will call the older ram Lewis, since that is the breeder and I don't have any other Lewis Dorpers yet.  Now just to think of a name for 7041.  I have to get out with them more to see if there is a way to identify which one is which.  I can usually tell after a while - different shape to the body, expression, etc.  Can't wait to see the lambs!


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## Ridgetop

Strange!  Why is there a picture of my washer and dryer posted?  I wonder what picture I meant to post.  I wanted to post a picture of Cammy but when I scanned the photo it became a PDF file and wouldn't upload. 


 This is the photo collage I did after e went to Montana de Oro.  Not really large enough.  The one below is my Dazzle as a yearling.  I  miss them both.






  And Josie The Mule, who is pining and calling for her missing buddy.
Now here are some pix of the barn during our cleaning and dismantling, getting ready for the new lambing pens.


 During

 Almost done

Our barn is only 24' wide x 36' long.  That was the entire flat area available.  Can you tell that DH worked for a power company?  The brn is build of cross srms.  The DWP training center as moving from one location to another and ere getting rid of all the cross arms and pole butts at that location.  We made lots of trips bringing home all the cross arms and pole butts we could.  That heavy creosote soaking has kept them solid for over 30 years.  Although the barn is small, we are the envy of our friends because hardly anyone here has an actual barn.  Most people just have 12' x 24' pipe corrals with partial covers and small open sheds for their other animals.  The weather is not severe enough to need a barn.  Our horses are lucky to be loose on 5 acres and we rarely put them inside a barn stall.  Actually the last time we used the barn for horses was when Jubilee foaled 10 years ago and we took the center panel out to make a 12' x 24' foaling stall.  Then she was outside and foaled on the field after all those weeks of bringing her in, wrapping her tail, and pampering her!  DS3 carried the foal inside while DS2 led Jubilee in.  She got confused and kept ting to return to the field and foaling puddle thinking her baby was there!  DH did the whole imprinting thing and had a lot of fun with both of them.  He never really enjoyed riding because of his bad knee but loved imprinting, halter breaking, trailer training, etc.  The foal turned into a lovely TWH mare.  Pitch black like her mother.  We had her professionally trained, and she won a lot of ribbons with the trainer's students on her.  DH gave her to our DIL last year because all her new riding buddies in Nipomo have Rocky Mountain horses which are supposed to be gaited.  She is the envy of that whole crowd because they have to make their horses gait. ???  All my TWHs gaited naturally even when crossing the pasture.  Skittles just goes down the trail at a nice fast or slow walk naturally.  DIL adores her, even though she and DH3 have 3 other horses.  Skittles is quickly becoming her favorite.  The others are quarter horses and will be great for the grandchildren once they start riding.  I don't approve of TWHs for kids because they want to do gymkhana, jumping, cowboying, etc.  TWHs are for nice fast trail riding by people who appreciate their fabulous smooth gait.  Kids just want to go fast, at least mine always did.  LOL

Well, all this talking about the horses, sheep, and barn has cheered me up.  Very cathartic!  G'night y'all.


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## RollingAcres

Sorry for you loss....


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## Wehner Homestead




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## Ridgetop

Hugs back at all of you.  We all experience similar losses, I am not the only one and my heart goes out to all of you who have shared these losses and sent me sympathy.


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## Baymule

Loved the pictures. Thanks for sharing the memories.


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## Baymule

I have 9 ewes and one ram. They are all named. Even the lambs marked for slaughter have names-Dinner. 

Since we live in Lindale and that is the home of the country singer Miranda Lambert, we have a ewe named Miranda Lambert. We also have Lady Baa Baa, Ewenique, Domino, Lucy, Lily, Eve, Lil' Cutie, Moon Pie and the ram is named Speckles.


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## RollingAcres

Baymule said:


> I have 9 ewes and one ram. They are all named. Even the lambs marked for slaughter have names-Dinner.
> 
> Since we live in Lindale and that is the home of the country singer Miranda Lambert, we have a ewe named Miranda Lambert. We also have Lady Baa Baa, Ewenique, Domino, Lucy, Lily, Eve, Lil' Cutie, Moon Pie and the ram is named Speckles.



Those names cracked me up! 
Lady Baa baa


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## Ridgetop

I bet they are all different colored or marked though right?  Dorsets and Dorpers are all white so harder to recognize without some sort of ID.  Maybe I will order plastic goat chains for them in different colors.  That way they will be instantly recognizable from a distance.  I will have to have some sort of extra links though for when they grow their wool out and be able to take them smaller when they shed out.  The chains will also give me something to grab onto if I need to lead them into a kidding stall instead of chasing them around and upsetting them.  Ideas come in the funniest ways!  Thanks Bay!


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## Baymule

They are Katahdin and Dorper crosses, all blotchy and splotchy. Lady Baa Baa is white with faint brown and black freckles on her ears, Lil' Cutie is white. But it is like a rancher I knew with a herd of black Angus, he knew them all by their faces.


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## Ridgetop

Yes, their faces are different and they have different expressions.  I will get to tell these Dorpers apart because they are so sweet.  It is easier to get close and personal with a sheep that wants to be petted rather than fleeing across a field while you give chase!  You also want to tell them apart when they like you.  LOL


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## Ridgetop

We have almost finished the barn.  DS1 wants to chip off more of the compacted area now that everything has been picked up and dumped.  7 more barrels will be coming up the hill from the trash collector today.  Now we are clearing the old milking shed (concrete block 10' x 20') and have emptied it halfway out.  The furniture was going to Goodwill, but now DD2 asked us to give it all to her boyfriend who is looking for an apartment.  Hope he gets one soon.  Moved the "keep" stuff (all DD2's) to the Convex container.  Found 3 unopened gallons of Iodine udder wash that I use for everything from milking to kidding/lambing, to general antiseptic for any injuries to my animals. I thought I was down to my last bottle.  The dairy supply store in Chino has gone out of business so I was glad to find them. 

Once the milking shed is empty we will put in freestanding heavy duty shelving.  The boxes of livestock equipment can go back in the milking shed up on the shelves, along with boxes of drywall tools, concrete tools, painting tools, ceramic tile tools and tile saw, etc. from the workshop shed (12 x 24). 

Once I started sorting out the equipment, I was pleased to see how much we have that will be usable in Texas.  I have boxes of rabbit equipment, water lines, misters, miscellaneous cage parts, nest boxes, 6 new cages still in the shipping boxes, and 6 cages that I should take apart to store .  Marv wants to set up another rabbitry.  We have hot wire with 3 plug in chargers, 1 battery charger,1 solar charger, metal rebar posts to drive into the ground with pvc pipes we made to slip over them for a temporary hot wire enclosure.  6 automatic horse waterers, along with floats for water tanks.  Giant boxes of horse blankets, hay nets, shipping boots, extra halters, pads, miscellaneous stirrups, leathers, bits, etc.  I will probably give a lot of this equipment to my DIL for her horses, since I am not riding much and only have Josie the mule.   Show equipment for goats, sheep, cattle, hogs, rabbits - pretty much what you would expect to find on a property where 4 kids grew up in 4-H with breeding flocks and herds.  They used to show their dairy goats at every show in southern California.  These are  destined for my son's children unless DD1 and her family move with us.  That does not look probable.  However, we need to do what is best for ourselves - they have their own family. 

DH was going to take a load to the dump yesterday, but we woke up in the night to 50 mph winds.  The tarp we had placed over the kennel to give the dogs shade when we need to kennel them was completely torn in half.  Lots of stuff blown all over.  Too dangerous to try to load the truck with partial sheets of plywood, etc. in this wind.  Hoped it would have died down today but still too windy.   

Our LGD, Bubba, seems to be a big baby!  He was whining and crying last night outside the kitchen door.  When we let the dogs in before feeding them, he was walking slowly with his head down and kept crying.  Kassy's boyfriend tried to feel his leg and Bubba growled at him so I took him to the carpet and laid him down to check his foot and leg.  He absolutely didn't want his leg and foot messed with so I put a muzzle on him.  I don't take chances and prefer to prevent any situation where I would have to punish dogs or horses.  Prevention is the key.  Anyway, I checked him and couldn't find anything wrong except a broken toenail.  Every time he rolled over or changed position he cried loudly.  I gave him some pain killers left over from Rika.  DS1 said his shoulder seemed swollen and it did seem a little hot.  It was strange since he put weight on his leg.  This morning he came running up out of the gully, and then proceeded to chase R
Rika around and try to knock her down.  DH and I cancelled our plans to take him to the vet.  LOL  I  will have to call Erick and let him know about this since these dogs are usually very pain tolerant.  I probably have the only 165 lb. Anatolian LGD that cries over a hangnail!  LOL  He may have caught his foot in something and twisted his foot/leg/shoulder.  I will keep an eye on him.

I got a call from the carriers today that my Sydell panels are in transit and they will deliver them next Tuesday.  That is a good thing since Sweetie looks really big.  Hoping for twins.  This weekend we will have to finish clearing out the milking shed, put up the shelves and move the boxes of equipment back into the shed from the barn.  DS1 plans to finish scraping another layer off the barn floor this week now that our barrels are empty again.  Then we have to lime the pen area, and set up the pens.  Actually, DS1 will have to lime the barn floor and set up the pens assisted by Marv since I will be in the hospital.  I like to do these things myself but DS1 is competent and has been raising livestock since he was 8 years old.

We did not buy the lambing pen sets from Sydell.  The combination creep/lambing pen/guard panels are useless in my opinion.  the openings are too big to prevent small sheep or hair sheep fro entering the creep.  I see that they now sell a bar that you need to screw across the openings if you want to use them as creep gates.  Obviously they had complaints.
I was going to get the 5' folding panels like I had 20 years ago.  The are the most economical, but I realized that since they weigh 43 lbs. and I am in "late middle age" they might be a little heavy for me now.  I decided to spend the extra money and buy the individual 5' panels and put them together in lambing en conformations.  Then we can rearrange them to make a large pen and creep arrangement later.  I did get another adjustable creep gate since these are terrific creep gates that can be adjusted as the lambs get larger.  The gate comes with an adjustable horizontal bar so the skinny hair ewes can't get through unless they crawl under.  I did have a Boer doe that learned to do that!  LOL

Now we just wait for their due dates.  I love lambing and kidding season.


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## Ridgetop

I have read through my earlier postings when I promised to tell you more fun Ridgetop stories.  I was sidetracked by politics, the evil bane of democracy.

Which stories would be fun to relive?  Here is one about one of our Weimaraners.  I have had Weimaraners since I was 15.  We always had a male and female.  Our first 2 dogs we had after DH and I got married, were  Rogue and Lisa.  Rogue took life seriously.  He would patrol the property every 2 hours - if DH was not home, he would up his game and patrol every hour.  Lisa would relax on the floor usually going out with him (we had a doggy door at the old house) but sometimes she would not bother.  If she heard a noise, instead of getting up and checking it out she would let out a sharp woof.  Rogue would leap up and run to check on the situation.  Lisa would lay back down.  It was just like "Honey, I hear a noise - go check it out"!  LOL  On the other hand she could be very vicious in a fight, and was an excellent watchdog in her own right.  I remember the two of them tangling with another dog and while Rogue went in from the front, Lisa came in silently from the back and slashed at the other dog's rear legs. 

I have been lucky in my dogs.  They were all wonderful and well trained,  I spent a lot of time making sure that they were well trained since I don't like untrained dogs.  When DD1 was about 2 years old, I realized that she had ben watching me with the dogs.  As she started to run towards me across the wet kitchen floor I automatically put up my hand in the signal to "stay".  She stopped dead in her tracks.  Astonished I gave her the hand signal to "sit".  Down went her bottom on the kitchen floor!  I had a perfectly trained 2 year old on hand signals.  Unfortunately she was not dependable outside the house and never really mastered the "recall" and "come to heel".  Does that mean that dogs are smarter than 2 year olds? 

Anyway, I think this s a good lead in to how we bought our first LGD. 

The rabbit barn was built, the yard fenced, the rabbit cages hanging with water lines in the barn, nest boxes in place when we heard a commotion in the barn.  We had put bells on our goats' collars so we could hear them moving around. We had had several stray dogs coming into the property even though it was fenced.  We were actually more worried about coyotes back then.  We didn't know that stray dogs were more dangerous to farm stock than coyotes.  The bells were to give us a heads up if they were attacked.  It saved them and our rabbits.  The bells were jangling wildly, and we could hear some loud noises in the barn.  Our dogs were barking in the hallway.  Jumping out of bed I called to DH that something was after the animals.  I had my shotgun.  DH was hopping down the hall trying to climb into his pants.  Down in the barn the commotion was getting worse.  We ran down and caught 2 stray dogs chasing the goats in their small pen and going after the rabbits in their cages.  Luckily most of the rabbits had litters and had jumped into their nest boxes.  We had left our dogs in the house so they would not get in our way in the barn.  We cornered the dogs in the barn and just as DH got ready to shoot them, I realized that he was facing the horse corrals right on the other side of the open barn.  The shot would hit the horses!  Realizing this, he handed me the shotgun, grabbed a heavy shovel and attacked the dogs who ran out of the barn.  Making sure that they were headed home we returned to the house. 

For the next few nights neither of us got much sleep.  Every few minutes I would get out of bed and check on the barn.  After 3 days I told DH this couldn't go on.  I had read about LGDs and they were just becoming known and used by ranchers.  The Idaho Sheep Station had done a study on their use, as had one of the large universities back east.  This was pretty much before internet, so I had to call the Idaho Sheep Station and got some phone numbers of people who had LGDs.  I spent much of the next couple days tracking down ranchers who were using LGDs to try to acquire one.  Nowadays I just go on line, then it was a real chore.  This was when shooting, poisoning and otherwise eradicating predators was being outlawed by the federal government. Many predators were being put on the endangered list, and new ways of protecting livestock were being looked at and tried.  Lights, loud horns, and finally guardian dog breeds were studied.  The dogs were the most successful.   

After several days of long distance phone calls, I finally I located a sheep rancher in Idaho or Montana who had puppies for sale.  This was back in the days of "don't socialize or pet the dog".  "Ignore him and keep him with the livestock at all times".  Seems silly now to think that this was how people were taught to use these dogs.  Anyway, the rancher said he had a 5 or 6 month old pup that was working really well and would sell him.  He was a Shar Planinetz Maremma cross.  Both parents were working on this rancher's place, protecting his sheep flocks from coyotes, cougar and bear.  A couple of stray neighborhood dogs would be no challenge.  I sent him a check and an airline crate in which to ship me the dog.  He called me back with the flight instructions.  On the morning of the dog's arrival I received an apologetic call from the owner.  there would be a delay in shipping the dog.  He had gone out to catch him and load him in the crate but when he grabbed him, the dog turned around and bit him!    He would have to drive to town and get some tranquilizers from the vet to knock out the dog so he could load him and ship him.  "No, no" I said, I can't have  a dog that bites it's owner!  I have small children around all the time and would need to catch the dog and take it in for vet visits, etc.  What did he do for that?  The rancher said that he did not ever socialize with his dogs since that would "ruin" them.  I asked for another puppy, possibly one younger.  he had one but it was only 10 weeks old and not a trained guardian.  No problem, I would take that one and he could ship it to me in a week. 

When the puppy arrived, he was very large, black with a white splotch on his chest and soooo cute.  "Now" I told the children, "we can't pet hi or play with him because it will ruin him as a guardian for the goats and rabbits."  The children looked at me and agreed.  The puppy sat at our feet and looked cute. 

Maverick grew and grew.  He liked the goats.  He liked all of us.  It was impossible to give him some caresses when feeding him.  he needed to learn his name didn't he?  The children seemed to find a lot of reasons to visit the barn and took a longer time over their chores.  In spite of our disobedience to the going school of thought, maverick grew up to be an excellent guardian dog.  I found out later that many ranchers who were told not to socialize their dogs had trouble with them.  The dogs would not let them work their flocks because they didn't recognize them when they came out to their far pastures.  One or two were badly bitten by their own dogs!

Maverick did a good job.  At 4 months of age he drove off Wellington, the enormous Doberman that lived next door.  This Doberman took a particular pleasure in pooping on our door step every day.  No matter what we did, complain to his owners, hose him with water, throw things at him, Wellington came back every day to deposit his gift.  Until Maverick turned 4 months old and decided that he did not want Wellington fouling our doorstep.  Not only did he make it clear to Wellington that he was not to poop on our step, but he was persona non grata on our property.  Wellington never returned.  DH was ecstatic - no longer did he have to check the step before leaving for work in the dark hours of the morning.  We never actually saw Maverick do any real guardian work, but no more stray dogs came on the property.  One day when I was working in the yard, I noticed 2 large stray dogs on the adjacent field.  At that time we hadn't bought it and it was not fenced.  Maverick, age 8 months, saw the dogs too and I waited to watch my guardian dog go into ferocious action against the interlopers.  Maverick strolled out to the field and to my shock began to play with them.  as they moved away he would stop and sit down,  They would return and he would play with them again.  Finally the dogs wandered off while Maverick remained on the field watching them go.  I did not realize it at the time, but I had been privileged to see instinctual LGD "play away" behavior.  Faced with 2 dogs Maverick had enticed them away from the sheep.  He was too young and while large, not full grown yet, so could not take on 2 mature predators.  Instead he had played them away from the property where his goats were.  Once they were safely on their way, he stopped playing and watched them go while maintaining his spot between the herd and the danger.  I did not realize what I had seen, I just thought that the "guardian dog" that I had paid a lot for (the dog, vet check, shipping out the crate and shipping the dog out to  me) had not attacked and dismembered the 2 strays.  I called the breeder to tell him that I was unhappy with the dog since he didn't seem to be doing his job.  The breeder asked if I had lost any animals.  I said no.  He told me to give the dog a little more time, and if I lost any stock to have the dog put down and send him the tail and he would refund all my money. He said that the proof of a good guardian was whether you lose stock.  If you don't lose any animals, even if you never see the dog do anything, he is doing his job. 

When Maverick was barely 1 year old, a cougar came down into our neighborhood.  Maverick had been circling the property all night barking his alarm bark.  Suddenly, the neighbor's beagles started baying.  Maverick's bark became almost hysterical.  Lady, our Weimaraner, began snarling and barking in the family room.  Alarmed, I jumped out of bed and called to DH to get his gun because something bad was out there.  Running into the family room I found Lady throwing her body against the large glass window.  The glass was actually bowing from the force.  Out on the driveway Maverick was going at it with something that was snarling back.  I opened the door and Lady was out like a flash to join Maverick.  Snarling the 2 dogs chased something big down the driveway and followed it down the road.  They paid no attention to my commands to come.  Up above us the lights were all on and the beagles were going crazy.  Down below us the snarling fighting duo chased something.  The beagle neighbor came out with a floodlight and shone it down onto the lower neighbor's barn.  Their mare had just had a foal 2 days earlier and luckily they had a proper barn.  The mare and foal were locked a stall.  The owner came running up the slope to his barn.  The dogs had reached the corral which was lined with plywood because of the foal.  It effectively stopped the dog but not their prey.  As the upper neighbor looked on in shock, the cougar in his words "flowed" over the 5' rails into the corral and disappeared from while the beagles bayed and Maverick and Lady snarled after the cat.  The mare's owner threw open the stall door to find his dark chestnut mare completely white from sweat and foam.  The foal was backed into a corner behind the mare as she faced the corral behind the barn where the cougar had passed.  Maverick and Lady, duty done, returned to the house.  Needless to say, Maverick retained his tail and I realized what a godsend a good LGD was.  We slept very soundly from then on.

Maverick was a good dog but only lived to be about 5 years old.  However, we had already gotten him a helper - a Pyrenees from a Basque sheep rancher in Bakersfield.  Sandy was the best LGD we had and 20 years of our subsequent Pyrs were measured against her - until our Anatolians.  Good LGDs are born not made . I am lucky to have had several good ones, and a couple of great ones.

I realize this post is not amusing, but it is one of the good memories we have.  By the way, amid all that confusion and shouting the children never woke up!  LOL


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## Baymule

Very good story.


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## Rammy

Stories like this make me wish I had more property to have a LGD. Maverick sure was a smart and a great LGD.  
It was funny to read you had trained your daughter to obey commands too.


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## Latestarter

Stories like yours are a great testament to the value of these dogs.


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## Mike CHS

[QUOTE="Ridgetop, post: 573704, member: 13018"

I realize this post is not amusing, but it is one of the good memories we have.  By the way, amid all that confusion and shouting the children never woke up!  LOL[/QUOTE]

Amusing also is defined as pleasantly entertaining and since many if not most of us can relate, they are all of that.


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## goatgurl

great story and in its own way amusing.  big and rose were my first pair of LGD's.  Anatolians that just knew what they were suppose to do.  when my mom moved here to the farm they decided she was one of their charges and guarded her too.  I worked 12 hour shifts at the hospital and the drive was over an hour.  I was gone 14-16 hours at a clip.  mom was in her late 80's at the time and here by herself, the dogs would take turns, one would lay on the deck to watch mom and the other would be out in the pasture with the goats.  if the pasture dog barked the porch dog would go help, if the porch dog barked then the pasture dog would come be backup.  I felt very sorry for the ups guy or anyone else who came to the house when I was gone.  spoiled, you bet you booty she spoiled them, did it ruin their desire to protect and serve, not at all.  I love LGD's


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## frustratedearthmother

I can't imagine NOT interacting with my LGD's...


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## goatgurl

me neither FEM


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## Mini Horses

Ridgetop said:


> couldn't find my old mare Cammie. 30 1/2 years young, dead on hillside.





Baymule said:


> Kudos to you for letting Cammie live out her life and giving her the retirement she earned





Ridgetop said:


> Hugs back at all of you. We all experience similar losses, I am not the only one and my heart goes out to all of you who have shared these losses and sent me sympathy.



Just catching up!   I am so sorry about Cammie and yes, allowing them their earned retirement is what we do!  Many of us have "been there" and can relate, doesn't mean we don't share the pain and even relive some of our own.  It is called love....that they gave us and we them.  It is why I have watched my retired herd of minis live into old age and bury them with respect as they calmly pass over the bridge.    Couldn't let my breeding herd go to "who knows" where/what after they gave their all to me.    For all of us who have lost them, the memories are great and our hearts hold the love forever.  We care, share & understand your pain.


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## RollingAcres

Good story


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## Ridgetop

Mini Horses:  Thank you, we can all relate to each other's shared sorrow.  They live short and we live long.  Maybe that is one of the punishments placed on mankind when we were ejected from Eden.

DS3 came down early Sunday from Nipomo (3 hours north).  He had mentioned to DH and me that he was looking for a flat be trailer to carry his (our) tractor "Big Blue" on, since toting it in the dump trailer was not legal and would eventually result in a ticket.  On the way home from bridge Friday, we stopped to chat with our neighbor.  He was putting a coat of linseed on the bed of his flatbed and mentioned he was selling it for $7200.  It was 20' with the ramps down, was only 5 or 6 years old, had only about 300 hours on it, and he had added a 2nd hydraulic ram.  Immediately I sent photos to DS3 and called him, he talked to Jerry and got the info (little of which I had understood after it got more technical).  Jerry offered it to him for $7000 since he was a friend and deal done.  GS3 arrived at 8:00 am to pick it up.  Then he came up the road and we loaded 4 complete 12 x 24 horse stalls on the trailer, and a few other items for him.  He also took one of the Red River arena panels home to re-weld it.   He called me this am to say that when he got home he fixed the panel and discovered 2 extra 12' corral panels so he now had enough for 5 corrals.   He also said he will have 13 - 10' arena panels for us, and some 4' gate panels.  He has some other odd sizes that were the holding pens and chute but is going to utilize them in other ay.  I only want the 10' panels and a couple of 4' panels for gates.  He is planning to replace his Red River panels with the horse stall panels and bring the arena panels down to us.  We like the arena panels for the sheep since they are 7-8 bar panels, even though the horizontal bars are only about 1" pipes.  We can keep the sheep in them without adding wire around the bottom which we have to do to the horse corral panels.

DS2 was also home for the weekend from his job in northern California.  It was so wonderful to have my 3 "boys" working together the way they used to do when they were young.  I got fried chicken and potato salad for lunch before DS2 had to catch his flight back up north.  After lunch DS3 helped DS1 move and reset our 4 remaining horse corrals to another loction so DH can get out with the little tractor and clean the area off.  Eventually we will set up more sheep pens there for night time use and ram pens.

Sweet Josie The Mule was so happy we were out there with her.  She watched everything and kept coming over for loving and ear rubs.  Yes, she is one of the few mules that really enjoys ear rubs.  My friend will be bringing her 2 mules up this week and hopefully Josie will be content again.  Maybe I can even start riding again since  my friend will be riding from our place.


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## Ridgetop

I checked udders today, and 7041 is developing an udder - Yay!  She is a FF and needs a name.  She is due November 13 - the first of my 2 new Dorper girls to lamb.  Little Sweetie 7088, also a FF, is due November 29, but showed a remark due date of December 22 so I will have to see.  Little Sweetie is bigger than 7041, but that doesn't always mean much.  She doesn't have much udder tissue, but another month will make a big difference on a first time ewe.  The 2 Dorsets have dates in between, having remarked, so they are now November 8 G4 and November 28 G4 and Y1.  G4 also shows that she possibly remarked and is due December 29.  Maybe she is just a hussy!  LOL  Dorsets are both 3rd time lambers with no problem lambing, but I like to keep them in when lambing so we don't have to climb into the gully to retrieve lambs and ewe.  Somehow a 7 lb. lamb weighs 50 lbs. by the time we reach the top of the slope!  No names since I plan to phase them out for my sweet and tame Dorpers who do not require any shearing.


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## Ridgetop

DD1 and grandchildren have named the large ram, formerly known as Lewis, Rambo.  The ram lamb, is now Alexander Lamilton, the 2 nameless ewes are now Ewegenie, and Sheepette.  I hope I remember the names.  LOL


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## Bruce

I'm like that with the chicken names DD1 assigns. Takes some time to remember them all even when there are only 6 new ones.


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## Rammy

My chickens names are Omellete, Over Easy, Scrambled, and the mean ones are Fried Chicken, BBQ Chicken, Crockpot..........Im sure you get the idea.


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## Bruce

We don't have any mean ones 
This year's batch are Aria, Arcadia, Vienna, Betty and Lana. Mira didn't show up one evening, don't know what happened to her.


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## Ridgetop

I think I will get some  marking spray and out the names in their sides.  I considered plastic goat collars, but when their wool grows out I will have to adjust the sizes.  I can just spray an initial on each side of them.  Instant recognition until I can recognize them by body and face.  Just have to order it. 

I tried to order Tetanus Antitoxin from Valley Vet and it is on back order!  Jeffers does not carry it any more.  I still have some old stuff, but it has expired.  I give it when we give the first CDT shot and band the tails.  If necessary, we will give the first shot at 1 day old and band a week later when the tetanus vaccine had taken effect.  I will continue my search for Antitoxin. 

My friend brought her mule and 2 donkeys up yesterday.  The donkeys are horse size riding donkeys.  DS1 had to move stuff round to get the 3rd stall ready since we were not expecting them until Thursday.  She had to go out of town on emergency family business.  Her animals go to shows constantly and are used to other mules and horses but Josie The Mule is only used to Cammie and Jubi lately.  I told her that I wanted to let them get to know each other in the stalls for a day or so before turning them all out together.  She thinks I am worried that her sweeties will go after Josie The Mule but actually I m not sure about JTM!  She can be a prima donna and if she decides she doesn't like them she is capable of chasing and beating them up.  Mainly I am concerned about Lacey who is extra sweet and older.  They will stay in the stalls until tomorrow when we are al hoe to keep an eye in them,  Too much aggression on Josie the Mule's part and she will go in a stall.  I really want them all loose on the field since otherwise I have to clean stalls.  

Josie The Mule was super excited when the horse trailer came and the mule and donkeys came out  She spent the rest of the day hanging out at the stalls meeting the new arrivals.  I did not hear any of the squealing that signals horsey spats, and my friend (who has had mules for over 30 years) said that mules are more companionable with other equines and rarely fight with newcomers.  We will see tomorrow.  DH did say that when he fed, that Josie TM ignored her feeder of nice alfalfa, and got in front of him as he tried to walk to the corrals to feed.  Then she wanted to eat out of the donkey's feeders.  Chery said that they all eat together at her house, so we will try feeding them in the 2 large feeders we have on the field.  If all goes well, we will have 4 clean, empty stalls with upside down water barrels, and 4 happy animals on the field. 

I hope they like my sheep.

DH got the tractor battery charged and will begin cleaning the old stall area.  He will dump all the stall cleanings over the cliff into our gully.  There is some usefulness to the gully.  OTOH if we had nice flat land, we could fertilize our fields instead of wasting all that nice rich manure! 

The barn is empty and DS1 will be making his last pass over the floor to make sure it is ready for lambing.  Then we will lime it.  The new pens from Sydell arrive tomorrow. 

DH wants to get in another couple of ton of hay before winter prices set in, so we have to empty the small Convex container in order to store the hay in it.  Luckily the milk shed is almost empty and the new shelving units are also half empty so I can move half of the container stuff into the milking shed.  The other half will be sorted for the dump and donation.  Moving right along on my goal of clearing out our storage containers!


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## Bruce

I bet JTM is really happy to have company!


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## Baymule

It is fun naming sheep. My last ram was named Prince, but  after he butted me a few times, I changed his name to Ramburger. He sure made some delicious ramburgers! Mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion...… now that's what I call proper procedure for a meany ram!


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## Ridgetop

My friend and I were talking abut old times with our children in 4-H and Fair.  Apparently I was not the inky hysterical mom back then.  I was surprised because she always seemed so calm, but she admitted to throwing buckets at her children in the barnyard when getting ready for Fair.  I chased DS1 around the barnyard with the lunge whip when he got too big and fast for me to catch him.  Aaaah, good times.  

Well, I don't know if it is going to work out with my friend's mule and donkeys.  By the way they are braying for their breakfast.  I like a donkey bray and a mule noise, I like a horse whinny too.  However, as I was saying it might not work out.

Yesterday afternoon I went out and put a flymask on Lacy.  She is about 20.  Then i decided to turn her out with Josie TM.  Out she came and the girls pranced away together.  Then Lacey started back toward where I was with the sheep.  As she approached one of the sheep she stamped her foreleg hard on the ground as a warning.  Instantly Josie TM came at her teeth bared, ears back, neck stretched out, and drove her off.  Apparently these are now Josie TM's sheep and she has constituted herself a guard mule.  Lacey wasn't too worried and Josie TM did not go after her, just stayed between her and the sheep.  The sheep moved away with me and I left the 2 mules out together.  At feeding time DS1 came in and told me that Lacey had been driven into the gully where she was hiding (?) or at least staying down in the gully.  He had to call her several times to get her up to be fed.  When he tried to feed her in Cammie's old feeder next to Josie, Josie went after her and drove her away.  He fed her in the stall and she went in to eat.

It is going to take a while to get them all out together.  I think I will put a halter on Raven before I turn him out with Josie in order to be able to grab him to put him back in the corral.  I don't know these donkeys at all so I might keep them in the stalls for a few more days first.  It means cleaning stalls, but no good deed goes unpunished.  

Starting on the tool/workshop today.  I need to climb into the loft and bring down boxes of square dance prairie skirts, blouses, and fancy western shirts.  Not going to dance again, so will give them to my friend for our old club and they can distribute them to the members.  The waistlines are adjustable with elastic.  Most of them I never wore.  They are very pretty so the club members should like them.  Then the baby gear  that I am saving for DS2 and DD2 can go in the loft.  Mostly stuff that is high dollar to replace and almost new.  It can be donated anytime, but since DS2 and his girlfriend are already 30 they will be needing it soon after they marry.  Also lots of boxes of books up there which need to be sorted and donated or stored in plastic instead of cardboard boxes.  Some of them have already been replaced on my Kindle but I can't afford to replace years of my favorite reading electronically.

The roadwork is finished and the delivery truck will be coming today with our new Sydell lambing panels.  DS1 has decided not to attach them to the current plywood panel on the side of the barn, fearing that it will not be strong enough to hold the panels.  Instead he is going to  put 2 2x4's horizontally attaching them into the barn wall studs.  Then he will install the pen holders to those. 

For some reason, all this activity and hard work as made me feel like I took a double dose of Prozac!  Hard work is good for the soul, especially when you can actually see the result. 

DH is donating blood today.  It means that DS1 and I will have to do the loading and dump run.  I told him he is not to donate any more blood until he actually gets the tractor running, cleans off the old horse stall area, and helps take another load to the dump.  The problem is that we have to use the truck to take the 8-12 trash cans to the pick up area at the bottom of the 1/2 mile hill road.  Regular trash and green trash goes down Sunday night and comes up Monday.  Horse manure cans go down Wednesday night and come up Thursday.  We need to load the truck in the afternoon so he can go sit in the long line in the am.  We play bridge Wednesday and Friday.  DH can only go Monday, Tuesday or Thursday.  BUT with our trash can schedule we can't load the truck Wednesday (horse manure can night) or Sunday (regular trash night).  Because the Red Cross calls DH at least once a month to donate platelets (a 4 hour process) he schedules it on Thursday which means he is unavailable to do a dump run.  However, DS1 and I plan to load and dispose of a truck load this morning. 

We really hoped that DS3 could have brought hs dump trailer up for us when he come to pick up his new flat bed trailer from our neighbor.  Sadly it was full and he has limited time to dump it himself. He has promised to bring it back with him full of our green arena panels and leave it here for us to use.  I love the dump.  So much trash gone so quickly!


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## Baymule

Herd dynamics…..always has to be a lead mare and she will defend her position. Since these interlopers are in HER pasture, Josie is letting them know she is the boss!


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## Ridgetop

I plan to let the donkeys out one at a time so Josie can impress on them that she is in charge.  I just don't want the gang of 3 to be able to beat up on her first.  I also have to go back to cleaning stalls today. Anxious to be able to let everyone out so less stall cleaning. 

Got up in the tool/workshop loft and removed all DS2's boxes stored there from when he went into military.  Then I got down 5 large plastic bins of square dance clothes.  Those full skirts take up a lot of room.  Half of them were never worn and I am giving them to my friends who still dance.  3 of the new ones are theme skirts, Halloween, Valentines and St. Paddy's.  She will love them, since they come with matching blouses - also new.   We used to have a life - we danced 3 x a week, played bridge 3 x a week, and I still rode my horse.  Now we play bridge 2 x a week and live with our adult children and help babysit our grandchildren all week.  When did we stop being lively vibrant young people with lives and become old fogeys?! 

Obviously this is something that snuck up on us before we knew it, kind of like some of the government regulations LOL!  We have decided to fight back.  We are working hard on our property to get it ready for our move.  We have been discussing new plans to move from here.  Possibly moving and renting for a year to see if we like Texas, or Nevada (DS1's choice, or Nipomo (DS3's) choice.  DD1 and family are no longer in the picture but will rent our house while we are gone since they can't find a house to buy, and don't want to remain in their rental.  If the rental Prop 10 about the state determining what you can charge for your rental passes we will not declare it a rental to the state since it is rented to family. 

Ewes are looking good.  Don't expect lambs until later next month.  DS1 wants to get into barn and set up lambing pens so he can move ewe and ram lamb into holding pens and do a deep clean on their stalls.  Then he plans to instill a small retaining block wall (with blocks that lock into place no concrete) below the rear small old goat pen and shelter.  DH s going to help him.  Then we we can put both rams together in that pen during lambing season. In a couple of weeks as soon as that is done, we can put the ewe lamb in with the bred ewes.  That will empty the barn pen with the attached creep for the new mothers and lamb.

Moving along slowly.  Mainly because everything we do here is either up and down a steep slope, or multiple flights of stairs!  Oh for the flat, green fields of East Texas.  Or the semi flat, occasionally green, sandy fields of Nipomo.  Or the occasionally green, sometimes hilly, pastures of northern Nevada.  Actually, anywhere green with water and flat land . . . .


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> We used to have a life - we danced 3 x a week, played bridge 3 x a week, and I still rode my horse. Now we play bridge 2 x a week and live with our adult children and help babysit our grandchildren all week. When did we stop being lively vibrant young people with lives and become old fogeys?!


_Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older
When, did, they?
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday when they, were, small?

Sunrise, sunset, Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze
Sunrise, sunset, Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

Now is the little boy a bride groom?
Now is the little girl a bride?
Under the canopy I see them
Side, by, side
Bless the gold ring around her finger
Share the sweet wine and bread per glass
Soon the whole circle will have come, to, pass

Sunrise, sunset, Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze
Sunrise, sunset, Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness, and, tears
(Sunrise, sunset)

Those were the days my friend, we sang and danced but now are older
 but no wiser, 
for in our hearts the dreams are still the same................
We'd live the life we choose
we'd fight and never lose.
Those were the days yes those were the days..._


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## Ridgetop

Love it! but it would have been better if you had been singing it!   

More work to do today but actually moving along faster than I expected.  DH picked up recharged tractor battery yesterday and started cleaning old stall areas with tractor after mucking out 3 horse stalls.  Also turned out one of the donkeys to see how it got on with Josie TM.  Raven had no interest in sheep so OK.  Another day should see Tool/workshop ready to remove 2 sets of industrial shelves there and relocate to milking shed which will become new storage shed.  Current shelves only 3/4 full.  Need to put heavy plexiglass over large window opening to prevent too much dust going into milking shed.  DS1 is setting up lambing pens and has cleaned out the old creep where e had the ram lamb temporarily.   Today he will clean up the ewe side of that pen.  Then he will set up the mini retaining wall below the fencing in the old goat pen giving the rams a small area with a 12 x 12 shed.  Finally we can turn the ewe lamb in with the other ewes.  I had to trim the ram lamb's hooves yesterday.  Keeping him on soft bedding was bad for his feet.  Today I will be able to trim her hooves which are even worse.  The others don't need trimming since they are out all day on hard stony ground.  I will be happy to get the sheep divided into 2 bunches so we have to only feed 2 pens.  Then we can get old ewe pen and creep ready.

The dump pile is gone.  DS1 and I loaded it while DH gave platelets at Red Cross.  DH1 took it to dump and DH took battery to be charged.  I found our battery charger in Tool/workshop when clearing out stuff next time he can just put it on our charger.   Can't wait until Tool/Workshop is empty and we can put out tools back in it.  All cupboards we installed to hold tools and supplies are empty since you can't get them open because of stuff just piled in shed!   

Soon everything will be organied again.  I am considering putting a lock on the door so that unauthorized (i.e. messy) persons can't get in.  DS1 and I will have only keys.  Get the picture?  Speaking of which, I will send more pictures of our ongoing cleaning efforts.  Seeing light at end of tunnel.  

Only 3 more storage containers and 2 lofts to go!


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## Bruce

Sounds like you have way too much to do, but making great progress.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Love it! but it would have been better if you had been singing it!


Probably been lots easier to sing than it was to live it.


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## Rammy

Sounds like a busy day!


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## Ridgetop

Still working on too/workshop.  Milking shed is almost emptied.  Shelves are in and all items sorted into containers and on shelves.  Lots of open shelves left.  Tool/workshop now emptied to point that I can get to walls.  large industrial shelving units in shop have been moved to milk shed and am sorting tool, equipment, nuts and bolts into jars, etc.  Lots of this junk came from Daddy's workshop when we cleaned it out after he died before selling the property.  Should have dumped more of the stuff at the time!

Sent a load of children's stuff to Goodwill, along with some lightweight plastic shelving units which we used to put the grandchildren's toys on.  Apparently they don't take any children's items anymore, including clothes, crib sheets, etc.  They also don't want anything that is not in new condition.  If it was in new condition I would still be using it.  Duh! 

So now all the stuff that is lightly used must go to the dump instead at $75.00 per load.  Actually, if I had a larger truck, it would have cost the same amount but for just one pick up load the minimum is $75.00.  I just got rid of a pickup load of wood and trash, now I get to start another dump pile with usable stuff.  I have a lot of trash wood from an old feeder in the lower goat barn so it can go at the same time.  Hopefully we can get DS3's dump trailer up here and toss everything in it.  It is huge and holds about 10 pickup loads.  We can get rid of everything at once with it.  With Goodwill getting so picky it is not really worth the effort and time to try to donate anything to them.  DS1 says it shows that California welfare is too high when Goodwill will not take any used items because the poor turn up their noses at used stuff! 

DS1 had new lambing pens almost installed in barn.  Dorper yearlings are HUGE and developing cute little udders.  Hoping for twin ewe lambs from each of them!  The Dorset ewes are getting big too, but since they are 3 year olds and have lambed several times before, their udders are still empty.  Dorpers are due next month according to my calendar.


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## Baymule

Goodwill turning down children's clothes? 

Lambs! I hope they have twins for you!


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## Wehner Homestead

Check for a local Salvation Army or maybe a church would take them? I know ER’s also keep a closet for people that need clothing when they leave there. Maybe a youth shelter or abused women’s home??


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## Ridgetop

Can't sleep so decided to look over this journal and see what stories I have not posted yet.  I was surprised to see that I got completely sidetracked by politics and complaining about the government! 

Here is another pig story, as you can see we learned a lot over the years. 

We also learned our lessons in the keeping of pigs.  NEVER keep more than 1 pig per child.  Have a large separate pen for each one if possible, although 2 can share happily if necessary.  Spend lots of individual time with your pig if you want it to be tame.  Our best pig keeping fun was with only 1 or 2 hogs at a time.  Luckily as they grew older, our children each developed affection for their favorite market species.  They all did the main family breeding projects, but then they divided into cattle or hogs.  DS1 and DS3 liked hogs.  DD1 did not.  DS2 could take ‘em or leave ’em depending on how he felt that year.  DD1, DS2 and DS3 loved veal calves.  DS1 had bad luck with his calves even though they were raised identically.  DS3 loved cows and raised 2 replacement heifers at different times.  We raised a lot more hogs for 4-H and our own table.  But mention Devil Pig at a family gathering and there is a superstitious pause, an ingathering of breath, salt is thrown over a shoulder, and then the stories start. 

One of our favorite hog raising experiences was a blue butt raised by DS3.  Our other children decided they didn’t want to raise hogs that year.  DD1 had graduated and was busy in college.  DS1 was getting set to graduate from high school, and decided to concentrate on his lambs.  DS2 was busy with his growing dairy goat herd, and would do lambs, veal, and market goats.  DS3 decided to do a single hog in addition to his other market animals.  Our Poland Spot breeder had retired and sold up, but after years in 4-H we had other contacts now.  We located a large commercial breeder 3 hours north who also bred and sold project pigs to 4-H and FFA kids. 

Arriving at the hog operation, we met the young owner who offered us a tour of his facilities.   Always up for a learning experience we leapt at the opportunity.  WOW!  He had the biggest boars we had ever seen, manure pits with water under the floors, separate pens with different weight grower pigs in each.  The brood sows were in model farrowing pens with their piglets.  He pointed out the farrowing bars – bars attached about 12” above the floor and 12” out from the pen walls, that enabled baby piglets to squirm away from the sow as she stretched out to feed her litter.  Sows are so large and heavy that they can crush their piglets against the walls of the pen without even realizing it.  The farrowing bar gives the little piglets room to squirm out of the way.  His feeding operation was also incredible.  It was completely mechanized and used giant turn screws to deliver a set amount of pig chow through giant pipes into each pen at specific times each day.  All his alleyways were gated at specific points making it easy for one or two people to handle lots of hogs themselves.  The days of many people wielding pig boards were over!  This was the future of hog raising! 

No, it did _not_ make us want to jump into raising hogs.  Large amounts of pigs, even in a model operation, still smell.  A lot. The owner walked to the project pig pens with DS2 and DS3 on either side of him.   As they walked he asked when their Fair was.  How many days to Fair?  What was the desired Fair weight?  What was the normal daily weight gain for a pig?  The boys had all the answers at their fingertips.  We were thorough in our training.  DH and I glowed with pride.  Now the $100,000 question - What weight pig did they need if the pig gained x lbs. per day?  This was trickier, since the boys had to do the math in their heads, not DS3’s best subject.  However, we under estimated them.  Apparently, they had discussed this in the car.  Over the years we had had pigs that we had to push to gain enough weight (add corn), and pigs we had to hold back to avoid going overweight (cut feed with oats).  DS3 proudly told the breeder the approximate weight he thought he would need for his Fair pig.  They had reached the project pigs by now and the breeder gave them another lesson on choosing a prime hog.  From hogs that were too small, to hogs that were at slaughter weight, the breeder showed the boys what they needed to look for in a Grand Champion hog.  Now DS3 chose his hog, a prime blue butt barrow. 

After paying the breeder and receiving the bill of sale, we all washed our hands.  Our picnic lunch was waiting in the truck.  DH pulled the trailer around and in less than 3 minutes the hog was loaded in the trailer.  No pig cart, no pig boards, no shouting, no pig mud!  It is amazing what can be done with a turn key operation!  We drove home, eating our sandwiches, to the tune of 2 boys arguing over the perfect name for the soon to be prize winning pig.

More later . . . .


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## Bruce

Goodwill here still takes used clothes, toys, etc. They don't take things like bead craft kits or things with filters. Or diaper covers which I find really weird since they take used underwear.

There has to be somewhere you can donate the things you have in good condition. Any refugee resettlement organizations?


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## Latestarter

Many shopping malls and grocery store parking lots have drop bins for clothes and such.


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## Ridgetop

I am amazed that they will not take the children's toys, or plastic shelves in good condition.  They also want everything in scrubbed (not hosed off) pristine condition.  Small scratches or wear on furniture is also cause for rejection.  Stuff that I would buy they don't want.  Either I am not picky or the 'under privileged" here are too picky.  My on sys they get too much welfare.  When we had our apartment building I added up the benefits a mother with 3 children gets - free 3 BR apartment (sons and daughters cannot share a room), free medical, food stamps, welfare money for self and each child, etc. The older children are entitled to free college too because they are low income.  The total income in benefits here in southern California came to the equivalent of a $70,000 annual wage.  Not surprising no one wants to get off welfare here and get a job.

However, I am not going to worry about it.  Regular clothes are still acceptable, along with smaller housewares.  My son was told that they cannot accept any children's items anymore because of "liability issues".  I got most of my best kid's toys (Little Tykes and Playskool) at thrift stores!  I understand carseats now have an age limitation and of course, you don't know if they have been in an accident when buying used, but toys?!  Really?!  Doesn't anyone know how to sanitize anything?!

Well, I have taken care of my Bridge club Agenda and announcements for Friday's Board meeting.  I am the club president this year.  This illustrious position entitles me to hear all the complaints from all these old geezers and gals when they are unhappy about anything.  The room is too hot, the room is too cold, the snack is not what they like, etc.  Just like raising my kids again!  Luckily, I have a terrific Board this year.  I am also laying down the law strictly about the rules hoping that my iron fist approach will keep me out of the position next year.    I have heard rumors that it is not working. 

Well, back to the Tool/workshop cleanup.  At least the weather has gotten cooler - low 80's.  I can see the cupboards in the workshop now - not long until I can open them and put stuff away!


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## Ridgetop

Still working on the Tool/Workshop cleanout.  More stuff sorted and boxed, i.e. concrete working tools, drywall tools, 3 boxes of assorted painting tools, electrical stuff, plumbing stuff, drip irrigation lines, 2 pressure canners and 15 boxes of canning jars - assorted sizes, 2 water bath canners and jelly/jam/pickle making supplies, rabbit cage parts 5 boxes, miscellaneous horse tack 2 boxes (more in large Conex), assorted tractor stuff, etc.  Still need to sort out the hand tools, power tools, Bosch tools in boxes, etc. and put them on shelves in Tool/Workshop.  Still, I am getting there after a week of straight sorting.    

Now, for a little light reading, back to DS3 and his blue butt hog, Hubert  . . . .  

Raising one pig – what charm, what joy, what ease, what fun!  The terrors of Devil pig were far behind us.  Many other hogs since then had come and gone.  We had learned a lot – mainly never to keep more than 2 at a time, and make sure they had a lot more space than the minimum square foot per pig required in "Everything You wanted to Know About Raising Pigs", Volume I.  Volume II probably corrected the measurements by adding a 10 in front of the square footage.  I did not have Volume II, but not to worry since we only had one pig in a space that had progressively gotten larger since the infamous 7 pig debacle.

We had our trusty scale, our pig cart, a 2-horse trailer, pig canes, the appropriate feeders and waterers, and the hopefully perfect pig.  DS3 was ready to compete for the ultimate award, the rosette, trophy, and title of Grand Champion!  

Looking at the pig classes you might think that all the showman had to do was follow the hog around the ring waving a cane.  And that is what a lot of the FFA and younger 4-H kids did.  It was certainly what my children had done during their earlier hog showing years.  Occasionally a group of children would converge on their uncooperative hogs who had bunched into a corner of the ring and proceed to beat them over the heads with their canes in a vain attempt to get them back out into the main ring,  The dads, armed with the ever present pig boards, would leap in, dispersing the pigs and children back into the general melee.    

However, over the years we had found that we needed training from experienced persons in showmanship.  We were driving 1-2 hours one way to receive lamb and goat showmanship instruction.  The same with DS3’s replacement heifer in a completely different direction.  I had purchased all the Purina show videos.  We had watched them for hours.  I had set up a large mirror closet door on the driveway for showmanship practice.  It was progress, but it was not enough.

We had noticed that some of the older kids demonstrated a panache, a debonair je ne sais quoi, during their time in the ring.  Somehow their pigs were always in front of the judge, turning to display porcine charms on either side, as if the pigs themselves knew they were parading in front of a judge of ultimate hog beauty.  Obviously, these exhibitors had an edge that allowed them to control their pigs with a meager little 24” fiberglass rod.   We needed that knowledge.

For DS3 and his pig to reach the pinnacle of success he needed to learn showmanship to a much higher degree.  A good showman can make a lesser animal look better, while a poor showman can make a champion pig look terrible.  We had the right teacher only 20 minutes away, practically in our own backyard.

Marcia was the 4-H leader from whom we had purchased our pig cart when her sons graduated from 4-H.  She offered to teach DS3 showmanship.  For years before they graduated and went off to college Marcia’s 2 sons had won both the market classes and showmanship classes.  Showmanship wins are almost as important as auction wins.  The classes are separated by both age and organization 4-H, FFA, Grange.  The winners of their species and division compete in Master Showmanship.  In Master Showmanship the exhibitors must show all species. The Master Showmanship winner is eligible to compete at the penultimate ***STATE FAIR***!    

Most project leaders ended up specializing in 1 or 2 species.  (Not our family, of course, but go figure.)  Marcia was the go to for pigs.  For the first 3 lessons Marcia came to our house.  Once GS3 had the basics under his belt we had to bring the boy and pig to her house for further training with her own project member.  This meant loading the pig into the trailer and driving to her house.  We had to back into the driveway and unload the pig then park at the curb since Marcia’s house, once in a rural area, was now situated on a very busy street.  I was undecided whether I was more worried that Hubert might get out in the road and get killed, thus terminating DS3’s plans for a triumphant win, or damage someone’s tiny car, making us liable for thousands in repairs.

Under Marcia’s tutelage DS3 learned to move Hubert around with his cane.  We had a lightweight bamboo cane my Daddy had found in his garage and given to the kids for their pigs.  I had also bought new fiberglass pig canes – 24” lightweight rods.  Pig canes are used to guide the pig around the ring.  The term “caning your pig” does not mean beating at it with your cane.  DS3 was determined to do well at Fair with Hubert.  He practiced every day.  He exercised Hubert by running him on the field.  This included DS3 and DS2 riding the pig.  Riding your pig is a sport much favored by small 4-H boys.  Not so much by 4-H mothers as it results in torn clothing and occasional blood.  Hubert was a mild natured pig who became very attached to our family.   During a family work party in the barn I came up to the house for something and found a happy Hubert grunting his way down the hall.  He had left a trail of pig mud along one wall.  Upon being summoned, DS3 was surprised to realize that he and DS2 must have forgotten to lock Hubert back up after playing with him.  DS3 felt that Hubert must have been looking him and had tracked him into the house, especially since Hubert was discovered trying to enter his bedroom.  In spite of his protests that we should overlook DS3’s irresponsibility and admire Hubert’s obviously high IQ, DS3 was handed a bucket, brush, and towel after he had returned Hubert to his pen.

The pig cane is used as a guide to point toward where you want the pig to head.  The whole idea is for the pig to be guided back and forth in front of the judge so the judge can admire its perfection.  You always want to have your animal looking its best when the judge suddenly looks at it so you always have to be working at presenting your animal at all times.  In the lamb-goat-cattle show ring the animals are led in a circle and the judge turns to look at them.  Then you stop and set up your animal and the judge feels the animal’s structure and meat.  In the pig ring, the hogs mill around while the judge walks through them, or stands watching.  The good showman guides his pig to a spot about 6’ from the judge.  Any closer and the judge cannot see the pig’s length, any further and the pig disappears in a swarm of pigs and exhibitors.  The good showman keeps his hog moving slowly in front of the judge so the judge can admire his structure and see that he has no flaws.  The pig that is hiding in a corner, or hidden behind 10 other hogs, cannot be seen to be appreciated.

Since we are talking about hogs, often this is wishful thinking.  Our local Grange allowed children starting at age 5 to show _all_ large livestock.  Because 5 year olds simply follow their hogs around the ring while their parents look on proudly, most of the Grange parents started their 5 year olds on hogs.  It was considered the "easiest" animal to show because the parents pushed it to the ring in the pig cart, turned it loose, and shoved their child in after it.  Some of the smallest Grange kids had heavy canes with which they smacked their pigs over the head, probably because the canes were larger than they were and so heavy they could barely lift them.  Hogs, possibly mistaking a thump from a cane for an attack by another hog, started fights in the ring causing dads with pig boards to rush to separate them and prevent children from being bitten.  Occasionally a dad was a casualty.  Canes  waved wildly, and sometimes landed on other exhibitors as well as hogs.  Often there were tears.  It was complete pandemonium until the judge weeded out the class.   Once the class was thinned out the older Grange exhibitors had a chance to show their pigs without danger.  The Grange hog classes always drew a_ large_ crowd of spectators.  It was good entertainment and those of us not in the ring with pig boards enjoyed the show.   

Luckily, the pig classes were divided according to Grange, FFA, and 4-H, so DS3 would not be in the ring with the Grange exhibitors. 

When it came time for Fair, Hubert was loaded into his pig cart and scrubbed with a brush till his skin was positively rosy.  His coarse pig bristles were shaved off, and he was rubbed with sunscreen lotion to prevent sunburn.  Light skinned pigs get sunburned easily.  They become very cranky since they hurt and are not pleasant to show.  We wanted Hubert to be in his normal mellow mood.  At the fair grounds Hubert had a pen all to himself since he was the only market pig entry from our club.  This was a good thing since strange hogs abruptly penned together will fight.  DS3 used most of the shavings we had brought with us for Hubert's pen.  This caused harsh words from his sister and brothers who now had no shavings for their livestock pens, and a tongue lashing from myself because I had to go pick up another load of shavings.  DS3 ignored us all as he proudly hung up his information card above the pen holding his beloved Hubert.  Serene in his soft shaving filled sty, his water barrel with Lixit valve in place,  J feeder brimming with feed, Hubert’s world was a happy one.  DS3 spent much of his time at that Fair with Hubert.

When it was show time, Marcia was on hand to cheer on her protégé.  As DS3 entered the ring with Hubert, he had a look of intense concentration on his face.  Hubert looked great, his little piggy eyes shone with complacency, his skin gleamed.  He knew he looked good.  DS3 kept Hubert moving around the judge, about 6' away from him.  The judge kept looking at all the hogs but his eyes kept coming back to DS3 and Hubert.  I actually had my eyes shut when the judge awarded the 4-H Champion ribbon to DS3 and Hubert!  

Although DS3 did not win the coveted Grand Champion or even Reserve Grand Champion placing, he did come in 3rd out of about 100 hogs with his 4-H Champion award.  DS3 also won 1st place in 4-H Showmanship which meant even more to him since it won him a place in the Master Showmanship competition!  His hard work paid off and he was very proud of himself.


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## Ron Bequeath

Sorry but I still enjoy the old box phones on the wall with the crank. Agnus knew every buddies business back then but gee, you say something to a friend now a days and an add comes up for you to buy something you just talked about. And who knows whose listening in.


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## Devonviolet

WOW!!!  What a great story!!!  I wasn’t aware so much was involved in learning how to show livestock animals.  Way to go DS3!!!


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## Latestarter

It's nice that you have such wonderful memories to recall and relive. If only it were more realistic/feasible for folks to be able to raise families the way that you did. I think we'd be a lot better as a nation and people had we done so.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Thanks so much for sharing.  Reading stories like this is so nice, especially after the headlines can get so depressing.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> A good showman can make a lesser animal look better, while a poor showman can make a champion pig look terrible.


Showmanship award notwithstanding, A good judge tho, will see right thru that 'intangible' and focus only on the traits the animal actually exhibits. 
(Admittedly, I go to the fairs to see the animals, not so much the kids, just as  I go to car shows to see the cars & not the scantily clad young women draped across the fenders and hoods)


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## Latestarter

Well gosh GB, I'd have thought all of that would go without saying... But then why not enjoy both?  Like getting ice cream... you go for that, the toppings are a bonus.


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## greybeard

Latestarter said:


> Well gosh GB, I'd have thought all of that would go without saying... But then why not enjoy both?  Like getting ice cream... you go for that, the toppings are a bonus.


I don't put toppings on BlueBell. It's already perfect, but if they handed BB out at car shows or 4h judging, I go to a whole lot more of both. I ain't cheap, but I CAN be had.......


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## Ridgetop

We gave up a lot to raise our kids the way we did.  No new cars, no vacations until we found a 4-H mom willing to become my milk tester for DHIR.  Then we were able to camp at the beach for a week.  That was the only time my kids got soda.  Too expensive otherwise.  When DH's parents came to visit they brought sugary brands of cereal to my kids as a "treat".  Otherwise cereal was too expensive, they ate oatmeal, French toast (you could still get "day old" bread then and I had 3 freezers, chickens, and goat milk) and pancakes.  At supper I made scratch biscuits to fill everyone up.  At the old house we ate everything out of the garden, at the new one we raised our own meat.  I had our shoes resoled, patched and sewed our clothes, etc.  I was lucky to have been raised by my grandmother who instilled in me the depression mentality:

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."   

The kids had 1 pair of shoes (which actually made it easier to keep track of them, LOL) in the winter, and a pair of sandals in the summers.  The only new clothes we routinely had to buy were white jeans and shirts for 4-H showmanship, and all the 4-H parents used to trade back and forth!  My children never went to the mall, and they _earned_ the prize money they won at Fairs - we didn't give allowances for chores.  They had to work for their suppers!  LOL  By the time they were 12 they were already working at jobs, feeding livestock and cleaning pens for neighbors on vacation babysitting, etc.  1 week at 4-H summer camp and they earned scholarships and the money to pay for it.  I never put them into any summer programs, summer was for relaxing for me - no driving to school!  We had a huge Doughboy pool, horses, miles of trails, and their friends were always welcome at our house.  Chores had to be done by 9am and then they had the day free until evening milking.  Chores took 2 hours am and 2 hours pm daily.

We were strict parents, but our kids worked hard and learned a good work ethic.  Most importantly, they say they had a wonderful childhood!


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## Ridgetop

This morning about to leave for Bridge club when got a call that a hiker had seen a loose mule running in our neighborhood, was it ours?  Ran outside to count ears, but all were where they were supposed to be.  Not sure whose mule it could have been since most of the mule people live southwest of the boulevard.  Our friend, whose mule and 2 donkeys are at our house, got a call from her daughter in the afternoon with second tale of loose mule in different location "Cherokee Hill".  Neither of us every heard of "Cherokee Hill" location.  She told her daughter that no way could ours get out but called DS1 later and he reassured her all present and accounted for.  No idea whose mule it could be, but depending on the whereabouts of the hiker, if they didn't know the area and didn't see our fences they might have thought our mule was out loose.  On the other hand, the person reporting seeing the mule said it wouldn't let her approach which sort of rules out any of ours who love people.  Nothing reported on the neighborhood website about loose animals either.

Needed to put fly mask on one of the donkeys today.  He had a small cut and the flies were after it.  I haltered him and tied him, cleaned it out and doctored it, then tried to get his fly mask on him over those enormous ears!  No way did he want me to bend his ears to get them in the fly mask - it has donkey ears on the mask.  Finally, I went and got Cammie's mask and cut the horse ears out of it.  When I got back he had untied himself of course, and was waiting for me.   After several tries, I finally was able to toss the mask up over those ears and have it catch on!  I didn't play basketball in school for nothing!    Cammie had a large head (16.2hh) and this donkey is much smaller (13.2-14.hh) so I thought her mask would be huge on him!  I misjudged the size of a donkey's head relative to their body size!   It barely fit!  Anyway, at least it will keep the flies off the cut and let it heal.  He had it when he came, but it had almost healed because she had been keeping his mask on him at the boarding stable.   He was not wearing his mask when he arrived and must have rubbed it open again.  My friend is out of town for another 2 weeks so I couldn't wait for her to do it.  I am not familiar with her animals and am not too sure about the donkeys, and I know some mules and donkeys absolutely hate having their ears messed with.  Josie TM loves having her ears rubbed but then she is Josie The Mule.     Not prejudiced!

Happy Halloween everyone!


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## Baymule

I had a spotted jack that loved for me to make a fist and rub my knuckles inside his ears. It did a lot to tame him down and trust me. Donkeys and mules are notional, who knows what lurks in their mind? LOL

Love hearing your stories. You should compile them with pictures and present a book to each of your kids. You can do it on some of these picture storing sites like Shutterfly or Photobucket. Your kids could probably tell you a good site to use.


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## Ridgetop

OMG!  I am still so computer illiterate!  What are those things of which you speak?


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## Rammy

Ridgetop said:


> We gave up a lot to raise our kids the way we did.  No new cars, no vacations until we found a 4-H mom willing to become my milk tester for DHIR.  Then we were able to camp at the beach for a week.  That was the only time my kids got soda.  Too expensive otherwise.  When DH's parents came to visit they brought sugary brands of cereal to my kids as a "treat".  Otherwise cereal was too expensive, they ate oatmeal, French toast (you could still get "day old" bread then and I had 3 freezers, chickens, and goat milk) and pancakes.  At supper I made scratch biscuits to fill everyone up.  At the old house we ate everything out of the garden, at the new one we raised our own meat.  I had our shoes resoled, patched and sewed our clothes, etc.  I was lucky to have been raised by my grandmother who instilled in me the depression mentality:
> 
> "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."
> 
> The kids had 1 pair of shoes (which actually made it easier to keep track of them, LOL) in the winter, and a pair of sandals in the summers.  The only new clothes we routinely had to buy were white jeans and shirts for 4-H showmanship, and all the 4-H parents used to trade back and forth!  My children never went to the mall, and they _earned_ the prize money they won at Fairs - we didn't give allowances for chores.  They had to work for their suppers!  LOL  By the time they were 12 they were already working at jobs, feeding livestock and cleaning pens for neighbors on vacation babysitting, etc.  1 week at 4-H summer camp and they earned scholarships and the money to pay for it.  I never put them into any summer programs, summer was for relaxing for me - no driving to school!  We had a huge Doughboy pool, horses, miles of trails, and their friends were always welcome at our house.  Chores had to be done by 9am and then they had the day free until evening milking.  Chores took 2 hours am and 2 hours pm daily.
> 
> We were strict parents, but our kids worked hard and learned a good work ethic.  Most importantly, they say they had a wonderful childhood!


Too bad parents dont raise their kids like that today. Too much entitlement and think they deserve it even thought they havent earned it. My parents raised me like that too. I rarely buy myself anything new unless its finally worn out.  Good to see that some people still feel that way.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> OMG!  I am still so computer illiterate!  What are those things of which you speak?


Ask your kids!


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## Ridgetop

Well, y'all (notice I am practicing my Texan here) know about some of our previous animal raising episodes now so I am going to start the loooong tale of one of the most important things you have to do on a piece of property where I live. 

Fire is a threat to any one of us, but never more dangerous than on a farm where we store hay, equipment and livestock in buildings.  Hay and equipment fuel burn hot and fast and can spread to buildings and home quickly.  I live in southern California, in the San Fernando Valley in the foothills.  The brush is typical high desert brush with some creosote, and other high fuel varieties.  Our fire season is anytime after the rain (if we get any) has stopped and the vegetation has dried out - about a month after the last rain.  We also get a condition known here as the Santa Anas, hot dry winds that normally come in September but in the past 5 years have shown up any time they want to. 

It is hard to get fire trucks into some of these areas quickly enough to prevent the loss of homes and outbuildings so the Fire Department has instituted fire clearance footage.  Originally it was 100 feet from any structure, fence and road, then it became 200 feet.  Many of the structures that burn in our southland fires burn because owners have not bothered to do their clearance.  They like the privacy of screening brush or the cover it gives local wildlife.  When we moved in here 30 years ago, we had bevies of quail, roadrunners, and rabbits everywhere.  We even had deer here on the hills.  The 100' fire clearance reduced the quail and our roadrunners, a mated pair and their chick, disappeared after about 5 years.  The 200' required clearance eradicated them except in the distance.  We back onto 100 acres of uncleared brush which had not burned for 70 years until the Creek Fire last December.  I kept binoculars by the door to check on any smoke sightings, and we cleared.  And cleared.  And cleared.

Brush clearance is dirty, hard work on the flat.  We have slopes starting at 30 degrees and almost immediately becoming 60 degrees.  The horses will find a way down for the bright green grass, and the sheep and goats are comfortable on those slopes.  But they have to be cleared so we do it. 

One year we measured wrong and were cited by the Fire Inspector.  yes the Fire Department sends out inspectors and cites whoever they find in noncompliance.  They do not just trust residents to do their job.  Anyway, we needed to recut the acreage since we had missed the measurement by 50 feet, and a late rain has caused more stuff to start up.  We are in high desert type landscape, rain brings almost instant green.   A high school friend of DS2 and DS3 wanted to earn money for college so we hired him.  Eric is 6' tall and weighed about 190 lbs.  He played football in high school and also did shot putt.  Eric could only come on his days off, so DH, DS2 and DS3 started cutting.  2 days later Eric arrived to cut. 

We still have a good supply of wildlife in our area.  We have rabbits and ground squirrels everywhere, hawks soar, coyotes are a nuisance everywhere, and bobcats are also live here, although rarely seen.  While working the barn several days before we had noticed a large bobcat strolling up the dirt road behind us.  It was a daily thing.  He would go up into the 100 acres of nothing in the late afternoon, and return in the morning.  We enjoyed watching him strolling along unhurriedly, like someone just out for a casual walk.  They are  usually so shy that you never see one.  We told Eric that if he was lucky he would see this bobcat while cutting on the field.

The 3 boys worked all morning.  After lunch DS2 and 3 left to do something.  They returned in the afternoon just about the time Eric came up for a break.  He told us that he had seen the bobcat but
"I didn't know they got that big!"

"Was it on the road?"  DH asked.  "It comes every day?"

"No, I almost didn't see it at all" said Eric, "It was laying in the brush off to the side and a little down from where I was cutting.  I only saw it when it moved towards me up the hill."

"That is really strange' said DH "We only ever saw it walking on the road behind the gully."

"How big was it?" I asked getting a horrible premonition.

"Really big and it was a yellowish color so it blended right in with the dried brush" replied Eric.  "It started to make me nervous after a while when it kept slowly creeping towards me."

"What did you do?"

"I ignored it for a while, then when it kept getting closer I revved up the weed eater and sort of shook it at the bobcat and it finally ran off."  said Eric, "It went down the gully and jumped over the fence at the end.  Then I lost sight of it in the brush."

There was dead silence in the room as DH, DS2, DS3 and I stared at Eric.

"What was its tail like?" I asked, nervously.

"Really long" said Eric "Why?"

"Well, I think you were just stalked by a cougar" I said as Eric went pale and sat down suddenly.  "It was on the SHPOA notice website this morning that one was seen in several yards in Shadow Hills yesterday." 

DH, DS2 and DS3 erupted into laughter.  Eric did not cut any more brush for us. 

Lions are protected here in California and  have no fear of people.  The cougar proceeded to take 2 turkeys, a goat and a couple of pets before he returned to the National Forest several weeks later. 

They don't come often, but they do come.  We have had several encounters here, luckily my LGDs have chased them off.  the episode with Eric was after we lost our last Pyreees to cancer and before getting our Anatolians. 

One night DS1 was here alone and heard a big commotion of barking and growling in the gully.  He went outside to check it out and headed for the field.  He was startled by the horses bursting out of the gully and running madly across the field.  Next thing he knew, a large yellow shape flashed out of the gully followed by 2 Weimaraners and 1 Pyrenees.  The cougar leaped onto the chain link fence between the house and field. The dogs closed in, excited at having treed the cat.  The cougar leaped off the other side of the fence and raced across the field, scattering the horses again, and finally gaining safety over the perimeter fence.  DS1 was only 15 feet from the cougar when it burst out of the gully!


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## Ridgetop

I see once again I have gotten side tracked so my story about brush clearance will have to wait.  It is still cool so I want to get out and do more cleaning in the tool/workshop.  Temps here have been way above average - in the high 80's.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> measured wrong and were cited by the Fire Inspector. yes the Fire Department sends out inspectors and cites whoever they find in noncompliance. They do not just trust residents to do their job.


Coming soon, the same regs and forced compliance, to a Texas county near you.......


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## Ridgetop

If it saves homes and lives, it is worth it.  That is why we keep sheep and let them graze everything off to nothing.  Our sheep saved our property during the Creek fire.  That fire was driven by 90 mph winds and when it hit our acres with nothing to burn, it went _*around*_ us.  God was very good to us, but remember God helps those who help themselves.  We have always cleared since fire here is so dangerous.  This is the 2nd time a fire hit our property fence and skirted us due to lack of anything to burn.  Most of the homes that burned had not done their fire clearance compliance.  One family were evacuated, decided the evacuation was not necessary, went home with their horses, then when the fire came, tried to evacuate again, and one horse was injured so badly it had to be put down!  And again, the brush came right up to their house! 

 "Stupid is the sin that is never forgiven and always punished" - I just read that quotation yesterday - so true!


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## Mike CHS

Ridgetop said:


> "Stupid is the sin that is never forgiven and always punished" - I just read that quotation yesterday - so true!



That is pretty profound when you think about it.


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## Bruce

I think it is good that they check because you KNOW a lot of people have the "it won't happen to me" mindset and won't clear. ESPECIALLY if they know they won't be caught. But it is too bad they can't give you a warning first time rather than a fine. Especially if it is obvious you have been working on clearing the area.


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## Rammy

Or just tell you its not far enough clearance and give you so much time to fix it. Then if you havent, THEN you get fined. Just sounds like they use it to get more money out of people. Tax for this, that, and oh, yeah, this too.
Rights being taken away little by little. Nobody notices. Those who do feel they cant fight it. My Mom says, as long as people can go buy what they want they dont care. Government is taking away more and more all the time. Fining people for not doing something maybe the state should be doing is just one more way to get what people work hard for.


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## Ridgetop

Actually the fire Department is pretty good about it.  First everyone gets a notice of the deadline.  Then if you don't comply or you do not clear correctly, they notify you again.  Clearance has to be less than so many inches tall, and you have to haul off all the cuttings, clear dead stuff out, etc.  The deadline is usually in May, and the third notice of non-compliance is when you get fined.  DH has gone to the FD before when we have had trouble clearing in time and they have given us extra time due to the size of our property.   If you don't clear, or make any attempt to do so, then the FD will eventually send out a contractor to clear and they send you the bill.  We don't usually have any problem now that we have the sheep.  We only have problems when the rain keeps coming, clearing to sunshine, then raining again, then sunshine, causing the already cleared areas to regrow.  If we have a wet winter, we may have to cut a bit within the 200 feet from all structures, but not too much because of the sheep.  I think we had to cut some 3 years ago when we had a wet winter.  The good thing is we had plenty of green forage and the lambs grew fast.  The downside was that we had to clear a bit.  Our grown boys did a lot of it with us though so it wasn't too bad.  

But there are people who don't bother to clear and they paid for it last December when the Creek fire hit and burned some of them out.  Then there are areas of undeveloped land around homes that the owners are absentee and just don't bother clearing.  They are a problem.  Before we bought the undeveloped 4.5 acres next door, the owner never cleared.  DH and our sons would clear it to keep us safe.  We didn't want to take a chance on a fire coming and burning us out.  Sure we could have sued the non-compliant owner, but we would still have lost our place.  Better to do it ourselves and be safe.

I will be posting a story about our adventures in fire clearance after the children were grown, the 4-H animals sold off, and before we got our "fire clearance" sheep.  LOL  We tried a lot of crazy things one year before getting more sheep.


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## Ridgetop

Here are pix of my new Dorper yearling ewes, both pregnant for the first time.  They are getting huge!  They still have little udders though those are growing too.

   This is Ewegenie.  She is due on November 13.  See her cute baby udder.  She seems to have swelled out a lot in the past week!  Her udder has also developed quite a lot in the past week.
  This is Lil Sweetie (the grandkids named her Sheepette but she is so tame and sweet I still call her Lil Sweetie). She is the ewe on the left in both pix.  She was bigger than Ewegenie until this week, but her udder is smaller.  She is due on November 29 or December 22, since she remarked.  I don't know if the second marking is accurate.  Sometimes the ram get excited and just remarks the ewes for fun.  I will be keeping a close eye on her.  The 2 older Dorsets are big, their udders are mature but not filling yet.  They will probably not fill up until just before lambing.  This will be their 3rd set of lambs, due the end of the month sired by the new Dorper, "Rambo".
So excited about these lambs!  you would think I never had lambs born here before!  LOL


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> But there are people who don't bother to clear and they paid for it last December when the Creek fire hit and burned some of them out.


They paid and so did everyone who has the same insurance company when they got paid for their loss. Too bad there isn't an out for the insurance company when people don't do what is necessary and required to attempt to prevent loss.

Sheep clearing the vegetation, good reason to have your paddocks right near the house 

Only a bit over a week for Ewegenie, I see little lamb pictures in our future!


----------



## greybeard

Rammy said:


> Or just tell you its not far enough clearance and give you so much time to fix it. Then if you havent, THEN you get fined. Just sounds like they use it to get more money out of people. Tax for this, that, and oh, yeah, this too.
> Rights being taken away little by little. Nobody notices. Those who do feel they cant fight it. My Mom says, as long as people can go buy what they want they dont care. Government is taking away more and more all the time. Fining people for not doing something maybe the state should be doing is just one more way to get what people work hard for.



Someone "gets" it!
You can always fight it, but far too many choose to flee it, then carry the same attitude of acceptance to their new "Promised Land".

Support and Acceptance of the Nanny State is not at all what this country was founded upon.


----------



## Ridgetop

Hoping for twin ewe lambs to expand my flock!    Probably be single ram lambs.      But I have meat buyers so as long as they are healthy and the ewes give birth ok it is all good.  DS1 finished setting up the new lambing pens and creep in the barn so we are ready.  Lambing box is sitting ready next to the pens.  Just have to spread straw in them next week, fill water buckets and put them in. 

Still working on Tool/Workshop!  Sorting into containers, cupboards, drawers, tool chests, and labeling everything is taking more time than cleaning both the Milking Shed and Tool/Workshop together did!  But when finished it will be completely organized and we will be able to find whatever we want without searching through our traveling tool chests.  We use them to haul or tools when we go somewhere to work - they are still on the patio from our trip in August to Yelm!  I haven't been able to put anything away since a whole lot of "stuff" got shoved into both sheds last year.  I hate mess and clutter so this is really a relief for me to get this done.  However we brought a lot of tools back from Daddy's place when we cleaned out his big shop.  Some of them are very old and I have no idea what they are.  Probably some of them are from the days when he and DH used to be able to do all the engine work on their cars themselves.  DH will have to go through them and decide what he needs or wants to keep.  Then I can put them into bins, label them, and put them onto the shelves.

Will post Fire Clearance tale tonight, hopefully - if not too tired!  LOL


----------



## Mike CHS

It's always a good thing to get clutter under control.  My shop equipment has always been at the top of my list of things that have to get organized first.


----------



## greybeard

Rammy said:


> Too much entitlement and think they deserve it even thought they havent earned it.



Unfortunately, I have also seen far too many people even my own age or just a little younger that have that same 'entitlement' attitude. 
They think just because they exist, they are entitled to whatever someone else has or even what someone else might have coming.

Covet not!


----------



## Rammy

Tell that to my creepy jerk neighbor.


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## Baymule

Rammy said:


> Tell that to my creepy jerk neighbor.


HEY! GOOBERMOOCHER! OR WHATEVER THE CRAP I NAMED YOU, YOU CREEPY JERK, LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE!!!!


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## Rammy

Baymule said:


> HEY! GOOBERMOOCHER! OR WHATEVER THE CRAP I NAMED YOU, YOU CREEPY JERK, LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE!!!!


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## Baymule

Beautiful ewes! I'm getting excited too over them having lambs!


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## Ridgetop

Ok.  Up from the dust, got my labels printed for tomorrow's job, got  lot of the hand tools sorted and put in drawers.  Ordered a new hanging scale for my lambs.  This one is rated up to 660 lbs. (way overkill - maybe it will last!)Has an aluminum case, and 178 people rated it at an average of 81%.  Reead al the reviews, and several people said they weighed calves, (mini somethings), sheep and goats.  Hope it lasts longer than the last 2 did.  Got one from Jeffers and it didn't even last through lambing season.  Replaced it with one from Premier and although it got us through lambing season, it broke apart about the time we sent the lambs off to the butcher. At least I was able to get a weight on them before they went off.  I need to make sure that they are a minimum 100 lbs. for my buyers.  I probably need to raise my prices this year - I am selling for $200 each live weight.  I don't break even, but if I don't have enough to sell (we love lamb) that is ok too.

Anyway, this story I am going to relate (over the next several days) is one I wrote up for the Corral 30 ETI newsletter about 12 years after an El Nino year.  It is about our fire clearance adventures, and was written for the Shadow Hills ETI Corral 30 newsletter.  It is a true story, perhaps a little exaggerated, but definitely true.  I still have the scars.

In southern California Fire Clearance is a way of life.  For those of you who don’t have to do fire clearance, you are lucky.  Fire clearance is not just a wicked way government has of hassling us.  It is a necessity in a fire hazard area.  Those of us who plan to survive and keep our property secure do fire clearance.  Those who don’t, endanger themselves as well as their neighbors.  Here in southern California we have heavy tropical rains interspersed with warm, sunny days.  This means that our green stuff comes up and grows at a remarkable rate.  If you have ever watched time lapsed photography of the desert after a rain, you will get some idea of how fast our hills turn green.  The hills turn yellow and brown just as quickly, and our sunny weather turns it into tinder.  Fire is our enemy here, and we clear to defeat it.

Shadow Hills is an agricultural horse area.  Many people when we moved here kept sheep, goats, cows, etc. along with poultry.  Most agriculture has left us, but there are still a high percentage of horse people here.  Our topography is mountainous and steep although we are actually considered the foothills.  The lots are not large enough to warrant anyone owning a tractor with a brush hog.  We clear with weed whackers, on foot.  Most of our roads are narrow single lane private roads.  There are areas of unimproved land surrounding homes where it is difficult for fire fighters to access.  In southern California the lots are all small.  The San Fernando Valley has larger lots than the city proper of Los Angeles, but still to have a quarter acre or half acre parcel means you have a property about 2 to 3 times what anyone else in the city has.  We have 6 acres, with about a half acre of flat on top of the ridge.  Our barns and animal keeping areas are all carved out of the sides of the ridge.  Shadow Hills is within 20 minutes of the Burbank studios, 30 minutes to Pasadena and Glendale, and is very central to everywhere because we have 2 good freeways on either side of our town.  This article was written for residents who love Shadow Hills.


*                                         TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF BRUSH CLEARANCE
                                                              Chapter 1 – February*

          It is hard to beat life in Shadow Hills with its large properties, killer views, proximity to trails, and seeming seclusion just minutes from every convenience.  Summer shimmers under blue skies, winter brings purple clouds scudding over golden peaks, and the first rains bring magic to the hills, turning them green overnight.
          But before you know it, your hillsides, so softly green yesterday, become towering thickets rushing to engulf your house.  The Fire Department has started inspections and the brush clearance deadline is looming like an IRS audit.  Panic stricken, you turn your horses out to eat the weeds and brush.  As they start to gently graze you begin to relax.  You have months until the deadline.  Your horses will graze and clear it all for you.  After all, it’s green.  Horses eat green stuff, right?  Wrong!  Just because it is green does not mean that it suits the equine palate.  Our 4 equine buddies (3 horses and a mule) do not relish the green wild mustard, the nettles, or other native plants that grow on our hillsides in such abundance.  They want hay, _expensive _hay, carried to their stalls and placed reverently in their feeders.  Their idea of grazing is to buck madly around the field upon being let out of their stalls.  Then a quick gallop to the hay shed, where they stare at the door willing it to open and allow them access.  A suggestion that they might like to stroll down the hill and harvest a few tasty green mouthfuls is greeted with derision.  The occasional mouthful snatched from the rosebushes in bloom, especially when accompanied by a rollicking chase around the yard, is fun, grazing for a living is – well, work!
          It is a scientific fact in Shadow Hills that large properties _expand_ in size during brush clearance season.  Hillsides get steeper, and the earth’s orbit shifts, causing increased gravity during the months of February through May.  Clearing hillsides also gets harder as you get more mature.  20 years ago, as a young couple with 4 active kids, we bounded up and down our cliffside property with impunity.  Regulations were less stringent. Having large 4-H goat and sheep projects ensured that everything within their reach was trimmed.
          Alas, times have changed, years have passed.  Being big DIYers we rarely hired anyone to do anything.  We did it all ourselves.  Now with our children grown we have less help with brush clearance.   Bring retired we have less money to hire people to clear, and we resent parting with it to pay others what we can do ourselves.  As we hobble out to our steep hillsides with our tools, we see our horses and mule relaxing in their stalls, chewing that expensive hay, and staring at us with interest.  As we stand looking at the equivalent of the Grand Canyon that the Fire Clearance Code requires us to clear, we ponder how to get those four-legged freeloaders to earn their keep.  If we want them to do the work for us, we will need to be clever.  We will need a *CUNNING PLAN* *. . . . *

*                                                                        Chapter 2 – Still February*

*CUNNNG PLAN #1:
Day 1*
Do not feed horses and mule.  Turn loose on 4 acre field.  Ignore equine complaints.
*Day 2*
Repair hayshed door and tie it shut.  Leave horses and mule loose on 4 acre field.  Continually shoo them down hillside toward area to be cleared.
*Day 3*
Replace hayshed door.  Leave horses and mule on field.  Tell each other that it looks like they have eaten some of the green stuff.
*Day 4*
Build fence around hayshed.  Rebuild hayshed door and chain it shut.  Swear at horses and mule.  Try to chase them over to area to be cleared.
*Day 5*
Abandon Not So Cunning plan #1 and think of *NEW CUNNING PLAN. *

            With our hay shed/fortress now secure from depredation, our trusty equines are still our best allies in the brush clearance war.  The hunger plan failed but they have watched us bring food from the magic hayshed for years so it may not be entirely their fault.  Maybe they need to be _taught_ how to graze and forage like their wild ancestors.  (For food that is growing _from the ground_ that is, as opposed to foraging _in_ the hay shed.)  We decide to retrain them with our *NEW CUNNING PLAN. *

*                                                      Chapter 3 – End of February*

* 
NEW CUNNING PLAN #2
Day 1                                                                                                                                            *Scatter hay over weeds to be cleared.  Lead horses and mule to scattered hay.  Watch as horses and mule eat scattered hay and occasional weeds.  Congratulate each other on success of plan.  Watch as horses and mule leave area to be cleared, returning to practice mind control on new hay shed/fortress.
*Day 2*
Repeat
*Day 3*
Repeat
*Day 4 *
Repeat
*

*This plan works pretty well.  We estimate that the horses and mule will have the 200 foot fire clearance area grazed off in 2 years.  Regretfully, we decide to abandon Slow Cunning Plan #2 and think of a *FASTER CUNNING PLAN . . . .

To be continued






*


----------



## Mike CHS

I love your posts but I'm curious about a HANGING scale that is good for 660 pounds.  Who puts the critter in the scale.   

We have a digital scale that we use in our chute system that is portable and not very expensive that we have used for two years.


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## Baymule

OMG!! I am crying! Gasping for breath! That is so funny!!! 


You told me that you would like a smallish Tennessee Walker.....well I do too.....and I bought one today. Going to get her tomorrow. She is coming from a Kill Pen, skinny, needs feed and TLC. I know it's buying a pig in a poke, but I'll take that chance. I can't wait until tomorrow morning, I hope I can sleep tonight! 

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/meet-pearl-new-horse.38633/#post-576268


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## Rammy

@Baymule now you know what I go thru reading YOUR posts. Never be drinking anything when reading Bay's posts. Trust me.


----------



## greybeard

Mike CHS said:


> I love your posts but I'm curious about a HANGING scale that is good for 660 pounds.  Who puts the critter in the scale.
> 
> We have a digital scale that we use in our chute system that is portable and not very expensive that we have used for two years.


I haven't seen one in a long time, but the first livestock scales I ever saw used a set of scales where the animal walked over a big piece of belting on the ground, that was suspended from the weighing apparatus above.
A hoist just raised the belting up to the animal's belly, then took the weight off the animal's hooves and the scale and indicator above showed what the animal weighed.

For humans that can't walk, they're called a supine lift, and that old livestock scale was sort of like that.


----------



## Ridgetop

Yes, this is a hanging scale rated to 660 that was designed to be carried by sportsmen for weighing fish, deer, etc.  It is also designed to hook to a Troyer hoist which is a hoist that allows a small person to lift someone from a hospital bed, etc.  That is why it is designed for 660 lbs.  It was also used to hoist up larger amounts of weight in their shops using  forklift prong to hang it from.  I assume people hoisting heavier eights are using sine form of pulley hoist.  I did  not necessarily need to weigh that much, but the reviews stated that people had used it to weigh much smaller weights and it was accurate in 1/10th of a lb.  There were lots of people reviewing it that used it to adjust the pull on their compound hunting bows.  There were about 3 or 4 of the same scale made by the same people.  I bought the heavy duty aluminum case which was $49.00 on Amazon Prime.  I am anxious to see if it s as good as claimed since the last 2 hanging scales I purchased (to replace the one that we used for 25 years and I sold) broke almost immediately even though they were rated to weigh to 200 lbs. and came from well known livestock catalogs. 

This scale is the Rural365 Digital Hanging Scale 660 lbs. hook mini Crane scale for fishing, hunting, farm, Troyer, etc.  If you put it in the computer it will come up.  There are several models and several prices ranging from about $30.00 to $49.00 on Amazon.  I ordered the $49.00 model that was heavy duty but because I ordered the blue model it was only $47.00 Prime.  Go figure.  Anyway, I will let y'all (still practicing Texan) after the end of the lambing season.  By the way, even the unhappy reviews rated the company as excellent service since when they complained about it not working the company replaced it immediately!  The company is Modern Step.  Some people complained that the scale did not work in weather under 44 degrees.  Others said it did.  Since I don't lamb in that temperature, I was not worried.

We only use the hanging scale to weigh our lambs every week from birth until slaughter weight at 100 lbs.  It helps me keep track of rate of gain in the lambs for choosing keeper and replacement ewes, etc. Since I want the lambs in the freezer as soon as possible to cut my feed costs, I need to know as soon as they hit 100 lbs.  Since the hanging scale and sling can be packed away until each crop of lamb comes along, I prefer it to the walk through scale due to lack of storage space in our barn.  If I had more animals on which to keep track of the weight gains, I would invest on a walk across scale and build a chute.  It would be easier since I have to get DS1 to lift the lambs onto the scale when they get larger.  I should probably check out using a pully system - got lots of them in the Tool/Workshop.  Just found them and the come alongs for stretching fence wire.  I will be able to find them again too, since I labeled the bin where I stored them!  LOL

We used to have a walk through scale for our sheep and hogs (remember Devil Pig?) when the kids were in 4-H but we sold it and most of our other livestock equipment.  Storage is a problem for us since we live on a ridgeline with little flat space to put up buildings.


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## Latestarter

Storage is a problem for you? <scratching head> I've been reading about milking parlors and multiple storage sheds and conex containers (like 4 or more) and a barn and a porch/breezeway and gosh knows where all else you've got stuff stashed... You have a LOT of "STUFF"!


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## Ridgetop

YES!  And they are all _full_ of JUNK! - Well, tools, and animal equipment, and my kids' junk, and more tools, and feed, and hay, and furniture, and tools . . . .         you're right, I have TOO MUCH STUFF!

Really messy to partially cleared - Tool/workshop and milk shed -
 
But starting to get better!
 Half the old milk shed with the shelves in place and contents labeled.  Soon the Tool/Workshop will be cleared and sorted too.  I hope I live long enough to see it!


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## Latestarter

Good golly Miss Molly! That is a LOT of stuff! Will you be moving most of that stuff with you? You might need several moving vans! If you'll be selling a bunch of it, it may provide the funding to move the rest!


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## Ridgetop

Got to bring them.  It will cost more to replace all the tools, than transport them.  I _will_ give some of them to our kids, although the 3 boys already have tools of their own.  My SIL has a few tools but rarely uses them since he doesn't know how to repair anything.  We have multiples of drills, skill saws, sanders, etc. because of all the remodeling we were doing for years.  DH forgot why we had so many power drills, until DS1 and I reminded him that all 3 of us work on the renovations and construction at the same time.  We all got tired of someone sneaking in and taking the drill we were using.  Only option was to buy more power drills!  Then we did more and more renovations we started buying better, sturdier, and specific tools for whatever specific job we were working on.  We now have everything we would need to renovate a house or build a house from top to bottom.  However, we won't be bringing either of the 2 tractors.  I promised DH that he could have a new USED one!  LOL  Hoping to pick one up with multiple attachments that we will need on our flat or GENTLY rolling new place.  Might send DH to Greybeard for advice on what he will need in the way of attachments.  That man knows his subject!


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## greybeard

Cheap enough for sure, but..........I'm truly surprised 'they' even allowed you to bring such a dangerous and deadly instrument of doom, death and destruction into the state.
*WARNING:
This product can expose you to chemicals which is [are] known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to . www.p65warnings.ca.gov*



Ridgetop said:


> It is also designed to hook to a Troyer hoist



It's "Hoyer" lift. 
Troyer was MiniMe.

But, it has a "stainless steel _Load Receptor_"..............which is sales techno babble for the ring the S goes into. 

_

It doesn't take a linguist to realize this was written or at least translated by someone whose 1st language was not English.  I suspect it was by someone that is very fluent in Mandarin..

Kgs, lbs, newtons hold modes.
EXTRA EASY TO HANDLE: Insert batteries, set up pound or kg, hang the hook. Balance crane scale weights animals - pig, deer, buck, hog, fishes over 20lb, 50lb, 100lb, 600lb (game animal).
CALIBRATED MEASURING ACCURACY: 1 to 50 200 300 400lbs 600 660 lb (1kg - 300kg) weighting. High precision sensors of electronic scales can pull max of 660lbs load. Graduation increments of 0.2lb or 0.1kg.
QUALITY STANDARD OF SPRING SCALE: Heavy duty aluminum certified case. This mechanical super tool pulls mini trailer of pet or livestock feed for professional farming, lifting, fishings.
MODERN STEP LIFETIME GUARANTEE: 2-inch long LCD LED light display with a visual distance of over 10 meters, big screen and battery power. Weighing capacity to carry most of your farm, hunt or scientific industry needs.

Kgs, lbs, newtons hold modes.
EXTRA EASY TO HANDLE: Insert batteries, set up pound or kg, hang the hook. Balance crane scale weights animals - pig, deer, buck, hog, fishes over 20lb, 50lb, 100lb, 600lb (game animal).
CALIBRATED MEASURING ACCURACY: 1 to 50 200 300 400lbs 600 660 lb (1kg - 300kg) weighting. High precision sensors of electronic scales can pull max of 660lbs load. Graduation increments of 0.2lb or 0.1kg.
QUALITY STANDARD OF SPRING SCALE: Heavy duty aluminum certified case. This mechanical super tool pulls mini trailer of pet or livestock feed for professional farming, lifting, fishings.
MODERN STEP LIFETIME GUARANTEE: 2-inch long LCD LED light display with a visual distance of over 10 meters, big screen and battery power. Weighing capacity to carry most of your farm, hunt or scientific industry needs.


Is this scale made in China?

asked on December 10, 2017
1 of 1 answers

No, it is not. This hanging scale has parts from Japan (the load cell set), hooks, shackles and the body from Russian steel and aluminum. Some small parts from other places. All parts assembled in our factory under a strict quality control, in P.R.C.
P.R.C.=Peoples Republic of China

Well, we now know it is made in 2 commie countries so  if the 'small parts' are made in Iran, or N. Korea, that should just about include ALL our known enemies in the world........._


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## Baymule

GB you have a dry wit that is soooo funny!


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## Ridgetop

Last 2 I purchased were also made in China probably.  I hope this one performs better.

FYI:  My brother works for Boeing.  He was assigned to the far east for several years to work with their mechanics on assembling the aircraft Boeing sold to China, Thailand, and a few others.  The Chinese government complained to Boeing that the planes they were assembling according to Boeing specs were not able to fly.  Sean was sent by the company to check out the problem. 
THE CHINESE ASSEMBLY LINE HAD INSTALLED THE WINGS UPSIDE DOWN!


----------



## greybeard

greybeard said:


> 2-inch long LCD LED light display with a visual distance of over 10 meters, big screen





(maybe this is about Mini-me/Verne Troyer after all..... )


----------



## Ridgetop

Off to Bridge this morning but first, Chapter 3 in our ongoing Ridgetop Saga . . . .

*TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS OF BRUSH CLEARANCE* (continued)

*                                                             Chapter 4 - March*

            March arrives after months of recurrent rain.  The ice storms and flooding in the Midwest and on the Eastern seaboard do not touch us.  The economy is shot, unemployment rises, and home values fall, but in Shadow Hills life is serene.  Even the relentless rains of El Nino are welcome amid threats of water rationing.  Clouds gather and disburse, sunshine dapples the green hills, soft breezes blow.  Horses and riders appear on the trails, heedless of brush clearance duties.  There is still plenty of time for duty.  Hawks hang motionless on the air currents overhead, bunnies frolic in the fields, and coyotes sing in the hills.

The weeks of abundant rain followed by just as abundant sunshine has encouraged a massive spurt in the already heavy growth of weeds.  The brush encroaching on our homes begins to resemble the enchanted thicket from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.  Small children and pets are no longer allowed out of doors for fear they will disappear in the head high overgrowth and never resurface.  Tangles of thorny brush crawl over every surface.  You can almost see the tendrils growing!

Our faithful equines are still waging the good fight in brush clearance.  In other words, they are grazing _selectively_.  This means that the 200 foot clearance boundaries are not being adhered to.  With 4 fenced acres to wander in, it is probable that our four-legged friends are unsure which sections to clear first.  Or they just don’t care.  In addition, anything they have already cleared has already grown back.

Our first Not So Cunning Plan failed due to the lack of a Fort Knox type hayshed.  Our Slow Cunning Plan has promise, given several years.  We do not have several years since the fire clearance deadline is fast approaching.  We must train our equines to graze in specific areas.  We need a* FASTER CUNNING PLAN .*

*                                                              Chapter 5 – Still March
FASTER CUNNING PLAN #3
Day 1*
Purchase battery operated hot wire charger, T-posts, hot wire and offsets.  Set up T-posts and hot wire to enclose area 50 by 50 feet.  Scatter hay inside fenced area.  Put water barrel in enclosed.  Fill water barrel.  Put horses and mule inside.  Congratulate each other on success of plan.
*Day 2*
Repair hot wire and reset posts.  Buy new battery for hot wire.  Recharge first battery.   Fill water barrel.  Put horses and mule inside.  Horses and mule eat everything to the ground.  Or maybe they just trampled everything into the dirt.  Either way, the area is cleared.
*Day 3*
Take down hot wire and move posts to enclose another 50 x 50 feet.  Rerun wire and install new battery in charger.  Dump water barrel, drag to new location on hill, level water barrel.  Find second hose, connect to reach barrel and fill.  Put horses and mule inside.    Horses and mule eat everything to the ground or trample everything into the dirt.  Second area is cleared.
*Day 4*
Take down hot wire and move posts to enclose another 50 x 50 feet.  Replace hot wire and move charger.  Horses and mule knock down hot wire and we realize we forgot to recharge battery.  Run to store and buy solar charger.  Reset hot wire.  Our 2 water hoses will not reach new barrel location.  Back to store for more hoses, connect together, fill water barrel.  Put horses and mule inside.   Collapse.
*Day 5*
Take down hot wire, move posts, move charger, fall down hill moving water barrel.  Bring another water barrel since old water barrel is now at bottom of gully.  Put horses and mule inside.  Collapse, take aspirin, make appointment with chiropractor.

*Day 6*
Repeat Day 5

             Another Cunning Plan is effective, but too labor intensive with moving hot wire, posts, charger, barrel, and equines every day.  Slope to be cleared has now reached 50 degrees drop off.  It has also become too expensive, with having to buy charger, battery, T posts, hot wire, extra water hoses, replacement battery, replacement solar charger, aspirin, and massage therapy.  Our equine assisted brush clearance is becoming costly between the repairs to the hayshed/fortress and the expense of the hot wire plan.  Another CUNNING PLAN will need to be considered.

To be continued. . . .

Off to Bridge - then back to change and resume interminable clean out of Tool/Workshop.  I think the stuff may have attained life and is breeding down there.  There are lights in the Workshop, but I am starting to be afraid to enter after dark . . . .  (Spooky music - dark cellar - sinister laughter - the stage is set)


----------



## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Ridgetop said:


> There are lights in the Workshop, but I am starting to be afraid to enter after dark . . . . (Spooky music - dark cellar - sinister laughter - the stage is set)


----------



## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> THE CHINESE ASSEMBLY LINE HAD INSTALLED THE WINGS UPSIDE DOWN!


How is that even physically possible?


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## Baymule

More! More!


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## greybeard

Bruce said:


> How is that even physically possible?


It's not. I believe this was a bit of tongue-in-cheek embellishment. The holes and fasteners in the spars of the wings won't line up, so it would be physically impossible to even begin to mount an upside down wing to the fuselage,  nor will the piping interfaces of the fuel tanks (inside most wings) and the control interfaces that operate the ailerons and flaps, not to mention that the flaps and other control surfaces would be on the wrong side of the wing if it were upside down. And  since almost all wings nowadays are swept to some degree, the wrong sweep angle would be immediately noticed.
Then of course, unless it was an aircraft that the engines were rear mounted on the vertical stabilizer, the engines wouldn't mount begin to mount to the wings either...and would be facing the wrong direction.


----------



## Ridgetop

This was not a lie!  The Chinese just drilled new holes to me it fit.  Have you ever bought anything made in China that needed assembling?  None of the holes line up properly!  My brother was there and had to explain how the specs were to be read!


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## Ridgetop

LED readout on scale is not a problem since we will never be forced to read it from 30 meters away!  We will be attempting to keep lamb dangling in sling instead of killing itself falling out of the sling by kicking.  Weighing lambs requires split second timing, instant reflexes, and the masochistic need to immolate oneself on their sharp little hooves, thrashing heads, and leaping bodies.  More to the point will be the need to keep from being blinded by the LED readout if it is indeed that bright.


----------



## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> This was not a lie!  The Chinese just drilled new holes to me it fit.  Have you ever bought anything made in China that needed assembling?  None of the holes line up properly!  My brother was there and had to explain how the specs were to be read!



It's an old old joke that has been around aviation circles since I was a teenager. First time I heard it, the dummies were the Polish and it was a Lockheed C-130 product and their engineer that 'had to fly over and straighten it out'.
Next time someone tried to tell it, it was while I was at Headquarters and Maintenance Squadron 14, & it was the French that were the idiots, and the subject aircraft was a North American Aviation P-51 Mustang.

Never, no matter how many holes or where they are drilled, would anyone (no matter how dumb) attempt to install any aircraft wing on upside down.......just way too many problems besides the holes that would be evident even to a novice off the street. The wing's airfoil shape is a dead giveaway. 

The only possible scenario where an aircraft wing 'might' be installed upside down would be a bi-plane, but those haven't been built by any of the US manufacturers since the mid  1940s.


----------



## Ridgetop

Went down to the Tool/Workshop after Bridge today (before dark, of course) and while trying to sort all the tools that have reappeared in various boxes and buckets scattered around the floor, tried to open the tool drawer labled "Sockets".  It was a struggle since many years ago in a vain attempt to organize DH's tools I had dumped _all_ the loose sockets I found into the drawer of his rolling Craftsman tool cabinet.  The drawer was now so heavy I could barely open it, which meant that no one would ever put away any socket they had managed to wrestle out of it.  That must be why I find sockets abandoned in numerous places -  buckets of corral clamps, buckets of bolts, etc.  I also found 2 large plastic cases in one of the cabinets.  Lo and behold!  Both cases were almost full of sockets. 

Just so you know, back in the day when people still worked on their own cars, DH had a love affair with sockets.   We all have our favorite tools and sockets were his.  It solved the dilemma of Christmas and birthday gifts nicely but all good things must end and DH has no use for all these sockets.  We have small sockets that fit in our drills, and only use a couple of sizes for around the ranch use, mostly for corral panel clamps.  Our sons have their own socket sets which they guard from their father.  Needless to say they were a gift from their father.  He almost had tears in his eyes when he told them "Every boy should have a good set of sockets".  I _did_ have tears in _my_ eyes when I thought of the drawerful of abandoned sockets in the tool chest.

One of the sets I found in the cabinet were Craftsman sockets, and the other set was labeled Crescent brand.  I don't know about the Crescent brand sockets, I did not check them to see if they were USA made (it was getting dark and I had to get up to the house before the gremlins came out to play).  However, I remembered DH telling me that Craftsman sockets were  made in the USA and were one of the best.  These were old Craftsman sockets (DS1 told me today that the new Craftsman stuff is not very good).  There were also some "Proto USA" and KS USA sockets .  I don't know what brands those are, but they were also USA made sockets.   So I sorted out all the sockets that were made in Taiwan or Japan.  It took me over an hour just to sort them by brand.  139 of the sockets were made in either Taiwan or Japan.  I know there were 139 of them because my granddaughter wanted to help me in the barn so I had her count them.  I am giving those to DS1 to sell for metal.  Judging by the number that I am disposing of - 139, and the number of sockets left to sort through and size, there must have been about 400 sockets in the drawer!  Tomorrow I will check the Crescent sockets to see if they are USA made.  If yes, they can stay, if not, they will go.  400 sockets are too many for one man to own!  In my opinion 261 sockets are too many for one man to own but I will not deprive DH of all his sockets.  

Tomorrow I continue my ongoing battle with the Tool/Workshop.  It will not defeat me.  However, the labeling process is becoming rather tedious.  The drawback is that if I do not label everything, we will never know exactly where everything is and DH will never remember where it came from to put it back.  I am somewhat OCD about organizing things.  Since you might think that is rather an oxymoron considering how DIS-organized both the milk shed and the Tool/workshop were, once they had gotten that way I simply closed the door and pretended everything was tidy behind the door.   

Tomorrow the final saga in our brush clearance adventure.  We have been hearing rumors of an El Nino winter again.  Thank heaven for the sheep.


----------



## Rammy




----------



## Wehner Homestead

X2!


----------



## Bruce

I have to agree, one generally never needs more than 2 sockets of a given size (often you can use only 1 and need an open or box end for the nut anyway) and there aren't THAT many sizes even if you include metric and English.


----------



## Rammy

Maybe for him its sockets. For women its shoes. Personally, I only own one pair of sneakers at a time. Some people collect stuff. Nothing cooler than shiney new tools.


----------



## Wehner Homestead

Tools are a sore subject around here!


----------



## Ridgetop

Re:  Shoes - I used to buy elegant hats a la Princess Diana.  I lived where ladies lunched and wore hats to church.  I had a closet of stilleto heels too for work and church.  I loved them and some hats are still in my closet, but not 163 (found 2 more Craftsman sockets).  My discard total is up to 167 now after discovering another partial set and many loose in stuff we brought home from Daddy's place.

We need 2 depths because of the corral panel bolts compared to standard bolts, but really a full set of spark plug sockets?  That was in an old set of Daddy's.  I kept it since I really don't know about spark plugs and when someone decides to change one, and says DW fetch me my spark plug socket, I will need to be able to instantly produce it lest my reputation for knowing where _everything_ is should suffer.

I had already spent a week sorting and setting aside or disposing of non working tools and an entire wall full of miscellaneous nails, screws, nuts, bolts, washers, etc. sorted and stored on shelves in Daddy's huge workshop.  Have plenty of those waiting for me to sort them in my shed.  I will eventually have to sort out the various rusted screwdrivers, etc., and send them the way of the rusty drywall saws, frozen pliers, mastic coated putty knives, and other detritus that for some reason DH, DS1, and DS2 saw fit to throw into boxes and buckets for the trip home to me.  I wonder if that was the trash they told me they had no where to dump before coming home . . . .

I also sorted 3 boxes of paperwork that DH had previously placed in boxes "to be sorted" in the office.  He never has time so I did it this am.  Most was trash or old files so that was easily done before attacking the Tool/Workshop.  I actually thought I caught a glimpse of a work bench countertop in the far corner.  I turned quickly, but the junk was quicker and recovered it.    I did accuse DS1 of bringing more stuff in at night under cover of darkness.  He snickered but denied it.  At least the heat has eased off and we are in the high 70's here.

Now, the final chapter of our brush clearing . . . of course, we went through this for several years until we finally got our Dorsets in 2010.  We love our sheep!  And they taste good too! 

*                                     TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS OF BRUSH CLEARANCE* (continued)

*                                                                Chapter 6 - April*

             The Fire Inspectors are now a visible and threatening presence on our roads.  Ripples of uneasiness stir through the community as we confront our annual dilemma – cut now and risk having to cut again; or wait and risk not finishing before the deadline.  As we debate the pros and cons, we begin the search through the barn, sheds, outbuildings, garage, looking for the weed whackers, blades, clippers, gas can, rakes, etc. necessary to our task.  Those persons organized enough to _remember_ where they stored their tools the previous season get them out and gaze mournfully at them envisioning the back breaking labor to come.  The rest of us go to the hardware store.

            Sadly, despite the valiant efforts of our horsey helpers, our 200 foot clearances will not pass inspection.  We will have to pick up our tools and get to work.  Although our horses and mule still decline to go into the gully and eat the leafy growth, surprisingly, it would appear that _cut_ brush is a delicacy.

            We have learned this after stuffing 5 loads into our trailer and dragging it to the green dump, waiting in the long line of persons likewise encumbered with their own brush, finally unloading it, and returning home.  The entire trip takes about 2 hours because of the long line of waiting cars, although the green dump is only about 5 miles away.  We see our neighbors there, but no one speaks.  The doom of brush clearance fills our minds.  We are jealous of our places in line and when a commercial operator is waved in ahead us, there is a sullen growl of resentment.  Finally, it is our turn and we begin the process of unloading.  The cuttings appear to want to remain with us.  They stick and stab us while we tried to wrestle them out of the trailer.  Bloodied, we return home to anoint our wounds and continue cutting.

            One day, missing dump closing time, we left the cut brush in the trailer, planning to dump in the morning.  Next morning the brush pile was GONE, as if taken by the Little People during the night!  The horses and mule seemed to be grinning.  There were a few scattered fronds on the ground otherwise it might never have been there!   This is excellent news!  We now decide to just pile the brush where we cut it and let the horses and mule do their thing.

             Next morning, we find that leaving the brush piles down the hillside does not work.  Our four- legged freeloaders refused to venture down.  Instead they are standing morosely at their empty feeders waiting for us to bring them breakfast.  Annoyed at their laziness, we ignore them and begin cutting brush.  Shocked at our heartlessness, they stand at the edge of the slope.  Occasionally they stretch their long necks over to see if they can reach any of the tantalizing piles.  Then they whicker at us disapprovingly.   We will have to drag it to the top after all.  

             Apparently, not only is _cut_ brush desirable to our equines, but it also tastes better the farther uphill it is carried by humans.  As we struggle up the steep slope dragging large bundles of shrubbery, horsey faces appear over the edge of the hill.  As we stagger over the summit our four-legged friends greedily converge on us, jostling for the best position to snatch mouthfuls of the suddenly tasty stuff.   _Note:  Being jostled by a large horse at the top of a 50 degree slope, while dragging 70 lbs of brush, should be avoided. . . Note to self:  Buy aspirin._

             Although the horses won’t walk to the bottom of the hill to graze, they have cut down on the time it takes to load the brush into the trailer, drive to the green dump, wait in line, and unload the trailer.  In fact, there is no point in loading the trailer since our equines will unload it overnight and scatter the stuff around anyway.  Might as well just dump everything in a big old pile and leave it for them to help themselves.

              It seems our four-legged freeloaders have come up with their own *EQUINE  CUNNING PLAN. * We cut and drag uphill, they eat and scatter.

*EQUINE CUNNING PLAN #4*

*Day 1*
Humans weed whack brush.  Humans drag piles of brush to top of cliff.  Drop brush in pile.  Get knocked over by horses and mule.  Take aspirin.  Weed whack brush.  Drag pile of brush to top of cliff.  Shove horses and mule aside.  Drop brush in vicinity of first pile.  Repeat.
*Day 2*
Take aspirin first.  Weed whack brush and drag to top of cliff.  Scream threats at horses and mule.  Drop pile of brush anywhere.  Fall downhill.  Out of aspirin.  Repeat.
*Day 3*
Buy more aspirin.  Rake up scattered brush from previous day.  Lock horses and mule in stalls.  Ignore their repeated complaints and demands for release.  Repeat Day 2 activities.  Take more aspirin.  Call chiropractor for appointments.  Apply first aid to cuts and scrapes.  Listen to horses and mule congratulating each other on success of their Equine Cunning Plan.

            This Equine Cunning Plan has proved painful.  We have cleared only a tiny space and now need chiropractic treatment for our backs, and antibiotic cream for our scrapes and cuts.  We are out of aspirin again.  We decide to abandon painful Equine Cunning Plan and look for *Final Cunning Plan*.

*Chapter 7 – End of April*



*FINAL CUNNING PLAN #5*

*Day 1*
Call brush trimming service. 
*Day 2*
Fix iced drinks.  Relax on patio, enjoying restful sound of weed whackers in the distance.  Admire the sight of our sleek and beautiful horses and mule munching hay from their feeders.  Fix more iced drinks, perhaps even adult beverages.  Write check to brush trimming service.  Congratulate each other on success of plan.

            Our final Cunning Plan is successful!  After much trial and error, we have achieved our goal of equine assisted brush clearance and beaten the Fire Clearance deadline! 

 Now, anyone have any ideas about how to attach a manure receptacle to the business end of a horse?

Back to the Tool/Workshop!  I forge on . . . .




















*Chapter 6 – April*



            The Fire Inspectors are now a visible and threatening presence on our roads.  Ripples of uneasiness stir through the community as we confront our annual dilemma – cut now and risk having to cut again; or wait and risk not finishing before the deadline.  As we debate the pros and cons, we begin the search through the barn, sheds, outbuildings, garage, looking for the weed whackers, blades, clippers, gas can, rakes, etc. necessary to our task.  Those persons organized enough to _remember_ where they stored their tools the previous season get them out and gaze mournfully at them envisioning the back breaking labor to come.  The rest of us go to the hardware store.

            Sadly, despite the valiant efforts of our horsey helpers, our 200 foot clearances will not pass inspection.  We will have to pick up our tools and get to work.  Although our horses and mule still decline to go into the gully and eat the leafy growth, surprisingly, it would appear that _cut_ brush is a delicacy.

We have learned this after stuffing 5 loads into our trailer and dragging it to the green dump, waiting in the long line of persons likewise encumbered with their own brush, finally unloading it, and returning home.  The entire trip takes about 2 hours because of the long line of waiting cars, although the green dump is only about 5 miles away.  We see our neighbors there, but no one speaks.  The doom of brush clearance fills our minds.  We are jealous of our places in line and when a commercial operator is waved in ahead us, there is a sullen growl of resentment.  Finally, it is our turn and we begin the process of unloading.  The cuttings appear to want to remain with us.  They stick and stab us while we tried to wrestle them out of the trailer.  Bloodied, we return home to anoint our wounds and continue cutting.

One day, missing dump closing time, we left the cut brush in the trailer, planning to dump in the morning.  Next morning the brush pile was GONE, as if taken by the Little People during the night!  The horses and mule seemed to be grinning.  There were a few scattered fronds on the ground otherwise it might never have been there!   This is excellent news!  We now decide to just pile the brush where we cut it and let the horses and mule do their thing.

Next morning, we find that leaving the brush piles down the hillside does not work.  Our four- legged freeloaders refused to venture down.  Instead they are standing morosely at their empty feeders waiting for us to bring them breakfast.  Annoyed at their laziness, we ignore them and begin cutting brush.  Shocked at our heartlessness, they stand at the edge of the slope.  Occasionally they stretch their long necks over to see if they can reach any of the tantalizing piles.  Then they whicker at us disapprovingly.   We will have to drag it to the top after all.  

Apparently, not only is _cut_ brush desirable to our equines, but it also tastes better the farther uphill it is carried by humans.  As we struggle up the steep slope dragging large bundles of shrubbery, horsey faces appear over the edge of the hill.  As we stagger over the summit our four-legged friends greedily converge on us, jostling for the best position to snatch mouthfuls of the suddenly tasty stuff.   _Note:  Being jostled by a large horse at the top of a 50 degree slope, while dragging 70 lbs of brush, should be avoided. . . Note to self:  Buy aspirin._

Although the horses won’t walk to the bottom of the hill to graze, they have cut down on the time it takes to load the brush into the trailer, drive to the green dump, wait in line, and unload the trailer.  In fact, there is no point in loading the trailer since our equines will unload it overnight and scatter the stuff around anyway.  Might as well just dump everything in a big old pile and leave it for them to help themselves.

It seems our four-legged freeloaders have come up with their own *EQUINE  CUNNING PLAN. * We cut and drag uphill, they eat and scatter.



*EQUINE CUNNING PLAN #4*

*Day 1*

Humans weed whack brush.  Humans drag piles of brush to top of cliff.  Drop brush in pile.  Get knocked over by horses and mule.  Take aspirin.  Weed whack brush.  Drag pile of brush to top of cliff.  Shove horses and mule aside.  Drop brush in vicinity of first pile.  Repeat.

*Day 2*

Take aspirin first.  Weed whack brush and drag to top of cliff.  Scream threats at horses and mule.  Drop pile of brush anywhere.  Fall downhill.  Out of aspirin.  Repeat.

*Day 3*

Buy more aspirin.  Rake up scattered brush from previous day.  Lock horses and mule in stalls.  Ignore their repeated complaints and demands for release.  Repeat Day 2 activities.  Take more aspirin.  Call chiropractor for appointments.  Apply first aid to cuts and scrapes.  Listen to horses and mule congratulating each other on success of their Equine Cunning Plan.

            This Equine Cunning Plan has proved painful.  We have cleared only a tiny space and now need chiropractic treatment for our backs, and antibiotic cream for our scrapes and cuts.  We are out of aspirin again.  We decide to abandon painful Equine Cunning Plan and look for *Final Cunning Plan*.



*Chapter 7 – End of April*



*FINAL CUNNING PLAN #5*

*Day 1*

Call brush trimming service.

*Day 2*

Fix iced drinks.  Relax on patio, enjoying restful sound of weed whackers in the distance.  Admire the sight of our sleek and beautiful horses and mule munching hay from their feeders.  Fix more iced drinks, perhaps even adult beverages.  Write check to brush trimming service.  Congratulate each other on success of plan.

            Our final Cunning Plan is successful!  After much trial and error, we have achieved our goal of equine assisted brush clearance and beaten the Fore Clearance deadline.



Now, anyone have any ideas about how to attach a manure receptacle to the business end of a horse?




















*Chapter 6 – April*



            The Fire Inspectors are now a visible and threatening presence on our roads.  Ripples of uneasiness stir through the community as we confront our annual dilemma – cut now and risk having to cut again; or wait and risk not finishing before the deadline.  As we debate the pros and cons, we begin the search through the barn, sheds, outbuildings, garage, looking for the weed whackers, blades, clippers, gas can, rakes, etc. necessary to our task.  Those persons organized enough to _remember_ where they stored their tools the previous season get them out and gaze mournfully at them envisioning the back breaking labor to come.  The rest of us go to the hardware store.

            Sadly, despite the valiant efforts of our horsey helpers, our 200 foot clearances will not pass inspection.  We will have to pick up our tools and get to work.  Although our horses and mule still decline to go into the gully and eat the leafy growth, surprisingly, it would appear that _cut_ brush is a delicacy.

We have learned this after stuffing 5 loads into our trailer and dragging it to the green dump, waiting in the long line of persons likewise encumbered with their own brush, finally unloading it, and returning home.  The entire trip takes about 2 hours because of the long line of waiting cars, although the green dump is only about 5 miles away.  We see our neighbors there, but no one speaks.  The doom of brush clearance fills our minds.  We are jealous of our places in line and when a commercial operator is waved in ahead us, there is a sullen growl of resentment.  Finally, it is our turn and we begin the process of unloading.  The cuttings appear to want to remain with us.  They stick and stab us while we tried to wrestle them out of the trailer.  Bloodied, we return home to anoint our wounds and continue cutting.

One day, missing dump closing time, we left the cut brush in the trailer, planning to dump in the morning.  Next morning the brush pile was GONE, as if taken by the Little People during the night!  The horses and mule seemed to be grinning.  There were a few scattered fronds on the ground otherwise it might never have been there!   This is excellent news!  We now decide to just pile the brush where we cut it and let the horses and mule do their thing.

Next morning, we find that leaving the brush piles down the hillside does not work.  Our four- legged freeloaders refused to venture down.  Instead they are standing morosely at their empty feeders waiting for us to bring them breakfast.  Annoyed at their laziness, we ignore them and begin cutting brush.  Shocked at our heartlessness, they stand at the edge of the slope.  Occasionally they stretch their long necks over to see if they can reach any of the tantalizing piles.  Then they whicker at us disapprovingly.   We will have to drag it to the top after all.  

Apparently, not only is _cut_ brush desirable to our equines, but it also tastes better the farther uphill it is carried by humans.  As we struggle up the steep slope dragging large bundles of shrubbery, horsey faces appear over the edge of the hill.  As we stagger over the summit our four-legged friends greedily converge on us, jostling for the best position to snatch mouthfuls of the suddenly tasty stuff.   _Note:  Being jostled by a large horse at the top of a 50 degree slope, while dragging 70 lbs of brush, should be avoided. . . Note to self:  Buy aspirin._

Although the horses won’t walk to the bottom of the hill to graze, they have cut down on the time it takes to load the brush into the trailer, drive to the green dump, wait in line, and unload the trailer.  In fact, there is no point in loading the trailer since our equines will unload it overnight and scatter the stuff around anyway.  Might as well just dump everything in a big old pile and leave it for them to help themselves.

It seems our four-legged freeloaders have come up with their own *EQUINE  CUNNING PLAN. * We cut and drag uphill, they eat and scatter.



*EQUINE CUNNING PLAN #4*

*Day 1*

Humans weed whack brush.  Humans drag piles of brush to top of cliff.  Drop brush in pile.  Get knocked over by horses and mule.  Take aspirin.  Weed whack brush.  Drag pile of brush to top of cliff.  Shove horses and mule aside.  Drop brush in vicinity of first pile.  Repeat.

*Day 2*

Take aspirin first.  Weed whack brush and drag to top of cliff.  Scream threats at horses and mule.  Drop pile of brush anywhere.  Fall downhill.  Out of aspirin.  Repeat.

*Day 3*

Buy more aspirin.  Rake up scattered brush from previous day.  Lock horses and mule in stalls.  Ignore their repeated complaints and demands for release.  Repeat Day 2 activities.  Take more aspirin.  Call chiropractor for appointments.  Apply first aid to cuts and scrapes.  Listen to horses and mule congratulating each other on success of their Equine Cunning Plan.

            This Equine Cunning Plan has proved painful.  We have cleared only a tiny space and now need chiropractic treatment for our backs, and antibiotic cream for our scrapes and cuts.  We are out of aspirin again.  We decide to abandon painful Equine Cunning Plan and look for *Final Cunning Plan*.



*Chapter 7 – End of April*



*FINAL CUNNING PLAN #5*

*Day 1*

Call brush trimming service.

*Day 2*

Fix iced drinks.  Relax on patio, enjoying restful sound of weed whackers in the distance.  Admire the sight of our sleek and beautiful horses and mule munching hay from their feeders.  Fix more iced drinks, perhaps even adult beverages.  Write check to brush trimming service.  Congratulate each other on success of plan.

            Our final Cunning Plan is successful!  After much trial and error, we have achieved our goal of equine assisted brush clearance and beaten the Fore Clearance deadline.



Now, anyone have any ideas about how to attach a manure receptacle to the business end of a horse?


----------



## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Proto USA" and KS


For mechanic type work:
Proto, K-D (I've never heard of KS) some Crescent, the older Thorenson, Idestro, P&C/Plomb, Williams and of course the Snap-On/MATCO/MAC tool truck brands are professional grade tools. You can (and I have) made a living with them. Blackhawk was not a bad tool either, one of P&C's brands. Of all the hand wrenches I ever owned and still own, Williams beat them all hands down. Not pretty and shiny, but when you put a 1 1/4" Williams box end on a nut, the wrench was going to win.
(trivia--P&C became Plomb which became Proto. A competitor named Plumb (spelled with a 'u') is often confused with the old Plomb tools but was a vastly inferior product. The 'o' in Plomb was often stamped as a closed top 'v' or diamond shape.)

Even the older Craftsman, B&D and Stanley, Husky, TrueCraft wrenches, ratchets and sockets are at best, entry level brand or semi-serious backyard/hobbyist type toolage. Like some of my girlfriends from the bad old days...'ok around the house but you don't want to get out on the road with  'em'.
The newer ones? I have no use for them even at my advanced age.
Kobalt (Lowes own brand) fits in this niche as well. They're 'ok' but you don't want to risk a job or your reputation on them, regardless of what their ads and commercials tout.
Sadly, Stanley has now bought all P&C brands but hopefully hasn't put their crappy quality into the Proto line.

The big draw for Craftsman was always their inexpensive buy-in, their pretty look,  and their famous no-questions-asked return policy...especially for ratchets.

Newer Craftsman, Stanley, B&D (probably all one company at this point)  is not much if any  better than the Chinese junk you can buy at K-Mart.

Forget boxes and compartments for sockets. Buy as many socket rails of whatever type you like &  as you need for each drive size and be done with it:
(not mine but I use this type, tho I also have some of the metal spring types)





Don't get me started on the rather odd sizes of 25/32" or 19/32" wrenches and sockets, but I'm probably one of the few here that has used them for what they were actually made for.

Someone gives you a socket and ratchet set like the one below,  do 2 things as soon as you unwrap it from it's pretty Christmas/birthday/Father's Day paper. (3 if you count strangling whoever gave** them to you)



1. Take the sockets out of the cheap molded plastic box and put them on rails.
2. Throw the dam molded plastic box away because:
a. The  molded plastic latch will soon break.
b. The molded plastic hinges will soon break.
c. The sockets are not going to stay in place if you drop the cheap molded plastic box with the molded plastic lid open.
d. The cheap plastic molded box takes up too much room in the box you are actually working out of.

** Men end up with a crapload of this kind of cheap extra sockets because wives, children, sisters, grandchildren, and girlfriends (very possibly may all be the same relationship if location is in the Southeast USA) all think it's a cheap easy quick way to fulfill some holiday obligation instead of buying the guy what he really wants or needs.


----------



## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> Re:  Shoes - I used to buy elegant hats a la Princess Diana.  I lived where ladies lunched and wore hats to church.  I had a closet of stilleto heels too for work and church.  I loved them and some hats are still in my closet, but not 163 (found 2 more Craftsman sockets).  My discard total is up to 167 now after discovering another partial set and many loose in stuff we brought home from Daddy's place.
> 
> We need 2 depths because of the corral panel bolts compared to standard bolts, but really a full set of spark plug sockets?  That was in an old set of Daddy's.  I kept it since I really don't know about spark plugs and when someone decides to change one, and says DW fetch me my spark plug socket, I will need to be able to instantly produce it lest my reputation for knowing where _everything_ is should suffer.
> 
> I had already spent a week sorting and setting aside or disposing of non working tools and an entire wall full of miscellaneous nails, screws, nuts, bolts, washers, etc. sorted and stored on shelves in Daddy's huge workshop.  Have plenty of those waiting for me to sort them in my shed.  I will eventually have to sort out the various rusted screwdrivers, etc., and send them the way of the rusty drywall saws, frozen pliers, mastic coated putty knives, and other detritus that for some reason DH, DS1, and DS2 saw fit to throw into boxes and buckets for the trip home to me.  I wonder if that was the trash they told me they had no where to dump before coming home . . . .
> 
> I also sorted 3 boxes of paperwork that DH had previously placed in boxes "to be sorted" in the office.  He never has time so I did it this am.  Most was trash or old files so that was easily done before attacking the Tool/Workshop.  I actually thought I caught a glimpse of a work bench countertop in the far corner.  I turned quickly, but the junk was quicker and recovered it.    I did accuse DS1 of bringing more stuff in at night under cover of darkness.  He snickered but denied it.  At least the heat has eased off and we are in the high 70's here.
> 
> Now, the final chapter of our brush clearing . . . of course, we went through this for several years until we finally got our Dorsets in 2010.  We love our sheep!  And they taste good too!
> 
> *                                     TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS OF BRUSH CLEARANCE* (continued)
> 
> *                                                                Chapter 6 - April*
> 
> The Fire Inspectors are now a visible and threatening presence on our roads.  Ripples of uneasiness stir through the community as we confront our annual dilemma – cut now and risk having to cut again; or wait and risk not finishing before the deadline.  As we debate the pros and cons, we begin the search through the barn, sheds, outbuildings, garage, looking for the weed whackers, blades, clippers, gas can, rakes, etc. necessary to our task.  Those persons organized enough to _remember_ where they stored their tools the previous season get them out and gaze mournfully at them envisioning the back breaking labor to come.  The rest of us go to the hardware store.
> 
> Sadly, despite the valiant efforts of our horsey helpers, our 200 foot clearances will not pass inspection.  We will have to pick up our tools and get to work.  Although our horses and mule still decline to go into the gully and eat the leafy growth, surprisingly, it would appear that _cut_ brush is a delicacy.
> 
> We have learned this after stuffing 5 loads into our trailer and dragging it to the green dump, waiting in the long line of persons likewise encumbered with their own brush, finally unloading it, and returning home.  The entire trip takes about 2 hours because of the long line of waiting cars, although the green dump is only about 5 miles away.  We see our neighbors there, but no one speaks.  The doom of brush clearance fills our minds.  We are jealous of our places in line and when a commercial operator is waved in ahead us, there is a sullen growl of resentment.  Finally, it is our turn and we begin the process of unloading.  The cuttings appear to want to remain with us.  They stick and stab us while we tried to wrestle them out of the trailer.  Bloodied, we return home to anoint our wounds and continue cutting.
> 
> One day, missing dump closing time, we left the cut brush in the trailer, planning to dump in the morning.  Next morning the brush pile was GONE, as if taken by the Little People during the night!  The horses and mule seemed to be grinning.  There were a few scattered fronds on the ground otherwise it might never have been there!   This is excellent news!  We now decide to just pile the brush where we cut it and let the horses and mule do their thing.
> 
> Next morning, we find that leaving the brush piles down the hillside does not work.  Our four- legged freeloaders refused to venture down.  Instead they are standing morosely at their empty feeders waiting for us to bring them breakfast.  Annoyed at their laziness, we ignore them and begin cutting brush.  Shocked at our heartlessness, they stand at the edge of the slope.  Occasionally they stretch their long necks over to see if they can reach any of the tantalizing piles.  Then they whicker at us disapprovingly.   We will have to drag it to the top after all.
> 
> Apparently, not only is _cut_ brush desirable to our equines, but it also tastes better the farther uphill it is carried by humans.  As we struggle up the steep slope dragging large bundles of shrubbery, horsey faces appear over the edge of the hill.  As we stagger over the summit our four-legged friends greedily converge on us, jostling for the best position to snatch mouthfuls of the suddenly tasty stuff.   _Note:  Being jostled by a large horse at the top of a 50 degree slope, while dragging 70 lbs of brush, should be avoided. . . Note to self:  Buy aspirin._
> 
> Although the horses won’t walk to the bottom of the hill to graze, they have cut down on the time it takes to load the brush into the trailer, drive to the green dump, wait in line, and unload the trailer.  In fact, there is no point in loading the trailer since our equines will unload it overnight and scatter the stuff around anyway.  Might as well just dump everything in a big old pile and leave it for them to help themselves.
> 
> It seems our four-legged freeloaders have come up with their own *EQUINE  CUNNING PLAN. * We cut and drag uphill, they eat and scatter.
> 
> *EQUINE CUNNING PLAN #4*
> 
> *Day 1*
> Humans weed whack brush.  Humans drag piles of brush to top of cliff.  Drop brush in pile.  Get knocked over by horses and mule.  Take aspirin.  Weed whack brush.  Drag pile of brush to top of cliff.  Shove horses and mule aside.  Drop brush in vicinity of first pile.  Repeat.
> *Day 2*
> Take aspirin first.  Weed whack brush and drag to top of cliff.  Scream threats at horses and mule.  Drop pile of brush anywhere.  Fall downhill.  Out of aspirin.  Repeat.
> *Day 3*
> Buy more aspirin.  Rake up scattered brush from previous day.  Lock horses and mule in stalls.  Ignore their repeated complaints and demands for release.  Repeat Day 2 activities.  Take more aspirin.  Call chiropractor for appointments.  Apply first aid to cuts and scrapes.  Listen to horses and mule congratulating each other on success of their Equine Cunning Plan.
> 
> This Equine Cunning Plan has proved painful.  We have cleared only a tiny space and now need chiropractic treatment for our backs, and antibiotic cream for our scrapes and cuts.  We are out of aspirin again.  We decide to abandon painful Equine Cunning Plan and look for *Final Cunning Plan*.
> 
> *Chapter 7 – End of April*
> 
> 
> 
> *FINAL CUNNING PLAN #5*
> 
> *Day 1*
> Call brush trimming service.
> *Day 2*
> Fix iced drinks.  Relax on patio, enjoying restful sound of weed whackers in the distance.  Admire the sight of our sleek and beautiful horses and mule munching hay from their feeders.  Fix more iced drinks, perhaps even adult beverages.  Write check to brush trimming service.  Congratulate each other on success of plan.
> 
> Our final Cunning Plan is successful!  After much trial and error, we have achieved our goal of equine assisted brush clearance and beaten the Fire Clearance deadline!
> 
> Now, anyone have any ideas about how to attach a manure receptacle to the business end of a horse?
> 
> Back to the Tool/Workshop!  I forge on . . . .
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *Chapter 6 – April*
> 
> 
> 
> The Fire Inspectors are now a visible and threatening presence on our roads.  Ripples of uneasiness stir through the community as we confront our annual dilemma – cut now and risk having to cut again; or wait and risk not finishing before the deadline.  As we debate the pros and cons, we begin the search through the barn, sheds, outbuildings, garage, looking for the weed whackers, blades, clippers, gas can, rakes, etc. necessary to our task.  Those persons organized enough to _remember_ where they stored their tools the previous season get them out and gaze mournfully at them envisioning the back breaking labor to come.  The rest of us go to the hardware store.
> 
> Sadly, despite the valiant efforts of our horsey helpers, our 200 foot clearances will not pass inspection.  We will have to pick up our tools and get to work.  Although our horses and mule still decline to go into the gully and eat the leafy growth, surprisingly, it would appear that _cut_ brush is a delicacy.
> 
> We have learned this after stuffing 5 loads into our trailer and dragging it to the green dump, waiting in the long line of persons likewise encumbered with their own brush, finally unloading it, and returning home.  The entire trip takes about 2 hours because of the long line of waiting cars, although the green dump is only about 5 miles away.  We see our neighbors there, but no one speaks.  The doom of brush clearance fills our minds.  We are jealous of our places in line and when a commercial operator is waved in ahead us, there is a sullen growl of resentment.  Finally, it is our turn and we begin the process of unloading.  The cuttings appear to want to remain with us.  They stick and stab us while we tried to wrestle them out of the trailer.  Bloodied, we return home to anoint our wounds and continue cutting.
> 
> One day, missing dump closing time, we left the cut brush in the trailer, planning to dump in the morning.  Next morning the brush pile was GONE, as if taken by the Little People during the night!  The horses and mule seemed to be grinning.  There were a few scattered fronds on the ground otherwise it might never have been there!   This is excellent news!  We now decide to just pile the brush where we cut it and let the horses and mule do their thing.
> 
> Next morning, we find that leaving the brush piles down the hillside does not work.  Our four- legged freeloaders refused to venture down.  Instead they are standing morosely at their empty feeders waiting for us to bring them breakfast.  Annoyed at their laziness, we ignore them and begin cutting brush.  Shocked at our heartlessness, they stand at the edge of the slope.  Occasionally they stretch their long necks over to see if they can reach any of the tantalizing piles.  Then they whicker at us disapprovingly.   We will have to drag it to the top after all.
> 
> Apparently, not only is _cut_ brush desirable to our equines, but it also tastes better the farther uphill it is carried by humans.  As we struggle up the steep slope dragging large bundles of shrubbery, horsey faces appear over the edge of the hill.  As we stagger over the summit our four-legged friends greedily converge on us, jostling for the best position to snatch mouthfuls of the suddenly tasty stuff.   _Note:  Being jostled by a large horse at the top of a 50 degree slope, while dragging 70 lbs of brush, should be avoided. . . Note to self:  Buy aspirin._
> 
> Although the horses won’t walk to the bottom of the hill to graze, they have cut down on the time it takes to load the brush into the trailer, drive to the green dump, wait in line, and unload the trailer.  In fact, there is no point in loading the trailer since our equines will unload it overnight and scatter the stuff around anyway.  Might as well just dump everything in a big old pile and leave it for them to help themselves.
> 
> It seems our four-legged freeloaders have come up with their own *EQUINE  CUNNING PLAN. * We cut and drag uphill, they eat and scatter.
> 
> 
> 
> *EQUINE CUNNING PLAN #4*
> 
> *Day 1*
> 
> Humans weed whack brush.  Humans drag piles of brush to top of cliff.  Drop brush in pile.  Get knocked over by horses and mule.  Take aspirin.  Weed whack brush.  Drag pile of brush to top of cliff.  Shove horses and mule aside.  Drop brush in vicinity of first pile.  Repeat.
> 
> *Day 2*
> 
> Take aspirin first.  Weed whack brush and drag to top of cliff.  Scream threats at horses and mule.  Drop pile of brush anywhere.  Fall downhill.  Out of aspirin.  Repeat.
> 
> *Day 3*
> 
> Buy more aspirin.  Rake up scattered brush from previous day.  Lock horses and mule in stalls.  Ignore their repeated complaints and demands for release.  Repeat Day 2 activities.  Take more aspirin.  Call chiropractor for appointments.  Apply first aid to cuts and scrapes.  Listen to horses and mule congratulating each other on success of their Equine Cunning Plan.
> 
> This Equine Cunning Plan has proved painful.  We have cleared only a tiny space and now need chiropractic treatment for our backs, and antibiotic cream for our scrapes and cuts.  We are out of aspirin again.  We decide to abandon painful Equine Cunning Plan and look for *Final Cunning Plan*.
> 
> 
> 
> *Chapter 7 – End of April*
> 
> 
> 
> *FINAL CUNNING PLAN #5*
> 
> *Day 1*
> 
> Call brush trimming service.
> 
> *Day 2*
> 
> Fix iced drinks.  Relax on patio, enjoying restful sound of weed whackers in the distance.  Admire the sight of our sleek and beautiful horses and mule munching hay from their feeders.  Fix more iced drinks, perhaps even adult beverages.  Write check to brush trimming service.  Congratulate each other on success of plan.
> 
> Our final Cunning Plan is successful!  After much trial and error, we have achieved our goal of equine assisted brush clearance and beaten the Fore Clearance deadline.
> 
> 
> 
> Now, anyone have any ideas about how to attach a manure receptacle to the business end of a horse?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *Chapter 6 – April*
> 
> 
> 
> The Fire Inspectors are now a visible and threatening presence on our roads.  Ripples of uneasiness stir through the community as we confront our annual dilemma – cut now and risk having to cut again; or wait and risk not finishing before the deadline.  As we debate the pros and cons, we begin the search through the barn, sheds, outbuildings, garage, looking for the weed whackers, blades, clippers, gas can, rakes, etc. necessary to our task.  Those persons organized enough to _remember_ where they stored their tools the previous season get them out and gaze mournfully at them envisioning the back breaking labor to come.  The rest of us go to the hardware store.
> 
> Sadly, despite the valiant efforts of our horsey helpers, our 200 foot clearances will not pass inspection.  We will have to pick up our tools and get to work.  Although our horses and mule still decline to go into the gully and eat the leafy growth, surprisingly, it would appear that _cut_ brush is a delicacy.
> 
> We have learned this after stuffing 5 loads into our trailer and dragging it to the green dump, waiting in the long line of persons likewise encumbered with their own brush, finally unloading it, and returning home.  The entire trip takes about 2 hours because of the long line of waiting cars, although the green dump is only about 5 miles away.  We see our neighbors there, but no one speaks.  The doom of brush clearance fills our minds.  We are jealous of our places in line and when a commercial operator is waved in ahead us, there is a sullen growl of resentment.  Finally, it is our turn and we begin the process of unloading.  The cuttings appear to want to remain with us.  They stick and stab us while we tried to wrestle them out of the trailer.  Bloodied, we return home to anoint our wounds and continue cutting.
> 
> One day, missing dump closing time, we left the cut brush in the trailer, planning to dump in the morning.  Next morning the brush pile was GONE, as if taken by the Little People during the night!  The horses and mule seemed to be grinning.  There were a few scattered fronds on the ground otherwise it might never have been there!   This is excellent news!  We now decide to just pile the brush where we cut it and let the horses and mule do their thing.
> 
> Next morning, we find that leaving the brush piles down the hillside does not work.  Our four- legged freeloaders refused to venture down.  Instead they are standing morosely at their empty feeders waiting for us to bring them breakfast.  Annoyed at their laziness, we ignore them and begin cutting brush.  Shocked at our heartlessness, they stand at the edge of the slope.  Occasionally they stretch their long necks over to see if they can reach any of the tantalizing piles.  Then they whicker at us disapprovingly.   We will have to drag it to the top after all.
> 
> Apparently, not only is _cut_ brush desirable to our equines, but it also tastes better the farther uphill it is carried by humans.  As we struggle up the steep slope dragging large bundles of shrubbery, horsey faces appear over the edge of the hill.  As we stagger over the summit our four-legged friends greedily converge on us, jostling for the best position to snatch mouthfuls of the suddenly tasty stuff.   _Note:  Being jostled by a large horse at the top of a 50 degree slope, while dragging 70 lbs of brush, should be avoided. . . Note to self:  Buy aspirin._
> 
> Although the horses won’t walk to the bottom of the hill to graze, they have cut down on the time it takes to load the brush into the trailer, drive to the green dump, wait in line, and unload the trailer.  In fact, there is no point in loading the trailer since our equines will unload it overnight and scatter the stuff around anyway.  Might as well just dump everything in a big old pile and leave it for them to help themselves.
> 
> It seems our four-legged freeloaders have come up with their own *EQUINE  CUNNING PLAN. * We cut and drag uphill, they eat and scatter.
> 
> 
> 
> *EQUINE CUNNING PLAN #4*
> 
> *Day 1*
> 
> Humans weed whack brush.  Humans drag piles of brush to top of cliff.  Drop brush in pile.  Get knocked over by horses and mule.  Take aspirin.  Weed whack brush.  Drag pile of brush to top of cliff.  Shove horses and mule aside.  Drop brush in vicinity of first pile.  Repeat.
> 
> *Day 2*
> 
> Take aspirin first.  Weed whack brush and drag to top of cliff.  Scream threats at horses and mule.  Drop pile of brush anywhere.  Fall downhill.  Out of aspirin.  Repeat.
> 
> *Day 3*
> 
> Buy more aspirin.  Rake up scattered brush from previous day.  Lock horses and mule in stalls.  Ignore their repeated complaints and demands for release.  Repeat Day 2 activities.  Take more aspirin.  Call chiropractor for appointments.  Apply first aid to cuts and scrapes.  Listen to horses and mule congratulating each other on success of their Equine Cunning Plan.
> 
> This Equine Cunning Plan has proved painful.  We have cleared only a tiny space and now need chiropractic treatment for our backs, and antibiotic cream for our scrapes and cuts.  We are out of aspirin again.  We decide to abandon painful Equine Cunning Plan and look for *Final Cunning Plan*.
> 
> 
> 
> *Chapter 7 – End of April*
> 
> 
> 
> *FINAL CUNNING PLAN #5*
> 
> *Day 1*
> 
> Call brush trimming service.
> 
> *Day 2*
> 
> Fix iced drinks.  Relax on patio, enjoying restful sound of weed whackers in the distance.  Admire the sight of our sleek and beautiful horses and mule munching hay from their feeders.  Fix more iced drinks, perhaps even adult beverages.  Write check to brush trimming service.  Congratulate each other on success of plan.
> 
> Our final Cunning Plan is successful!  After much trial and error, we have achieved our goal of equine assisted brush clearance and beaten the Fore Clearance deadline.
> 
> 
> 
> Now, anyone have any ideas about how to attach a manure receptacle to the business end of a horse?



You are so funny!


----------



## Ridgetop

Greybeard - Thanks!  I was hoping you would respond because I figured you would know.  I did not know you could buy those little stick on thingys - "rails" - I will have DS1 look on line for them ASAP.  We have both driver sizes.  I saved all the Protos, and the Craftsmans, tossed the Taiwan & Japanese ones.  I am now up to a total of 198 tossed, 166 saved, after finding more in a box from Daddy's.  Opened another of Daddy's tool kits as I was finishing and found stuff that I cannot recognize as well as a nifty hand saw that takes a replacement Sawzall blade,  Could have used that in some remodeling work several years ago.  Now I have one. 

DH identified the large metal things as pipe dies(?) used to thread large size galvanized pipe.  Told me I could dispense with them too since he does not think we will ever need to thread big galvanized pipe.  PVC is here to stay and sooo much easier and lighter to work with.  I have plumbed with both and switched to PVC as soon as I could for all exterior applications.  we seldom freeze here so exposed PVC is even ok.  DH prefers copper for the house and redid all our house plumbing for the house.  Another Ridgetop story there.

Bridge again today, then another go at the Tool/workshop for the next 3 days until it is finished.I finally found the far cupboards and counters last night!  

The Santa Anas have come in with a vengeance.  A big fire out in the southern edge of Ventura County - on the Los Angeles County line.   Looks like an atomic blast.  We could see the glow last night across the SF Valley.  Winds are carrying it away from us towards the ocean.  It jumped the 101 freeway last night.  Lots of homes in its path.  Another bad wind and fire season this year I think.  Our sheep took refuge inside their shelter which I am pleased to report did not budge an inch1  But we turned out the donkeys and mules to run loose overnight.  I don't like them in their exposed stalls when the winds blow or we have lightening.  Afraid they will spook and break a leg.  All four went down into the gully for protection.  Still blowing.  Damage check tonight.

Thanks again Greybeard for telling me about the rails.  Will order some.


----------



## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> DH identified the large metal things as pipe dies(?) used to thread large size galvanized pipe. Told me I could dispense with them too since he does not think we will ever need to thread big galvanized pipe. PVC is here to stay and sooo much easier and lighter to work with. I have plumbed with both and switched to PVC as soon as I could for all exterior applications. we seldom freeze here so exposed PVC is even ok. DH prefers copper for the house and redid all our house plumbing for the house. Another Ridgetop story there


 Back last Spring, I gathered all my pipe dies, pipe cutters, most of my NPT taps (kept only one ea 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4") all my metal conduit benders and conduit and dropped them off at one of those do-gooder resale shops along with several rolls of 3/8 and 1/2 copper tubing.  Previously gave away my 1" drive set but kept the 3/4" drive socket set and gave away one of my 240v stick welders.


----------



## Ridgetop

Might as well donate them to a good cause as the dump.  My friend gave me a phone number last week for a Veteran's organization that she said takes everything and picks it up too.  I am going to call them before I have DH take anything else to the dump.  Hopefully they will take most of what we have.  The stuff is usable but Goodwill and Habitat are too picky!


----------



## Baymule

I am glad that you are not in the path of a fire. Your story of fire clearance was belly jiggling funny, but the reality is horrifying. Stay safe.


----------



## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I have plumbed with both and switched to PVC as soon as I could for all exterior applications. we seldom freeze here so exposed PVC is even ok. DH prefers copper for the house and redid all our house plumbing for the house.


Both have now been replaced with PEX for source water.


----------



## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop, I hope you and Miss @babsbag won't be affected by all of the fires out there.


----------



## greybeard

The big news on the tube and interwebs seems to be only about the celebrity homes that have burned or in the fire's path. There's a whole section on Googl News page about one of the cardashain's homes and someone named Alyssia something or another that are going to lose their mansions.....

Oh NO! Please..Not the celebrities!! Now you have our attention!!


One of thos weird K peoples said she 'left with just the clothes on her back".
Probably more clothes than she's been seen wearing in public in  5 years.
Don'tchur heart just go out to her?


----------



## Ridgetop

Greybeard:  Don't start an Ifundme account for poor Alyssa and the Kardashians yet.  They probably went to their second or third vacation homes in some wealthy enclave where they have a second (or third) wardrobe.  The shots on the news are always of million dollar places burning to the ground.  Wealthy people always rebuild in those areas because they are scenic - look at the Florida hurricanes.  You can't stop those people from rebuilding right on the beach!

The Santa Ana winds have stopped for a while, but are supposed to come back tonight and last for several days.  Another fire above Burbank in Griffith Park yesterday.  The fire in 1000 Oaks has now burned to the sea.  DD2's boyfriend family evacuated and not allowed back yet.  Town of Paradise burned to ground, killing a number of people before they could evacuate.  That was a small town on the east side of the Sierras.  Lots of retirees and small town businesses.  Schoolteachers evacuated students by cramming as many as possible into their cars and riving ut of the town to safety.  Lots of homes lost too, but they can be rebuilt.  We are lucky to have enough property to keep sheep to graze everything to the ground.  It may not be pretty, but it is safer.

As to our barn, I checked the pitch and I think we can probably just put roofing paper on and shingle it.  DS1 will go up today with his roofing level and check the pitch.  We originally used rolled roofing and hot tar, now they burn or melt the rubber (?) seams.  DH says it is just a barn so if it leaks a little, no problem - BLASPHEMY!  My barn is my temple . . . well, maybe not quite, but I do appreciate a dry barn when working!  And a leaky barn causes moldy hay.  The solar panels on the barn roof are either damaged or disconnected since the lights in the Tool/Workshop are not working. If we can roof it ourselves it will be cheaper.  DS2 will be home for a week for Thanksgiving and he can get up there with DS1 and do the job.  Although we really don't want DH to climb on any roofs, the pitch is not that steep and he will probably insist on getting up there too.  1200 sf is not that much - can probably get it done in a couple of days with 3 men.  DS3 has a roofing nail gun, but the difference in roofing it ourselves and paying to have it done will pay for one if he doesn't come down before Thanksgiving.  Also, our neighbor probably has one we can borrow.   Although, it is always nice to buy another power tool . . . . I still have storage space in the almost clean Tool/Workshop!

Speaking of the Tool/Workshop - I made DH help sort the sockets I was keeping for him.  I told him what Greybeard said in his post about sockets and socket rails.  DH said that he knew about socket rails (then why wasn't_ he_ cleaning the Tool/workshop?) and would consider suing GB for alienation of affections since I was so impressed by his "superior" knowledge!
       Silly man!  He is so adorable!

So the Socket King apparently had more sockets than even I had had estimated!  Final count so far:
173 sockets to toss. 
321 SOCKETS ARE APPARENTLY KEEPERS!
 

I found the socket rails on Amazon Prime, BUT to house Socket King's 321 sockets I will need to expend about $200.00 in rails!  My new plan is to re-sort the sockets and remove duplicates.  I might not get rid of the duplicates (I plan to keep the Protos, and others GB recommended as professional grade) but they certainly do not need to be on rail systems in the tool chest.  Besides, if we can house one of every size where they are easily identified and returned, there will be no reason for 10 of the same size socket.    So socket dilemma will be postponed until I can sit down with my magnifying glass and size the sockets.

This weekend I will be working in the Tool/workshop on the never ending task of cleaning, sorting, replacing tools.  I also found a nasty rat's nest in the empty bottom drawer of one bank of cabinet.  I think I will scatter lots of moth crystals under the cabinets and in the drawers and cabinets with the tools.  They seem to deter rodents as well as bugs so although the Tool/workshop might smell like my great-grandmother's winter closet, we will not open any drawers and have rats jump our at us.  Oh Yeah!  That has happened!  FYI: Although LGDs know they are there and are interested in watching them run off, they do not bother catching and killing them!  I think DH's replacement lap dog will have to be a rat terrier of some sort.  Any suggestions while we are on the subject?  Terriers are hard to train, so any suggestions on a trainable breed would be best.

Sheep need to be brought in by tomorrow in case Ewegenie actually lambs on marking due date of Tuesday, 11/13.  Of course, they only do that when I neglect to bring them in on their due dates and leave them out because I "think" they are a week off . . . . that is when we have to retrieve them from the gully.  Those stories later.

Back to the Tool/Workshop!


----------



## Bruce

For you @Ridgetop 





I agree, no hauling lambs up out of the ravine!


----------



## Ridgetop

By the time we reach the top, they have gained about 50 lbs. each!


----------



## Bruce

Half way to market weight!


----------



## greybeard

Magnifying glass?
Are you saying you can't look at a socket and tell it's size without looking at the numbers?
Can't distinguish a 9/16 from a 5/8 or a 3/4 from an 11/16? 
You need to go get your eyeballs calibrated. 
(for starters, 5/8 (wrenches and sockets) will be the ones you have most of, since that size is so rarely used they also rarely get lost or broken)

You can buy rails just about anywhere pretty cheaply..I've seen them in sets of 3 (1/4-3/8-1/2 drives) at autozone, advanced auto, O'Rielleys.


----------



## babsbag

My favorite sockets are a 1/2 and 9/16 deep. That is pretty much all I use anymore and that is for the hinges and latches on all the kidding pens and dog kennels. It must be someone else favorite size too, but for some other reason, as I keep buying new ones.


----------



## Ridgetop

No, Greybeard, what I can't tell are the sizes in increments of 1/32" and 1mm!  The reason I need a magnifying glass is that some of these are old and worn, so I can't quite make out the sizes.  I also want to get them into the right order on the rails so that the Socket King does not run out to buy more to fill the missing sizes.  This has happened in the past.  I have now sorted out the sockets in keep order by Proto, KS or whatever, and then Craftsman, withmany duplicates.  I haven't decided if the duplicates will be kept or not.  Probably depends in the size.  Although the Crescent sockets are nice and shiny, and most of them have never been out of their plastic case, I am going to send them down the road as well.  There is no USA stamp on them, and I went on line and found out that they are made out of the country so they will be going.

I have to buy rails for the remaining sockets:
31 1/4" base
29 1/2" base
56 3/8" base
A grand total of 116 sockets, with no duplicates! 

This will be manageable.  I see now that instead of ever buying sockets for DH, aka Socket King, I should have been buying rails.  I wish I had known what socket rails were when I first married, but the only tools I knew about were hammer, slot and Phillips screwdrivers (not by those names), saw, tape measure, drill, level, metal ruler, razor blades for wallpapering; putty knives, spackle and basic painting tools.   My level of expertise was hanging pictures, hanging wallpaper and painting. 

Most of my tool and building knowledge has been acquired over the years working on projects.  Daddy (father-in-law) taught me about cabinet making and installation, including drawing scale plans.  DH and Daddy taught me a lot about basic construction renovating our homes.  I taught myself how to lay ceramic tile and vinyl flooring from a book.  Then I learned a ton about all kinds of building from the original HGTV series on repairs, and DIY while laid up doing chemo and radiation.  Now HGTV all seems to be homes for sale or someone else doing renovations for people.  Fun, but not as informative as the original stuff in early 2000.  After that DH and I started renovating our apartment building - 7 units that hadn't been touched since they were built in 1964 - I learned all about standard code required clearances, sizes of appliances, sizes of stock cabinets, etc.  I also started to buy tools in order to be able to do the work more efficiently and properly, including some specialized tools.  "The proper tool for the job".
DH says I probably own more tools now than he does!     Except for sockets . . . .


----------



## Baymule

Roofing the barn should be pretty easy and get done in a few days. I was out of a job in my early 20's, couldn't find one, so took a roofing job. I_ thought_ I had been hot in my life! I knew _nothing_ about being soaked in sweat by 8 AM. Naturally it was summer. I did learn how to tear off and replace roofs, which has been a great help to me.

Several years back, hurricane Ike dropped a massive elderly oak tree on our (old) house. We got ridiculous, price gouging quotes on it and I told my husband I would do it myself. I think I was in mid 50's...…. He told me I couldn't, I said I could. Argument ensued. Then the clincher-he said I was_ too old!_ THAT DID IT! I was going to roof our house no matter what, and I did. We got the structural damage fixed and I started looking for shingles. 

All of a sudden, shingles were very popular and EXPENSIVE! I found seconds of Architectural shingles, but they were in a town 80 miles away-and they were out. A shipment was due in a few days and the man told me to pre-pay, which I refused to do. He said there might be some left, so I took my chances. Sure enough, after everybody picked up their shingles, there were some left. I told him I wanted 36 squares and was leaving to come get them. He actually had the nerve to tell me "First come, first serve." BOOM! I let him have it. "Let me tell you something! I'm driving 80 miles to come get these and you better hold them for me. If I drive all this way and you sell out before I get there, I am going to open up a Red Headed Six Pack Of WHUP-ASS all over you!" A quiet, "yes mam' I'll hold them for you. Ummm…..they knew who I was when I got there.....

I got there, paid for my order and got loaded up. They were seconds, the top of the tab had discolored granules on it, so what? Going to cover up the top of the tab anyway. they were $42 a square, a steal!

As I started for home, that's when I realized that the trailer I had was severely overloaded. I slowed down. Slowed down some more. To 40 MPH. I drove from Nederland, Tx to Livingston, Tx at 40 MPH, saying my prayers all the way, with a line of extremely pissed off people behind me. I made it. DH got home and saw the squished flat tires, he said "We got to get those shingles off the trailer! Look what they're doing to the tires!" "Go ahead," I smirked, I had already tried to move a bundle and it didn't budge. He grabbed a bundle and it didn't move. Those things were HEAVY. LOL

Upshot was, me and a guy from work worked on the weekends. We tore off the old shingles, replaced some roof decking and got the tar paper on. We shingled for 3 weekends and the roof turned out real nice. And getting the shingles up on the roof? Another guy from work came over after work and helped us. We busted each bundle into thirds. DH gave me a third, I was halfway up the ladder, went up the ladder to guy from work, he took the third of a bundle and placed it on the roof. Rinse, Repeat. Took 3 evenings.

While me and guy from work worked on the roof, DH threw us bottles of water, made sandwiches for our lunch and was a go-fer for new turbines, another roll of tar paper and so on. 

The roof turned out beautiful.


----------



## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> 1/32" and 1mm!


Except for 1/4 drive sockets  and equally little wrenches, nothing uses 1/32 increments (unless you are working on a very old Ford or something else with Whitworth sized bolt heads, then the 25/32 and 19/32 wrenches may have a use.

If, in your present capacity, you ever run across a wrench (Open or box) that looks sort of like this, with the size stamp that seems way too small, you have in your possession an old wrench made for and sized for  Whitworth fasteners, tho early Ford flathead engines and other early Ford products also used some of them..
Instead of the size of the bolthead/nut being measured across the flat part and the tool stamped accordingly, the old way was to make the wrenches stamped according to the diameter of the threaded part of the bolt itself.




A 5/8" dia bolt would nowadays  need a 15/16" wrench or socket.
Whitworth sized bolts/nuts were not that way.


And careful.......in the 2 examples below, each shows one that is not like the other and will cause a lot of cussin if the wrong one is used.





and, handy things to have these are....




especially if you're a monkey..


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## Ridgetop

Got all those tools and a few that I am not sure _what_ they do.  DH knows though, and since I don't use them, I really don't care what they do.  I just need to find enough space to store them neatly, put them away, then label all the cabinets and storage boxes so we can find them later and more importantly know where to put them back!!!


Good going on roofing your house, Bay!  A man should never tell a woman she is too dumb or too old!  It gets our dander up and we show them what is what!

Sadly, we will have to do the roll roofing and melt down roofing and pay the roofer to do it.  
DH and DS1 checked the pitch and said that it is too flat as well as having a different pitch on the rear half of the roof.  Since this is winter, we will not have enough heat to "melt" the shingle tabs either.  Almost lost one new shelter roof last winter in high winds because the new roof shingles had not had time to bake together and the shingles curled up from the wind.  We had to replace a few shingles on that roof.  DS1 was up on the roof and removed all the blown off roofing that was hanging. He also took down the false front peak which had partially blown down in the last windstorm that took our the tree.  We expect more Santa Anas tonight.  The smoke from the fires is blowing back into our Valley from the coast now that the winds have stopped.  Ugh!  It smells like a campfire everywhere and hard to breathe.  Tomorrow DS1 will take the roofing trash to the dump. 

I am waiting for the roofer to call for him to come out for an estimate.  I wish we could do it ourselves but if has to be melted down with a blowtorch.  We have never done the melt down roofing - we would probably set the barn on fire!

Surprisingly the solar panels and system that runs the power to the tool/workshop is intact and working.  One panel got broken last year during the fire but there are still enough to charge the batteries and run the shop lights.  After the roof goes on, DS1 wants to connect the barn lights to the solar panels too.  Right now he is only running the Tool/Workshop lights of it.  I would like him to connect the LED barn lights to the solar panels because we run the barn lights 24/7.

Moving the ewes into the barn tomorrow,  Need to spread the straw bedding but might wait another day or so until closer to time to lamb.  Also have to check the kidding box to make sure that everything is ready just in case.  I have counters in the Tool/workshop now.  I have actually seen them for myself.  I knew they were there, just couldn't remember what they looked like.  It has been a loooong time since I saw them last.  I also found more cabinets and drawer banks than I remembered there being.  YAY!


----------



## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Got all those tools and a few that I am not sure _what_ they do. DH knows though, and since I don't use them, I really don't care what they do. I just need to find enough space to store them neatly, put them away, then label all the cabinets and storage boxes so we can find them later and more importantly know where to put them back!!!


So there will be cabinets and boxes labeled "I don't know what these are" and he is supposed to know what things you don't know what they are so he looks in the appropriate place? 

Have you thought about metal roof panels? Not hard to put up. BTW, the gasketed screws go into the deck, not the overlapping ridges. Saw that on a YouTube video done by a roofing company. The guy said that is the most common mistake made by DIYers.


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## Baymule

I was going to suggest metal roofing also. Easy to put up and you don't have to pay someone.


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## greybeard

Bruce said:


> BTW, the gasketed screws go into the deck, not the overlapping ridges. Saw that on a YouTube video done by a roofing company.



No lap screws?
They are made differently in their thread pitch specifically for lap joints...and of course, are shorter. The thread pitch continues all the way to the underside of the screw head instead of stopping just short and leaving a recess with no thread.  We used them on all laps and especially out on the overhangs when I worked putting up metal buildings. You have to be careful not to overtighten lap screws.
Sometimes called seam or stitch screws.
The only place I've never seen lap screws used, was on walls where the corrugation ran up & down---vertically. If the panel was put on with corrugations running horizontally, we used lap screws.


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## Bruce

Different kind of metal roof panels I guess. Flat wide section, then flat topped "hump" then more flat section, etc ending in a hump. Like this:




It does seem like one would want a tight joint where the panels overlap, and that would mean screwing through the overlap but that is not what this guys said to do. Don't recall where I found the video it was a couple of years ago.


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## greybeard

That's one of several versions of a profile called R panel and was what we were putting up.

Perhaps he meant not to use screws on top of the humped part all across the rest of the sheet?

Many years ago, it was common to use the screws on the raised part of both R and corrugated and not down on the flats, because there was less likelihood of water building up on the higher part and getting in around the screw heads. But, too many people were over-tightening the screws and deforming the profile--partially flattening out the raised portions, which caused the flat portions to move or try to bunch up. With better sealing washers now, everyone screws R panel down at the flats but uses the short lap screws on the lap. The lap screws don't go all the way down into the wood or steel purlins or decking. They are just to keep the sheets from separating at the lap.


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## Bruce

Sounds reasonable.


----------



## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> So there will be cabinets and boxes labeled "I don't know what these are" and he is supposed to know what things you don't know what they are so he looks in the appropriate place?




No, problem there!  DH just stands in the middle of the tool shed and yells "Honey" what did you do with the hammer, - I I know I left it right here!"  The labels are for me so I can immediately fetch the tool or yell back "Look in the drawer labeled "hammer"!  Also for DS1 who actually bothers to read the labels and replaces the tools!  DH is a _wonderful_ husband, father, son, and friend, _but_ is rather bad about replacing tools.  Knew where everything ws on hi work truck though ne summer when getting the Doughboy pool up and running, he needed his pipe wrenches (Stilson for you purists) which he *insisted* he had returned to his tool chest.  Finally, after he had accused our 3 sons, ranging in age from 4 to 11, and myself of willfully losing all his pipe wrenches, I asked him when he last used them.  He told me "Last fall when I worked on the pool pump. I found the wrenches under the bushes by the pool pump where he had left them since working on the pump 4 months before!  Enough  said!

I will mention metal roof panels to DH.  We used them 40 years ago on our first tiny rabbit barn and they were incredibly easy to install.  Interesting about the screws, will have to watch  DIY video before doing the metal roof panels is we go this way.   Missed 2 calls from the roofer since my ringer was turned off.  I carried it around for 2 days waiting for his call!  DUH!  

The Santa Ana winds are back, and another fire has broken out on the overpass into Simi Valley to the northwest of us.  That freeway is now closed.  The Santa Anas are still driving the fires into homes.  The entire town of Paradise was destroyed, 35 dead, the fires came in so strong with the wind behind them that many people died as they tried to get out.  DS2 is working in that area repairing damage from last winter's fires and subsequent flooding.  Soon he will be repairing the current damage.  DS3 is already working repairing power lines in the wake of the Woolsey fire.  The last couple years have been terrible fire seasons for California.

Got to check on my sheep.  We kept them in the night fold today because of the winds.   They huddle inside their shelter when it blows and as soon as it gets calm they all come out and enjoy the sun.  The Dorsets are due in 2 weeks and looks like one is bagging now.  Going to spread the straw in the new lambing pens now, then will move the Dorper ewes inside the barn tonight.  The Dorsets can stay out for another week or so.

I sorted the sockets onto rack I got at Lowes but went to put it I the drawer and the deep sockets are too tall to stand in the drawer.  Found a deeper drawer but it is too narrow for the holder!  So I guess I will buy a different holder for the deep sockets.  

Really getting sick and tired of the Tool/Workshop.  Also getting sick and tired of labeling and re-labeling everything.  Also getting sick and tired of these winds!  Apparently I am feeling sick and tired.  Is that called "pulling a Biden"?


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> So I guess I will buy a different holder for the deep sockets.


Oh heck no, you need a new tool box with deeper and taller drawers!


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## Baymule

Mmmm…..maybe a nice big roll away tool box? Load up the tools, roll to door, ramp to trailer. unload at new place. BOOM! Done.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Oh heck no, you need a new tool box with deeper and taller drawers!



 *NOT!*

Bad Bruce - No cookie!  And I thought we were friends!   

I realize (now that I have cleared a path to them) that I have 4 other drawers in my wooden base cabinets and they are *EMPTY*!  I measured and the large holder that is 19" long will fit in those drawers front to back.  The drawers are deeper too.  So, tomorrow I will take the socket holders back down and try them in those drawers.  If they fit I will have won the Socket War and be able to turn my attention to  - _*DRILL BITS*_!   

DH has about 50 drill bits that are 12" to 18" long.  All different sizes from small circumference to over an inch.  Many of them are rusty.  Why are they still there?  Why did we have them in the first place?  These are obviously philosophical questions that will never be answered. 

Tomorrow I will bring them to DH to sort through and decide which ones he wants or needs (2 separate things in my opinion).  I also need to find or buy a drill bit gauge and start sorting the hundreds of regular size drill bits .  I think I will make it easy on myself and just send any rusty ones to join their inferior socket brothers in the discard bucket!  That should eliminate half of them. 

DS1 and I have our own drill bits that we have purchased for different purposes and which we keep in their own holders in the special drill bit box.  Same with the driver bits.  In addition, I found several sets of drill bits still in new packages, and some older bits in their cases, that were Daddy's . 

Again, we face the philosophical question of the universe - why so many duplicate drill bits!  Of course, one must always have a few spare bits.  They break after all, usually when drilling pilot holes in old wood when you don't have a spare.  But again 25 bits in size 15/64????   By the time I have finished with this Tool/workshop I will need heavy counseling, a long sea cruise, and intervention.  If I had known the scope of the job, I would have thrown everything away and started over.  WAIT, THAT WOULD HAVE ENTAILED ANOTHER SOCKET KIT IN ONE OF THOSE PLASTIC CASES BELOVED BY GREYBEARD!     NOOOOO!

I just found DH's second favorite tool - a pair of channel locks pliers - sitting on the driveway fence!  This is the tool that he was using yesterday when we tore apart the old rotted goat feeder from the lower pen.  He swore a might oath to DS1 that he would put it back.   Sigh . . .
 He might not get a key to the Tool/workshop!

DH, DS1 and I sorted the sheep tonight into the lambing pens.  The 2 Dorset ewes are in one pen and the 2 Dorper ewes are in the other.  The 3rd pen is the lamb creep.  Each pen is 5' x 10'.  After they lamb, we will remove the divider between the ewe pens and make the creep 5' wider.  The pen on the right is the creep.  I have not bothered to scatter the straw yet since it will not be used until after they lamb. 
  
The dogs recognize lambing pens and are starting to get excited.  They love lambing!  Bubba loves the lambs a little too much and would steal the lambs if I let him.  This year will be his 3rd lambing season and I will again work him on a leash with the lambs and ewes.  He is older now so I hope he has matured enough to follow proper Anatolian LGD behavior.  Lay down and be submissive to the ewe.  Wait to approach the lamb until mom allows it.  Do not try to bite off her face if she butts you for approaching the lambs.  Work in progress.  Rika, of course, is perfection.  Hard for Bubba to compete with that.  Last year she punished him severely and banished him from the lambing barn for bad behavior!  Ewegenie and Dorset Green are uddering up nicely.  Dorset Green is a little lopsided but is a 3rd year lamber so will fill out fine.  Huge udder.  She still has 16 days to due date.  Ewegenie is due tomorrow and has filled out too  Her fore udder has suddenly developed and looks very nice.  Some of my ewes have had exceptionally nice udders.  Lil Sweetie still has 17 days to go.  Her udder is getting there but is still small.  Dorset Yellow is also due in 16 days and looks big so is definitely pregnant.  Her udder is empty, but I can't remember if she is one of the ones that gets her udder just before lambing or not.  She is also a 3rd year lamber.

Rambo got sent back to a lonely celibate life in the night fold.  Young Alexander Lambilton remains in his  juvenile pen in the barn until tomorrow when he will join Rambo on the field.  The ewes will be incarcerated in the barn for a while until they give birth.  Now that the rotted goat keyhole feeder had been torn out of the former lower goat pen, both rams can be housed there eventually.  There is a nice 3 sided shelter 12' x 12' that will be adequate for them.  The ewes and lambs will have the run of the barn and field until it is time to turn Alexander out with them for the next breeding.  At that point Rambo will remain in his lonely pen, and the young ewe lambs will go to their separate pen.  Life is becoming complicated with 2 rams.   

But the socket crisis has been dealt with!  And without buying another tool box!   Gotta go bring upo those drill bits for DH to sort!


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## Ridgetop

Et tu, Baymule?!  

Or did you mean to get one load it and roll it to your lace!  LOL


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## Baymule

I don't have the accumulation of sockets and drill bits that you do, I think I am in the throes of hoarder envy. LOL LOL 

I have things crammed in a 24'x12' portable building, most of which hasn't seen the light of day in 3 1/2 years. I kinda sorta know where some things are and can crawl over the heap to retrieve what I am seeking. We have worked on a feed and tack room on again, off again, mostly off again.  Once finished, I can move things out of the portable building and organize better. It's driving me crazy. 

We bought and had erected a double carport that we cannot park in..... due to the piles of lumber I have.....

So while I don't have the admirable piles of duplicate 15/16 long sockets, or the coffee cans full of rusty drill bits, I still have my mess. You have many years in the same location, when a store room got full, heck, just get another! So now, you are going through the pains of sorting, tossing, saving and organizing your piles of treasures. Have fun!


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## Baymule

Weatherman just said that Amarillo, Texas has snow and 15 degrees. That is in the Panhandle.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> DH has about 50 drill bits that are 12" to 18" long..... But again 25 bits in size 15/64???


Well, throw out all but two 15/64 bits and he will only have 27 bits total, which isn't bad at all for a drill index.
That takes care of the fraction size bits....now..what about the letter size bits........... and the number size bits? (better get a really good magnifying glass.)
Between each of the usual fraction size bits, there are several other size bits, designated by a number or a letter.
Number Drill Sizes
Drill #......dec Inch...mm
80..........0.0135.......0.34
79..........0.0145.......0.37
78..........0.016.........0.41
77..........0.018.........0.46
(there are 76 more rows of just # bit sizes)

This \/is but a small fraction of the fraction, letter and number bit sizes.








http://www.smithbearing.com/images/pdf/ENG-FractionalChart.pdf

In a previous life, I used a lot of the letter and  bit sizes, especially on the smaller end. 
I once picked up a print from one of our best customers and it called for some holes .044 diameter and the tolerance was -0.0000/+0.0001.  That means the hole could be absolutely no smaller than .044 inch and only one 10/thousandth bigger than .044 inch.
(printer paper is about 0.044 thick)


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## Ridgetop

Baymule:  First, seek professional help for your tool addiction!  Trust me, it leads to trouble and heartbreak.  

Then, because we know that we are in denial, and we might conceivably, at some future time, need those items desperately, buy some industrial strength shelves 24' deep and start storing vertically.  Don't bother with the 18" deep shelves, you can store more with the extra 6" depth, and the extra cost is negligible.  Once you have the shelves installed in the tool shed, get a bunch of clear plastic storage boxes - Dollar Store is good.  You probably have lots of miscellaneous building stuff, hinges, latches, etc.  Clear plastic bins like shoe boxes and one size up from those make good holders for that sort of junk.  (I had most of my boxes in my closet, but after I gave all my byootiful high heels to my daughter, I had plenty.  LOL)  Label them with Magic Marker.  You only need stick on labels for the second or third time you want to change them around and label them.    Voila!  A completely organized tool shed.  That way, you too, will be able to store many more items than you will ever need . . . .  If you are lucky, you can help out your friends from your endless supply. 

Although, I personally see nothing wrong with having a vague idea of where thing are a long s you can find them.  And climbing over stuff is good exercise.  I do it all the time.

Sadly, I have no friends that do building projects - my contractor friends have all the lifetime junk they will ever need and occasionally try to give it to me.   If I am lucky.  If fortune does _not_ smile on me they give it to DH and you know what that means . . . .

By the way, I see nothing wrong with buying a double carport to store your lumber.  You don't want it to warp!  Lumber needs to be protected.  So does wire, metal roofing material, etc.  I know you like to collect used building materials - another reason not to dispose of anything remotely useable.   

As you see, I also need major professional help but I can't afford it since I am spending all my money on TOOL STORAGE!   

Greybeard:  Thank you for your, as always, sage advice.   I will attempt to size up the drill bits, and then discard most of them.  DD2's boyfriend is not knowledgeable about tool quality and jumped at the chance to acquire all the Crescent wrenches and sockets.  They were  pretty and shiny in their plastic case.  At least they are gone from my house. 

The long, strange drill bits are auger bits.  According to DH, e must keep them all since they "are hard to come by anymore".  ???  Some of them take a brace or will need to have the end cut off to fit a power drill.  However, I was able to assure DH with aplomb that I possessed a brace.  I did not tell him that I had planned to hang it on the wall with the other antique tools! 


I have informed DH that I need his expertise in the Tool/Workshop sorting some of the tools that were Daddy's.  He is very flattered since he informed me that he did not realize that I would not recognize some of the tools.  Such a sweetie!

Ewegenie is due today.  Alexander Lambilton has gone out to the big night fold to meet Rambo.  They will stay in that pen for a week or so, until AL realizes that is where he gets fed.  He needs to bond with Rambo so he will come in at night with him.  I don't plan to hunt for him in the gully after dark and the coyotes are still bad.


----------



## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> If they fit I will have won the Socket War and be able to turn my attention to - _*DRILL BITS*_!




Maybe you can figure out if some of those bits are too far gone to sharpen. And likely there are so many of a given size because the prior one (and its prior one, etc) got dull and wasn't cutting well.



Ridgetop said:


> By the time I have finished with this Tool/workshop I will need heavy counseling, a long sea cruise, and intervention.


Join the Navy, then you get paid for that long sea cruise!



Ridgetop said:


> He might not get a key to the Tool/workshop!


That is the best plan. He will have to check out the tools from the keeper of the key and can't check out anything else until he returns what he last checked out.



Baymule said:


> Weatherman just said that Amarillo, Texas has snow and 15 degrees. That is in the Panhandle.


Sure glad I don't live where it is cold and snows.



Ridgetop said:


> DD2's boyfriend is not knowledgeable about tool quality and jumped at the chance to acquire all the Crescent wrenches and sockets. They were pretty and shiny in their plastic case. At least they are gone from my house.


While I'm sure @greybeard is correct with regard to the different quality levels of tools, the basic "lower quality" may be just find for the BF depending on what he needs to use them for. Certainly adequate for assembling stuff. Maybe not so good for breaking loose rusty fittings.


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## Ridgetop

The socket racks fit in the wooden base cabinet drawers!
 Sockets & reducers in one drawer; drivers and extenders in another 

I feel so free!  

Rusty drill bits have been disposed of.  The odd drill bits have been sized and are all increments of 1/64"!   FYI:  If the sizes are hard to read, rub colored chalk on them and rub with your finger.  The chalk sticks in the grooves and the size markings become visible. 

These 1/64th increment bits are strange sizes.  I think they might all date from DH's early days at DWP.  They probably came home in DH's pockets, along with multiple partially used rolls of electrical tape, and strange couplings.  When you hang off a pole, you stuff junk in your pockets and forget to remove it.  FYI:  Discard electrical tape that has gone through a wash cycle!

DH identified some tools and they are now put away.  I have typed up the labels for all the boxes, drawers & cabinets.  I even have some empty drawers!  And empty cabinets!  Tomorrow I play Bridge with a happy heart!  Unless I get bad cards.  Tomorrow night I will start sizing and separating the screws, bolts, etc.  Then put labels on them, and stack them on the appropriate cabinet shelves.  Then just a few last tasks hanging some racks for tools that won't go in drawers or cabinets, and I am finished with the Tool/Workshop!  I even have a new exterior door knob which I can install, left over from a previous reno but it has a KEY!  On the other hand, DH may not have a problem with replacing the tools.  I will wait and see. 

Ewegenie is content in her small lambing pen.  Hopefully in another day or so we will have lambs.  The coyotes must be active.  The dogs are giving their predator warnings at the edges of the property.  Rambo and Alexander Lambilton  (Last time I let my grandkids name the sheep!  What happened to good old names like Fluffy or Snowy?) are getting along fine in the pen together.  A.L. is apparently smarter than Rambo.  DS1 said that when he gave the rams their night time grain feed, A.L. put his forefeet in the pan.  As Rambo tried to put his head in to eat, A.L. kept backing away using only his rear legs, dragging the pan with him by his forelegs!  DS1 got a big laugh out of watching him! 

The Santa Anas are supposed to blow again tomorrow.  I am hoping they will stay calm for a while until the fires are out.
The police have found more bodies in Paradise.  I am praying for all those people.  Most of them don't know whether their families made it out or not.  About 100 people still missing.  They are doing DNA samples to try to ID the bodies.  So awful. 

Just heard from DS2 who is working up near the Camp fire area (Oroville is near Paradise).  He said that when he drives to work with the crew on Hwy 70, the hillsides are still burning.  Scary.

DH thinks that a metal panel roof would work except for the winds we get here.  He is afraid that those 50-90 mph winds would lift the panels and just rip them off. He may change his mind when we get the roof estimate.  The roofer is coming first thing in the morning to look at the roof and give us the estimate.      I wouldn't mind putting on a new roof so much except we are considering a move and I hate to waste the money.  We will see what the roofer has to say.


----------



## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> The long, strange drill bits are auger bits. According to DH, e must keep them all since they "are hard to come by anymore". ???


A wise and knowledgeable man.
Most wood auger bits made in the last decade aren't worth having, but I've used lots of brace & bits in the last few years, using older bits made from good steel. The best thing about the brace & bit is the batteries never go dead when you're 1 mile from the nearest electric source and you have to drill some holes and don't want to be lugging a genset all over creation.



Ridgetop said:


> DH thinks that a metal panel roof would work except for the winds we get here. He is afraid that those 50-90 mph winds would lift the panels and just rip them off.


I sure wouldn't discount metal roofs and they are extremely common here, both on residential and commercial buildings.
I have no composite or shingle roofs anywhere on my place except the little 6x6 shingle roof over the back porch landing. Everything else, including the house is metal roofed with 150mph hurricane wind rating. The barn and old house in the front of this property has withstood tropical storm or hurricane force winds from Ike, Rita Alicia,Humberto, Gustav, Edouard and straight line winds  from a devastating thunderstorm in 2015 that laid down hundreds of oak trees in 3 counties that had stood for many decades.  My current abode went thru some of those storms as well.


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## Baymule

Please keep us posted that you are ok. The fires are terrible, we are in other states and only get the news blips. Praying that the fires get contained.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Baymule said:


> Please keep us posted that you are ok



Yes, please!


----------



## Ridgetop

The fires are moving away from us.  But please pray for the others still in the path of all the fires.  The Camo fire that took out paradise was a horrible thing.  They are still finding more bodies.  Death count is 48 now and still climbing as they search.  Devastating.

Greybeard:  Re:  Augers.  You areright.  I tease DH and roll my eyes at him, but he _is_ a savvy man.  I actually have 3 braces as well.  We will know where to fund them instantly since t lest 1 will be hanging on the wall of the family with some other antique tools, including the scythe and 2 sickles, and my great grandmother's washboard.

Actually, if anyone ever comes across an old lineman's brace I would like to buy it for DH.  He told me yesterday that he has always wanted one.  They are constructed so that the round ball fits into your shoulder like a rifle stock as you hang on the pole.  The crank handle is set at an angle so you can complete the turns without having to raise your hand.  If anyone has one or knows of one I would like to buy it for him.  Al these years I poked around antique shops and he never told me he wanted one until now!

The fires are moving away from us at this moment although there is another one in Riverside that started yesterday. Like Texas gets hailstorms, we get fires, only worse since we have no water or rain.

The roofer is here today.  I would love to have a proper metal roof, but the 160 mph type of roof is very expensive.   Too expensive for a barn where I will only be here another 10 years.  Less if we come to Texas.  The buyer will probably tear down the house and barn since they will want to build a mansion or 4.  The builder who wants to build 27 new houses on half acre lots with no view said they will start at 1.5 million and he actually thinks he could get closer to 2 million.  Apparently our nice country area is the new hot spot to buy since people can get enough property for a giant house, pool, etc.  The whole neighborhood is changing.  Anyway, he will send the estimate today or tomorrow.

Ewegenie lambed right on schedule this am.  A single lamb.   A ewe lamb.     No problems and good mom.  

At first  was very pleased that Bubba was behaving so calmly in the barn.  But I was wrong, he just hadn't realized there was a new lamb!  As soon as he realized it he wanted to get in to love it.  I removed it to iodine the cord and let him lick it all over.  Then I gave it back to the mom.  He tries to get into the pen and generally made a nuisance of himself in typical Bubba teenage behavior.  The old 5' corrals with wood panels we had in the barn he had trouble getting into.  The wood panels and wire was falling off, and these Sydell pens are easier for us, but Bubba could jump right in if he wanted to.  DH put him in the kennel temporarily and Rika showed up.  She, being PERFECT, showed excellent Anatolian LGD behavior by calmly laying down outside the pen.  then the roofer showed up and DH let him in the yard.  I ran up and leashed her since an LGD with newborn lambs is not always the laid back LGD she usually might be.  I put her in the creep pen next to Ewegenie with Lil Sweetie and she was content there.  We won't let the rams out, and with the rams in the field pen surrounded by donkeys and mules, and Rika in the barn, everyone should be safe until I can get home this afternoon and work with Bubba on his newborn lamb protocol.
 Ewegenie on left with new ewe lamb, Lil Sweetie on right watching with interest.
  First meal, haltered Ewegenie so I could guide new lamb to milk and then check for more lambs since she still looked huge.  Yup, it was definitely a single.  Ewegenie was horrified that I took such a liberty, but DS1 knows how to handle a flying sheep!  Mom now eating and lamb napping.  Still hadn't passed afterbirth but it was right there and cord hanging out.  No worries, now off to bridge.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> The socket racks fit in the wooden base cabinet drawers!


Rats, no new tool cabinet 
When you are done there my workshop is a mess. I'm sure you'll have withdrawal if you stop organizing cold turkey.



Ridgetop said:


> On the other hand, DH may not have a problem with replacing the tools. I will wait and see.


Tell him if any new tools show up that you already have a matching one, you will return it and use the money to buy something for yourself.



Ridgetop said:


> He is afraid that those 50-90 mph winds would lift the panels and just rip them off.


You could try screwing them to the rafters 
If the roofer gives you a quote for a metal roof will it be the same panels you can install yourself (saving a bundle in installation costs) or standing seam which you likely wouldn't be able to do yourself?

I agree that it would be a shame to put good money into something that will be torn down and replaced with a McMansion. Besides, weren't you talking about moving to TX and renting (on the sly) to one of the kids? They would want a decent roof wouldn't they?

With the fires being more frequent and more deadly, maybe people paying $2M for a house in fire prone areas is less likely.
Nah, what am I thinking. Everyone thinks "it" won't happen to them.

BTW, it would be interesting to know how many of the houses that burned in Paradise had wood shingle roofs. I know they are/were common in So. Cal. The house I grew up in always had a cedar shake roof. Those fires blow flammable roof to flammable roof burning the house to the ground but not touching other near by things. Someone I know on another forum posted a picture of her uncle's house. Or what was his house, nothing left. Nearby covered boat wasn't obviously damaged (in the picture) and the mailbox on a wooden post at the street was untouched.

Congrats on the new lamb! Hope Bubba is watching and learning.


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## Wehner Homestead

lamb has arrived! Very cute!!


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## Baymule

Congrats on the new lamb, she is a beauty.  Aren't they just the cutest? And I guess Bubba will get more baby lamb lessons. Silly teenage brain dead dogs.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Baby animals are so cute, aren't they?


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## Ridgetop

Bubba seems to have calmed down a bit.  I sat with him in the barn and praised him for looking at the baby while sitting or laying down.  Later, he started growling at Rika when she stood between him and the lamb.  I told him to knock it off and he looked at me for a minute then I heard him start growling again.  I had a glass of water in my hand and threw it on his face, immediately scolding him for growling at Rika.  He was shocked!  I scolded him and he calmed down.  Rika is 6 and I think Bubba at 3 is starting to want to be the boss now.  It is natural, especially since he is a male and pretty dominant.  She can still take him down, but there wasn't much room between me and pens and 2 fighting Anatolians knocking into you can be pretty upsetting.  Ewegenie is a very sweet mom, and is getting very good about Bubba.  The lamb keeps going into the pen with Lil Sweetie through the creep gate.  Lil Sweetie is pretty gentle with her and probably won't get testy with other lambs until she has her own.  I plan to close it up tomorrow just in case.  I don't want any accidents with my first purebred Dorper ewe lamb! 

No more lambs expected until November 28 and 29.  Then all 3 of the other ewes are due.  I am not so sure about Dorset Green.  Not much udder, just the dangly empty udder left from last year.  She had a single ewe lamb prematurely last year during the evacuation and it didn't make it.  She isn't very big either.  Both Dorset Yellow and Lil Sweetie are uddering up.  Lil Sweetie is much larger than Ewegenie was, but still has 2 weeks to fill in her udder.  Hopefully she will have twins.  Dorset Yellow had twin ewe lambs last year but one did not survive.  Again, all the trauma of the fire evacuation probably.  She is huge though, and her udder is filling up although a bit lopsidedly.  DH asked if she had mastitis and I said no, the other side will even out soon.  I had a Suffolk ewe that freshened with mastitis in half her udder years ago, and she raised twins on just the one side! 

I have been labeling the drawers, cabinets, and storage boxes in the Tool/Workshop.  I have a few more things to put away and label, then remove the last few large items that were stored there that I don't want.  I now have 4 empty drawers, a large empty overhead cabinet, and one large, deep, tall cabinet that currently holds my tall levels, T-squares, and long metal Skilsaw guides.  I want to put another shelf in both the upper cabinet and lower cabinet.  There is also lots of room on the shelves both in the milkshed and the Tool/workshop for more storage!  Once it is done, I will send pictures.

What a great day!  A healthy ewe lamb, the Tool/workshop almost finished, and I had good cards at Bridge today!  Life os good.


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## Baymule

I have 2 ewes that look like they have a volleyball between their back legs for weeks before they lamb. If you didn’t know better you’d think they were milk goats! Take good care of that girl, she is foundation for your flock!


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## Ridgetop

Finally, I have finished the Tool/Workshop.  Weeks of back breaking labor and sorting of tools, the great Socket Wars, Drill Bit Drama, and now I am finished.  Well, except that DS1 is going to install the wire racks that will hold the mayonnaise jars full of assorted nails that I sorted out.  I got a bunch of really good latching small containers at the Dollar Store for the screws etc. and they are in the cupboards, all labeled.  I finally finished labeling everything.  I quit typing up the labels on the computer and just wrote the labels out with a marker.  It took too much time to do on the computer, plus I would often get sidetracked into checking up on all the BYH postings.  LOL   

Anyway, here are pictures of the finished Workshop.

    The top left picture is facing the door which is in the right corner.  The top of the metal shelf rack holds the batteries (white squares) for the solar chargers that DS1 installed.  You can see the opening in the ceiling to the loft storage area.  The next picture shows the rest of the shelves, then a small table saw/drillpress bench, then a metal work bench with drawers.  Between the drill press workbench and the metal bench is a space where the shop vac lives.  In the corner are the rolling Craftsman tool cabinets, and then the kitchen cabinets we got at Habitat and installed.  The next pictures show the base and wall cabinets turning the corner, with a wooden worktop, more cabinets, and finally the space behind the door where we hang flat tools.  The empty space between the white base cabinets and the oak ones, was originally designed to hold a small under counter fridge where we could keep water and the livestock meds.  However, the solar power is not completely reliable, and so I decided to put the electrical parts tool box in that space.  I can't take a chance on the power going off and the meds not being refrigerated.  DS1 wants to build a work bench in the center of the room, but for now we are going to put our 3' x 6' folding table there to see what size work bench would work.  The space looks huge right now, but there is only about 9' of width between the cabinets.

    Inside the cabinets - everything is in plastic bins and labeled.  All the cabinets are labeled too.  Far right cabinet is the hardware cabinet - all the little plastic boxes are different sized screws, anchors, etc. which we used in our apartment renos and subsequent repairs.  Can't throw them out since we still use them for all sorts of projects. 

When I finished everything this afternoon, DS1 wanted to dock, vaccinate and weigh the lamb, so we did that.  12.5 lbs. at 1 week of age!  And so sweet too!    She just nestled up in our arms.  Then her momma knocked the gate open and ran out to see why we had lambnapped her baby.  Ewegenie got sidetracked by the large bales of irresistible alfalfa though, and paid no attention to what we were doing.  I carried little Nameless back into the jug and momma ran in after me.  DS1 caught her and I gave her a CDT vaccination.  We will vaccinate all of them as they lamb, and then do the 2 rams.  We used to do their vaccinations when we sheared, but figure we will just do them now as well.  They were current back in may when I brought them home, but I am not sure exactly when they were vaccinated so might as well be sure. 

Dorset Green is bagging more.  Her udder has evened out.  I noticed that Ewegenie got a fore udder  about 2 days before lambing and I am going to check the other 3 and see if they do that too.  It's easy to see them bagging from the rear, but the fore udder is harder to see.  If it fills up just before lambing, that will be an easy sign of approaching lambing.  I am afraid that Dorset yellow may not be going to lamb this year.  She has almost no udder and does not look pregnant.  On the other hand, she may only have one lamb.  She lambed a week or so early last year due to the evacuation.  The lamb was perfectly formed but did not survive.  We were not home at the time and she lambed at the neighbor's.  

So after finishing the Tool/Workshop, I dragged myself up to the house, finished 2 loads of laundry, and started my Christmas baking.  I have 1 batch of Anise Bread cookies in the freezer, 1 batch each of Almond Crescents, and Jelly Center cookie dough in the freezer.  I actually made a mistake on the Anise Bread.  This is an old German recipe my family has made for 3 generations.  It is a bar cookie that tastes like licorice (anise) and has candied fruit and chopped almonds in it.  you have to beat 8 egg whites to firm peaks, add the sugar , flavoring and then beat the egg yolks and blend them in before adding the nuts and fruit.  I FORGOT TO BLEND IN THE EGG YOLKS! 

I remembered halfway through baking, too late to remove them and mix in the yolks, so I finished baking them. I tried them and guess what?  They tasted fine.  I cooled them, cut them, and put them in the freezer.  No one in my family will ever know the difference!  HeeHeeHee!

I also made 5 quart jars of pickled peaches for Christmas.  They have to sit for at east a week before serving so we can't eat the on Thanksgiving.  I didn't get them done in time, due to the Tool/Workshop.

Thawing my turkey now. DD1 has offered to do the Green Bean Casserole and Corn Pudding. I told her if she comes over at 8 am Wednesday she can bake pumpkin pies and make the Cranberry Orange Jello and Ginger Curry Sauce.  I don't know if she can get here that early with the 3 grandchildren but we will see.  Tomorrow I will extend the dining room table, iron the linens, and set the table.  Wednesday afternoon I will run out and pick up the flowers for the centerpiece. 

The day after Thanksgiving I will start my Christmas decorating.  DS1 will take the truck and cdrive across the field to the large Connex to bring back all the Christmas decorations and the tree.  Why does he drive the truck 400 feet you ask?  Because the are so many decorations that the boxes and bins fill the truck bed!  I do a lot of interior Christmas decorating.  DH and DS1 have already been putting up the outside lights.  DH _*loves*_ his Christmas lights.  He bought new ones this year, multicolored icicle lights for the house, and replaced some of the lights along the front fence.  His goal is to run lights completely along the front fence line.  He adds some more strings of lights each year, but before he can finish buying enough lights, some of the first strings go bad and he has to replace them.  Now the new LED lights will only allow you to connect 3 or 4 strings together.  That is not enough light string footage, so he sent DS1 to Lowes to get another extension cord so he can run more lights.  Soon I will have to drive down the road to admire them.  I don't understand why he does this since we are at the end of a private road and no one except one neighbor comes past our house.   Only a couple people can actually see the house anyway.  But DH _*loves*_ his lights, and *I* love DH!  The lights are very pretty even if we are the only people who see them. 

*Happy Thanksgiving everyone!*


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## greybeard




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## RollingAcres

Awww cute lamb! Congrats!
Glad the fire is moving away from you. My sister is far from the fire area but said the air quality is really bad.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Ridgetop said:


> Finally, I have finished the Tool/Workshop.



Wow!  You must be proud -- and exhausted.  How would you like to take a trip to Arkansas and organize my shop?

And will your DH do your Christmas lights akin to what Mr. @greybeard showed?


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> No one in my family will ever know the difference! HeeHeeHee!


And now you have egg yolks to make truffles! (the candy kind, not the fungus)



Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> How would you like to take a trip to Arkansas and organize my shop?


Hold on there STA, she needs to come to my place first!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Bruce said:


> Hold on there STA, she needs to come to my place first!



If Miss @Ridgetop and her family move to Texas, I'll bet she would love to come to your place in the summertime to get some relief!


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## Bruce

And organize my shop!


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## Ridgetop

These lights don't compare to Greybeard's show.   The first photo shows lights on the fence down to the house, the front fence and disappearing down the hill in front.  The second picture shows the light strings going down the hill along the fence about another 150 feet.  DH has 2 or 3 more strings to put up.  I will try to get a picture from the bottom of the hill looking up.  The pictures are not very good, but the lights illuminate the entire road.  We don't need the exterior lights when the Christmas lights are on!

STA & Bruce - I would love to organize everyone's tool rooms, but you would have to do the work while I sit on a chair and direct.  I _will_ make the labels for you.     Oh yes, and drink coffee.  

I *am* exhausted!  But having that job finished has given me a second wind.  I made 4 different types of Christmas cookies yesterday.  Got up early this am and made 8 pies - 6 pumpkin, 1 pecan, and 1 mince (heavy on the liquor!).  Then made the cranberry orange gelatin salad and the accompanying ginger curry sauce, a 5th type of cookie, and fresh cranberry orange relish.  Wine and Martinelli's cider is chilling.  
   Set my Thanksgiving table.  DH has offered to chop the onions, celery and apple for the stuffing tonight.  I just have to put it all together, stuff the bird, and put the bird back in the fridge until tomorrow am wrapped in a damp rag so he or she won't dry out.  
   Tomorrow after we eat, the kids do the dishes while I collapse!

Next week other 3 ewes are due to lamb.  Still wondering about Dorset yellow.  Not much udder yet and only 1 week till lambing according to marking date.  She will go to the auction if she doesn't lamb this year.  Dorset Green is definitely pregnant and her udder is filling up and evening out.  Both Dorsets are due next Tuesday.  Lil Sweetie is due next Wednesday.  Hopefully, I will get another purebred Dorper ewe lamb from her. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!


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## Mike CHS

You are wearing yourself out but Happy Thanksgiving.


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## Baymule

Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> If Miss @Ridgetop and her family move to Texas, I'll bet she would love to come to your place in the summertime to get some relief!


That's why we have air conditioning!!!


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## Baymule

Ridgetop your workshop is amazing! I could live there! LOL

May you have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your family. What you have done is  beautiful testament of a Mother's love for your family.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> STA & Bruce - I would love to organize everyone's tool rooms, but you would have to do the work while I sit on a chair and direct. I _will_ make the labels for you.


You know, even that is immensely helpful. I look at all that stuff and other than things that already have a specified area, think "where should this go?"


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## Ridgetop

All over for Thanksgiving 2018 except the best part - the leftovers!    

Enter Christmas, stage left and right simultaneously!   Christmas decoration storage boxes are now in the house ready for me to put up.

 

DH, sweet man, ordered me not to get on the ladder to put them up!    No worries though - I just got 2 new aluminum step stools (one for the house and one for the Tool/Workshop) that are 3 or 4 steps high.  The steps are *wide (deep?)  *so they are comfortable to stand on.  Half price so it's a win.  Lighter to move around and  more stable than the step stool or the large ladder I usually use.  I am going to take a little break today though.  Our friends are suffering from Bridge withdrawal and we need to do an intervention!

I will start decorating later this evening or tomorrow am early.  Then on to the Christmas cookie baking.  I am ordering some gifts on line.  Kids and grandkids will get a check, and a gift to open.  Trying to make shopping easier for myself  As we get older it is harder to find DH gifts.   Maybe a nice set of SOCKETS?!


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## greybeard

I do not put up many Christmas lights myself. Would not even be visible from the nearest public road.
Truth is, I never took the ones around the porch rails down from last year. Way too dark out here with nothing to reflect the light for them to make much impact.
 



Ridgetop said:


> Now the new LED lights will only allow you to connect 3 or 4 strings together.


That's odd, unless it is specific to icicle type lights. . The 100 light LED C9 lights I use say I can string as many as 30 fifty two ft strings end to end (1560 ft/3000 lights) and the 200 light C9 set says 15 sets together is the limit (again, 3000 lights).
I have some 25 ft C9s that say I can string 45 sets together, end to end, for 1,250 ft.  It is of course always limited by the current carrying capacity of the wires the string is made with.






(Honestly, I am truly shocked to learn California even still allows Christmas lights or any other type Christmas decorations.)

My cousin always decorated his place in Paradise but not their primary residence  in Mountain View.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Ridgetop said:


> STA & Bruce - I would love to organize everyone's tool rooms, but you would have to do the work while I sit on a chair and direct. I _will_ make the labels for you.  Oh yes, and drink coffee.



Miss @Ridgetop, that would work out just fine, as my Beautiful Gal gets tired providing adult supervision for me!


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## greybeard

> Ridgetop said: ↑
> STA & Bruce - I would love to organize everyone's tool rooms, but you would have to do the work while I sit on a chair and direct. I _will_ make the labels for you.  Oh yes, and drink coffee.



I suspect you guys will never again be able to find your tools........ without reading labels anyway. 
My shop is small and it IS messy but I can lay my hands on any tool I need in seconds.


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## Mike CHS

My bride and I are equal partners in all things except the shop layout and tool storage which is all mine.


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## Ridgetop

I can always find any particular tool, but DH is a different matter.  I admit that I have spoiled that man!  His inability to find anything even when he is looking directly at it is a family joke!  I do not understand it.  He always was able to find his tools for any job he WANTED to do!  And his DWP Pie Wagon was a miracle of organization.  LOL 

I do like a clean and tidy workspace.  Mess is unavoidable when you are working on a project.  When the project is done however, everything should be put away WHERE IT BELONGS so you can immediately lay hands on it again.  Since there are 4 of us using the tools, this is especially necessary.  Our tools were housed in their traveling tool chests for the past several years while we were working on projects away from the house.  During that time, our Tool/workshop became a temporary storage shed for stuff.  Now that it is clean and tidy, we will be able to find everything.  I even found space on the shelves holding the solar battery bank for 2 of the empty traveling tool chests.

I have almost finished the Christmas decorating so told DS1 to put all the empty Christmas decoration bins in the Tool/workshop.  He has strategically placed them so it looks as if the Tool Workshop is full.  This is to avoid any of our children seeing the empty space and deciding they can store more of _their_ junk there.  LOL DS1 is arranging the bins to see  what dimensions he can make the workbench without being too crowded.


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## Ridgetop

Greybeard:  I will have DH and DS1 look at your post on the lights.  DH wants to surround the entire front fenceline with lights.  700 + feet.  Thank Heaven the back fenceline is too steep to bother with!  LOL


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## Ridgetop

DH climbed up and down the front fence line today to add 3 more strings of lights.  The front hill is also very steep, although not nearly as steep as the back gully.  DH is now considering waiting to add more strings until _next_ year.  LOL  The front drop is about 30 degrees.  The space in the picture is shortened by shooting the photo from across the front drop.  That is about a half acre field the Dorsets are grazing.  The pole butts are around where the Doughboy used to be.  The house is another 10 feet up.  DH is going to look up Greybeard's lights to see where to get them.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> He has strategically placed them so it looks as if the Tool Workshop is full. This is to avoid any of our children seeing the empty space and deciding they can store more of _their_ junk there.


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## greybeard

The Home Depot, Walmart, ...just about anywhere.
The ones I pictured are walmart's brand.
Home Depot has the same exact thing..same number of lights, same exact length under a different brand name--Home Accents Holiday instead of Walmart's  Holiday Time.

IF he gets this brand, make sure he understands that these bulbs are true LEDs that push into the socket bayonet style, not screw in like some led strings are..I'm sure he knows that an led is not a bulb..it's a device..an electronic component ..a light emitting  diode.  The colorful outer part that you see is just a screw off shell on almost all led light sets to give it some shape and color. Inside is the actual led.  I do not know how readily available replacement leds are for them. I haven't needed any yet, but you only get 2 replacements with the purchase of each 100 light string. This particular type has one side of the led's pigtail longer than the other, and thus will only go in oriented a certain way, for polarity I assume.  You can see the difference in the 2nd photo.


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## Ridgetop

Well, another example of why I just LOOOOVE ram breeding harnesses and marking crayons!  Just like Ewegenie, Dorset Green lambed right on the dot last night on her due date!!!  Ewe and ram split twin lambs with no trouble. 
   Bubba seems to have calmed down even more with the birth of these 2 lambs.  He wants very badly to get in and steal them for himself, LOL, but seems to realize that he has to behave quietly around the mamas.  I will put him on a leash and take him into the pen with the lambs and ewe and do some corrective work with him, today. 

The ewe lamb seems to have vestigial 3rd and 4th teats so will have to see how they develop.  If they are true teats she will sell as meat to one of my customers.  Extra teats will make it hard for her lambs to nurse.   We'll go down and weigh all the lambs later today.  The other Dorper, Lil Sweetie, is due today so we shall see if she lambs.  If she does not lamb by Sunday, both Lil S and Dorset Yellow will go back out with the rams for another 2 weeks.  They have been penned in jugs for almost 3 weeks and if they miss this due date are not scheduled for another 3 weeks so might as well go out for the exercise.  We'll bring them back in to the jugs December 20.  I am really hoping Lil Sweetie lambs tonight though.  She is pretty big, and has an udder. 

It rained last night and early this am.  I am hoping it continues for another few days.  The donkeys and mules are chasing each other around the pasture, bucking and playing.  The rams (who have become best buds with the donkeys) are trying to keep up and the dogs keep running out from the barn where they are guarding the new lambs trying to figure out what the commotion is.  Pretty cute. 

Hoping for more rain even though it can cause mudslides in some of the burn areas.  I am hoping this might be the beginning of the El Nino season.  Got the new roof on the barn Friday after Thanksgiving so the barn and lower sheds are water tight.  We need to sheep proof the old goat pen fences for the rams and then the ewes and lambs can go out on the field.  The yearling ewe can go out with them too.  Just need to go clean the lambingjugs again and switch the Dorper ewes around so Ewegenie's lamb can't get in with Lil Sweetie.  She is really good with the lamb _at the moment_ but as soon as hers are born she will probably turn into devil ewe and pummel the other lamb for a few weeks.  I need to make sure that can't happen.  Rearrangement of mamas after lambing is constant. 

Last of the turkey soup has been eaten. Got all the Christmas decorating done, most of my Christmas baking done, most of the Christmas shopping done, half the lambing finished, maybe a quiet Christmas for once.   I have more storage areas to clean out, but have to wait until it stops raining for those chores.  Please keep raining!   

I think I will start early pulling out all my receipts for our taxes.  Lots of receipts, have to separate them into different categories.  This year I thing we will file a farm return as well.  Lots of losses, expenses, and next year we will have income and more expenses.  Better get  it over early. 
  UGH!


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## RollingAcres

Ridgetop said:


> View attachment 54963 View attachment 54964 These lights don't compare to Greybeard's show.   The first photo shows lights on the fence down to the house, the front fence and disappearing down the hill in front.  The second picture shows the light strings going down the hill along the fence about another 150 feet.  DH has 2 or 3 more strings to put up.  I will try to get a picture from the bottom of the hill looking up.  The pictures are not very good, but the lights illuminate the entire road.  We don't need the exterior lights when the Christmas lights are on!
> 
> STA & Bruce - I would love to organize everyone's tool rooms, but you would have to do the work while I sit on a chair and direct.  I _will_ make the labels for you.     Oh yes, and drink coffee.
> 
> I *am* exhausted!  But having that job finished has given me a second wind.  I made 4 different types of Christmas cookies yesterday.  Got up early this am and made 8 pies - 6 pumpkin, 1 pecan, and 1 mince (heavy on the liquor!).  Then made the cranberry orange gelatin salad and the accompanying ginger curry sauce, a 5th type of cookie, and fresh cranberry orange relish.  Wine and Martinelli's cider is chilling.
> View attachment 54956   Set my Thanksgiving table.  DH has offered to chop the onions, celery and apple for the stuffing tonight.  I just have to put it all together, stuff the bird, and put the bird back in the fridge until tomorrow am wrapped in a damp rag so he or she won't dry out.
> View attachment 54957 View attachment 54959  Tomorrow after we eat, the kids do the dishes while I collapse!
> 
> Next week other 3 ewes are due to lamb.  Still wondering about Dorset yellow.  Not much udder yet and only 1 week till lambing according to marking date.  She will go to the auction if she doesn't lamb this year.  Dorset Green is definitely pregnant and her udder is filling up and evening out.  Both Dorsets are due next Tuesday.  Lil Sweetie is due next Wednesday.  Hopefully, I will get another purebred Dorper ewe lamb from her.
> 
> HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!



Should have gone to your place for Thanksgiving! All those pies!


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## Ridgetop

There is always next year!  You can escape the terrible New York ice and snow here too!


----------



## Mike CHS

We take the easy way out for taxes and have an accountant do them for us but we try to make it easy on them and give them an itemized ledger.


----------



## RollingAcres

Ridgetop said:


> There is always next year!  You can escape the terrible New York ice and snow here too!


We will be escaping the cold and snow here come Christmas time. We'll be in your state, but in San Francisco.


----------



## greybeard

I don't make many pies. I don't mind touching dead bodies or dead vegetables but touching dead fruit just gives me the heebiejeebies.


----------



## Ridgetop

Dead fruit makes jam and jelly! 

Rolling Acres:  Come down for a visit!  It is only 500 + miles.  Less than 7 hours drive, and good freeways.  Most of the way on the 5 so not much traffic.


----------



## Ridgetop

Mike CHS:  We use an accountant too, with all the changes in the law and also some investment properties.  However, I have to get all the stuff together for him first.  He sends us a list of what he will need and I pull everything out of my receipts, compare to checkbook stubs, etc. and type it up.  I always did it before when DH dis our taxes and this way I make sure we don't forget tiniest little deduction.   

I hate giving the government money.


----------



## RollingAcres

Ridgetop said:


> I hate giving the government money.


Don't we all!
I was just looking at my annual bonus check and comparing it to last year's bonus (because someone mentioned that it's less so I had to compare)...My net pay this year is less than last year's net, even though the gross for this year is more. Not happy!


----------



## greybeard

RollingAcres said:


> We'll be in your state, but in San Francisco.


the picture is not only what it appears to be.


----------



## RollingAcres

I'll be sure to wear some flowers in my hair.


----------



## Ridgetop

Weighed the lambs -
Dorper single ewe at 2 weeks of age weighs 17.8 lbs, which is a 5.3 lb. in 10 days from 12.5 at 5 days old.

Dorper X Dorset ram lamb birth weight after nursing is 9.9 lbs.
Dorper X Dorset ewe lamb birth weight after nursing is 12.3 lb.
The ewe is a lot larger than the ram lamb.  They are both larger than the single born to the smaller Dorper ewe.  However, the Dorper ewe is a first freshener while the Dorset ewe is larger an older.  This is her 3rd set of lambs so I would expect them to be larger.  In a few weeks, when I have more weights and the lambs in a creep, I will be better able to compare the rate of gain. 

All are large healthy lambs and nursing well.  

After earlier good behavior, Bubba went back to being a butthead while we were in the barn.   More training is needed.


----------



## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Most of the way on the 5 so not much traffic.


One of the most boring roads I have ever travelled. So bad that when we went from south of L.A. to S.F. some many years ago, DW had me turn off and go through Gilroy (garlic capital of the world they claim) just to get off the boring road even though it took longer.



RollingAcres said:


> Don't we all!
> I was just looking at my annual bonus check and comparing it to last year's bonus (because someone mentioned that it's less so I had to compare)...My net pay this year is less than last year's net, even though the gross for this year is more. Not happy!


Looks like the new tax law didn't do you much good! Of course I guess none of us knows until the taxes are done.


----------



## Ridgetop

True enough.  The coast road is beautiful, but cramped, dangerous, and lots of blind curves.  The 5 is boring but fast.  395 is very pretty but you have to get pretty far east through Mammoth, and at this time of year those roads might be closed due to snow.  The 99 is pleasant, although slower with small towns, but it might go through some of the southern burn area from the Paradise (Camp) fire.  We like fast with no traffic since we usually are towing some sort of trailer.


----------



## greybeard

Bruce said:


> Looks like the new tax law didn't do you much good! Of course I guess none of us knows until the taxes are done.


tax related..I got my property tax statement in the mail this week and true to the appraisal officer's word, I was surprised to see the total owed had actually dropped down a few $$, even tho they had increased the total appraised market value by $87k more at a meeting I had with them back in late Spring/early summer.


----------



## Bruce

Curious, I wonder where they are getting the money if not from more property taxes (as is usual) rather than less.


----------



## greybeard

Bruce said:


> Curious, I wonder where they are getting the money if not from more property taxes (as is usual) rather than less.


Directed at me?

My assessed taxable value stayed just about the same as last year.  Total change was less than $20.
It was only the market value that changed...not tax assessed value....the two are not joined at the hip, especially when the property owner has ag and homestead exemptions and rate is locked in at age 65.
Almost everyone under age 65 in this county saw their property/school taxes go up considerably because the State legislature made a 'one time' allowance for all counties affected by Harvey to raise property taxes a few fraction of percentage point to help pay for the road and bridge repairs.

So why did mine drop? 
1. It has to do with how the tax rate is calculated per acre of valuation. They had long (for years) had mine wrong and it was straightened out at the meeting I had with them last spring....No, won't be getting a refund and can't recoup the over-payments but at least now it is correct.
2. Normal depreciation. The house is another year older..


----------



## Ridgetop

So yesterday I wanted DS1 to put the 2 ewes back in the field when they did not lamb on schedule, right?  He did not want to since he was afraid they might amb in the gully.  Instead he removed the old creep gate and opened up the old ewe pen into the old creep to make more room.  Then he transferred the Dorset and her twins to one of the jugs, and put the Dorper and Dorset ewes that hadn't lambed yet into the old creep.  DS1 is a hero again!  

I had just gotten back into the house after trying to spray some Alumishield on a ram's scraped shoulder.  DS1 went into the barn to feed, and abruptly came into the house to tell me that it looked like one of the ewes was having some trouble  lambing.  Into the barn to check and it looked like a foot showing and her vulva terribly distended.  Up to the house, back into my muck boots, and an old sweatshirt (remember the discussion about fluids squirting?), and down to the barn again, with towels and antiseptic soap.  The foot was gone, but her vulva was really ballooned out with pressure,  and no progress being made.   

I soaped up and DS1 held the ewe.  Yes there was a hoof just inside the vulva, and a ginormous head with it!  The other hoof had been pushed back because the ewe was so tight (first freshener).  I tried for several minutes to get the second hoof out, but couldn't get it.  Slippery!  Then I thought I would just try pulling on the presenting hoof.  Some times one leg, head, and shoulder through are enough.  Nope!  Too large a head for both legs to present and no room to work.  I tried gently stretching the vulva around the lamb's head with minimal results, and I couldn't get enough grip on the second leg to get it out.  Luckily I have an OB snare in my kidding box.  I rarely use it.  I pushed the lamb back in gently, the ewe protested and pushed back, but I was able to get the snare over the second foot inside the ewe.  With the first leg wrapped in a towel for traction and the snare on the other leg, I was able to finally work the foot to the front and ease the vulva over the lamb's face again.  I was not sure how long she had been pushing, or whether the lamb was even still alive  Then I saw a flicker of a lip!  Hooray!  With traction on both legs now, I pulled and she was able to give a final push that finally got the lamb out.  It was a ram lamb and looks larger than the 17 lb. Dorper ewe that is now almost 3 weeks old!  Those single ram lambs always give the most trouble to first fresheners!  I still wasn't sure whether not not he would make it so I held him upside down for a minute or two to drain his air pipe, and then put him back down.  He shook his head and looked around, but seemed a little logy so I went to get the "snot sucker" while mama got up to take a look.  While I was rooting through my kidding box, he let out a large "maaa".  DS1 said I probably didn't need to aspirate him if he was able to cry like that!  He sounded pretty strong.  

So now to dip the cord.   I use an old medicine bottle half filled with Iodine full strength udder wash.  I place the bottle over the cord and gently shake it up and down to get the cord totally inundated.  The bottle was not in my kidding box.  DS1 said he had found it in a feeder after the Dorset lambed.  A spirited discussion followed about where he put it - on the counter in the newly cleaned Tool/workshed.  We both looked but no iodine dipper bottle.  Then DS1 thought he might have left it on a chest in the barn.  While he looked, I went down to the milk shed and got out the large gallon bottle to fill another medicine bottle.  DS1 summoned me before I got the gallon out and said he found where it had dropped behind the chest and retrieved it.  

The sac had ruptured and the cord had bled on the lamb so he was a bloody mess, but mama was busy cleaning him up.  I picked him up with a towel and dipped the cord.  Then I checked to make sure I had gotten it well dipped.  Shock!  no iodine on the cord.  OOPS!        I dipped his testicles instead!     

All's well that ends well!  I have since apologized to DS1 many times and admitted he was right not to turn the ewes out on the field.  He saved both the ewe and lamb since in the gully we would not have found her and she might not have been able to push that lamb out.  She was due the 29th or 30th so was overdue by about 3-4 days.  When she didn't lamb on the 29th, I even gently went in a little but she wasn't ready to lamb.  I just figured that she would lamb on December 22.  That lamb is huge!  Lil Sweetie looks much more streamlined now!   I am so glad that I waited to breed our ewe lamb until next year.

Tomorrow we will weigh everyone, dock the twins' tails, and take more pix.  Nameless' tail dropped off this morning. She needs a name.


----------



## Mike CHS

That is one big lamb but congratulations on the assist.


----------



## Baymule

Congrats on the lamb and helping with the delivery. Your son saved the day! And the lamb and the ewe!


----------



## Latestarter

Nicely done! Grats on a live birth.


----------



## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Congratulations on the successful lambing!  It's a good thing your son was able to help out.


----------



## Ridgetop

Yes!  DS1 deserves the praise here.  Not only in recognizing trouble, but in refusing to turn the 2 ewes out on the field again in the first place!  It really did not take as long as it seemed to get him out, except that he was so big he was stuck.  That lamb puller came in handy.  The time to order those things is _*before*_ you need them.  In our 4-H days, I would order whatever I needed after the surprise emergency came up - i.e. prolapse retainer, lamb snare, umbilical clips, stomach tube, etc.  Whatever the emergency was, it only happened once to us.  LOL  After each occurrence I would have the emergency item and never need it again!  LOL 

In this case, when she did not lamb on her due date, I decided that she would lamb on the next marking date due date.  As it turned out she was just several days late.  Unfortunately, since the lamb undoubtedly grew even larger in those 4 days.  It is a good thing that we were not graining heavily as we usually do for the Dorsets.  We had cut back on the grain for these Dorpers since they don't seem to need it.  They were on small measures of barleycorn instead of the usual high protein lamb feed we have been using in the past.  They did very well with the smaller amount of grain and I think we will keep them on barleycorn from now on.  It is also a lot cheaper than the expensive lamb grower.  With just 4 lambs to grow out, one of them a replacement ewe lamb that I do not want to push too much, I am going to try using barleycorn in the creep instead of lamb grower.  The time to experiment with the creep feeding is now, not next year when I hope to have more lambs for freezer sales.

We will weigh on Thursday since that is the week mark for the other lambs, and time to weigh them again.  We also will vaccinate and dock the twins.  This younger lamb might wait another week.  DS1 does not like to dock and vaccinate at birth. He prefers the lamb to recover from any birth trauma before vaccinating and docking.  Lamb pix on Thursday!   The new boy is not as long as the ewe, but then he is still in the tall gangly stage while she is about 3 weeks now.   The sire is very long, as are both the Dorper ewes.   Lots of loin and great legs!  Anxious to hear the butcher's comments on carcasses this year.

I wired a piece of stock panel across the creep gate temporarily so the lambs don't get in with other mothers.  New mothers can get very aggressive with lambs that are not theirs, and we  don't want a lamb trapped in the pen with an angry mom and unable to escape from the creep.  In another week we will vaccinate and dock this last lamb as well.  Then we can ear tag, open the creep gate, and  make the ewe pen larger so that the lambs can come and go at will into the creep.  In another few weeks they can go out on the field after we lock up the rams in another pen. 

So glad to have 3 finished.  1 to go if DY is actually bred.  We will know next month.

My Christmas shopping is finished except for my son in law.  I have part of my tax preparation finished, just need the end of year statements from different sources. I will do a few more batches of cookies since the grandchildren want to bake with me.  I am hoping for a quiet and relaxing Christmas this year.  So far so good.  DH is watching every Hallmark show he can get on the TV.  My big tough guy loves those sweet Christmas movies!  He is a real soft hearted teddy bear.  LOL


----------



## Rammy

My Mom loves those Hallmark movies, too. Freind of mine does, too. 
Glad to hear(read) things are going good for you out there. Also glad to finally see the fires are put out in Ca. Sad so many people are missing or died. 
Hope you holidays are great and you get to spend it relaxing and enjoying your family.


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## Ridgetop

*RAIN!!!         *

It has been raining now for over 30 hours.  We got over 5".   Some highways have closed because of accidents or flooding.  Airplane landing in Burbank (near us) today hydroplaned and skidded off the runway.  Some of the burn areas are starting to have mudslides, including one on La Tuna which has closed that road.  CHP closed the Grapevine due to snow and rain last night.  This is a frequent occurrence in winter too.  Not because people are afraid of the snow but because the grapevine is pretty treacherous since it is so steep, and gets a lot of black ice at night.

All normal things after fires, and dangerous.  But I am still happy since we have been suffering a drought for about 7 years now.  Watched "Skylark", the sequel to "Sarah Plain and Tall" on Hallmark last night.  They had a drought on the prairie, the wells and the river all dried up.  Then the barn burned.  When the rain finally came they all went out and danced in it.  I know how they felt!

Of course, the rains will not change any of our problems here with the water shortage and rationing.  But I hope it keeps on and brings some green stuff for my lambs this spring.  I hope there is a lot of snow coming down in the Sierras.  

Going down to the barn to weigh the lambs today, vaccinate and dock the new ones, and check on them.  I am so lucky to have a nice big (for southern California standards) barn to work in.  First thing we will build when we come to Texas if there is not already one there.  Second thing will be a great big workshop.  I am hoping to get a property with some outbuildings already in place though.

Kris, our property manager and friend in TX, has just sent me 50 properties in the Tyler/Lindale area to look through.  I don't know who is more excited about us moving to Texas - LOL - us or our Texas friends.  Our grandkds are definitely upset.  Last night I was thawing some spaghetti sauce and the grandkids wanted me to feed them spaghetti before they went home.  I was informed that I would do it because I was a "good grandma and loved them very much".  How can I leave that behind?    

They will have to come with us.


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## Latestarter

Wow... looking at properties... Makes it sound like you're getting closer to actually making this move happen! Sure will be great to have another awesome BYHer in the vicinity!   Tyler is a little far from me to make frequent visits, but close enough to get together every now and again! Hope you find the perfect landing spot over this way!


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## Ridgetop

Starting to look at what is available.  Sadly, I understand Tyler is lacking in hills.  I love our hilltop so we can see who is coming.  A move like ours, with our livestock and STUFF is something that will need planning to accomplish.


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## Mike CHS

I would have a hard time getting used to flat land


----------



## frustratedearthmother

Ridgetop said:


> They will have to come with us.


Totally agree!  Nothing better in life than grandkids!


----------



## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> First thing we will build when we come to Texas if there is not already one there. Second thing will be a great big workshop.


Third thing will be a house!


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## Ridgetop

House and any renos on it can wait.  We can do a lot at night inside when we can't work outside.  Although DH's uncle in Kansas worked a job in town and rigged up lights in the fields so he could plow and harvest at night when he got home!  Also, we have our 5th wheel to live in temporarily.

We actually will have electric & water hookups and dump site connected under a shelter (hailstorms) so we can live in the trailer and rent out any house on the property at first while we finish our move from California.  So much to plan.  Need fences and shelters in place before we move the sheep, dogs, and mule out.  Not to mention moving our belongings and farm equipment.  We can buy used farm machinery there, but a lot of our panels will come with us since they will be too expensive to purchase there.


----------



## Bruce

I understand that sometimes used machinery isn't much cheaper than new. Best to check that out and bring your existing equipment for those type items.


----------



## Baymule

I. Can't. WAIT!!!!!


----------



## Ridgetop

The only machinery we would have to acquire is a tractor, and possible a flatbed or dump trailer.  We have a tiny tractor that doesn't have 4WD and not enough rear weight to do much.  Our large tractor has been taken over by DS3 who uses it all the time.  He also has a lot of attachments he bought for it.  Maybe we could take the tractor AND the attachments!  LOL  I think by the time we drag all our equipment, tools, corral panels, livestock, and livestock equipment back there, it would be more cost efficient to buy another tractor.  Either new or used depending in the cost and DH's inclination.  I always prefer buying well cared for used since a lot of times there is very little hours on the engine.  Since we are moving to farm country that may not be the case and buying new might be more cost efficient.  Before we buy anything, we will post and take advantage of all the good tractor info everyone gave Senile Texas Aggie!


----------



## greybeard

There are only few places in East Texas you can get high enough to see over the pine trees.
Love's lookout in Jacksonville is one of them.barely above the treetops. But, it's a state park.
https://foursquare.com/v/loves-lookout/4c1fb473920076b0a62bc5e9
That kind of view gets old real quick.


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## Ridgetop

Well, we may love our hilltop views, but our legs and knees sure don't when we have to do anything!


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## Baymule

Even with hills, we live Behind The Pine Curtain. Cain't see over 'em.


----------



## Rammy

Better than the iron curtain.


----------



## Baymule

Rammy said:


> Better than the iron curtain.


You got it.


----------



## Rammy

By the way, is that word, cain't southern for can't?  just checking........


----------



## Baymule

Rammy said:


> By the way, is that word, cain't southern for can't?  just checking........


You got that too!  Most of the time I write like I have some glimmer of intelligence. But to hear me talk is a whole 'nother animal......


----------



## Rammy




----------



## Mike CHS

I actually hear every word you write so we are good.


----------



## Devonviolet

Baymule said:


> You got that too!  Most of the time I write like I have some glimmer of intelligence. But to hear me talk is a whole 'nother animal......


Bay talks like a home grown Texan. Nothin' wrong with that!


----------



## Rammy

I thought it was cute. Definetly could hear the Texas accent!


----------



## Bruce

Rammy said:


> By the way, is that word, cain't southern for can't?  just checking........


Rhymes with aint, as in Fahr aint!


----------



## Rammy

Yep! I could hear that southern drawl from here!


----------



## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Baymule is helping Miss @Ridgetop to understand the Southern/Texan dialect!  Just one of many services she provides!


----------



## Mike CHS

I have read that a Texan accent is a southern accent with a twist but not sure how to describe what "the twist" is.


----------



## Baymule

Awl Ah kin say iz that ah got tha double whammy. Suthern and Texan acksent awl wrapped in uh package uv slow talkin' FUN!


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## Ridgetop

Don't forget "Bless your heart" - which I understand is southern girl speak for "I don't like you much and hope you burn" but allowable in public conversations.  I think it equates to air kisses among the Hollywood crowd.


----------



## Ridgetop

So weighed, vaccinated, and docked Thursday.

New Dorper ram lamb weighed 13.8 lbs. at 2 days old.
Oldest Dorper ewe lamb weighed 23.8 and averaged 6.9 lb. gain per week in last 2 weeks.
Dorper X Dorset twins, large ewe and much smaller brother, weighed in at 18.2 and 16.3 respectively with a weekly gain of 5.9 lbs. for the ewe and an impressive gain of 6.4 lb. for her brother. 

The 3 older lambs are already showing the spinal crease that indicates a thick loin developing.  Really like what this Dorper ram is bringing to the barn.  Very pleased with the lambs and their gain so far.

Next week we will ear tag and open the pens into the creep for the lambs to be able to eat 24/7.  I am interested in their weight gain under these conditions, as well as the differences in the purebred Dorpers and the Dorper X Dorset twins.

Several variables in the comparisons have to be taken into consideration:

1.    The 2 purebred Dorpers are singles out of FF moms.  Singles tend to grow faster, *but* they are out of FFs who do not produce as much milk as older ewes.
2.    The Dorper/Dorset crosses are twins which usually grow slower.  However this ewe is a raising her 4th set of lambs so the milk production should be higher.
3.    OTOH, the Dorset ewe has only raised 2 single lambs and slipped her 3rd lamb early last year due to the fire evacuation.
4.    This is an extremely small sample to reach any definite conclusions.

Mainly, I want to see how these Dorpers do in reaching a market weight of 100 lbs. in approximately 4 months.  The Dorper ewes and rams are slightly smaller than the Dorsets, but the birth weights and rates of gains seem to be approximately the same.  The Dorpers are easy keepers and do well on less grain and  hay than the Dorsets.  We have no pasture yet since we only have edible forage in the spring if we get enough rain.  If our rainfall is negligible we will have almost no graze or forage and have to feed all "carry" feed.  We are lucky to get good alfalfa - expensive but high in protein.  Supplemental grain is our biggest expense if we have to grain heavily to produce weight gain, heavy milky lactation, etc. 

Hypothesis:  The Dorset lambs reached 100 lbs. (butcher weight) at 4 months in a creep situation with free feed alfalfa and grain.  Based on my reading about these Dorpers, they will produce lambs on less feed. The lambs will grow and gain to butcher weight in 4 months on less feed than the Dorsets.  This will cut down my overall costs of lamb production.

As an added bonus, the better ewe lambs from these purebred Dorpers can be sold as breeding stock.  Since I want to sell the last of my Dorsets, and replace them with more expensive Dorper ewes, I need to be sure that the Dorper lamb rate of gain matches or exceeds the rate of gain of the Dorset lambs raised under the same conditions.  I have my rate of gain weight charts from previous years to compare to as well.  Last year was a disaster lambing year.  Year before was very good with lots of lambs, forage, and good gains with 13 lambs on the chart.


----------



## Baymule

Here's to a good lambing season and weight gain!


----------



## Devonviolet

Baymule said:


> Awl Ah kin say iz that ah got tha double whammy. Suthern and Texan acksent awl wrapped in uh package uv slow talkin' FUN!


Yup, I can understand you just fine, Bay!   And when she says, “slow talkin” she means “slooooow”.  She has that slooow Texan drawl. 


Ridgetop said:


> Don't forget "Bless your heart" - which I understand is southern girl speak for "I don't like you much and hope you burn" but allowable in public conversations.  I think it equates to air kisses among the Hollywood crowd.


Actually I’ve always heard “Bless her heart” to mean: “she’s an idiot”.


----------



## Baymule

Bless your heart can actually mean empathy.
It can also mean you are stupid but I'm too polite to tell you so.


----------



## Bruce

But if you say "Bless HER heart" to a friend, you are saying someone else is an idiot right?

You might need to speed it up for some of us Bay, we might fall asleep waiting for the next word!


----------



## greybeard

Baymule said:


> Bless your heart can actually mean empathy.
> It can also mean you are stupid but I'm too polite to tell you so.


More aptly, it means "you're not just stupid but such a special kind of stupid that you don't even realize I'm saying you are"


----------



## Devonviolet

Baymule said:


> Bless your heart can actually mean empathy.


Actually, yes it can, and I HAVE used it that way.


----------



## Ridgetop

Howdy y'all!  I'm fixin' to get mahself a mahgahrita so Ah kin practice ma Texas talkin'. 

Somehow I don't think I have the hang of it yet . . . .  I _have_ tried watching Texas Flip and Move, that show about the flippers who buy houses that they move off the property, fix up, and sell to be moved onto another piece of property.  I think they are near Dallas.  After I watched a marathon of that show, DH asked why I was talking so funny.  Bless his heart!  LOL


----------



## greybeard

I _have_ also, tried watching Texas Flip and Move, that show about the city folks pretending to be Texans  who buy houses that they move off the property, fix up, and sell to be moved onto another piece of property. 
mostly...wannabes.


----------



## Ridgetop

Once the houses are all fixed up, when they go to move them onto their final location again, there will be a lot of damage to the walls, etc.  Those little houses will have to be fixed again!  I think they are just playing for the cameras.  But I do like the sisters and their daddy.  Especially when they sneak into his storage barn and liberate some stuff they need for their little buildings.  LOL


----------



## Latestarter

I'm pretty sure it's much the same as when they move a manufactured home... Same principle anyway... Might be some damage, but it shouldn't be substantial.


----------



## Baymule

Somehow I have missed that show..... I already know how to talk Texan. LOL


----------



## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

While you and your family probably didn't have a white Christmas (unless you count sand the way Miss @Baymule does as Texas snow), did you get a good bit of rain?  Have you taken any more pictures of your place?

Senile Texas Aggie


----------



## Baymule

Haha, want a white Christmas? Get a bucket of paint!


----------



## Ridgetop

No, we had a lovely sunny Christmas here.  The temps are dropping though, our last warm (low 70's) day was December 23.  Then the temp dropped to the 60's and 50's.  Expected to stay low through another 2 weeks.

I haven't been on for a while so I hope everyone had a nice Christmas with family.  We had 14 for dinner so we had to set the table I the family room which would seat that many.  The dining room wouldn't hold us.  This is when I wish we were still in our old house built in 1923 with its huge formal dining room.  We considered moving the big oak kitchen table to the dining room and moving the dining room table into the family room but would have had to move the living room furniture around to accommodate the extra footage.  Too much trouble!

DS1, DS2, DH, DS2's girlfriend, and I opened our gifts early, then watched The Christmas Story eating sweet rolls and drinking coffee and eggnog.  We texted DD1 and DD2 and told them to come after 12:00 (when the movie ended) which worked well for the since they were visiting other family members and opening their own gifts.  After they finally arrived, more gift opening, and I started cooking the last courses. 

Anyway, we had a lovely dinner although I was worried that I would be too sick to cook it.  I caught something from my 2 daughters, and the grandchildren.  DS1 also caught it and we were both sick.  Managed to get it under control enough to cook the dinner and then collapse.   The quiet morning watching the movie helped too.  DD1 baked some pies, and was going to do a corn pudding along with potatoes au gratin.  She managed to get the potatoes au gratin in the oven in time, but did not get the corn pudding done due to opening gifts with the rest of the family.  The other 2 vegetable dishes were enough though, as well as baked sweet potatoes and the potatoes au gratin.  Hardly any leftovers!!!

It was a very nice day.  Then I spent the last 2 days getting well!


----------



## greybeard

Sounds like a great Christmas, California style weather to boot.
Wish I could say I didn't have many leftovers. Ham, smoked Turkey, Gumbo, dressing (tho I've eaten about all the dressing now) butter beans, corn casserole, some kind of green bean dish someone brought and left..  
cookies, desserts. I baked 102 choc chip and PB cookies Christmas eve after the excitement died down.

Did your hubby get all his Christmas lights up?


----------



## Ridgetop

As many as possible - about a third of the way around the front perimeter fence.  It looks a little odd, but he plans to continue next year.  Probably the last strings of lights will go up the year we decide to sell and move.  LOL  I am hoping he will put some plain white lights up on the front patio gazebos for summer parties.  Missed his chance though since I was sick and didn't get out for the half price Christmas light sales.  There is always next year.

Yes, it was a wonderful Christmas.  I made only one batch each of 6 kinds of cookies.  DH and DS1 apparently found one type of cookie and ate them all since I only ended up with 4 jelly center cookies for my Christmas dafter diner cookie plate.  That is 4 cookies, not 4 dozen!  I was able to fill in with the other 5 kinds though.  Then I found the best gingerbread cookie recipe on line for the grandchildren to make gingerbread men, ladies, snowmen, Christmas trees, etc. and decorate them with icing, sprinkles, etc.  They had a blast! 

I also made Wisconsin Kringle from an on line recipe for a good friend, but it took 3 days and turned out to taste like bakery bought instead of what he wanted.    Obviously there are multiple Kringle recipes.  It was good but not worth 3 days.  The one I used was a yeast dough where you roll the butter into each layer fold the dough chill, rebutter, etc. etc.  The recipe they wanted seems to have a dough more like filo dough.  I think I will just order it next year.  LOL 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that the New Year will bring us all good health, good fortune and lots of fun.


----------



## greybeard

I'm having leftover gumbo tonight since my Christmas Eve gumbo supper got rudely interrupted at one small bowl. This is the last nite for it, being the 3rd day.......it goes bye bye tomorrow.


----------



## Ridgetop

Glad you are able to enjoy it.  Leftovers are our favorite.  Also makes it easyon the cook to have lots of premade food to serve!  LOL


----------



## greybeard

I detest 99% of leftovers..........especially other people's leftovers.
Why can't it be like camping................'you pack it in..you pack everything you brought in, back out'. And that goes double for anything with cucumbers in it, all those little plastic containers and all those half full jugs of store bought tea.
(No one ever leaves chocolate cake or Blue Bell ice cream  )


----------



## Ridgetop

Since I am the only cook here, there are no "other people's leftovers", just the stuff I make.  My family doesn't want anyone else cooking for them.    I will never get a holiday off.  The only ones I have gotten off have been 2 Thanksgivings - 2002 when I was doing chemo for cancer and unable to cook, and the last one was 2017 when I was on the road driving back from my aunt's deathbed.  If those are the only reasons I don't have to cook, I would rather cook holiday dinners forever!  LOL


----------



## Baymule

I like cooking holiday dinners. I took it up after my mother gave it up, then my sister took up the family gathering. She said she won't be hosting the family Christmas anymore, she is 72 and can't handle it anymore. I live 3-4 hours away and they won't come up here. Most of the extended family is down there, so it is going to fizzle out. My DD and family are 7 miles from us and our son will come if he is off work and anywhere near. So I will probably invite all the people I know that don't have anywhere to go. We'll see how it goes.


----------



## Ridgetop

I have been doing Christmas, New Years and Easter Dinners since I was 18 when I lived with my grandmother and started helping her.  By the time I was 21, I was married and doing the cooking and clean up myself at her apartment.  When I was 24, I took over completely at my own home where I had a dishwasher to do the clean up.  LOL  My parents and siblings lived out of state, but my uncles and aunt lived in Southern California.  My in-laws did Thanksgiving.  It has become so normal that planning the dinner, table set up, etc. requires no thought.  LOL  Having DS3, DIL, 2 grandchildren, my aunt, and 3 grown children living with us for a month required no thought in preparing meals for 10 people daily.  The following year, having DD1, SIL, 3 grandchildren, 3 grown children and my aunt living with us for 2 months again took no thought in feeding them every day.   LOL  It is what you are used to.  Think of all the women who used to feed huge families and farmhands every day.  Of course, it _was_ expensive!  LOL


----------



## Rammy

Thats alot of people to cook for and clean up after. I hope they chipped in for the groceries. Thats alot of food!


----------



## Ridgetop

Nope, but married children and kids have moved out now.  They were here temporarily after selling houses and moving into new ones.  Unmarried children are still in residence part time.  DD2 is at boyfriend's house most of time, while DS2 is apprentice lineman and working wherever program sends him.  All their stuff is still here, and they come home occasionally.  DS1 is here and helps with all farm work, babysits grandchildren, and is finishing degrees. 

My bucket list includes "Empty Nest Syndrome"!  LOL  But then I realize I couldn't travel and keep my animals!


----------



## Baymule

The ebb and flow of life has many changes, some so tiny as to be unnoticeable, some huge and life changing. I love big crowds of family and friends at holidays and ours is ebbing away. It makes me sad. I am not one to dither about or to let anything get me down, but the twinge of past gatherings will always be with me. This is a New Year and this ol' gal is moving forward.


----------



## RollingAcres

Ridgetop said:


> I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that the New Year will bring us all good health, good fortune and lots of fun.



Glad to hear you had a nice Christmas! We spent our Christmas being tourists in San Francisco.  We started with the Golden Gate Bridge, then crossed it to head to Point Bonita Lighthouse but it was closed. But the scenery there was breathtaking, so still worth it. Then we went to Muir Woods and after Sausalito for dinner. Christmas day dinner at the restaurant was quite disappointing, food was just so-so. The kids opened their gifts after we got home from touring.


----------



## Ridgetop

Christmas means big family time for me too.  I love seeing the Christmas each one has a memory attached.  I love when the decorations go up and feel sad when they come down.  The house feels empty for a week without the Christmas decoration lights glowing.  Each Christmas ornament is checked for a child's name and year.  Each Christmas is a milestone.  After my in-laws moved out of state to their dream retirement home, and my Grandmother was gone, our Christmas with just our young children had its own traditions.  Family movie on Christmas eve, then mass, opening gifts Christmas morning, Christmas afternoon after-dinner playing new board games, and day-after-Christmas enjoying the new gifts.  Since the kids all had livestock projects and horses, most of their gifts consisted of new equipment, in addition to the desired main gift.  Eating the family recipe Christmas cookies and opening the annual box of specially chosen See's chocolates on New Years Day were really enjoyable.  Now 2 of our children have their own families and are making their own traditions.  Two other children have significant others who claim much of their time.  But Christmas Day dinner with all the family is still important and we all treasure that time together.  The children and their spouses still play board games after dinner.  The grandchildren are being inculcated into that tradition too. 

Life goes on, our old people die while others are born and gradually the gaps close.  Traditions are all part of life.  They hold the past to the present and continue our family journey into the future.


----------



## Ridgetop

So Christmas is over and the new year has begun.  Time to take down the Christmas decorations and put them away for another year.  I will miss the cheerful glow of the lights, on the other hand, removing the tree will give more room in our family room.  Rika and Bubba can both fit stretched out on the floor now! 

It rained most of last night, thank goodness, but naturally it precipitated another mudslide on the Pacific Coast Highway.  That is where the Ventura/Moorpark fire finally burned out  Hard to burn past the Pacific Ocean.  It is supposed to rain again Monday or Tuesday.  Hopefully, we will continue having rains through March.  December through March is our traditional rainy season.  Weather patterns are changing all over the world, it's a cyclical change.  I am just hoping for continuing rain so my sheep will have some forage this year.  Mudslides are normal just like our brush fires.  Horrible, tragic, but inevitable in southern California, especially when we have had such a bad burn season.

I called my good friend Erick (Lucky Hit Anatolians) and reminded him about my need for another LGD.  Sadly, his 8 bitches had all come into season at the same time and the bitch he had planned to breed after her OFA results, had come in and gone out before the OFA which was scheduled next week could be done!    No puppies for about a year.  Erick does not breed more than 1 litter a year and sometimes only every 18 months.  He always has a long waiting list for his dogs, but is very choosy about breeding.   While we were shooting the breeze, Erick was talking of a client who had a litter.   The puppies were beautiful, the bitch was related to Rika and Bubba out of his best lines.  He loved the puppies and the temperaments and working abilities of both parents.  Both parents were working LGDs on the owner's 42 acre sheep ranch in Idaho.   The breeder had imported the sire from Turkey and was having problems with the Anatolian breed registry since apparently a lot of the big wigs didn't like this Turkish breeder. Erick had been raving about the merits of the sire and his terrific temperament, and bemoaning the politics of the breed ring when he suddenly realized this might be the answer to our puppy problem.  There was a possibility that the puppies couldn't be registered, but since we want to spay the bitch, and no longer want to breed, Erick thought this might work for us.  Both parents were OFA excellent, the bitch had beautiful conformation, as did the sire.  Good conformation is not just to look pretty, correct conformation means the dog can physically withstand the rigors of guarding livestock on bad ground, if a dog has poor conformation they do not always last as long or stay as healthy. 

Erick quickly texted me the info on the owner and then called her himself to give her a heads up about us.  One bitch puppy was still available.  She was the pick of the litter which the owner had wanted to keep for herself.  She was trying to decide between this puppy and the brindle bitch puppy.  She had decided to keep the brindle, and sent me photos of both parents, the litter, and the individual puppy stacked so I could see her topline, angulation, etc.  Gorgeous!  After discussing the parents and my needs I arranged to send off a check.

So, that is the good news!  We found an  Anatolian puppy from working stock out of Erick's Lucky Hit working dogs!

Now for the bad news!  We have to drive to Idaho, 2 hours north of Boise to pick her up.   We have to pass through Winnemucca, NV, where 5" of snow is expected today and tomorrow, while northwestern Idaho is expecting several inches of snow mixed with freezing rain!   

I do not ship young puppies, besides the airlines will not ship dogs during the winter since they have to ride in the cargo hold.  We also like to drive to pick up our LGDs since the several day return trip is part of the bonding process.  There is nothing like a couple days in a car with a large dog to really get to know one another.  LOL  Since this is a young puppy, the bonding process will be even more precious.

We now need to go on Wednesday, January 8, and get back for a booked trip with our friends on the 16th, or go after the 28th.  While the weather is not so good now, as DH said, it might be worse weather then.    The reason for rushing up on the 8th or 9th is that we have to  pull our 5th wheel to Kettleman City where our son is working.  He wants to live in it for the next few months.  Kettleman is 3-4 hours north on the road to Mesa, Idaho, so might as well go straight from dropping off the trailer instead of driving back and then taking off again.  So far, so good.  Luckily we have a 4WD pickup with chains and winter clothes from Washington state winters.  I routinely pack the cab with blankets, thermoses, water, etc. to cover emergencies.  If worst comes to worst we will hole up in a motel and ride out any blizzard conditions.  Remember to take a couple books.  However, puppy breeder Debra in Idaho assured me that the winter has been "mild".  See photo below for "mild" Idaho winter.  Apparently "mild" means no horrendous blizzards have hit them yet!

 
Puppy stacked at 8 weeks.  Lovely topline and rear angulation,  Next photo is puppy asleep in cozy barn.  (front left)
Bottom photo of dam in front and sire in rear, on duty.
  So we now have found our puppy, only separated from us by several days of travel in cold snow, rain, etc.  LOL  If worst comes to worst, we will pick her up the beginning of February.

Luckily DH is experienced in snow.  We plan to stop early and leave after the semi traffic has warmed up  roads.  We will be travelling all the way on major freeways and highways.  The mileage is actually less than when we travel to Yelm WA, so hopefully it should not take more than 2 days to get there, and 2 days back.   

On another note, I have just finished reading The Way of The Pack and I wanted to say that it is an excellent book.  I will be posting reviews of it.  I have noticed with surprise that all BrendaMNegri's postings have been removed from this site.  I don't know why, but in any event this book is certainly worth the purchase.  I would especially recommend it to anyone considering getting a livestock guardian dog for the first time.

The book discusses traditional and historic use of livestock guardian dogs, but then reads like a how to guide on understanding your LGD, choosing a breeder that will mentor the new owner, nutrition, health and first aid care, etc.  I had owned a number of LGDs before getting our Anatolians, but still found so much in this book that gave new insight into body language of the LGD, and understanding behaviors before jumping to conclusions about what the dog is actually doing.  This is a thing that a lot of new owners do, as Southern can attest to in her work with new owners and their problems.

The title "The Way of The Pack" might put some people off, but refers more to the bonding and way that multiple dogs work together than any idea of having huge numbers of dog  She also warns about trying to work fewer dogs in a situation where the predator load is high.  When I posted about having lost a couple lambs even with 2 Anatolians on my 5 acres, she immediately posted that I was "underdogged".  She was right.  Several additional coyote packs had moved into the neighborhood after the Creek fire last winter, causing a real predator overload. 

Even though I had 30 years experience owning  LGDs on this property, I had not realized that times change and with the loss of surrounding vegetation and more homes being built the coyotes no longer had as much wild prey.  In addition, several packs were now homeless from the fire and had to relocate into our neighborhood where they were competing with our 2 resident packs!

Her book had me take a good long look at how many LGDs are necessary.  While I don't think a pack of 25 LGDs is necessary, Negri seeks to show that many owners underestimate the number of dogs they should be using to protect their livestock.  She points out that the number of LGDs should not be based on number of sheep or acres but should be based on number and type of predators and terrain. In the foothills of Los Angeles where I live, the coyote population is so high that I need at least 3 dogs for my 5 steep, brushy acres.  No lethal animal control measures are allowed within the city limits, so my dogs work hard to defend our sheep.   Even with a 3 Anatolian pack, we need to lock our flock up at night in order to give our hardworking dogs a rest.  My son, on the other hand, might only need one dog on his flat, open 5 acres outside Santa Maria.  I have lost several sheep to coyotes, necessitating the addition of the 3rd dog.  My son has not even lost one of his free-range chickens.  He has more open land with natural prey for the predator population to hunt.

At any rate, I enjoyed the book, and was delighted to find that I had been doing most of the right things with my dogs.

Adding the 3rd Anatolian will bring my pack up to the necessary numbers.  Rika is 6, Bubba is 3, and the new puppy will move into a line of protectors.  By the time Rika is 9, the 2 younger dogs will be in their prime. They will have been trained by the best LGD ever, and it will be time to bring in another puppy.  Erik and I are already discussing it.  LOL

I'll post more about the new puppy later.  Got to go pack up the Christmas decorations!


----------



## Ridgetop

So Christmas is over and the new year has begun.  Time to take down the Christmas decorations and put them away for another year.  I will miss the cheerful glow of the lights, on the other hand, removing the tree will give more room in our family room.  Rika and Bubba can both fit stretched out on the floor now! 

It rained most of last night, thank goodness, but naturally it precipitated another mudslide on the Pacific Coast Highway.  That is where the Ventura/Moorpark fire finally burned out  Hard to burn past the Pacific Ocean.  It is supposed to rain again Monday or Tuesday.  Hopefully, we will continue having rains through March.  December through March is our traditional rainy season.  Weather patterns are changing all over the world, it's a cyclical change.  I am just hoping for continuing rain so my sheep will have some forage this year.  Mudslides are normal just like our brush fires.  Horrible, tragic, but inevitable in southern California, especially when we have had such a bad burn season.

I called my good friend Erick (Lucky Hit Anatolians) and reminded him about my need for another LGD.  Sadly, his 8 bitches had all come into season at the same time and the bitch he had planned to breed after her OFA results, had come in and gone out before the OFA which was scheduled next week could be done!    No puppies for about a year.  Erick does not breed more than 1 litter a year and sometimes only every 18 months.  He always has a long waiting list for his dogs, but is very choosy about breeding.   While we were shooting the breeze, Erick was talking of a client who had a litter.   The puppies were beautiful, the bitch was related to Rika and Bubba out of his best lines.  He loved the puppies and the temperaments and working abilities of both parents.  Both parents were working LGDs on the owner's 42 acre sheep ranch in Idaho.   The breeder had imported the sire from Turkey and was having problems with the Anatolian breed registry since apparently a lot of the big wigs didn't like this Turkish breeder. Erick had been raving about the merits of the sire and his terrific temperament, and bemoaning the politics of the breed ring when he suddenly realized this might be the answer to our puppy problem.  There was a possibility that the puppies couldn't be registered, but since we want to spay the bitch, and no longer want to breed, Erick thought this might work for us.  Both parents were OFA excellent, the bitch had beautiful conformation, as did the sire.  Good conformation is not just to look pretty, correct conformation means the dog can physically withstand the rigors of guarding livestock on bad ground, if a dog has poor conformation they do not always last as long or stay as healthy. 

Erick quickly texted me the info on the owner and then called her himself to give her a heads up about us.  One bitch puppy was still available.  She was the pick of the litter which the owner had wanted to keep for herself.  She was trying to decide between this puppy and the brindle bitch puppy.  She had decided to keep the brindle, and sent me photos of both parents, the litter, and the individual puppy stacked so I could see her topline, angulation, etc.  Gorgeous!  After discussing the parents and my needs I arranged to send off a check.

So, that is the good news!  We found an  Anatolian puppy from working stock out of Erick's Lucky Hit working dogs!

Now for the bad news!  We have to drive to Idaho, 2 hours north of Boise to pick her up.   We have to pass through Winnemucca, NV, where 5" of snow is expected today and tomorrow, while northwestern Idaho is expecting several inches of snow mixed with freezing rain!   

I do not ship young puppies, besides the airlines will not ship dogs during the winter since they have to ride in the cargo hold.  We also like to drive to pick up our LGDs since the several day return trip is part of the bonding process.  There is nothing like a couple days in a car with a large dog to really get to know one another.  LOL  Since this is a young puppy, the bonding process will be even more precious.

We now need to go on Wednesday, January 8, and get back for a booked trip with our friends on the 16th, or go after the 28th.  While the weather is not so good now, as DH said, it might be worse weather then.    The reason for rushing up on the 8th or 9th is that we have to  pull our 5th wheel to Kettleman City where our son is working.  He wants to live in it for the next few months.  Kettleman is 3-4 hours north on the road to Mesa, Idaho, so might as well go straight from dropping off the trailer instead of driving back and then taking off again.  So far, so good.  Luckily we have a 4WD pickup with chains and winter clothes from Washington state winters.  I routinely pack the cab with blankets, thermoses, water, etc. to cover emergencies.  If worst comes to worst we will hole up in a motel and ride out any blizzard conditions.  Remember to take a couple books.  However, puppy breeder Debra in Idaho assured me that the winter has been "mild".  See photo below for "mild" Idaho winter.  Apparently "mild" means no horrendous blizzards have hit them yet!
View attachment 56759 View attachment 56758
Puppy stacked at 8 weeks.  Lovely topline and rear angulation,  Next photo is puppy asleep in cozy barn.  (front left)
Bottom photo of dam in front and sire in rear, on duty.
View attachment 56760  So we now have found our puppy, only separated from us by several days of travel in cold snow, rain, etc.  LOL  If worst comes to worst, we will pick her up the beginning of February.

Luckily DH is experienced in snow.  We plan to stop early and leave after the semi traffic has warmed up  roads.  We will be travelling all the way on major freeways and highways.  The mileage is actually less than when we travel to Yelm WA, so hopefully it should not take more than 2 days to get there, and 2 days back.   

On another note, I have just finished reading The Way of The Pack and I wanted to say that it is an excellent book.  I will be posting reviews of it.  I have noticed with surprise that all BrendaMNegri's postings have been removed from this site.  I don't know why, but in any event this book is certainly worth the purchase.  I would especially recommend it to anyone considering getting a livestock guardian dog for the first time.

The book discusses traditional and historic use of livestock guardian dogs, but then reads like a how to guide on understanding your LGD, choosing a breeder that will mentor the new owner, nutrition, health and first aid care, etc.  I had owned a number of LGDs before getting our Anatolians, but still found so much in this book that gave new insight into body language of the LGD, and understanding behaviors before jumping to conclusions about what the dog is actually doing.  This is a thing that a lot of new owners do, as Southern can attest to in her work with new owners and their problems.

The title "The Way of The Pack" might put some people off, but refers more to the bonding and way that multiple dogs work together than any idea of having huge numbers of dog  She also warns about trying to work fewer dogs in a situation where the predator load is high.  When I posted about having lost a couple lambs even with 2 Anatolians on my 5 acres, she immediately posted that I was "underdogged".  She was right.  Several additional coyote packs had moved into the neighborhood after the Creek fire last winter, causing a real predator overload. 

Even though I had 30 years experience owning  LGDs on this property, I had not realized that times change and with the loss of surrounding vegetation and more homes being built the coyotes no longer had as much wild prey.  In addition, several packs were now homeless from the fire and had to relocate into our neighborhood where they were competing with our 2 resident packs!

Her book had me take a good long look at how many LGDs are necessary.  While I don't think a pack of 25 LGDs is necessary, Negri seeks to show that many owners underestimate the number of dogs they should be using to protect their livestock.  She points out that the number of LGDs should not be based on number of sheep or acres but should be based on number and type of predators and terrain. In the foothills of Los Angeles where I live, the coyote population is so high that I need at least 3 dogs for my 5 steep, brushy acres.  No lethal animal control measures are allowed within the city limits, so my dogs work hard to defend our sheep.   Even with a 3 Anatolian pack, we need to lock our flock up at night in order to give our hardworking dogs a rest.  My son, on the other hand, might only need one dog on his flat, open 5 acres outside Santa Maria.  I have lost several sheep to coyotes, necessitating the addition of the 3rd dog.  My son has not even lost one of his free-range chickens.  He has more open land with natural prey for the predator population to hunt.

At any rate, I enjoyed the book, and was delighted to find that I had been doing most of the right things with my dogs.

Adding the 3rd Anatolian will bring my pack up to the necessary numbers.  Rika is 6, Bubba is 3, and the new puppy will move into a line of protectors.  By the time Rika is 9, the 2 younger dogs will be in their prime. They will have been trained by the best LGD ever, and it will be time to bring in another puppy.  Erik and I are already discussing it.  LOL

I'll post more about the new puppy later.  Got to go pack up the Christmas decorations!


----------



## Ridgetop

So Christmas is over and the new year has begun.  Time to take down the Christmas decorations and put them away for another year.  I will miss the cheerful glow of the lights, on the other hand, removing the tree will give more room in our family room.  Rika and Bubba can both fit stretched out on the floor now! 

It rained most of last night, thank goodness, but naturally it precipitated another mudslide on the Pacific Coast Highway.  That is where the Ventura/Moorpark fire finally burned out  Hard to burn past the Pacific Ocean.  It is supposed to rain again Monday or Tuesday.  Hopefully, we will continue having rains through March.  December through March is our traditional rainy season.  Weather patterns are changing all over the world, it's a cyclical change.  I am just hoping for continuing rain so my sheep will have some forage this year.  Mudslides are normal just like our brush fires.  Horrible, tragic, but inevitable in southern California, especially when we have had such a bad burn season.

I called my good friend Erick (Lucky Hit Anatolians) and reminded him about my need for another LGD.  Sadly, his 8 bitches had all come into season at the same time and the bitch he had planned to breed after her OFA results, had come in and gone out before the OFA which was scheduled next week could be done!    No puppies for about a year.  Erick does not breed more than 1 litter a year and sometimes only every 18 months.  He always has a long waiting list for his dogs, but is very choosy about breeding.   While we were shooting the breeze, Erick was talking of a client who had a litter.   The puppies were beautiful, the bitch was related to Rika and Bubba out of his best lines.  He loved the puppies and the temperaments and working abilities of both parents.  Both parents were working LGDs on the owner's 42 acre sheep ranch in Idaho.   The breeder had imported the sire from Turkey and was having problems with the Anatolian breed registry since apparently a lot of the big wigs didn't like this Turkish breeder. Erick had been raving about the merits of the sire and his terrific temperament, and bemoaning the politics of the breed ring when he suddenly realized this might be the answer to our puppy problem.  There was a possibility that the puppies couldn't be registered, but since we want to spay the bitch, and no longer want to breed, Erick thought this might work for us.  Both parents were OFA excellent, the bitch had beautiful conformation, as did the sire.  Good conformation is not just to look pretty, correct conformation means the dog can physically withstand the rigors of guarding livestock on bad ground, if a dog has poor conformation they do not always last as long or stay as healthy. 

Erick quickly texted me the info on the owner and then called her himself to give her a heads up about us.  One bitch puppy was still available.  She was the pick of the litter which the owner had wanted to keep for herself.  She was trying to decide between this puppy and the brindle bitch puppy.  She had decided to keep the brindle, and sent me photos of both parents, the litter, and the individual puppy stacked so I could see her topline, angulation, etc.  Gorgeous!  After discussing the parents and my needs I arranged to send off a check.

So, that is the good news!  We found an  Anatolian puppy from working stock out of Erick's Lucky Hit working dogs!

Now for the bad news!  We have to drive to Idaho, 2 hours north of Boise to pick her up.   We have to pass through Winnemucca, NV, where 5" of snow is expected today and tomorrow, while northwestern Idaho is expecting several inches of snow mixed with freezing rain!   

I do not ship young puppies, besides the airlines will not ship dogs during the winter since they have to ride in the cargo hold.  We also like to drive to pick up our LGDs since the several day return trip is part of the bonding process.  There is nothing like a couple days in a car with a large dog to really get to know one another.  LOL  Since this is a young puppy, the bonding process will be even more precious.

We now need to go on Wednesday, January 8, and get back for a booked trip with our friends on the 16th, or go after the 28th.  While the weather is not so good now, as DH said, it might be worse weather then.    The reason for rushing up on the 8th or 9th is that we have to  pull our 5th wheel to Kettleman City where our son is working.  He wants to live in it for the next few months.  Kettleman is 3-4 hours north on the road to Mesa, Idaho, so might as well go straight from dropping off the trailer instead of driving back and then taking off again.  So far, so good.  Luckily we have a 4WD pickup with chains and winter clothes from Washington state winters.  I routinely pack the cab with blankets, thermoses, water, etc. to cover emergencies.  If worst comes to worst we will hole up in a motel and ride out any blizzard conditions.  Remember to take a couple books.  However, puppy breeder Debra in Idaho assured me that the winter has been "mild".  See photo below for "mild" Idaho winter.  Apparently "mild" means no horrendous blizzards have hit them yet!
View attachment 56759 View attachment 56758
Puppy stacked at 8 weeks.  Lovely topline and rear angulation,  Next photo is puppy asleep in cozy barn.  (front left)
Bottom photo of dam in front and sire in rear, on duty.
View attachment 56760  So we now have found our puppy, only separated from us by several days of travel in cold snow, rain, etc.  LOL  If worst comes to worst, we will pick her up the beginning of February.

Luckily DH is experienced in snow.  We plan to stop early and leave after the semi traffic has warmed up  roads.  We will be travelling all the way on major freeways and highways.  The mileage is actually less than when we travel to Yelm WA, so hopefully it should not take more than 2 days to get there, and 2 days back.   

On another note, I have just finished reading The Way of The Pack and I wanted to say that it is an excellent book.  I will be posting reviews of it.  I have noticed with surprise that all BrendaMNegri's postings have been removed from this site.  I don't know why, but in any event this book is certainly worth the purchase.  I would especially recommend it to anyone considering getting a livestock guardian dog for the first time.

The book discusses traditional and historic use of livestock guardian dogs, but then reads like a how to guide on understanding your LGD, choosing a breeder that will mentor the new owner, nutrition, health and first aid care, etc.  I had owned a number of LGDs before getting our Anatolians, but still found so much in this book that gave new insight into body language of the LGD, and understanding behaviors before jumping to conclusions about what the dog is actually doing.  This is a thing that a lot of new owners do, as Southern can attest to in her work with new owners and their problems.

The title "The Way of The Pack" might put some people off, but refers more to the bonding and way that multiple dogs work together than any idea of having huge numbers of dog  She also warns about trying to work fewer dogs in a situation where the predator load is high.  When I posted about having lost a couple lambs even with 2 Anatolians on my 5 acres, she immediately posted that I was "underdogged".  She was right.  Several additional coyote packs had moved into the neighborhood after the Creek fire last winter, causing a real predator overload. 

Even though I had 30 years experience owning  LGDs on this property, I had not realized that times change and with the loss of surrounding vegetation and more homes being built the coyotes no longer had as much wild prey.  In addition, several packs were now homeless from the fire and had to relocate into our neighborhood where they were competing with our 2 resident packs!

Her book had me take a good long look at how many LGDs are necessary.  While I don't think a pack of 25 LGDs is necessary, Negri seeks to show that many owners underestimate the number of dogs they should be using to protect their livestock.  She points out that the number of LGDs should not be based on number of sheep or acres but should be based on number and type of predators and terrain. In the foothills of Los Angeles where I live, the coyote population is so high that I need at least 3 dogs for my 5 steep, brushy acres.  No lethal animal control measures are allowed within the city limits, so my dogs work hard to defend our sheep.   Even with a 3 Anatolian pack, we need to lock our flock up at night in order to give our hardworking dogs a rest.  My son, on the other hand, might only need one dog on his flat, open 5 acres outside Santa Maria.  I have lost several sheep to coyotes, necessitating the addition of the 3rd dog.  My son has not even lost one of his free-range chickens.  He has more open land with natural prey for the predator population to hunt.

At any rate, I enjoyed the book, and was delighted to find that I had been doing most of the right things with my dogs.

Adding the 3rd Anatolian will bring my pack up to the necessary numbers.  Rika is 6, Bubba is 3, and the new puppy will move into a line of protectors.  By the time Rika is 9, the 2 younger dogs will be in their prime. They will have been trained by the best LGD ever, and it will be time to bring in another puppy.  Erik and I are already discussing it.  LOL

I'll post more about the new puppy later.  Got to go pack up the Christmas decorations!


----------



## Ridgetop

So Christmas is over and the new year has begun.  Time to take down the Christmas decorations and put them away for another year.  I will miss the cheerful glow of the lights, on the other hand, removing the tree will give more room in our family room.  Rika and Bubba can both fit stretched out on the floor now! 

It rained most of last night, thank goodness, but naturally it precipitated another mudslide on the Pacific Coast Highway.  That is where the Ventura/Moorpark fire finally burned out  Hard to burn past the Pacific Ocean.  It is supposed to rain again Monday or Tuesday.  Hopefully, we will continue having rains through March.  December through March is our traditional rainy season.  Weather patterns are changing all over the world, it's a cyclical change.  I am just hoping for continuing rain so my sheep will have some forage this year.  Mudslides are normal just like our brush fires.  Horrible, tragic, but inevitable in southern California, especially when we have had such a bad burn season.

I called my good friend Erick (Lucky Hit Anatolians) and reminded him about my need for another LGD.  Sadly, his 8 bitches had all come into season at the same time and the bitch he had planned to breed after her OFA results, had come in and gone out before the OFA which was scheduled next week could be done!    No puppies for about a year.  Erick does not breed more than 1 litter a year and sometimes only every 18 months.  He always has a long waiting list for his dogs, but is very choosy about breeding.   While we were shooting the breeze, Erick was talking of a client who had a litter.   The puppies were beautiful, the bitch was related to Rika and Bubba out of his best lines.  He loved the puppies and the temperaments and working abilities of both parents.  Both parents were working LGDs on the owner's 42 acre sheep ranch in Idaho.   The breeder had imported the sire from Turkey and was having problems with the Anatolian breed registry since apparently a lot of the big wigs didn't like this Turkish breeder. Erick had been raving about the merits of the sire and his terrific temperament, and bemoaning the politics of the breed ring when he suddenly realized this might be the answer to our puppy problem.  There was a possibility that the puppies couldn't be registered, but since we want to spay the bitch, and no longer want to breed, Erick thought this might work for us.  Both parents were OFA excellent, the bitch had beautiful conformation, as did the sire.  Good conformation is not just to look pretty, correct conformation means the dog can physically withstand the rigors of guarding livestock on bad ground, if a dog has poor conformation they do not always last as long or stay as healthy. 

Erick quickly texted me the info on the owner and then called her himself to give her a heads up about us.  One bitch puppy was still available.  She was the pick of the litter which the owner had wanted to keep for herself.  She was trying to decide between this puppy and the brindle bitch puppy.  She had decided to keep the brindle, and sent me photos of both parents, the litter, and the individual puppy stacked so I could see her topline, angulation, etc.  Gorgeous!  After discussing the parents and my needs I arranged to send off a check.

So, that is the good news!  We found an  Anatolian puppy from working stock out of Erick's Lucky Hit working dogs!

Now for the bad news!  We have to drive to Idaho, 2 hours north of Boise to pick her up.   We have to pass through Winnemucca, NV, where 5" of snow is expected today and tomorrow, while northwestern Idaho is expecting several inches of snow mixed with freezing rain!   

I do not ship young puppies, besides the airlines will not ship dogs during the winter since they have to ride in the cargo hold.  We also like to drive to pick up our LGDs since the several day return trip is part of the bonding process.  There is nothing like a couple days in a car with a large dog to really get to know one another.  LOL  Since this is a young puppy, the bonding process will be even more precious.

We now need to go on Wednesday, January 8, and get back for a booked trip with our friends on the 16th, or go after the 28th.  While the weather is not so good now, as DH said, it might be worse weather then.    The reason for rushing up on the 8th or 9th is that we have to  pull our 5th wheel to Kettleman City where our son is working.  He wants to live in it for the next few months.  Kettleman is 3-4 hours north on the road to Mesa, Idaho, so might as well go straight from dropping off the trailer instead of driving back and then taking off again.  So far, so good.  Luckily we have a 4WD pickup with chains and winter clothes from Washington state winters.  I routinely pack the cab with blankets, thermoses, water, etc. to cover emergencies.  If worst comes to worst we will hole up in a motel and ride out any blizzard conditions.  Remember to take a couple books.  However, puppy breeder Debra in Idaho assured me that the winter has been "mild".  See photo below for "mild" Idaho winter.  Apparently "mild" means no horrendous blizzards have hit them yet!
View attachment 56759 View attachment 56758
Puppy stacked at 8 weeks.  Lovely topline and rear angulation,  Next photo is puppy asleep in cozy barn.  (front left)
Bottom photo of dam in front and sire in rear, on duty.
View attachment 56760  So we now have found our puppy, only separated from us by several days of travel in cold snow, rain, etc.  LOL  If worst comes to worst, we will pick her up the beginning of February.

Luckily DH is experienced in snow.  We plan to stop early and leave after the semi traffic has warmed up  roads.  We will be travelling all the way on major freeways and highways.  The mileage is actually less than when we travel to Yelm WA, so hopefully it should not take more than 2 days to get there, and 2 days back.   

On another note, I have just finished reading The Way of The Pack and I wanted to say that it is an excellent book.  I will be posting reviews of it.  I have noticed with surprise that all BrendaMNegri's postings have been removed from this site.  I don't know why, but in any event this book is certainly worth the purchase.  I would especially recommend it to anyone considering getting a livestock guardian dog for the first time.

The book discusses traditional and historic use of livestock guardian dogs, but then reads like a how to guide on understanding your LGD, choosing a breeder that will mentor the new owner, nutrition, health and first aid care, etc.  I had owned a number of LGDs before getting our Anatolians, but still found so much in this book that gave new insight into body language of the LGD, and understanding behaviors before jumping to conclusions about what the dog is actually doing.  This is a thing that a lot of new owners do, as Southern can attest to in her work with new owners and their problems.

The title "The Way of The Pack" might put some people off, but refers more to the bonding and way that multiple dogs work together than any idea of having huge numbers of dog  She also warns about trying to work fewer dogs in a situation where the predator load is high.  When I posted about having lost a couple lambs even with 2 Anatolians on my 5 acres, she immediately posted that I was "underdogged".  She was right.  Several additional coyote packs had moved into the neighborhood after the Creek fire last winter, causing a real predator overload. 

Even though I had 30 years experience owning  LGDs on this property, I had not realized that times change and with the loss of surrounding vegetation and more homes being built the coyotes no longer had as much wild prey.  In addition, several packs were now homeless from the fire and had to relocate into our neighborhood where they were competing with our 2 resident packs!

Her book had me take a good long look at how many LGDs are necessary.  While I don't think a pack of 25 LGDs is necessary, Negri seeks to show that many owners underestimate the number of dogs they should be using to protect their livestock.  She points out that the number of LGDs should not be based on number of sheep or acres but should be based on number and type of predators and terrain. In the foothills of Los Angeles where I live, the coyote population is so high that I need at least 3 dogs for my 5 steep, brushy acres.  No lethal animal control measures are allowed within the city limits, so my dogs work hard to defend our sheep.   Even with a 3 Anatolian pack, we need to lock our flock up at night in order to give our hardworking dogs a rest.  My son, on the other hand, might only need one dog on his flat, open 5 acres outside Santa Maria.  I have lost several sheep to coyotes, necessitating the addition of the 3rd dog.  My son has not even lost one of his free-range chickens.  He has more open land with natural prey for the predator population to hunt.

At any rate, I enjoyed the book, and was delighted to find that I had been doing most of the right things with my dogs.

Adding the 3rd Anatolian will bring my pack up to the necessary numbers.  Rika is 6, Bubba is 3, and the new puppy will move into a line of protectors.  By the time Rika is 9, the 2 younger dogs will be in their prime. They will have been trained by the best LGD ever, and it will be time to bring in another puppy.  Erik and I are already discussing it.  LOL

I'll post more about the new puppy later.  Got to go pack up the Christmas decorations!


----------



## Bruce

OK @Ridgetop, we got it the first 3 times!  



Ridgetop said:


> Luckily DH is experienced in snow.


But does the vehicle have proper "snow shoes"? Doesn't matter how experienced one is if the car's tires aren't made for snow. Do take care! And congrats on the new 'Toli


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## Latestarter

What Bruce said. Safe travels!


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## Ridgetop

No snow shoes, but we have chains.  Also, Idaho breeder told me if we wait to drive until after semis have been n the rod that between them and the salt and chemicals on the road we should be ok.  If there is a blizzard, we will hole up in a motel somewhere, or turn around and go home if we can't get through.  the puppy will wait, it is noit worth risking lives for.


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## Ridgetop

Tires are rated for snow DH says.  And chains.


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## Bruce

Your 2:44 post shows your sensibility  Given where you live I would be REALLY surprised if you have tires rated for real snow rather than the occasional 1/2". Sad to say, marketing people are liars and "truth stretchers". Snow tires are inferior in dry and wet pavement stopping, wear a lot faster and drop your MPG. No one in your area would buy those intentionally. What tires are they? Check them on TireRack and see how they rate for snow traction.


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## Baymule

Hmmm......you posted last on Monday and it is Friday. Are you on the road to get your puppy? On your way back? I just hope you are safe.


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## greybeard

Current road conditions and precipitation in Boise Idaho are showing good right now.
No precip in the last 24 hrs and roads for the most part are clear.
https://lb.511.idaho.gov/idlb/camer...71-128?id=62&view=state&text=m&textOnly=false


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## Ridgetop

No.  We are at home again since it turned out our reservations with our friends were for last week so I cancelled our Idaho trip and we went to the beach in Oxnard.  Terrible storms all week but since we were inside watching the beach and surf it was pleasant.  Right on the beach with wall to wall windows.  I would say it was El Nino, but the storms came down from the north.  Checking weather with planned travel date of Sunday or Monday.  Storms are traveling southeast.


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## Baymule

We spent a week on the beach one time, it was cold, blustery and stormy. But it was nice just to get away and enjoy being somewhere else.


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## Ridgetop

DH has Checked weather report and says that we will leave Saturday - apparently weather is letting up for a week.  I did laundry and repacked.  I am taking sleeping bag, pillows, 3 wool blankets for us along with thermals, wool socks, gloves, etc.  Also packed laundry bag to stuff with straw from Idaho barn, old wool blanket for puppy, waterproof pad, collars and leash, crate for in the motel, and chew bones.  Puppy will ride loose in back seat of truck, but not trustworthy overnight in motel and won't leave in truck overnight so will see if crate works.  Otherwise, if noisy, puppy will have to sleep with us.  Bonding.  LOL  I will take computer in case I have time to check emails.


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## Ridgetop

Where did you go? 

Yes, we sat in front of windows and enjoyed huge surf, stormy weather, and played bridge, 4 handed cribbage, and worked on a puzzle.  Tried to go on a whale watch, but they were leaving fro Ventura instead of Oxnard location.  They didn't specify when we booked, and we didn't know there was a second location!  Next trip was Wednesday, but it was canceled due to big storm.  I enjoy winter at the beach when I am inside and warm.  LOL  Briefly made me consider buying a beach house instead of a farm, but I don't think I could handle being so close to the neighbors and visitors during the season.  It was busy enough on Saturday when the sun was shining!


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## greybeard

Baymule said:


> We spent a week on the beach one time, it was cold, blustery and stormy. But it was nice just to get away and enjoy being somewhere else.


A little beach goes a long way for me. I spent a year "living" within 200 yards of the sandy beach, in sight of the surf,  and got really really tired of the sand in my food, my hair, my eyes, my ...well, places I didn't want sand, but fortunately, spent most of my awake time far away from that water line. Arrow is where I sometimes slept if I wasn't sleeping in another little building about 1000 yards off to the right but out of frame of this picture.


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## Ridgetop

I don't like going in the water - I don't like to swim in water where I can't see what is in with me LOL - and the sand does get tiresome, but sitting inside behind wall to wall windows watching the surf was lovely.  I find the surf to be very relaxing - possibly it is putting me into some sort of hypnotic trance.  LOL  I also got terrific cards and made 3 grand slams and several small ones!  God loves me.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

I completely understand how you loved the stay at the beach.  My Beautiful Gal and I used to LOVE the beach.  Not long after we married, we moved to Ft Walton Beach, FL, with the intention of living there for the rest of our lives.  Alas, we had to move after 9 months to, of all places, Reston, VA!  Since that time we have gradually replaced our love for the beach with a love of the mountains -- I got to where I would sunburn easily and now have skin cancers that have to be removed.  But in 2009 and again in 2010, we went to Ocean Shores, WA, in May.  The weather was mostly cloudy and quite cool, the storms were very fun to watch, and listening to the surf was so relaxing.  So I think I fully understand how you felt.

Mr. @greybeard, is that a picture of Quantico Marine Base?  If so, I don't remember an island or peninsula being just offshore there.  Or is that somewhere in Vietnam or somewhere else?

Senile Texas Aggie


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## greybeard

Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> Mr. @greybeard, is that a picture of Quantico Marine Base? If so, I don't remember an island or peninsula being just offshore there. Or is that somewhere in Vietnam or somewhere else?
> 
> Senile Texas Aggie


Definitely not Quantico and the towers aren't for lifeguards.
That was 'whereislept'.
this is 'whereiworked'.


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## Baymule

@Ridgetop please do be careful on your trip. Go get your puppy and come back home safe. Waiting. On. Pictures!


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## Ridgetop

OK!  We are off to Idaho early tomorrow am!   All packed and just the cab to load tomorrow.  Lots of emergency supplies since I don't trust the weather and don't plan to be a tragic frozen statistic found in the spring thaw.  Of course, we only need them when I _don't_ bring them, but it is better to be prepared for disaster!  LOL

DH has checked weather reports and I have called litter owner in Idaho.  She says the snow is gone after a week of rain in Idaho, however lots of snow through northwestern Sierras and northern Nevada.  Truckee, NV, (near the Donner Pass) got 4 feet in 24 hours last Wednesday!  DH says that we have to go tomorrow since there will be a safe gap between 2 storms.  We hope to make Winnemucca, NV, by Saturday night, which will put us into Mesa, ID, on Sunday night.  Debra Buckner (litter owner) owns the Elkhorn B & B in Mesa.  We will stay there overnight and chat about LGDs, meet the puppies, their parents, and her flock of sheep and goats.

_Baymule_:  _Debra raises Dorpers and Katahdin crosses for meat, owns mules, has Nubian dairy goats, and makes her own cheese!!!_   Do we know anyone like that?   
She also has poultry, etc., and serves all her own homemade stuff at the B & B.  In the summer she takes her guests on rides up into the Idaho mountains on her mules.  She is surrounded by wolves, cougar, bear, and everyone's nemesis - coyotes.  She hasn't lost any livestock with her dogs, but her neighbors have.  She is keeping one of the puppies for her self.  We have talked on the phone several times, and she sounds very nice.  I am really looking forward to meeting her in person.  The sire of the puppies is a Turkish imported Anatolian.  He is a brindle.  The dam is a niece to Rika and a half sister to Bubba.  I am looking forward to seeing what a brindle Anatolian loos like.  The male is really lovely in photos, but has close cropped ears like they do for working dogs in Turkey.  At first glance the photo did not look like an Anatolian.  But having seen pics of Turkish working dogs, I realized what I was seeing.  He is very striking since he is a bright brindle.  Looing forward to seeing the litter - 1 puppy already left last week and another is going Sunday.  Debra said she cries each time one goes away.  I told her to think of the great homes they are going to and her feed bill.  She cheered up.

I will let everyone know once we are home with the puppy and post pics then.   I haven't told the grandkids that we are bringing a puppy home!  They will be sooo excited.  I can't wait to see their faces.

Their mother said she would think about letting them have a rabbit for a pet.  They are currently chick sitting 2 quail chicks that belong to the sister of DS2's girlfriend.  There were originally 3 chicks but an unfortunate accident occurred when my 5 year old granddaughter tripped and sat on her assigned chick.  It was a sad and traumatic happening and we do not speak of Chirpy.   The other 2 are growing well and don't miss their brother.  I am thinking of sneaking in a Plymouth Rock chick for DGD. 

On another topic, we weighed lambs today and they are growing well on the barleycorn ration.  ADG is around .7 lbs and hopefully they will all hit 100 lbs. around 4 months old.  DS adjusted the creep gate and they are now realizing that they can get a second feeding of hay and grain in the creep.  Banded the purebred Dorper ram.  He is 6 weeks but weighs 50 lbs!  Almost too large to get the band on.  The purebred Dorper ewe that we are keeping is 2 months old now and has slowed her growth rate.  She weighs 55 lbs.  The crossbreds are 7 weeks old and weigh 51.2 lbs. and 45.3 lbs.  I might mx some lamb grower in with the barleycorn to help the weight gain.  Hopefully our grass will come up nice and strong after so much rain.  Once the ewes are out on the grass, the lambs seem to grow faster.  Maybe all the running and playing helps them work up an appetite!  LOL  Once the lambs go to the butcher, we will separate out the ewe lamb and put the ewes with the ram in his marking harness.  I haven't decided whether to use the younger ram or to use the older one again.  I liked what we got from him, but would like to try the young ram.  We can switch back to the older ram next breeding.  I also plan to buy a couple more Dorper yearling or lamb ewes  this year.

Anyway, off to Idaho tomorrow!


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## Baymule

I'd love to see pics of the sire! @frustratedearthmother has a brindle Anatolian that I think is gorgeous.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Debra said she cries each time one goes away. I told her to think of the great homes they are going to and her feed bill. She cheered up.


Tell her to join here and she can watch the dog grow by following your journal because we will DEMAND frequent picture updates.


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## Latestarter

Plus, it sounds like she'd be excellent to have as a member!


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## Ridgetop

Back from Idaho with Angel.  Snow and ice in northern Nevada, Idaho, and the Donner Pass in northern CA.  We avoided all storms and stayed an extra night at Debra Buckner's Elkhorn B & B in Mesa.  Beautiful country in Idaho, but a trifle
   shivery!  Wore my thermals, heavy wool socks and boots, along with snow jacket and was relatively warm except for the last night in Mesa when freezing winds came in and dropped the temperature to 16 degrees.  Couldn't wait to get back inside after feeding puppies and loading the car.  Froze all roads too, and since we were late leaving because of puppy vet trip, we bought steaks and had another evening with Debra.  She is a great person.  She raises lamb & goat, has them slaughtered and wrapped at a USDA plant.  She also makes great goat cheese, the best I have ever had.  She sells her meat and cheese at the Farmer's market. We had a nice time at her B & B, it was like staying with a friend.  Actually that is the way we think of her now too, since we have so much in common.

If you go on her Elkhorn B & B website there is a great picture of the brindle sire of the puppies, Babar.  His ears are cropped in the Turkish manner.  He is a beautiful Anatolian with super nice brindle markings.  A good worker, and super sweet disposition.  The dam of the puppies is a half sister to our male, Bubba, and there is a picture of her sire (who is also Bubba's sire), Asker, under her pedigree page.  Bubba looks just like Asker.  The dam, Ginger looks a lot like Rika and is an exceptional worker.  Debra has foxes, coyotes, wolves, cougar, and the occasional bear.

  DH holding Angel just before we left.  The 7 remaining puppies in their pen with goats.  Angel is second from left.  There were 2 black masked fawns, 3 white or ivory, 1 black masked brindle, a brindle with no mask, and Angel.  Beautful puppies!  A black masked fawn had already been picked up and was back at home in Texas, a white bitch was scheduled to be picked up that week by a rancher in eastern Idaho.  Lovely puppies with great bloodlines, working history, and already started with goats in their pen.  We were so lucky to have Erick tell us about this litter and give us Debra's phone number.  Debra also has a Facebook page with videos of the dogs and puppies.

Angel is 10 weeks old, and weighs between 26-28 lbs.  Erick thinks she will be somewhat larger than Rika who is 125 lbs. Bubba is a brute standing 33" at the shoulder and weighing about 145 lbs.  Angel will be in between them, although as a bitch, she will not match Bubba's massiveness.  When Bubba lays o the family room floor, there is not much room to either walk around him, or for any other dogs on the floor although the family room is 20 x 20!  Angel is a shaded (or faded - not sure which is correct) mask fawn, meaning she has a dark muzzle, and her ears are outlined in black, but not completely black.  You can see her in the pictures I attached.  She is exceptionally smart.  She  had never been in a crate or vehicle, except for her visit to the vet the day before.  She traveled back with us on the truck seat in a crate and did not make any noise except when she had to potty.  We had a mall problem since she was raised on snow in Idaho, and needed snow to potty on!  However, luckily, we were able to accommodate her the first day and a half since the snow continued intermittently through Truckee! 

  Angel in the car and Relief!  We found a patch of snow!

Have to post this and write another with more photos since computer won't let me post any more here.


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## Mike CHS

Awesome scenery and Angel looks like an Angel.


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## Ridgetop

The first night in a motel she learned after 2 trips outside to the snow patch (pee and poop) about the motel doors, and on the 3rd trip she did her business and headed inside and went right to the correct room door.  Pretty smart. She explored the room and found a puppy friend in the mirror.  Sadly, that puppy wouldn't play properly and although she tried to find the real puppy Angel knew must be there, it evaded her.  LOL  In the crate that night she went right to sleep until she woke up at 11:00pm to potty.  Then she cried a bit but we moved the crate next to the bed and DH put his hand on it.  She stopped crying and went off to sleep.  In the morning after her breakfast, a potty break, and half an hour playing in the room, we left her in the crate again while we had breakfast and she was good as gold.  You would have thought that she had spent the last several years traveling around and staying in motels!

 

When we got home, Rika of course, behaved PERFECTLY.  Bubba was over excited just like he is with the newborn lambs and tried to grab her.  Angel turned, snarled at him and tried to bite back at him.  True Anatolian temperament!  LOL Now, however, Bubba is good with her although we keep them on leashes temporarily when we do supervised play and dinnertime to make sure there are no accidents.  Angel went into the lamb creep along with her travel crate for the night and she slept in it for 2 nights with the crate door open.  She explored the ewe pen and the sheep, going in carefully and sitting down to watch them instead of bouncing over to play with the lambs.  I am very pleased with her behavior around the sheep.  That night the coyotes came up again and were howling.  Bubba and Rika went off to do their warning duties while Angel attempted to bark in the barn.  DS1 said she sounded like a squeaky toy next to their deep barks!  LOL 
 Bubba and Rika checking out Angel.   Angel checking out intricacies of creep gate.   Success!

The ewes and lambs are now out on the field during the day (our week of rain has produced greenery) and Angel stays in the large kennel on the field with a shelter.  It has been in the 70's and sunny here but not too hot so she is learning the sounds, smells, and sights of the field and livestock while being safe from the mules, donkeys, etc.  At night she returns to the barn creep with the ewes and lambs.

Last night we brought all the dogs up to feed on the patio together so we could start training her to leave their food alone and them to leave her food alone.  They all did really well - Bubba and Angel were on leads.  Then we went inside for family time with the grandchildren and all the dogs. Rika took her treat into the entry where she prefers to relax in solitary.  Bubba and Angel enjoyed theirs together on the family room rug.  Bubba finished his treat and watched as Angel continued to gnaw hers.  He crept closer, she wagged her tail, he crept closer and attempted to get her treat, she pulled it away, finally he got hold of the end and sat up thus raising it out of her mouth.  Angel jumped up to retrieve it and I was ready in case he decided to eat her instead of the treat but she got hold of it and dragged it back.  Bubba refrained from killing her or even growling and got lots of praise ad loving for his forbearance.  He is obviously growing up into a mature Anatolian.  His maturing has been painfully slow, but he is getting there.  More family time and dinner time training tonight.

View attachment 57485   Sheep and lambs on the hillside.  Hardly recognizable as the flattened dirt in other pictures of the back gully.  The donkeys and mules disappear into the gully in am and are not seen again until pm feed.


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## Ridgetop

Hope we get more rain!


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## Bruce

Beautiful pup, must have been hard to decide which to take. That last picture sure does show the steepness of the property you have described.


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## Wehner Homestead

Angel is adorable! Love Tolis!


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## Baymule

What a beautiful puppy! I love her! it looks like y'all had a good trip, glad that you are back home again.


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## Mini Horses

WOW-  now THAT is a gully!!!

Love the puppy.  All the dogs, actually.


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## Bruce

I guess you never have to worry about flooding out.


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## Ridgetop

No worry here about flooding!  LOL  Even though the sheep eat off all the green stuff, we don't usually have any soil slippage either, probably because we don't do any slope grading.  Mostly we just grade the top off to get rid of the manure and loose mud on the flat top of the ridge.  However you can see why we are looking for something less steep.  Slightly rolling is ok for pasture with slight rises for house and barns.  Will be planning seriously for property purchase next year so we can move by 2020.

Yes, the puppies were all adorable.  Here are pix of the males that are left. 
  The puppy on the left is a black masked fawn, the puppy on the right is the black masked brindle, and the last male is white or cream.  The brindle has a large white splash on his chest, a tiny white snip on his nose and white on his toes.  Beautifully marked.  They are currently with goats and Debra has started them on coming to her when called.   I think she might have 1 white female left. They are all nice large pups, raised outside in the snow, with a partially enclosed well bedded shed.  Angel is probably wondering why someone doesn't turn on the A/C here in 70 degrees!  We barely drop to the high 50's at night!  The parents are currently defending against wolves, foxes, coyotes, cougar, and whatever other predators lurk in northwest Idaho.  Debra said someone lost a horse on another ranch to a cougar several months ago.  The puppies are adorable!  Angel already is attached to the sheep.  She is doing so well!

I really loved the little brindle bitch due to her markings.  She was allover brindle with no mask, but she was one of the smaller puppies.  Debra is keeping her.  Erick picked the puppy for me based on the videos of the puppies, size, conformation, and their behavior on Debra's Facebook page.  He and Debra discussed their temperaments and attitudes and chose Angel for me before I went.  Angel was actually the one Debra had originally thought to keep.  Angel was more watchful, calmer, and seemed to have the makings of the kind of livestock guardian we wanted.  She also has lovely conformation and Erick thinks she wil be little taller than Rika.  Rika is a nice size bitch at 125 lbs.  She is about 28" tall while Bubba is 33" tall.  Both are as fast as a striking snake, and very athletic.  That is what we need with these tricky coyotes, the steepness of our terrain and the division of our livestock area by the house which sits smack in the middle f the property on the ridge top.  Great place for the view, but really awkward for the dogs to try to protect both sides from coyotes. 

Rika spent all her time with the sheep so we got a second Anatolian, Bubba, to do double duty as sheep guardian and home protector.  Angel will be Rika's replacement eventually, so we needed an Anatolian who was more sheep motivated than human motivated.  She is cute as a bug and we have to be careful not to bring her inside except when the older dogs are off duty.  She is sooo adorable that DH has to restrain himself from putting her in his lap!  Only the realization that she will eventually be about 130 lbs. keeps him from spoiling her in that way.  He actually had me take a photo of him with her on the bed to tease our friends!  I have to be strict with DH more than the puppy!

We took our first walk around part of the property with Angel this am.  She was on a leash so we could keep her with us since the mules and donkeys were loose.  They came up to sniff at her and she was very happy to meet them.  Lacey stomped at her though and I didn't trust the donkeys either, so we kept walking watchfully.  We were trailed by 4 equines until they lost interest and started grazing.  I won't let her loose around the donkeys and mules until she is older and can evade any stomping or biting.  They are used to the larger dogs, but will sometimes try to sneak up on them.  I am not sure what they will do if they catch them, but the adult dogs don't let them get close enough to find out either!  LOL  She was tired out when we got back and dove into her water bucket for a ling cold drink.  The heat is hard on a furry puppy used to below freezing temperatures.

Angel's kennel run is right up against the ram pen which was actually the night fold last summer.  DS1 is planning the layout of 2 other large corrals or folds for the ewe lamb we don't want to breed yet, and the 2nd ram that won't be turned in with the ewes this breeding.  We will also make 2 more of the A frame shelters from the left over corral shelters.  I think we will put up the shelters first, then build the pens around them though, that will be easier than trying to slide the corral shelter panels over the top of the 5' high corral panels again!  LOL  As we train her, we will keep Angel in one of the large folds, switching her between the different sheep - unbred ewe lambs, solitary ram, and breeding ewes & ram.    Eventually we will let her be loose on the field with the other dogs during the day and shut her up at night in the barn pen with the ewes at night.

Rika is already teaching her to be polite to her elders.  LOL  Bubba has accepted her and is sweet to her.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I have to be strict with DH more than the puppy!


That might be quite the job!


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## High Desert Cowboy

Congratulations on the new puppy!


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## Mike CHS

Once again, saying they are cute is an understatement but they ARE cute.


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## RollingAcres

Congrats on your new pup! Angel is adorable!


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## Bruce

"Mother Nature dumped as much as five feet of fresh powder at one peak in the Sierra Nevada during a 24-hour period over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

The 60-inch deluge of snow at Castle Peak near Donner Pass "

Sure glad you weren't going for Angel yesterday!


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## Mike CHS

Our oldest daughter lives in Reno and they had a white out when the husband tried to go out to ski in the mountains.


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## Ridgetop

Constant downpour today again.  I would say it was an El Nino year, but a lot of the rain is coming from the Artic.  For the last 200 years the San Fernando Valley has had alternating seasons of 7 years of wet winters, 7 years of dry winters.  The wet winters coincided with mild summers and vice versa.  Our climate hasn't necessarily changed, but we are experiencing some weather changes that are very strange speaking as one whose family has lived not only in California, but within the same 30 mile locations for 100 years!   Anyway, as one of the lucky Californios who actually has a real barn, we were able to weigh lambs today in spite of the storm.  Most people have corrals with just a small overhead shelter mostly to give patches of shade to their horses.  We don't keep our horses in stalls anymore and they don't have shelters, but can shelter under the trees and behind windbreaks.  We use the bsrn for the sheep and they have been inside for the last 2 days.  They can go out, but we feel guilty bcause Rika and Bubba have to be out in the downpour with them.  The sheep are wearing wool, and the dog have thick cots, but we feel guilty.  Once we move and have more than a few sheep I don'tthink we will feel guilty any more.  Also, we will fix up field shelters/windbreaks where the sheep and the dogs can get out of the wind and rain.

Our Dorper and Dorper x Dorset lambs have been gaining at a very good .73 lbs per day averaged over the past 2 months!  We have not been creep feeding the lambs for the past 3 weeks (since Angel started sharing their creep!) and they still put on a respectable .70 lbs. ADG.  They are all very long and wide.  I am super happy with my new Lewis ram - my Dorsets were a bit square instead of as long as I like.  This ram has put a lot of length in the loin on these crossbred lambs.  I might keep the cross bred ewe lamb for a while so she can keep the purebred lamb company until the next sale.  Then I can decide whether to put her in the freezer, or use her for breeding locker lambs. 

Angel has gained 16 lbs. in the past 3 weeks!  She is looking  less like a fuzz ball and more like a miniature Anatolian. Here are  R to L Rika, Bubba, and Angel during family time after sheep are in barn.  The thing that looks like Angel's deformed foreleg is actually the large bone visible in the 3rd photo.
  

She is doing well and learning about the property and her sheep too. Here she is in the ewe pen laying quietly watching the sheep.  They are content to be around her.  This photo is looking down into the barn from the driveway.  because of the slope, the barn is built 4' below the driveway grade.
 
We did have a bad moment when she got too close to one of the mules.  She and Bubba were playing and she ended up next to the pile of hay where lacey was eating.  In fact, she ended up rolling onto the hay pile.  Lacey stomped ad Angel yelped an at first we thought the mule had stomped her (they like to do that and are dangerous around puppies) but DH had a good view of the scene and he said that Lacey stomped her hoof without hitting the puppy at all.  More like "Yo Miss Inconsiderate!  I'm eating here".  Angel yelped and ran crying back back to Bubba.   Then Rika examined her and made sure she was ok from nose to tail.  She is smart and a fast learner.

It has been raining here for the past month off and on.  The hills are nice and green which is probably one reason the sheep are able to graze and the lambs are gaining so well.  We only do one small hay feed at night with 3 lbs. of barleycorn for the 4 lambs, and 5 ewes.  These Dorpers are much better at feed conversion - I really like them.  You will have seen in the news that lots of flooding is happening mostly in the burn areas.  Lots of snow in Seattle (my sister in Renton is trapped with 3' of snow and ice on her steep driveway.  Seattle and environs rarely gets snow.

We are starting our Move-To-Texas-Process.  Got the information on our capital gains payments when we sell the house from our accountant.  Won't be as bad as we thought so that is good.  We are checking on value of Yelm property in order to 1031 exchange into rental Texas ranch property.  Looking for and finding and finding property will be another trip to Texas end of September staying for month of October.  Once we buy our ranch property, we will park our 5th wheel on Texas property, fix ranch house for rental, find tenant, and begin year long process of bringing all our moveable ranch equipment, corrals, etc., etc., to TX ranch property.  Hopefully there will be a good barn to store it.  The horse corrals we can set up.  On each trip we will put up sections of the 5-6' woven no climb fencing for the dog and sheep.  We will have to plan to put it in around house and barns or sheds.  Later we can cross fence pastures for sheep with dog access. LOTS OF GATES!  You never have too many gates in pastures.  Finally, we will sell our house here, begin final move to Texas, live in our 5th wheel until tenant moves out of ranch house.  Exhausted just considering all the packing!  Not to mention if we have to do any fixing up or reno to ranch house after moving in!  We can keep all our stuff in storage and continue living in the 5th wheel while doing work. 

Thank goodness I spent all that time sorting and cleaning the workshop and milking shed.  Now we can just load all those bins, break down and load the shelves, bring them to TX, set up shelves and buy more shelves, and unload bins onto shelves.  We are planning to go through other 2 storage units and sort out all the stuff we need to keep, and dispose of rest.  Have to wait for rain to stop to haul stuff out but can at least get in and sort what to keep from what to donate.  We own a 20' Conex container that we can pack and have moved to the new property.   DD2 is looking for an apartment and hopes to find one in next 2 months so that will take care of some of the furniture, paintings, and the giant storage boxes she is keeping in our storage unit.  We still have a year before selling our house to dispose of or put rest into storage.  I think I will have our kids go through and choose what they want (within reason) before packing to move. They can then either put it in their homes or store it themselves somewhere. 

Speaking of Conex shipping containers.  Do any of you have experience using them in Texas heat?  Greybeard, I think you said something about the heat and humidity causing condensation on the inside of the roof.  Here they eat up, but it is dry so no condensation.  We like them for grain storage since pests and bugs can't get inside.  Should we use them for other storage instead of feed?  Maybe we could put in a roof vent and use packets of dehumidifier if we use them for storage.

So much to do to get ready.  However, the final decision has been made and Texas here we come!  Getting DH a gun rack for the truck window.  Also going to smear mud on the license plate until we can get it changed over to TX plates.  Need to put cattle and horses in front of property and hide sheep behind barns.  Greybeard has issued warnings about Texas cattle country   and they did not fall on deaf ears.  Well, DH _is _a little deaf without his hearing aids, but _I_ paid attention.    LOL

I hope we survive the move!


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## High Desert Cowboy

Wow you’ve got a lot to get done!  At least you’ve got a plan, though Eisenhower once said “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
Glad to hear your pup didn’t meet an early end to the mule, that happens all to frequently.  I’ve had friends lose good dogs to an ornery mule.  Llamas aren’t much better, I used to shoe for a gal with a llama that would attempt to kill any dog it saw.  He made me nervous too, he’d creep up on me while I was under a horse and I never fully trusted him


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Do any of you have experience using them in Texas heat? Greybeard, I think you said something about the heat and humidity causing condensation on the inside of the roof.


It can but I can tell you my experience is that they are also OVENS in mid summer!


Ridgetop said:


> Getting DH a gun rack for the truck window.


I assume you are being facetious, but no one here uses them any more unless they are going from home to their hunting lease. When I was a kid, every truck it seemed had a rifle rack, and most had at least a .22 in it...even when I was at high school. 

Left in the truck rack most other times will mean a busted side or rear window and a stolen weapon. Many decades ago, when I was a kid, my father offered a bit of advice. "Son, people will steal a rifle when they would never steal anything else".
You will have to master the 'Texas/Oklahoma
 (1 or 2) finger wave' tho. (no, not just the middle finger.)


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## greybeard




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## RollingAcres

greybeard said:


> You will have to master the 'Texas/Oklahoma
> (1 or 2) finger wave' tho. (no, not just the middle finger.)


The "1 or 2 finger wave", is that for waving at someone you know? Or is it for "code" for something else?



greybeard said:


>


Primary hazard - Inbreeding  . So in other words, enter those counties at your own risks?


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Got the information on our capital gains payments when we sell the house from our accountant. Won't be as bad as we thought so that is good.


Does CA have a capital gains tax on your primary residence? There isn't any fed tax (*) if you've lived in it 3 of the past 5 years. You are WAY past that requirement.

* Unless it was changed with the new tax law but I find it really hard to believe that happened.


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## greybeard

RollingAcres said:


> So in other words, enter those counties at your own risks?


When, after many years away, I and wife 1st moved back here, one of the first observations we made was "Notice how much alike so many people seem to look?"

Family trees in this part of the world don't appear to have very many forks.


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## Ridgetop

greybeard said:


> It can but I can tell you my experience is that they are also OVENS in mid summer!
> 
> I assume you are being facetious, but no one here uses them any more unless they are going from home to their hunting lease. When I was a kid, every truck it seemed had a rifle rack, and most had at least a .22 in it...even when I was at high school.
> 
> Left in the truck rack most other times will mean a busted side or rear window and a stolen weapon. Many decades ago, when I was a kid, my father offered a bit of advice. "Son, people will steal a rifle when they would never steal anything else".
> 
> Yes, I was being facetious!  The only place for my gun is in the locked gun cabinet or my hand.
> 
> 
> 
> greybeard said:
> 
> 
> 
> You will have to master the 'Texas/Oklahoma
> (1 or 2) finger wave' tho. (no, not just the middle finger.)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> By the one finger wave, I assume you mean the lifted finger as you pass a neighbor - the one that says "I see you.  Hope all is fine with the family.  Can't stop now."   I think the middle finger wave is reserved for family after a holiday dinner.
> The schematics are appreciated.  Scraggly trees mean some grassland for cattle right?  So stay out of the piney woods unless the area has already been cleared for cattle pasture or crops (hay), right?
> 
> Politics OK, Cowboys OK, Commute OK (planning commute ONLY to feed store, barn, and bridge clubs - tractor works), Retired OK, Inbreeding OK (not planning on breeding - in or out, maybe just fooling around a little with DH tho!), however, what is "Boomhauer" language?  I thought I just had to master Texan!
> 
> 
> 
> Bruce said:
> 
> 
> 
> Does CA have a capital gains tax on your primary residence? There isn't any fed tax (*) if you've lived in it 3 of the past 5 years. You are WAY past that requirement.
> 
> * Unless it was changed with the new tax law but I find it really hard to believe that happened.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> California does have a capital gains tax.  (At this time the new Democratic governor is probably looking at how to tax us for the air we breathe!   )  However, the residency requirement of 3 out of 5 previous years is for the amount you can add to the base of the purchase price, for a married couple it is $500,000.  You add that $500,000 to the original purchase price, plus add any improvements (receipts needed), and costs of sale (escrow, title fees, sales commission, and additional fees and taxes, etc.).  Oh, and don't forget the new special taxes that Obama put on property sales to pay for his Obamacare.  California has a few new taxes on the sale and purchase of property too - Dems hate to be left out of any fun tax collection scheme.  Those taxes are assessed on both the sellers and buyers of property.  Now add all that together and that becomes your new base value in the property on which there are  no capital gains taxes to be paid.  The difference between that base and the amount you sell for is your capital gain on which you have to pay tax.  For California it is added to your income and taxed at your California income tax rate (about 10% now, although our new Dem governor wants to raise that amount to 25%), and for the federal it is 20% depending in your income.  Since California property values have gone sky high and we have been in our house over30 years (even though we are already paying super high taxes both on property and income) we stand to have a capital gain of some amount.  30% will be the approximate amount of blood the state and feds will suck from our veins!
> TEXAS OR BUST!
Click to expand...


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## Ridgetop

High Desert Cowboy said:


> Wow you’ve got a lot to get done! At least you’ve got a plan, though Eisenhower once said “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
> Glad to hear your pup didn’t meet an early end to the mule, that happens all to frequently. I’ve had friends lose good dogs to an ornery mule. Llamas aren’t much better, I used to shoe for a gal with a llama that would attempt to kill any dog it saw. He made me nervous too, he’d creep up on me while I was under a horse and I never fully trusted him



Ike was right!  Planning IS EVERYTHING!

Yes, mules can be ornery, although they are also completely loyal and very smart.  The stomp was entirely my fault, DH feeds the mules first before turning out the sheep and they usually stay near the hayshed where he feeds.  We decided to allow Angel run around a bit with the older dogs when turning the sheep out before locking her in the kennel run.  I wanted some pix and the dogs got a little close to where the mules were eating.  My fault for wanting to take pix and a video!  

You are right about the llamas too!  Years ago several cougars showed up around here and were taking pets and livestock.  We decided to get a llama as a guardian.  It was right after all the hype about how much money you could make selling their fleece and people were now selling them off because they hadn't made any money.   We called a llama rescue to adopt one.   We ended up with 2.  Then about 6 months later I was reading about llamas and it turns out that in their native countries they are the natural and preferred prey of cougar!      Oh goody!  I now had 2 tasty appetizers for the cougars before they started o the main course of my sheep and goat flocks!  So, to protect the guardian llamas, we bought another lgd puppy!  

I took the puppy down to the goat pen to meet the goats and the llama came over calmly to see what was going on.  Suddenly he saw the puppy, and splatted the poor thing under his foot!  Yelping puppy!  Bleating goats!  Shrieking children!  Another day in the annals of Ridgetop . . . .


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## Mike CHS

There is another saying that plans are great till the first bullet is fired and that kind of implies when we open a gate.


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## greybeard

> however, what is "Boomhauer" language?


A redneck character from TV show King of the Hill.


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## greybeard

Mike CHS said:


> There is another saying that plans are great till the first bullet is fired and that kind of implies when we open a gate.


Planning only works if absolutely everyone and everything involved is 100% in on the plan and agrees to abide by said plan...


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## Ridgetop

FOR SOME REASON MY POST DID NOT POST CORRECTLY.  I HAD TO EXPAND THE QUOTE SINCE IT POSTED AS THE QUOTE! 
  SECOND TIME TRYIING TO POST IT TOO!


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## Ridgetop

Every time I expand the quote to try to show my post above, it goes back to a portion of greybeard's quote.  You will have to expand to read my post about capital gains.

I see that Greybeard  answered my Boomhauer language question.  I guess I will have to start watching King of the Hill in order to understand the language when I move to east Texas.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> FOR SOME REASON MY POST DID NOT POST CORRECTLY.  I HAD TO EXPAND THE QUOTE SINCE IT POSTED AS THE QUOTE!
> SECOND TIME TRYIING TO POST IT TOO!


That, is because there is an "end quote" tag missing at the end of this sentence that you quoted:
 "Son, people will steal a rifle when they would never steal anything else".
This sometimes happens, as there is something in the software here that doesn't like to end quotes, bold and other UBB code when you want it to.

I never use the *B*-_I_-U or quote function buttons in the top left corner of the reply box for that reason, and I just type in the applicable codes myself.
The only way I've found to easily edit a messed up quote is to use the BB code editor in the top right corner of the reply box..the one with the little wrench in it.  It over-rides everything else.



> I guess I will have to start watching King of the Hill in order to understand the language when I move to east Texas.


It's more, a combination of language, accent, and attitude. The acquaintance of mine named Bill has it in spades.


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## RollingAcres

greybeard said:


> A redneck character from TV show King of the Hill.


Is that show still on? We used to watch it often but haven't seen it and haven't watch it in a few years


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## greybeard

RollingAcres said:


> Is that show still on? We used to watch it often but haven't seen it and haven't watch it in a few years


I don't know. I don't watch much TV these days.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

"King of the Hill" is no longer on TV as an original series, but available as reruns.  The character Jeff Boomhauer is discussed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomhauer

Edited to add Boomhauer's speech:


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## Ridgetop

Thank you STA for posting the video of Boomhauer speech.  We will watch it for an hour a day to accustom ourselves to the accent, and enroll in a lip reading class!


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## Ridgetop

Thank you Greybeard for explaining how to fix stuff on my postings.


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## Ridgetop

The rain has cleared and as usual after a rainstorm the skies are beautifully clear and the view is fantastic.  When we bought here DH loved the place and I hated it.  He loved the location, the silence, and feeling in the middle of nowhere.  DH was a lineman and underground electric mechanic.  He worked in the middle of the city traffic, noise, and dirt, so coming home at night to a sanctuary was important to him.   I liked the privacy, views and feeling like we were in the middle of nowhere too.  I hated the house, and there were no patios, barns, outbuilding, corrals, or even any fences for our dogs.  There are drawbacks - We are on a private road, and at the top, so we have to pay a majority portion of the cost of paving our communal road and maintaining it.  We have to load our trash into the truck and drive half a mile to the road for trash service, and pay for the privilege.  Originally the cans were $10 apiece for a 60 gallon can.  Some time in the past 20 years the city raised the fees to $10.00 for every 30 gallons.  Since the cans only come in the 60 and 90 gallon sizes, they effectively doubled, and in cases tripled, our trash service costs without notification!  DH noticed the increase and questioned it, that is when he found out.  Our city council rep denied all knowledge of the change in fees, stating they would check on it.  They called back and denied the fees had changed.  typical.   The property is steep and we are getting older so can't climb up and down like we used to, but it also keeps trespassers off the property. 

I understand why castles were built on hilltops - you can see who is coming and either run them off or hide out until they leave!  LOL  After 30 years of renos and building, I still hate the house and layout.  But we still love the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere and yet only about 5-10 minutes from a grocery and pharmacy.  20-30 minutes from shopping and our bridge club. 

Mainly the views are what I love on our steep hilltop.  I feel closer to God here sometimes than in church.  The majesty of his world is close here, and I will miss it when we move.  There will be no return once we leave.  There is no other piece of property like this left.  Everything is being built up in this area and why not?  Close to everything, including jobs, easy access to several freeways, etc.  I won't miss the new California liberals, the politicians, the constant new taxes and "fees" (we voted that all "taxes" had to go on the ballot years back so the government calls them "fees"), and the loss of our personal freedoms that our California Dems are intent on removing.  So many liberals, socialists, welfare recipients (some of the highest benefits in the country and not taxed), and illegals who are being allowed to vote have taken our votes from us. 

Well, we are not coming to Texas prepared to be good Texans (once we learn Boomhauer), but it is not without some sadness for what we have enjoyed for 30 years.  We have been fortunate.  Our grandchildren and children live near us, except for DS3 who moved 3 hours away.  We  ever see him because he is a workaholic on his 5 acres, but so were we when we first moved here.  We still are, just older and slower!     But it eventually gets done.

Here are photos of our views from the front patio.

     The mountains are the Santa Monica Mountains.  On the other side is the ocean and west Los Angeles.  These are the views from the front (west) and side (north) of my patio and windows on those sides.  Spectacular sunsets and full view of city lights across valley and up other side.


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## Ridgetop

These views are of the rear over the gully to the east, sunrise on last photo.  Every window except two fronting on driveway/road have views like these photos.

The green photos are since the last month of rain - when the rain stops and the sun starts to shine non stop, it turns yellow and brown PDQ.  That is when our fire danger starts and we have to clear to a 2" maximum of grass or brush.  The sheep usually take care of that.  On the other hand, in the fall, the brush and grass on the far hills is bright gold, and the purple clouds start scudding over the hilltops in contrast.  It is beautiful then too.  These views are like a prayer.

I should have some of these blown up and printed.  It can be a memory.  On the other hand, acres of cattle, horses, and sheep grazing on grass re beautiful.  Hayfields are beautiful.  So many beautiful pieces of our world.  I feel lucky when I see just one view, I have been fortunate to have lived with these views for 30 years.

Still looking forward to Texas.  30 years working on our place here, lots more to come.  A whole new chapter.


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## Mike CHS

Farming on hill country has challenges but the views are never tiring.


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## Ridgetop

That is the best thing (possibly only?) great thing about living on a ridgetop.  LOL


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## Baymule

You do have some beautiful views. You will find beautiful views here too, maybe not the same, but beautiful none the less.


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## Ridgetop

Well back finally after coping with DH in deep depression about his taxes.  Have figured out everything for him so he is feeling better.  C(I am on Prozac.)  We have done a reorganization as businesses say and we are retrenching.  We are cutting out a lot of dead wood and I don't mean the dead tree behind the barn. 

Anyway, as part of my coping mechanism I decided to can the bags of tomatoes that I threw in the freezer at the end of summer.  I have 2 large freezers, actually large and giant, and the tomatoes were taking up too much space.  I had 4 large garbage bags full of Roma and Better Boy.  After struggling to get them out of the bottom of the freezer, I threw one bag into the sink and ran hot water over them.   The are so easy this way since the skins just slip off better  than when you have to scald them.  They are semi frozen by the time I co them and they chop so easily!  Put them on the stove to finish melting, then pureed them in the blender, back on the stove with seasonings then into the jars and process.  I spent all day on those darn tomatoes and got 9 quarts of sauce when it was all cooked down!  SO NOT WORTH IT!     

I can't believe that I used to can hundreds and hundreds of quarts of fruits and veggies all summer long with NO A/C!!!wh I was young with small children and had to feed 6 of us, and the daycare kids too, from the garden.  It was worth it when I was young and strong, now I will go to Smart and Final and buy the giant cans of tomato sauce for $3.00 and save my back and legs!         I _will_ be making blueberry jam and raspberry jelly Thursday with the frozen berries I brought home from Washington last summer.  I need to get them out of the freezer and my grand children love my jam.  Then DS and I are going to catalogue the remaining contents of the freezers as part of our family's budgeting plan.  DS1 will be making dinners several nights a week while I make dinners the other nights of the week.  We have to get together to plan what groceries to buy in order to avoid duplication and over buying.  We also have to get space for the lambs that will soon be moving from the pasture to the freezer after their short holiday at the butcher.

As part of our reorganization, I have been going over our expenses for the past year and have been appalled at the amount we spend in this house for groceries and sundries.  No more Costco first of all.  DH is forbidden to go grocery shopping since he over buys and brings home all kinds of stuff that is unnecessary.  We are eating smaller quantities anyway, DH has lost 30 lbs!!!  

DS2 is coming back home after being in northern California working for the past 4-6 months.  He will be going to another company for different apprentice training.  While he is home, he can help us put up new woven wire fence around the old goat pen so the rams can go out and eat the green stuff.  That way one ram will have a pen when I turn the other ram out with his breeding harness with the ewes on the big field.  The puppy can stay with the rams too.  More about that later.  We  have several chores that will need both sons to help with so this is a good thing.  Hopefully he will be working within commuting distance for several months.  Although my new food budget will have to be kept under strict control.  I have found out that if we don't go to the grocery store it helps.  

Angel is growing like a weed and we have been going out with our coffee in the am and letting her run with the big dogs and the sheep.  She is going to be an awesome LGD.  She already has been learning from the big dogs, and the ewes have butted her a couple times when she wanted to play with them.  She and Bubba play a lot.  Rika is elective in her play, but does join in occasionally.  The other morning Angel was investigating the pasture and decided to run join the sheep.  Naturally they moved away from her as she ran to them.  She stopped and watched then walked slowly through the flock.  The next time she decided to run join them she ran to about 15-20 feet away then circled around them widely at a walk, and approached them slowly.  This time they did not move away from her and she was able to visit each one.  One lesson learned.  The next day she repeated the circle and slow walk behavior.  Really impressive for a 3 month old  pup!

She eats with the big dogs - we feed them all together and no one is allowed to take anyone else's food or annoy the others.  Polite dinnertime behavior!  At first she wanted to play but we insisted she eat first, then they were all allowed to come in for family time.  Rika always takes her bone and lays on the carpet in the entry where she has peace and quiet.  I used to fold the laundry in my room for that.  Bubba takes up the entire floor space in the family room with his bones.  Plural since he gathers them all up.  Mine! All mine!  Except that he lets Angel chew n them and just watches her!  Love watching these huge dogs be so gentle with a little puppy.  Then angel snuggles up next to him and just gnaws her bone while he chews his too.  So cute!  It will last until she is about a year and then he will not be so nice to her. 

Angel is in disgrace though.  Yesterday, she decided to chew her favorite lamb.  She loves him dearly and this was the second time it happened.  After the first time, we blocked off the creep so she couldn't be in with the ewes and lambs. Yesterday, DS1 decided to leave her in with the sheep again for a couple hours until he brought her up to feed her.  When he went to get her 2 hours later poor Green Tag had a red neck from where she had been licking him and one leg was bleeding.  He is her favorite lamb.  She loves him.  She likes to play with him.  Since he can't bite or growl at her when she hurts him she assumes that he is having just as good a time as she is.   DS doctored GT with hydrogen peroxide and informed Angel that she would not be able to have any more play dates with him.  DS planes to keep him inside so he could check on him the next day.  The lamb had other plans and went out to graze. 

Today DS1 and I put stock panel around the outside of the built-in feeder in the pen to which we had transferred the rams.  When he brought in the sheep, he penned Angel in with them.  They are pretty docile but will not tolerate her gnawing on them.  She had a safety area under the feeder where she could go if they got too rough.  If they were mean, we would put the creep panels in the pen so she could stay in her own pen with access to the rams.  We are not sure if they were mean or not.  They were fine when she went into the pen.  They were fine when she left the pen.  She was fine as she lined up outside the kitchen door with the big dogs for supper.  Apparently there was another way out of the pen we had not seen.  Back in the creep until tomorrow night after we fix that spot.  She is almost large enough to stay our longer during the day with the big dogs, but I want to do some more supervised training with her before just turning her loose on 5 acres. 

Her behavior is really textbook LGD.  She is going to be one terrific LGD.  She will be a big girl too, larger than Rika.  All of a sudden she has done a growth spurt, especially in her feet.  Her paws are suddenly huge!  She is a pretty girl and has a very sweet nature.  Rain is expected for the next 4 days so I will spend sometime in the barn with Angel on collar and leash working on recalls and back off commands. Treats will be employed along with lots of praise. 

This weekend when DS2 is home, we will weigh lambs again.  On February 14 (almost 2 weeks ago) they weighed an average of 70 lbs. with an average daily gain of .7 lbs.  Very respectable considering they are only grazing poor pasture, with only 1 light hay feed in the evening and a light feeding of barleycorn instead of a lamb grow ration.  We are not creep feeding them since we have been using it for Angel and she tried to eat all the grain the first day she was in it!  I am extremely pleased with these Dorpers.  They are very docile friendly and super easy keepers.  I plan to buy another couple of ewes this year.  Their weight gain is as good as my Dorsets, but on less feed.  They are carrying more meat on less carcass bone too.  Even the Dorper crosses are really heavy and meaty.  The ewe lamb that I am keeping is only 3 months old, and the youngest wether lamb is the heaviest at 75 lbs. at 2 and 1/2 months old!  Great gains.  They may be in the freezer under 4 months old.  Just think what my ewes would produce on decent pasture year round!  Texas has a  lot more rain so I would have to do a stiffer worming regimen than is necessary here.  I only worm annually here since it s so dry.  After all this rain I will have to worm when I wean.

Still working on our Texas plan.  Enjoying every minute my grandbabies are here since when we leave we won't see them often anymore.


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## Baymule

Sounds like Angel is growing and joining the big dogs. That is funny about her favorite lamb....not to the lamb or you, but put a smile on my face. I could just picture her "loving" her lamb! 

That is great about your husband losing 30 pounds! Awesome! When we moved I let the groceries dwindle down so we wouldn't have to move much. I put stuff in the freezer for "later" too! LOL LOL Then I have to do a clean out before I go pick up the latest freezer camp award.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Although my new food budget will have to be kept under strict control. I have found out that if we don't go to the grocery store it helps.


If you run out of food you can always go graze with the sheep.

Nice to hear what a great dog Angel is at such a young age (chewing on her favorite lamb excluded).


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## Ridgetop

When I was young and doing all that canning I kept asking  my grandmother to come over and help since she had to can everything to feed the family during the depression.  My grandmother told me I was crazy to do all that work.  I didn't believe her then, but knowing how much work it is and being the age I am now, I understand why she said that.  Back then I was in my "great earth mother" phase - now I am in the "do it because you love it" phase.   6 hours of work for 13 quarts of tomato sauce does not qualify.

Angel will eventually rival Roka as the LGD Ultimate, right now we are letting her have outside time in the evening after the sheep are locked up and the dogs are back on the home side of the fields.  She does really well outside with the big dogs, and we put  her up in the barn pen after we feed so she is not outside all night.  Still coyote bait size.

Got t go to Lowes for woven wore fencing.  We were going to use the wire we already have to extend the fence higher around the property.  Thought it was woven wire, but it was welded ire , which would be ok since we are just adding another 3-4 feet on top of an existing 5' tall perimeter wire fence.  The bottom half is woven no climb on welded oil pipe.  Over the years on our steep terrain the ground has washed into the fence and lowered the top of the T posts to the existing posts and adding wire on top.  We got the welded wire to extend the fence since there would be no strain on it 3'-4' in the air and it was a lot cheaper.  However, now we have to go get woven wire to replace the old chain link that we took off the original goat pasture fence.  The posts are solid so we will just have to stretch and tack up the new wire.  My boys were going to put up the welded wire but I stopped them explaining that when we started stretching the wore on the slope the welds would pop.  Massive discussion in the Robbins tradition but alpha bitch prevailed so we are off to the Lowes in the next town since our local stores do not carry woven wire.  City folks!


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## RollingAcres

Canning sure is a lot of work but we do it because we enjoy it. 

Buying tomato sauce at the store is so much easier but popping open a jar of sauce that you made yourself with tomatoes from your garden, that's priceless...Sound like a commercial, ha!


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## Baymule

RollingAcres said:


> Canning sure is a lot of work but we do it because we enjoy it.
> 
> Buying tomato sauce at the store is so much easier but popping open a jar of sauce that you made yourself with tomatoes from your garden, that's priceless...Sound like a commercial, ha!


X2!
I love my home grown, home canned tomato sauce. I give some to my son and he makes home made chili with it.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I stopped them explaining that when we started stretching the wore on the slope the welds would pop.


Oh yeah they will. Alpha bitch wins for a good reason!


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## Ridgetop

I confine myself to making jelly and jams now.  Maybe more canning when I have another garden next year.  I do love to make pickles though, and applesauce, and pickled peaches, and . . . .  I do have a dynamite recipe for homemade catsup, very spicy and I used it as BBQ sauce on meatloaf and other things.  I might end up doing more later.  There is really nothing like a cellar full of home canned vegetables, fruits, pickles and jams.  I left our cellar behind with our 100 year old home when we moved to the "new" house 30+ years ago.    My Daddy but shelves in it for all my jars and I hung my kettles, etc., from hooks and nails driven into the underside of the staircase going to the second floor.  Very handy but sadly no cellars here.  Maybe in Texas I can put in a root cellar if there s none in the house.  Otherwise, it is hard to store all the home canned goods where they stay cool in the summer.  When you can summer stuff for the winter it takes up a whole room of shelves.  Think about it, you need at least 1 quart jar every day of vegetables, not to mention the quarts of fruit, pints of pickles, and half pints of jams and jellies.   If you are raising a large family of children the jams and jellies get put up in pint jars and you need 2 quarts of vegetables every day for supper.  If you can raise winter vegetables, or live where you can leave beets, carrots and parsnips, et. in the ground during the frost or snow, then you can cut back the number of jars you need.  That does not even take into account the number of jars of soup, meat, etc. you needed in the old days to supplement the salt pork (laid down in barrels), salt fish (ditto) and smoked meats.  I used to can my goat milk for the calves during the months when I needed the fresh milk for us and the goat kids - even with 3 freezers, I didn't have enough room to store it frozen. 

Golly, when you think about it, you can see why women really could not work outside the home back then.  They had to sew all their own clothes and those of their husband and children.  They had no dishwashers, no washers and dryers (although I do like hanging linens on, the line since they smell so good), no vacuum cleaners, no hot water heaters, AND they had to do all their heavy work wearing tight corsets, 5 petticoats and heavy long skirts!  UGH!

Thank heaven for all our wonderful conveniences!  It gives us the time to grow our lovely gardens, which gives us all that lovely produce to CAN!  Exhausted just thinking about it.

Life is really a giant circle!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Maybe in Texas I can put in a root cellar if there s none in the house.


You might need a tornado shelter anyway, just make it big enough to be a root cellar. If the twister comes through you won't have to worry if you have stocked emergency supplies!

And you are right, way back farming was a full time job (as it is now) and being the wife of a farmer was as well. Two people, two full time jobs.


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## Baymule

You canned goat milk? Did it taste as good as fresh? What pounds of pressure and for how long?


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Maybe in Texas I can put in a root cellar if there s none in the house.


Depends where you locate to. Many places, ground water level is too high almost all year long. Other places, it's dry as a bone but bedrock comes up nearly to the surface.

You have to be very careful emptying an in-ground swimming pool or even pumping out a septic tank....they'll float out of the ground or crack the bottom.

Even basements are a rarity. I don't think I've ever met anyone in Texas that ha a basement, tho I have seen several storm cellars out in the western part of the state as well as a couple of bomb shelters back in the 60s. (bomb shelters were a booming business for awhile.)


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## Mike CHS

That is a nice post but most of yours are.


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## Ridgetop

Do I need a tornado shelter?  I thought the area of east Texas was out of Tornado Alley. 

As to the canned goat milk, we used it for the calves and kids.  We drank only fresh and didn't even pasteurize that.  We would drink the morning milking at night and the evening milling in the morning.  Leftover milk from either milking went for cooking or into the pasteurizer for the goat kids.  We did pasteurize all milk we fed to the kids.  I used to have 3 2 gallon pasteurizers going every morning and would do 2-3 pasteurizings each morning before picking up the children from preschool!   I only pasteurized in the morning since evenings were too busy with homework, 4-H meetings, etc.  I also used to put blue food coloring into the pasteurized milk before storing it in the fridge in gallon gas pickle jars so I wouldn't make any mistakes feeding the goat kids.  If I ran out of fresh, the kids thought it was a hoot to drink blue milk!

I found the canning times in a WWII canning and food preservation book that was from my grandmother.  I will look for it and post it.  There were lots of canning times in it - nuts, meat, wild game, etc.  Stuff that we just chuck in the freezer now had to be canned back then.  I also have a recipe for keeping fresh eggs for at least 6 months by dipping them in some sort of liquid (I have a bottle of it in my cabinet from when I wanted to try it) and then packing the whole eggs in layers of sand.  The little canning book had a picture of Uncle Sam on it and hints for a Victory Garden.  My grandmother told me that they couldn't get beef during the war - it all went to the military.  Instead they had to eat horsemeat.  She said they ate less horsemeat because it was so rich it filled you up faster.  Maybe like bison meat.  I wish young people were learning these things in school.


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## Baymule

What a treasure you have in your Grandmother's WWII canning book. Take a picture of it and post it! That is interesting about the horsemeat. 

We have tornadoes. We don't have a storm cellar, wish we did.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Do I need a tornado shelter? I thought the area of east Texas was out of Tornado Alley.


https://www.cbs19.tv/article/news/a...exas/501-2a0c7ebc-6b53-4db2-bdb7-00928939cb68
Apr 29 2017. At least 3 BYH members' places are within confines of this map.


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## Ridgetop

OK.  Found the booklet - the Kerr Home Canning Book, published in 1943, priced at $.10 ten cents, it was a special edition for war time.  Inside the cover is a quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt stating that "Food is no less a weapon than tanks, guns, and planes".  It also states that "Planned food conservation for year round nutritious meals is a patriotic duty".

It even has a recipe for canning fish roe.  Caviar, anyone? 

To can milk, strain milk and cool to room temperature ("after all animal heat disappears").  Pour into clean Kerr jars to within 1/2" of top.  Wipe top rim clean and put on lids screwing bands tight.  Process in pressure canner at 10 lbs. pressure for 10 minutes, or 60 minutes in water bath. 

I used the pressure canner since I wouldn't trust just a water bath canner for milk.  Also I think the water might boil down in an hour and you would have to add boiling water which would mess up the timing.

There is also a recipe for canning brains.  In case of zombie invasion they could be used to tempt the zombies away while you escape.  (Actually, I used to make brains and scrambled eggs for DH years ago.  they were one of his favorite meals. 
I haven't seen brains available in markets in years, although our local market has pork stomachs, tripe, etc.  It is an ethnic market and has really cool fruits and vegetables too.  I had never seen a dragonfruit before but our market has them. 

If anyone likes green tomato jam here is a recipe for Tomato Mince Meat:

1 1/2 pints peeled and chopped tart apples
1 pint chopped green tomatoes
1 lb. raisins
1/4 cup vinegar
3 cups sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. cloves
1 cup suet
Mix all together and bring to rapid boil.  Simmer until thick.  Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

This recipe doesn't give times or pressure.  However, considering the sugar and vinegar content I think you could use a water bath canner.  I would feel comfortable using the time for either tomatoes (35 minutes) or apples 25 minutes.  Or find a similar recipe and use the pressure canner times.

For my Texas friends with pecan trees here is a recipe for canning pecans (or walnuts) using the oven to process: 
Fill jars with shelled raw nut meats and process for 45 minutes for any size jar.

Pecans in the pressure canner:
After shelling pecans, melt 3 Tbsp. butter and add 1 pint of shelled pecans, stir I 1 Tbsp. salt, being careful not to get pecans too hot.  Pac into jars, screw band on tight, process 30 minutes at 5 lbs. pressure.

I think I will just buy them at Costco.


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## Ridgetop

Thanks, greybeard!
If I can figure out how to print stuff off this website I will take this  map to Texas when we come in the fall to check out where we plan to buy.  Or not buy.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Thanks, greybeard!
> If I can figure out how to print stuff off this website I will take this  map to Texas when we come in the fall to check out where we plan to buy.  Or not buy.


You can see how many were in Tx from 2013 thru 2017
http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado/Texas/2017


(the numbers on the markers indicate F intensity, not quantity) 
This is 2017:


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## Bruce

Ever the wonderful resource @greybeard


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## greybeard

Well, I wouldn't want anyone to make an uninformed decision...
I spent about 10 years living/working where the star is...close by anyway.



(that star BTW , is within 55 miles of the geographic center of Texas)

We occasionally saw small tornadoes dancing across the scrub land off in the distance from my home up on a bluff, and many spectacular thunderstorms as they approached in and from the next county over.
Taken from Twin Buttes Reservoir Dam near San Angelo:





I've seen spectacular views such as this many times.



It was a great form of free entertainment, as everyone sat in lawn chairs and watched the weather approach, but we retreated indoors when the sirens sounded.

A few months before we moved there, there was  tornadic strength straight line wind that hit San Angelo resulting in loss of dozens of homes, nearly 100 million $ in damage, mostly in a LOT of roofing damage followed immediately by a lot of hail accumulation. (It was initially reported as a true tornado but later the Dyess Air Force Base doppler echo showed it was not)
Hail plugged up street storm drains, roof gutters, broke lots of home and auto glass, collapsed roofs and then when the rain started, flooding occurred because the rain couldn't run off.
These folks are trying to clear the hail out of street drains:




Within 2 weeks, a big cottage industry of auto glass repair & dent fixers sprung up on virtually every vacant corner, then hordes of roofers materialized out of thin air, followed by a small mobile army of flat tire fixers because of all the roofing nails dropped on the streets when the roofers hauled the old shingles off.


("big cottage industry"...now there's an oxymoron)


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## RollingAcres

Ridgetop said:


> I confine myself to making jelly and jams now. Maybe more canning when I have another garden next year. I do love to make pickles though, and applesauce, and pickled peaches,


I do like making jams as well but I don't do it often. We are not big on using jams and I have not found a recipe that make a small batch of jams. I have made pickles before but only the refrigerated kind. I don't have a pressure canner. I use the hot water bath method, that doesn't work well with pickles.


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## Mike CHS

We made some pickles last summer that we didn't process but it goes against the grain of all of the canning methods.  They were the crispiest pickles I have ever had.


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## greybeard

Mike CHS said:


> We made some pickles last summer that we didn't process but it goes against the grain of all of the canning methods.  They were the crispiest pickles I have ever had.


Icebox Pickles?


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## Mike CHS

greybeard said:


> Icebox Pickles?



I don't know if that was what they were called but we got the process from Teresa's sister.  You just put the pickles in a hot jar and quickly add the boiling pickling liquid to the jar and put on the lid.  We did several at a time last year and they all sealed well.


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## Baymule

I have a sweet, spicy pickle recipe from my Great Grandmother. They are crisp and delicious. I just water bath them.


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## Baymule

We live east of Van. Tornadoes sometimes come close, but it's no worse than hurricanes that also come with tornadoes. No matter where you live, weather is going to do_ something. _


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## greybeard

You do have to keep in mind tho, the # of hurricanes that hit Texas each year, compared to the number of tornadoes that happen in the same year in Texas.
But yes, there's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Korillian Death Ray, or an f4 tornado or a Cat 4 hurricane, or a killer asteroid that is about to wipe all life on this miserable little planet and the only way......oh..wait. Got carried away for a bit..
_The annual average occurrence of a Texas tropical storm or hurricane per year is 0.8, or 3 per every 4 years_
https://www.weather.gov/media/lch/events/txhurricanehistory.pdf

_The average # of tornadoes in Texas for any given year is 132.
In the period 1951–2011, nearly 62.7 percent of all Texas tornadoes occurred within the three-month period of April, May, and June, with almost one-third of the total tornadoes occurring in May.

More tornadoes have been recorded in Texas than in any other state, which is partly due to the state's size. 

_


_

*Tornado Occurrences 1951–2016*
_
_Between 1951 and 2011, 8,007 funnel clouds reached the ground, thus becoming tornadoes. Texas ranks 11th among the 50 states in the density of tornadoes, with an average of 5.7 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles per year during this period.

The greatest outbreak of tornadoes on record in Texas was associated with Hurricane Beulah in September 1967. Within a five-day period, Sept. 19–23, 115 known tornadoes, all in Texas, were spawned by this great hurricane. Sixty-seven occurred on Sept. 20, a Texas record for a single day.

In addition to Hurricane Beulah's 115 tornadoes, there were another 9 tornadoes in September for a total of 124, which is a Texas record for a single month. 

The greatest number of tornadoes in Texas in a single year is 232, also in 1967. The second-highest number in a single year is 1995, when 223 tornadoes occurred in Texas. 

In 1982, there were 123 tornadoes formed in May, making it the worst outbreak of spring tornadoes in Texas. On average, May has the highest number of tornadoes per month with 39.38. January has the lowest average with 2.33_
(In Texas, You actually have a better chance of being hit by lightening than hit by a tornado and better chances of being bitten by a venomous serpent than finding yourself in the middle of a killer tornado....I'm 2 out of 3 so far which all things considered, ain't bad)


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

I resided in Southern California for a little over a year August 1999 to September 2000.  It was a bit amusing to hear folks talk about Texas and how they didn't want to reside in a state with tornadoes and hurricanes.  I was amused because in Texas folks often talked about California and how they didn't want to reside in a state with earthquakes, wildfires, and mud slides.  I think that it is a case of "better the devil you do know than the devil you don't".  Most likely you will be fine should you move to east Texas.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## RollingAcres

Mike CHS said:


> You just put the pickles in a hot jar and quickly add the boiling pickling liquid to the jar and put on the lid.


That's the kind I normally make, same method.


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## RollingAcres

Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> "better the devil you do know than the devil you don't".


This is the second time today I've heard this phrase. I've never heard this saying until today.


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## Devonviolet

Mike CHS said:


> We made some pickles last summer that we didn't process but it goes against the grain of all of the canning methods. They were the crispiest pickles I have ever had.


I make Earl Gray Cultured Pickles. I keep them in the refrigerator after they culture. They are raw and very crisp. YUM!!!  The tea contains tanins, which help keep the pickles crisp.  @Baymule and BJ were over for a visit with her son, one time, and they all got to sample my pickles. They all seemed to really like them. Her son, especially liked the pickled onion chunks, that I added to the mix. My DH loves the carrot slices that I add.

Earl Gray Tea Pickles

Ingredients

1 package Cutting Edge Starter Culture plus 1 cup water, or 1/2 cup Kefir Whey
24 baby cucumbers depending on size
4 teaspoons black peppercorns
3 tablespoons Celtic Sea Sal
4 cloves garlic
4 bags Earl Gray tea

Instructions

If using the starter culture, stir together the culture and water. Let the mixture sit while you prepare the ingredients—around 10 minutes.

Cut the blossom ends off the cucumbers.

Combine the peppercorns, salt, and garlic in a small bowl.

Tightly pack the cucumbers and peppercorn mixture into a 1-gallon jar. Add the starter culture or kefir whey and the tea bags and fill the jar with filtered water to cover the cucumbers but leave 1 to 2 inches of headspace for them to bubble and ferment.

Seal the container and let it sit on your kitchen counter, out of direct sunlight, for 3 days.

After 3 days, remove the tea bags.

Check the vegetables every day to make sure they are fully submerged in the water. If they have risen above the water, simply push them down so they are fully covered by the water. If any white spots formed because the veggies rose above the water, do not worry. Remember, this isn’t harmful. Just scoop out the vegetables that have the white spots on them and push the rest back under the water.

When the pickles are done fermenting, place them in the refrigerator. They will continue to ferment, ever so slightly, once they are in the refrigerator.

Recipe Notes

Storage note: They are ready to eat after three days but will keep fermenting and age much like a fine wine. I like them at about 1 to 2 weeks but will last nine months in your refrigerator.

https://www.culturedfoodlife.com/recipe/earl-grey-tea-pickles/


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> I have a sweet, spicy pickle recipe from my Great Grandmother. They are crisp and delicious. I just water bath them.


And 12 jiggers of whiskey?


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> And 12 jiggers of whiskey?


 Not in the pickles!!


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## Bruce

Hey, you never know, they might be REAL good!


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## Ridgetop

We have had 2 big earthquakes here in southern California, and a few small shakes.  One was about 48 years ago, and Northridge was the worst about 24 years ago.  We are close to the San Andreas fault too, so you would think we would have them constantly.  We also used to have lots of tropical storms which are not too dangerous here.  The idea of tornadoes and hurricanes scare me, but I suppose they are not any worse than blizzards in the northeast or flooding through the central states.  Wildfires and flash floods here are very common, and extremely dangerous.  I guess I don't need to worry too much about tornadoes or hurricanes, as long as we have a well built house and stay out of tornado alley!


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## greybeard

No one here is worrying about wildfires this year or last summer, but it hasn't always been that way.
We're never more than 2-3 weeks away from drought....


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## Baymule

2011 was a terrible drought and there were lots of fires. I could be wrong, but I don't remember a drought like that in my lifetime. Looking around, there was a drought from 1950 to 1957, and there  have been many other droughts, but none as severe as that one. That inspired the building of huge lake reservoirs for a continuing water supply for the large cities and surrounding areas. 

https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2011/11/29/a-history-of-drought-and-extreme-weather-in-texas/

No matter where you live, weather is going to have an impact on you and your property.


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## Ridgetop

Are there good wells in east Texas?  Or is it all AG water shares?

Fire can be devastating everywhere.  No place is safe from wild fire, except during a torrential downpour LOL.  I need all the information I can get since we are serious about being able to pasture cattle (and sheep) and raise hay, although we will be leasing the land to others for the cattle and hay.  I just read a Texas Ag report that certain eastern Texas counties have land good for alfalfa depending on the soil type.  This was apparently a surprise wince it had been thought that alfalfa did not thrive in east Texas.  $250-$325 per acre to ready the soil and plant, but the soil will produce good crops of alfalfa.  The report was that if would be more profitable than orchard or Bermuda.  On the other hand, I also saw the farm report that same week that alfalfa prices were down about $10/ton while Bermuda prices were up $10/ton.   I suppose it depends on what the price per ton was as to whether or not it would be better to put in alfalfa or coastal IF you had the type of soil mentioned in the report.  Another thing to check out with the county AG extension office when we come to Texas on our exploratory trip. 

On another note, we weighted lambs on March 9 and they weighed:

Purebred Dorper replacement single ewe lamb born November 14           83.5 lbs.
Dorper X Dorset twin ewe lamb born November 29                                  85.9 lbs.
Dorper X Dorset twin wether born November 29                                      79.4 lbs.
Purebred Dorper single wether born December 3                                     84.0 lbs.

So at the current growth rate, by the time we return from our trip on April 5,they will be right around 100 lbs.  Ready for the freezer at 4 months old!  And no creep feeding during the past month!  Also on predominantly green forage, but not _good _pasture, for the past month.  These lambs are now larger than the ethnic market likes which is 65-75 lbs.  If we can localize an ethnic market, we can sell at 3 months and be more profitable by reducing our feed and pasture costs  (when we eventually have pasture, that is, LOL).  The single purebred Dorper lambs were out of first freshening yearling ewes.  The twins were the 4th or 5th lambing for their mama.  I will be putting the ewes back in with the rams in a month.  The 2 Dorsets and the yearling Dorper ewe (she was not bred last season as a lamb) will go in with the older ram, while the other 2 ewes will go in with the younger ram.  I also plan to buy another couple of purebred Dorper yearling or lamb ewes at the sales this year.  The yearling ewes can go in right away with my rams, while the lambs will be held over with our replacement ewe lamb - Rainbow Unicorn.  Or as I fondly call her "Blue Tag 7".  LOL   So happy with the growth rates on these Dorpers. 

Angel now weighs 55 lbs., our 5 year old granddaughter weighs 39 lbs., and our 8 year old grandson weighs 61.52 lbs.  Our grandchildren insisted on their turn in the lamb scale too! 

Angel is doing great.  After a period of overly affectionate and playful behavior with the lambs, she has been guarding the 2 rams in an adjacent pasture.  She is released at night when the sheep come into the barn and can run and play with the older dogs.  She is learning a great deal, knows her name now, and comes when called (since it means a meal).  She is going to be larger than Rika, and I think she will be just as good.  In another month or so she will be big enough to go out in the field with the larger dogs when the mules are loose.  We will go out with her and watch that she doesn't not get too close until she learns that mules are not her friends.  Hopefully they will ignore her while they go about their pastime of grazing on all the lovely green stuff.  The mules and donkeys go into the gully and up the other side to eat since that is where the best grass is.  The sheep like the broadleaf weeds.  We have had so much rain this year that I think we may have to cut the field at 200 ft distance from structures.  However, rather than raking it up, we learned to leave it on the hills and the sheep, mules and donkeys will eat it as it dries out.  Then they will clear the rest over the summer.  More rain coming and it is very cold this week.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Are there good wells in east Texas? Or is it all AG water shares?



Water shares?
In East Texas?
3 words.....Rule of Capture.
Now, if you suck so much out of an aquifer  that your neighbors' wells go dry, they'll come looking for you and it won't be pretty, but I don't know anyone in East Texas (except sod farms) that irrigates most years.

Alfalfa and orchard probably would do well, but few people grow either as there are much better forages/hays that are better suited for this region.
Coastal Bermuda, Tifton and bahia are king in East Tx.

Hay prices are down because winter is about done, green up has begun, there is little demand for hay purchases and ryegrass is growing like weeds. Lots of RR crabgrass going in the ground as well as CC.

(how well does alfalfa stand up to army worms and blister beetles?)


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## Ridgetop

What are army worms?


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## Ridgetop

What  are blister beetles?  So are the other varieties of hay resistant to these pests?  What exactly is Rule of Capture?  Should we look for property with a well?  Or stream fed ponds?  I don't want to be without water.  I am not talking about just drinking water for the house, but water for growing hay, crops, pasture, or for livestock.  While irrigation may not be practiced as a rule of thumb, I do want to be able to raise any livestock without having to truck water in or see the land dry up and die. 

Since I am from southern California which has little water, water is one of the most important requirements.  My uncle was a cattleman (when there were a lot of cattle ranches in Corona, California) and he told me long ago that land without water is worthless.  He said no matter what, you need water for livestock and ranching, never to buy farm or ranch land that didn't have a guaranteed source of water.  One reason I hated to give up the idea of my aunt's place in Washington is that it has a wonderful well with a water level at 30 feet.  Lots of places are no longer allowing property owners to drill wells, especially as cities begin to encroach on farmland.  My son has a great welI in Nipomo (California central coast) with great water and good GPM.  So many homes are being built in the central coast region around him that the city has outlawed the drilling of any new wells, and has placed a limit on how much water he can pump from his own well.  The city came out and put a regulator on his well so they can see how many gallons he draws from it and taxes (or penalizes) him if he pulls more than what they decide he should have.  this is so the city can take as much as they want for their city water customers.  In other areas planting vineyards for wineries was occurring on such a scale that the amount of irrigation they required as compared to the grazing land that they replaced was lowering the level of the aquifers till many people had to drill new wells or they simply ran out of water.  So many vineyards were being planted that the price of varietals dropped so low that wineries could practically name what they wanted to pay for grapes. 

If coastal Bermuda or Tifton is better suited to east Texas, then that would be what we should look for.  We plan to lease the hayfields to a grower, and the pastures to someone to graze cattle.  We only plan to keep our flock of sheep and raise locker lambs either for the ethnic market, or for small scale production.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Or stream fed ponds?


Rule of capture means you can use the water below your land....iow, wells.
State of Texas tho, gets pretty picky about rivers & streams that flow year round. You can sometimes pump from them, with a permit, but they are going to charge for the water. I know a guy that pumped from the same river I live near and he got caught without the paperwork. Big time fine and they could have charged him with theft of public resources and sent him to jail.

Generally, in East Texas, there's plenty of water below ground, tho in 2011 and 2012, some shallow wells did begin to dry up.  By shallow, I mean less than 100' deep. 
I've heard rumors about metering private water wells for years and years, but so far, no politician is willing to risk their future by acting on it around here. 

I'm not real familiar with growing alfalfa but it's my understanding that once blister beetles are found, the only recourse is to cut the field they are in and just let it lay. The beetles produce a toxin that kill a horse and can make cattle sick enough to stop eating.

Army worms come out in the fall..the larvae of a moth. 
https://www.theeagle.com/landandliv...cle_fff9c388-bc22-11e8-a56d-8b9230a5e317.html


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## Ridgetop

So if I get this right - Make sure to get property with well more than 100' deep, test for GPM, and water quality.  Grow coastal Bermuda, don't bother with alfalfa.  On the other hand, apparently army worms love Bermuda.  If there is a stream on the property, livestock can drink from it, you can fish in it, the stream can be used to fill an existing pond, but you can't pump from it or dam it off.  Can you build or enlarge a pond that would fill from the stream as long as you do not dam it up?  Or would that constitute theft of public resource ?  What is the Texas stand on agrarian rights?  Lots to learn.


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## greybeard

The geology in Texas differs greatly depending on location. 
You can get water here at 50' and plenty of it, but it isn't good water...too much dissolved iron in it. And, it doesn't take moving very far to see great variances in good well depths. My well TD is 185', with the producing zone from 185' up to 140', it's a thick sand.
My 2 sisters, about 6 miles north of me, had to drill down over 300' to get good water. 
There is a co-op water system about 5 miles south of me that provides drinking water thru pipelines to those that want it (for a price) but their water smells like sulfur. That co-op well is around 500' deep.

You can capture all the runoff water (rainfall) you want as long as you don't back water up onto a neighbor or public property.  If I built my pond dam and levees up higher, I would flood a neighbor's property immediately to the North and the paved road as well....I cannot do that. 

My sister owns 41 acres adjacent to me to the South. I have a pond dam right on the property line. My brother in law wanted to build a pond on sister's property, directly downstream from my pond dam. I wouldn't allow it because that would mean the backside of my pond dam would stay saturated with water all the time and eventually, my dam would fail. 

Every time it rains, I get outflow from the National Forest across my property. I can and do capture that water in my big pond, but I can't build my dam up so high that it backs standing water up into the National Forest.
The picture below is my place and immediate surrounding area. The neighbor's 17 ac property  to the north, my sister's and my brother's property I lease for nothing except fencework and run cows on. As you can see, my dam does back water up on to my neighbor's property thru 3 fingers, but that's only because I used to own the 17 acres and my  pond and dam were there when he bought the 17 ac from me, as were the finger channels. 
The sqiggly line marked 'A' is a little natural drain that puts a lot of forest water across my place and I could dig it out, dam it up to make a small pond but that would put water into the National Forest and I can't do that..............plus, I already have way more water than I want.



 
My pond in the middle of 2011 drought when I was building a little fishing dock. 




You can see the same dock at normal water level on the opposite side of the water.


 




Water in East Texas except in extreme drought years just isn't an issue.  Pick a town or county in East Texas and look up the annual rainfall...most will be well over 40" /year.  My county's avg annual rainfall is 52"/year. 

There are properties that have small named streams running thru their property and some do dam them up but they can't completely stop the flow of water. They capture with a dam, whatever it takes to fill their pond, and anything beyond that quantity  has to be able to continue on downstream as before. (That, is the same thing that all public lake dams do. I know of no public (govt built) lakes in Texas that don't fall under this rule) 


Ridgetop said:


> agrarian rights


Explain what you mean by "agrarian rights".


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## Ridgetop

greybeard said:


> Explain what you mean by "agrarian rights".



Sorry, I meant riparian rights, but I think you have already answered it by saying that you cannot completely dam up water flowing across your property.  Some places the river or stream is considered public access - people can either boat or s=wade through the streambed across private property.  It sounds like in east Texas that small streams can be fenced off as to public _access_ as long as you do not completely dam or restrict the flow of water from property to property.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Some places the river or stream is considered public access - people can either boat or s=wade through the streambed across private property.


Not here. My Eastern most property line is (and always has been) recorded as "center of river channel". However, that doesn't mean I can legally run a North to South fence down the center of the channel. I  can (but don't) run a North to South fence as close to the water's edge as I want to. Under no circumstances could I run a fence across the river even if my property was on both sides of the river (even tho it is not a navigable waterway). Nor can I run a East West fence up on the highway end all the way down to the river's edge. I have to allow  the public walking access from the side of the highway into the river. Texas uses what is known as "the gradient boundary but the geology of some rivers doesn't allow for it's implementation.  If there is just a gentle slope down to the water's edge, then there is no gradient boundary. If the land suddenly ends on a high bank with water straight down, then again, no gradient boundary and the judges almost always rule in favor of the landowner.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications...vers/navigation/riddell/navigationright.phtml

In 1964-65, when we originally fenced the river, we did run our N-S fence very close to the water's edge. That proved to be folly due to frequent floodwaters and bank erosion and we lost our fence several times.  We moved the fence back westward about 20 yards away from the bank. 

In 2006, I backed off another 100-250 ft to the West and have basically let the area between the river and my fence revert to it's primitive state. I've only been walking on that area a couple times in the last 12-13 years.

Wife and I used to canoe Devils River in West Texas. The waterway itself belongs to the public. The bank of the river belongs to the ranchers. There's no 'gradient' to much of it and hostilites have broken out along that remote river. (it is VERY much worth the trip, hazards and true danger tho) Note the warnings:
http://southwestpaddler.com/docs/riogrande9.html


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## Baymule

Greybeard is giving you a good education on water in Texas. Most landowners have tanks or ponds by digging out a low spot, throwing up a dam and letting rain water fill it.


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## Ridgetop

I am really grateful for all this information.  Greybeard is a wealth of information and I read everything he posts with admiration for his experience.  I told DH that when we move and decide to get a tractor I will pull up all STA's posts ad have him read everything Greybeard and others posted about tractors.  DH is pretty good at heavy equipment but since we don't use a tractor much on this steep property, he needs to learn more about farm tractor stuff and easier ways of attaching the equipment to the tractor. 

I also learned  lot from reading Bay's posting about building fences.  I passed some of it on to my brother who is now fencing his 10 acres in Washington.  He plan to retire there and is doing a lot in the weekends.  he rented a cat and learned firsthand the joys of mechanized equipment to remove trees, rocks, trash, etc. from his future home site.  He welds so he is also building a fence roll holder similar to those at Tractor Supply to hold the 5' no climb as he fences.  He is also using T Posts and plans to rent a mechanical post driver.  I also told him about the special tool for twisting the wires on T posts that Greybeard posted.  He was thrilled to get the info.  He wants to get goats and sheep.  He already has a Pyr and plans to get another when he retires and brings in the livestock.  Come to think of it, I should have him sign up on this site!  He would learn a lot and enjoy getting first hand information from everyone.  I will email him to check it out. 

Being several generations here in California, those are the regulations I know.  (Although the liberal government here is taking all of our private property rights away.  It doesn't matter how we vote either, the government just announces that we are ignorant and does what it wants.)  Anyway, we want to be good neighbors and knowing what is right is the best way to do it.

My neighbor (more money than sense and the mindset to go with it) bought a couple of acres near Mammoth.  This is big mule packing country and her uncle owned a pack station at that time.  They decided they would put up corrals and build a vacation home.  While we were at Mule Days in Bishop they had us come up to see the property.  I asked her about availability of water and she pointed to the neighbor's property where there was a small stream.  The stream ran near, but not on, her property for about 4 feet.  She announced she would put a pump in the stream and use that.  When I pointed out that it was not on her property she argued that it was close so she could use it.  I did not argue with her, but hen she said they had chosen this piece of property instead one on the other side of the road that already had a well and a stream, DH and I agreed that she was an idiot.  Sure enough she and her husband ended up in court over demanding that the neighbor give them access to the stream!  They lost.  Always make sure about your water rights!


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> I also learned  lot from reading Bay's posting about building fences.  I passed some of it on to my brother who is now fencing his 10 acres in Washington.
> 
> Sure enough she and her husband ended up in court over demanding that the neighbor give them access to the stream!  They lost.  Always make sure about your water rights!



Greybeard is a wealth of information, you will do well to enlist his help on purchasing a tractor. 

My fencing thread has it's mistakes in it. What makes it a valuable thread is all the comments that corrected my mistakes. It is a good discussion on the do's and don'ts of fence building!

What morons to think that they could STEAL water from a neighbor. 

In Texas, private property is sacred. Trespass and you will get escorted off, STEAL and you will run the very real risk of getting shot. There is very little federal land in Texas as we were our own country before joining the union and we did not cede our lands to the United States government.


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## Ridgetop

I know, I was shocked!  When I told her that I wouldn't give her the water if I was the neighbor she thought that was mean.  When I suggested that she try to buy some water rights, she thought I was crazy because it would cost her money!  Apparently if you have a certain mount of money, other people's property should be available to you for nothing.  (It shouldn't surprise me, just look at that college scandal - all rich people that don't make their kids study and teach their kids that if you have money you don't have to work hard to earn anything!) The same neighbor also bought another piece of property in a beach town further north.  She said she courted the old owners for years until he finally decided to sell her the house.  She was exultant that she had been able to get this cute old cottage near the beach.  I just heard recently from another neighbor that this town has no water now, and when you take a shower, it barely trickles out of the faucet.  She probably didn't do her homework on that water situation either.

I find it is _much cheaper to learn from_ _other people's_ mistakes and experiences!  I have made plenty of my own and prefer to avoid making any more.  My friend in Austin has 54 acres and backs up to another neighbor with about 200.  If one of his animals or dogs gets through the fence he said he is very careful about getting it back.  He looks all around to make sure the neighbor is nowhere round before he goes through the fence to recapture it.  His neighbor has a gun and is not adverse to using it on trespassers.  I wonder if he has bagged any of the people from other states (California?) who don't believe in private property ownership rights!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Fire can be devastating everywhere. No place is safe from wild fire, except during a torrential downpour LOL.


Not much fire in the desert. No water either.



Ridgetop said:


> he needs to learn more about farm tractor stuff and easier ways of attaching the equipment to the tractor.


Skid Steer quick attach on the loader arms (unless you buy Deere, then you get Deere's quick attach). Quick hitch on the 3 point for easier/faster attachment of many rear implements. General rule of thumb on tractors is "get a bigger one than you think you need", lots of people end up selling a fairly new tractor and buying something bigger.



Ridgetop said:


> Come to think of it, I should have him sign up on this site!


Um, YEAH you should! Fencing stories/woes/whatever in @Latestarter's (RIP) thread, mine and @CntryBoy777's as well. Got lots of helpful advice from other BYHer's. One thing you will find mentioned frequently is gates. You need them, plenty of them and think about how you will be going through each one. If you need to angle in (such as when the fence runs parallel to a building and not too far away) you need a gate quite a bit wider than the tractor is wide. When you get started, post plans here, lots of folks like to help with design.



Ridgetop said:


> When I pointed out that it was not on her property she argued that it was close so she could use it.



And the college scandal .... ASSUMING the kids didn't know it was happening what must they be thinking now? "Mom/Dad think I'm an idiot!" Now of course I have NO idea what schools those kids could have gotten into without the bribery but it can't be a big boost to your self esteem to have someone paid off to get you in. And their college peers might not be thinking too highly of them either.


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## greybeard

Bruce said:


> And the college scandal .... ASSUMING the kids didn't know it was happening what must they be thinking now? "Mom/Dad think I'm an idiot!" Now of course I have NO idea what schools those kids could have gotten into without the bribery but it can't be a big boost to your self esteem to have someone paid off to get you in. And their college peers might not be thinking too highly of them either.


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## Ridgetop

@greybeard 



Bruce said:


> You need them, plenty of them and think about how you will be going through each one. If you need to angle in (such as when the fence runs parallel to a building and not too far away) you need a gate quite a bit wider than the tractor is wide. When you get started, post plans here, lots of folks like to help with design.


GATES - ONE IN EACH CORNER OF THE FIELD!  AND MAYBE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FENCE SPAN.  I LOVE GATES!



Bruce said:


> And the college scandal .... ASSUMING the kids didn't know it was happening what must they be thinking now? "Mom/Dad think I'm an idiot!" Now of course I have NO idea what schools those kids could have gotten into without the bribery but it can't be a big boost to your self esteem to have someone paid off to get you in. And their college peers might not be thinking too highly of them either.



IF YOU LISTEN TO LOUGHLIN'S DAUGHTER POSTING ON YOU TUBE, YOU SEE WHY THEY NEEDED 1.5 MILLION TO GET _HER_ INTO USC!  EVEN WORSE THAN LETTING THEIR NON-ACHIEVER KIDS FEEL LOW SELF ESTEEM THAT MOMMY AND DADDY THINK THEY ARE STUPID IS TEACHING THEM THAT BECAUSE THEY ARE RICH THEY DON'T NEED TO WORK OR TRY!  NOT  HARD TO GET INTO COLLEGE IF YOU STUDY IN HIGH SCHOOL.  THE PARENTS SHOULD HAVE FOUND A SMALLER "BOUTIQUE" COLLEGE HAPPY FOR A LARGE DONATION FOR THEIR KIDS.   INSTEAD THEY HAVE TURED THEIR KDS INTO LIFE LOSERS IN THE END. 

WHY IS THIS ALL IN CAPS?  No time to retype - oops!


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## Mike CHS

Ridgetop said:


> While we were at Mule Days in Bishop they had us come up to see the property.



We have a Mule Day in Columbia, TN that is coming up soon.  It's a pretty big deal here.

http://muleday.org/


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> GATES - ONE IN EACH CORNER OF THE FIELD! AND MAYBE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FENCE SPAN. I LOVE GATES!


On 60 acres, I have 25 steel gates.On the whole 124 acres, I have over 35 gates.


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## greybeard

The biggest defect I see in BYH fencing is that people do not tension their fences tight enough.
Using 150 or 200KPSI fence wire and attempting to tension it with ratchet straps is a non-starter.


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## Mike CHS

I use come alongs and a jig or whatever the technical name is.


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## Bruce

I used 2 come alongs, one high, one low and made stretcher bars from 2x4's and bolts.



greybeard said:


>


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## Baymule

We used a come along and stretcher bar. Sometimes we used the tractor.


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## Ridgetop

We needed a second pasture for the rams so they could graze.  The old chain link fence in the original goat pasture was down and we had dragged it off to the recycle but the wooden posts were still good (old cross arms).  Chain link is no good for sheep and goats but we were new and put up 6' fencing since it was the original perimeter fence.  We replaced the 100' section with 4' no climb on the existing wooden posts.   We got a $30.00 tool - a 3' pipe with 3 hooks on one side to hook onto the stretcher bar (we used a chain link stretcher bar) and on the other side of the pipe it had a handle fitted with a welded loop to attach to the come along.  It worked very well and our sons had the wire up and tight in record time.  We used U nails to attach it to the existing wooden posts since they were in good shape. 

We are leaving Sunday for 3 weeks but when we get back, we will take the lambs to the butcher.  Then we will put the rams into their marking harnesses and divide the ewes into 2 sets with each ram.


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## greybeard

If you can look down the top of the fence and see waviness, it isn't tight. When you stretch fencing, and it doesn't fully stand up all on it's own, it isn't tight. If it doesn't run in a straight line on it's own when tensioned, it isn't tight. 
For net/fixed knot/hinged knot fencing, a strain gage is the best way to know. Otherwise, watch the little tensioning dimples (arrows) . When they begin to 'straighten out' a little..losing about 20% of their original detent, , it's tight.



 

Examples of tight and not tight:

Tight:


 

not tight:



 

Both of the above fences are pictures of fences BYH folks have posted here.
I've altered/colored in  the outside areas for a reason.


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> We used a come along and stretcher bar. Sometimes we used the tractor.


I can't imagine how much damage I would do trying to stretch fence with the tractor. No feel for just how much power it is putting into the task.


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## Ridgetop

Thanks Greybeard!  Another tool for our fence jobs which looks like it would be worth it's price. 

Bruce:  I think you would use the tractor to attach the come-along, getting the wire somewhat tight then use the come-along to tighten the fence.  I don't think you would necessarily pull the wire tight with the tractor.  I might be wrong.


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## Bruce

Oh good!


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## Baymule

Some places didn't have anything to anchor the come along to. So we hooked it to the FEL bucket.


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## greybeard

Bruce said:


> I can't imagine how much damage I would do trying to stretch fence with the tractor. No feel for just how much power it is putting into the task.


It's usually the opposite Bruce. Fear of tearing up something, pulling corners out, or over tensioning usually results in the fence not being pulled tight enough.


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## greybeard

Baymule said:


> Some places didn't have anything to anchor the come along to. So we hooked it to the FEL bucket.


that's when you do a 'gut strain'..tensioning the wire from the middle.




I actually prefer tensioning all kinds of wire thru a gut strain. Lots easier to tie the ends off to the corner or end posts when the wire isn't under tension.

You can hook the comealong to the FEL bucket with the brakes locked down, but anything over 150' stretch, you'll never get it as tight as it should be without the tractor skidding along instead of the net wire getting tight, and even a short stretch is still problematic.
Now, IF you have a HEAVY vehicle with a winch on it, you can certainly use the winch on it it to tension the wire because you have the ability to pull in small increments and the vehicle is heavy enough not to move.


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## greybeard

The part of fencing I detest is installing all those teepost clips, especially the lower ones. If I had a lot of fencing to do (100+ acres) I would buy a pneumatic clip/tie installer. Not cheap..I believe they run somewhere north of $400 but I'd do it in a heartbeat.

The gripple tool and the walking chain tensioner is the best money I ever spent for fencing.
Wish I had heard about them years before now.  Strainrite probably makes the best ones but several others sell clones of the same thing.


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## Bruce

greybeard said:


> I actually prefer tensioning all kinds of wire thru a gut strain. Lots easier to tie the ends off to the corner or end posts when the wire isn't under tension.


That is how I did my long run except I put a gate in where he cut and "grippled" the now 2 sections.

Not sure how he can say there are no fasteners in the fence (16:25 first video) when it has all the gripples holding the 2 sections of wire together.

Second video, looks like they don't hold to your rule about not running fence around a corner post but tying off both runs.


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## greybeard

Bruce said:


> That is how I did my long run except I put a gate in where he cut and "grippled" the now 2 sections.
> 
> Not sure how he can say there are no fasteners in the fence (16:25 first video) when it has all the gripples holding the 2 sections of wire together.
> 
> Second video, looks like they don't hold to your rule about not running fence around a corner post but tying off both runs.


No, he doesn't always follow my rule, but he's driving his corner posts a lot deeper than I do mine and his work is up in the mid west.Indiana mostly where the soil is not as soft and giving as mine is. That turn is into a very short run, looks like maybe 40' to a gateway, and his line posts in that vid are all 4" or bigger diameter steel posts. Otherwise, he also, makes a traditional H corner, but then does a diagonal brace down to a deadman post he has driven 4-5 ft into the ground, sometimes he drives them 8' deep.






For us mere mortals, with limited $$ and limited machinery, it's not feasible to set posts that deep or have the equipment to drive them that deep.
Makes lots of difference when the fence is tied off every 10-12 ft to 4'' or even 2 7/8'' diameter steel posts and not just to big corners but little line tee posts with the tees 'maybe' 2' in the ground.   Tee posts aren't rigid enough and  won't hold linear tension so the corners have to take it all but big line posts everywhere along the run take a lot of the pressure off the corners so you can go around the corners in those instances.







 I know Luke from another board and he's a straight shooter and has contributed lots of help on that board.

By "no fasteners" in it, he means there is nothing holding the wire up except it's own tension....no post ties. (notice he shakes the wire to show it isn't tied to the line posts yet) He's trying to illustrate that a properly tensioned net fence will stand up on it's own.
I've seen people roll wire out, stretch it a little,  then go along and stand the wire up on the posts. You should never have to do that if you pull it tight. It will stand up all on it's own when it's tight.
Decades ago, when I and my brother ran 2200' of a net fence along the highway side of my property and didn't know better, we did that too. It was a pain in the butt to do, standing it up along a few posts I had put in ....one about every 100 ft.. Nowadays, I don't and wouldn't do that. I did have about 1000' foot run of fixed knot net fence on my southern East to West fence, and it stood on it's own...pulled it all in one stretch too, but I took it all down after the first moderate flood came in 2012  and deposited an ungawdly amount of forest/river debris on it. (replaced that wire with HT barbed wire)


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## Ridgetop

OK, so now I need to research a "gripple" tool, "walking chain tensioner" (thank goodness Greybeard puts in maker's names - Strainrite), "strain gauge" and "gut strain" tool, unless "gut strain" is the term for tensioning shorter lengths from the middle of the wire run.   I agree with Greybeard that having the right tools makes all the difference.  Luckily since I have cleaned and organized my tool shed I have room for these new fencing tools - LOL!   If we end up buying property and fencing/cross fencing it we will have to investigate the pneumatic clip/tie installer.   $400 is cheap compared to crippling ourselves - sadly we are no longer young but are in denial.   I keep telling DH that we are in the prime of life. 

On our cruise we saw half the passengers on walkers and motorized scooters .  The 4 of us agreed that the big downside of cruising was the number of old people on board!   

The repaired ram pasture worked out just great!  In 3 weeks they have grazed it completely down.  Also, Angel was in with them and they have taught her to respect her sheep.  She loves them and every morning she runs to them and kisses their faces before following them onto the field.  Hopefully, she will treat the lambs more gently now since they are the same size as their mothers! 
   

The lambs are now 100 lbs and will be going to the butcher on the 23rd of this month.  Can you tell the lambs from the ewes?  Other than the 100 lb wether trying to get a drink from mom.  The ewe with the green collar has already begun her wool shed.  Her son is doing a slick shed just like her.   The sire is also starting to slick shed.  Some Dorpers only do a partial shed and others do a slick shed.  Slick shed is one of the things you want in this breed.  I am considering repeating this breeding in hopes of getting a keeper ewe lamb.   The younger ram has great genetics too, but doesn't look to be a slick shedder.  However, he is barely 1 year old so might be after another year.  Yes that is angel in the creep pen!  Not a baby anymore    She has grown considerably!  She is almost 5 months old and approaching Roka in height.  She has a lot of growing and learning to do still, and will be starting socialization classes too.  She has a softer temperament than Bubba but one sharp temperament guardian on the property is plenty.  We will be putting her loose on the field with Rika to learn more of the guardian techniques once we split the flock and rearrange them. 

My friend took away her mule and 2 donkeys to start riding again and training them for Mule Days competition.  Jose the Mule is soooo sad, she is weaving at the gate and crying.  Mule crying is very heartbreaking.  Cheryl said that if Josie pines too much they will come back and get her to be with Lacey, Nacho and Raven.   We may have to do that if she is too sad.  I went out and put on her fly mask and fed her some carrots.  She looked like she was crying - hot today 90 degrees, but the sweat pattern didn't account for the tear drops rolling down from her eyes.  

I will be excited to hear what my butcher thinks about the carcass quality of the Dorper and Dorper crosses. The sheep have been out at graze and only getting a small amount of barleycorn at night when they come in from the field.  They look good and the ewes, although they are still partially nursing, have not lost any weight.  We need to separate the lambs and increase the ewes' grain ration a bit before putting them with the rams. 

While they were here I had Bubba kenneled since they were removing what he might decide were HIS equines.  My friend's daughter works for the Animal Control service and I explained I did not trust him around strangers so kenneled him when strange people were around.  She said that Animal Control had been coming across a breed of livestock guardians that were pretty vicious.  They were Armenian Gamprs.  Had to put a couple down for attacking people.  She had been nearly bitten several times.   I hope they don't become the new fad and give LGDs a bad name.  Anyone ever hear of them or have experience with them?


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## Baymule

Funny how we think of "old" people, but_ we_ aren't old.  Glad that Angel is coming along so well, she sure is a pretty girl. 

Poor Josie, she has lost her friends. You may have to reunite them for her sake.

Those are some nice lambs. How old are they now? Are you going to put one in your own freezer or do you have them all sold?

I have heard of the Armenian Gamprs but know nothing about them. I sure wouldn't want a vicious dog.


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> Poor Josie, she has lost her friends. You may have to reunite them for her sake.


Or get her another mule buddy!



Baymule said:


> Funny how we think of "old" people, but_ we_ aren't old.


Yeah, I noticed on the flights south that most people on the plane were younger than me. And yes, I did think "dang, I"m getting old!".


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> and "gut strain" tool, unless "gut strain" is the term for tensioning shorter lengths from the middle of the wire run.


That is correct, tho 'shorter distances' can be a relative term. I wouldn't be afraid to gut stretch a 500-1000' run if it's on level flat terrain.

_"sadly we are no longer young but are in denial. I keep telling DH that we are in the prime of life."_
Most of the work done on this particular property, I did beginning at age 56.


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## Ridgetop

At 56 and 64, DH and I took on the raising of our 5th child.  My cousin died and left her 14 year old daughter to us to raise.   Hard work and thank the Lord we had already raised 4 teenagers or someone would have died for sure!  I heard a quote the other day "Age and guile will always defeat strength and youth".  Since age goes hand in hand with guile and wiliness, I think all of us "in the primers" are doing fine.  DH hung a length of were fencing in Washington by himself with guile by using some tie down straps as a come along and to lift it into place.  Not bad for an old guy with a bad leg!  He is my hero.  We really enjoyed the work we did in Washington because the property was flat!  Maybe that is why we feel so old - dragging our sorry carcasses up and down steep hills to do the work is extra tiring and we can't use a tractor.

We are so torn about moving and leaving our darling grandbabies behind.  We are rearranging some things, and adding some cross fencing for grazing, to see if we can hold out here for another couple years.  Also checking into northern Nevada since it is only a day's drive from our children.  Should have moved to Texas before the kids were grown I suppose but family ties held us here then too.  We are still coming to Texas to check on ranch property this summer.  DS3 bought a Texas rental townhome in FW and plans to bring his family to Texas this summer on vacation to check out what he bought.  The trip will be tax deductible in part and he is interested in seeing Texas now.  Will be traveling in his 5th wheel with DIL, and 2 sons ages 8 and 4.  He likes to hunt so I am hoping he will be enticed by the pig hunting available and can check out some game ranches for other hunting.  Maybe eventually move . . . ?  DH hopes to travel with them for a couple of weeks, then they will go home and we can get on with our business.

We might have to take poor Josie the Mule over to Cheryl's rented field if she stays sad.  She started grazing today finally.  Maybe she will calm down, but she seems to come to the fence and wail for her friends every few hours.  Angel has been on the field with her and Josie doesn't seem to be interested in her.  On the other hand, Angel isn't running up to her either.  She and Bubba are playing on the field now.  I can see a large part of the field overlooking the gully from my desk. 

Angel has stopped eating her breakfast.  DS1 and DH were worried so I called the breeder who said she could be cut to 2 meals a day since she is 5 months old.  I had told them that but they wanted the expert to tell them.  She is 5 months old today and we will have to keep  eye on her from now on in for when she comes in season.  3 seasons and I can make arrangements to have her spayed.  I really do not want any accidents with her being a puppy and Bubba being so big!  I do not want puppies at all!  More to feed, fewer dogs to guard, and a big hassle and expense all around.  I really need to get Bubba OFAed and collected so I can have him neutered too. 

DH is turning over the garden beds and planning on making raised beds using the bottoms of some giant storage tubs.  The tops cracked and broke but the bottoms are good.  We used a couple for watering livestock but have a lot of them so will fill them with garden soil mixed with fine sand for beets and carrots.  Root vegetables grow well in sandy soil.  I have to check the Almanac for when to plant them.  It ill also help to keep the plants safe from gophers.  If it works, I might plant some roses in them next winter.  DH said it is late for us to plant here (which it is) but just a week or so go they had hail while we were out of town!  Next winter I will go to Habitat and get some old windows to use on top of the storage tubs for mini hot houses to start plants.  Maybe lettuce will grow that way.  Here the winters are so unpredictable that lettuce bolts even in January.  One year I lost 2 rabbit litters when the temps shot up to 100 degrees for a couple of weeks in January/February!  Lettuce is cheap here in the winter so probably it isn't worth planting any.

Angel had her first night in the yard out of the barn last night.  The ewes were in the big pen on the top of the hill that is the summer night fold since the other equines are gone.  This morning I went down to check my rams and find Angel.  Rika was out on the top of the gully as usual sacked out after night of working.  No Angel.  In the barn checked out the rams.  They are looking good and Lewis is shedding out clean already.  No Angel.  Walked around the house and woke up Bubba who was sleeping on the path behind the house.  Still no Angel.  Started to get a little worried when Angel got out of a flowerbed and came over to greet me.  Relief.  She is getting big, but still a baby.  Later DS1 said he let out the ewes (she will be out with them for a while) and she went to each one checking them over before following them into the brush.  Later DS1 checked on her and she was running with Rika doing rounds of the field.  Teaching and  learning - very good!  Will check for any bloody marks on lambs tonight, but I think the rams may have educated her not to try to play with the sheep.  Next step, separating the ewes into 2 breeding flocks.  I am really torn about which ram to use with which ewes this year.  Lewis is shedding out and showing terrific meat carrying qualities and muscle definition.  I am tempted to put all 3 registered ewes in with him and try for another couple of ewe lambs.  the one ewe lamb we got is so superior in type.  I can put the last 2 Dorset ewes in with the young ram and see what they produce, or put the young ram with the Dorsets and the 1 Dorper ewe that gave me a ewe lamb last year and try for ewe lambs from him. I kind of go back and forth.   I really need to have the shearer come out and shear those last Dorset ewes this year and have the young Dorper ram shorn so I can take a look at him as an adult.  He was gorgeous as a lamb.  He is out of a Hijo ram and was a quadruplet so any ewes out of him would be keepers too.  Or I could put the Dorsets and the green Dorper ewe in with Lewis to try for a purebred ewe lamb.  Greenie and Lewis made  drop dead gorgeous ram lamb that we are going to eat.  He was big and grew terrifically, great conformation, muscle, and slick shedding too.  I would definitely like a ewe out of that cross.  Then the Dorper ewe that already produced a ewe lamb, and the maiden yearling Dorper ewe could go in with the young ram, Ramborghini.  (Used to be Lamborghini).  I am hoping to pick up a nice ewe lamb at the sales next month to corral with my keeper ewe lamb from this season - hate keeping animals alone and she is too young to be bred so can't run with the breeding flock.  Hopefully we will get them bred for October lambs. 
   Lewis, showing lots of muscle definition.  They have only been getting forage - no hay - for the past month with about 1/2 lb. rolled barleycorn at night.   Ramborghini is in background still carrying a lot of wool.  I am worried that he will not be a slick shed ram.  Lewis already looks like he was shorn except for a few bits on top.   So pleased with him - his lambs are really nice too, hoping that they will get high carcass grades.  Will be weighing this weekend before they go to slaughter on April 23.  Ranging in age from 4 - 4 1/2 months old making 100 lbs. on forage only for last 2 months with 1/2 lb. rolled barleycorn daily each and no creep feeding. 

Forage this year is exceptional.  Praying we are going into a wet winter cycle in California after 15 years of drought.  Poppies and lupines are blooming in the hills along with the mustard and other wildflowers.  Haven't seen California poppies and lupines in several years! 
   Forage is higher than the trampoline!  Front pasture where one set of breeding ewes and ram are going this weekend.  Main pasture showing lots of forage still growing!  Obvious why the Spanish thought this was the "Golden Land" back in the days they discovered it.  Wonderful grazing when we get rain. 

The wind has started howling here.  Sand and dust blowing everywhere but the wind is cold - out of the north.  Everything is green so not too much fire danger right now with the wind.  Looking across the valley in front of house looks like 25 years ago when smog used to cloud valley!  Or smoke from fires!  Just dust storms though.  Stuff is starting to blow around here and scaring sheep back into gully.  Time to put them up, feed some grain, and make dinner.


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## Baymule

Those are some nice looking Dorpers!


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## Ridgetop

Thank you.  I will save you a nice ewe or ram when we move to Texas if you want.


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## Ridgetop

The wind hasn't stopped blowing and the rain we were expecting blew further south.    There is still a huge amount of forage available for the sheep though.  Today DS1 noticed a bee swarm in the tree over the patio.  He thought there was a hive, cut the branch down into a trash can, but apparently it was just a swarm.  I would have told him to ignore them and they would continue their migration after they had rested.  There are still about 50 or so milling aimlessly on the patio.  We will not be going out there until after dark when we will feed the dogs. 

Tomorrow or Sunday we will put a breeding harness and crayon on one of the rams and put him in the front pasture with the breeding ewes I choose for him.  The other ram will get a marking harness and go out with the others.  We will separate the lambs, and weigh them for the last time.  I will breed the Dorsets again for the last time (I plan to sell them after they lamb or this summer) and hope to pick up a ewe lamb or yearling ewe in the online sale this May.  I would also like to get a yearling ewe in the October sale.  A yearling ewe bought in May can go right in with my breeding rams after her 2 week quarantine, while a yearling ewe bought in October can go in with the rams when we breed again in the spring.   I will be emailing the breeders I like to make sure they are putting lambs and ewes into the sales. 

We need to put in some extra fencing for grazing pens to keep the 2 flocks separated.  Also have to put up another A frame style shelter for the sheep from the old corral covers.  Have to wait until this extreme wind calms down though.  Probably next week.  I also have to out floors inside those shelters.  This rainy season the rain made a complete mud hole inside the shelters.  I think I need to put some sort of ridge cap on the shelter since the 2 corral covers are just leaned together and clamped in a teepee shape.  However the sheep do like them for shade and wind protection.  The donkeys liked them too!  They would go inside and stand in them.  The mules actually could fit inside one at a time also.


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## Ridgetop

Thursday  made 20 lbs. of ground meat (beef, chicken, pork, goat) into meat loaves for the freezer.  I made 4 large loaves - 3+  lbs. each for when the larger family is here, and 7 smaller loaves - 2 1/2 lbs. each for the family of 5 adults living here.  I still have another 20 lbs. of assorted ground meat waiting in the freezer to make up another day and freeze in loaves.  I like to cook in bulk and freeze it for meals since meat loaf, spaghetti sauce, meatballs, chicken divan, chili verde, etc. takes a lot of time.  By prepping in bulk, it is easier to spend the entire day making multiples than spending several hours a day making individual meatloaf, spaghetti, etc.  I am a good cook, and I like to cook, but have a lot of other stuff to do than spending all my time cooking individual meals.  I baked a meatloaf with gravy last night but DS2 and girlfriend were going to dinner with a friend.  She told me today that  he was annoyed that on the day we had meatloaf they had to go to dinner with their friends!  LOL  Leftovers tonight, but not large servings.  That will teach DS2 to go out instead of helping separate the lambs, and divide up the flock for breeding!

Anyway, DS1 and I decided to do it this morning.  I did not realize DS2 was working so no help there either.  However, DS2's girlfriend helped in the barn with the sorting and weighing.  I am going to buy her a pair of farm muck boots for Christmas or her birthday!  She is becoming a good farm girl.

Weighed the lambs and they weighed 111, 107, and 113 lbs. at 4.7, 4.7, and 4.5 months.  Based on the rate of gain, they w=should weigh 116, 113, and 119 lbs. when they go to slaughter in 8 days.  Nice long, wide loins and heavy meat down into the twist.  Anxious to hear what my butcher grades them as.

Next, we caught and vaccinated the bucks and dressed them in their snazzy, red, breeding harnesses.  Both bucks are very gentle (compared to the Hampshire buck we had years ago that would as soon kill you as look at you).  He was a really mean ram.  We sorted the lambs out and put them in another pen.  Ran the ewes for the first ram out of their pen, separated and ran the ram for them out, then moved all of them to the new front pasture.  One set done.  Next, we ran the other ewes and last ram out to the main field.

A couple  hours of pandemonium and deafening bleating in the barn.  I didn't remember it being that loud when we did the same job with 30 ewes and lambs.  Of course, we had 4 kids helping so I might not have heard the sheep over the kids shouting back and forth to their siblings!  LOL

One ewe is already marked, but the young ram might be over enthusiastic so will have to see if she remarks in 3 weeks.  We locked up Bubba who gets underfoot and in the way since the loud bleating worries him.  On the other hand Angel was a perfect, well, Angel.  She watched and stayed completely calm.  Then she calmly went to the front pasture with her new flock.  What a good girl!


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## Mike CHS

It sounds like a rewarding day and the helpers are actually being helpers.


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## Ridgetop

So the young ram has now marked all 3 Dorper ewes.  I have a feeling he was just being over with his new harem.  However, I have marked the dates on the calendar.  We will see in a week or 2 when I change the crayon color out.  If they remark in 3 weeks, we will know whether he was just being friendly!     

We need to make a proper dog opening into the front pasture to protect the sheep down there now.  Especially since all 3 of my new Dorper ewes and young Dorper ram are there.  Sure don't want to lost them with 3 LGDs n the property.  The dogs can't protect them if they can't get into the pen!    The sheep come up at night for their grain and seem to stay in the upper pen but we have no way to lock them in that small upper pen near the house yet.  DS1 needs to set up a gate of some sort.  Brenda Negri's book had a picture of a type of fence opening the sheep will not go through but that LGDs can go through.  I will look it up and put it in place at one of the old gates on the side of the field so the Anatolians can get in and run off coyotes quickly.  We patched up all the places the dogs had access through so the sheep couldn't get out, but now I am afraid the dogs can't get in easily.  Time can be of the essence in a coyote attack and the forage and mustard is so high that you can't see what is in the field.  Need to get it done today.

Found another 3 or 4 quarts of blueberries in the freezer!  Got to make jam again.  With all the rain strawberries will be late this year - once they come in prices will drop and I will make strawberry jam for DS2 - his favorite! 

Work, work, work = fun, fun, fun!  Do I need therapy?


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## Mike CHS

I use different versions of the attached jump gate.  Those out in the fields are made from full 2x4's so I can run rubber tubing to keep the hot wire away from it.  They work fine for Maisy but she is only 85 pounds.  It would have to be a lot bigger for some of the large LGDs.  For the BIG dogs there wouldn't be much fence left.


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## Ridgetop

That is the gate I was describing to DS1.  Bubba weighs 150-160 lbs., Rika weighs 125 lbs., Angel at 5 months weighs 89 lbs. and will be larger than Rika but smaller than Bubba when grown.  DS1 is afraid to let them learn they could jump from field to field since we need to keep them inside our perimeter fencing.

Bill Turnquist (longtime sheep/Boer breeder and judge) used to put "doggie doors" in his wire fencing for his Pyrs.  2 plywood panels side by side swinging on a hinge in a wooden fence or attached to the wire in a wire fence.  One panel swung in the other swung out.  They were cut larger than the hole so they did not swing freely back and forth.  Maybe it was so they wouldn't blow open in the wind to show the sheep they could get through.  We might be able to fix bungees to the fence and plywood to keep them from flapping around.

Yay!!!     

DS1 just called me out to look at the old wood gate leading to the pasture from the front patio.  He thinks he can remove the 3rd crosspiece up and cut it in half then V it on like Mike's jump gate.  From the bottom coming up from the field it will be about 24" up and about 12" going down into the pasture.  He also saw another type of LGD pasture access gate that he says he thinks he can put on the walk through gate between the min field and the front pasture.  That one is made like an upside down stanchion head piece.  Two vertical bars are attached in the opening, one moves free on the bottom, and one is stationary.  The dogs can push through the bars for access, and a bungee cord keeps the vertical bars in place after the dogs go through.  Very excited about this.  He is building the one on the wooden gate right now!
  
First picture is of 2 gates from patio, one on right goes to old Doughboy pool deck which we tore out. Left gate is old wood gate to original ram and buck pen below the pole butt fence around old pool deck and area.  The old pool area is where the night grain and water is.  Not able to close it off from pasture yet.
Second picture is close up of old wooden gate - needs to be rebuilt, but we are going to try the jump gate first.  The gate is still usable although about 25 years old or more. 
3rd picture is gate from pasture side.  Pasture slopes down away from gate.


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## Ridgetop

Thanks Mike!

DS1 did first prototype, ugly but old gate boards split on him and we wanted to see if it worked.  DS1 will get new lumber and redo it.  The bottom is higher from the pasture side, about 28", even though it looks like it is only 12" up on the patio side.  Bubba and Angel were not interested in entering pasture from patio side.  I went into pasture and called them into pasture, then we shut them into the pasture and tried to call them out.  They just looked at us then went around to the other gate and asked us to open it for them.   

First picture is prototype jump gate.  It is just cobbled together to see if dogs will use it.  Second picture is Bubba waiting for some one to open the other gate after declining to go through jump gate.  ????     
  
Obviously Rika is the brains of this outfit.  She will have to be shown the gate and taught how to use it.  Once should do it for her.  Once she goes through it, her minions will follow.  Sometimes I see her looking a Bubba and Angel and can almost hear her thinking - "What a couple of dorks!  Why did my humans bother getting these dummies.  Well, at least they might be trainable."  She was on duty in the rear pasture so we will show it to her this evening.

DS1 is going to get some lumber to build the other type of access gate - it is a type of squeeze gate.  We will have to show that one to Rika first too.   It Bubba lies that type better, we can use it in the wooden gate in place of the jump gate.  So picky!!!

Also need to see if sheep figure out how to come through this gate.  Luckily the Dorpers are short sheep.  The rams are burly for their height so hopefully won't come through.  If the sheep try, maybe we can hang some dangle sticks or chains in the opening to fool them.  Otherwise, I think the squeeze gate might work.  It all else fails, we can try Bill Turnquist's in fence "doggie doors".

According to DS1, here are too many places where the sheep can squeeze through the pole butt openings to be able to lock the sheep in the upper pool pen at night.  This heavy red clay and shale ground has a lot of movement, and the pole butts are no longer set tightly together after 35 years.  We will have to put wire around the pole butts as well as put in a gate if we want to use the upper pool yard as a night fold.  All things to work on eventually since it is a nice large area to move the ewes and young lambs to while running another breeding bunch on the main field. 

Hopefully, Rika will teach Bubba and Angel to use the gate this evening.  There is  lot of predator action around the front fence line at night so hopefully they will go in and out several times this evening.

Thanks again Mike!


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## Ridgetop

Hope everyone out there had a Happy Easter or a Blessed Passover.  Know what they call the Easter bunny down on the farm?  Dinner!     

We all got a lot of work done in the past week here.  I made 2 batches of blueberry jam with the blueberries I found in the freezer.  Then made 2 batches of strawberry jam for DS2 since that is his favorite.  Jam and pickles are my favorite thing to can.  I need to go to Sunland Produce to see if I can get some slightly over ripe cucumbers for my special sweet cinnamon rings.  Everyone was very upset when I had to tell them that we were out of them.  Had to make do with pickled peaches for Easter dinner. 

DS1 cut a 3' wide path around the inside perimeter of the fence so we could reach the fence to raise the wire on it.  The brush was well over 5-6' high and some of the stems had to be cut with a saw!  If we got a lot of water through the year, we could grow a jungle!  As soon as DS1 started cutting the sheep fell in behind him and grazed on the cut brush.  LOL  So much easer when it is served up.  You can see the lower half of the fence is still hidden under slough.  The extension posts added 4' of wire on to the top of the existing fence.

While DS1 cut a path for working on the fence, DH weeded, turned up the soil, and put amendments into the raised beds we use for a garden.  Now I can set out the veggie plants.   We will be gone most of the summer, probably for the most of the harvest because - We are finally coming to Texas to look around at ranch property this summer!  

DS3, DIL, and 2 grandsons are caravanning with us to sightsee in Texas.  DS3 and DIL wants to check out the rental property they bought this year in Ft. Worth.  They plan to buy another rental house in Ft. Worth too.  Maybe they will like Texas so much he will consider moving with us.  This is the son that loves to hunt pigs so you never know.       While we are gone, DS2's girlfriend (soon to be fiancé) will be taking care of the garden and picking the veggies for her family to use.  DS2 has already said that if we move to Texas he will sign the books to work in Texas for a couple months and see if he likes it.      We are wearing them down slowly.  Both DS2 and DS3 are electrical power linemen.  DS3 and DIL have horses and want to put their kids in 4-H.  DS2 will do the same if he has property.  No liberals in our immediate family so hopefully we should be welcome in Texas.  LOL

Anyway, DS1 rebuilt the dog gate into the sheep pen since Bubba couldn't (or wouldn't) get through it.   Even wth Rika and Angel going back and forth several ties he was still a big wimp.  Hopefully the design will keep the sheep in while allowing the dogs access.   He took off another lower horizontal and made the opening larger for Bubba.  If the sheep figure out how to come through, he will add another piece across the bottom and possibly a small vertical strip on the 2 side triangles.  Bubba goes back and forth through the new design just fine.
   We still need to build dog access gate on the other side of the pasture at the bottom of the property so the dogs can get through from there instead of having to come up to the patio to access the pasture.  We hear the dogs working in that pasture at night so the ewes and ram are safe.   Then DS1 built another sheep shelter in that pasture.  We thought they would just go under the trampoline if it was raining, but as soon as the shelter was up they recognized it and ran inside.  LOL  We will have to put some sort of metal capping on the ridge to cover where the 2 panels are clamped together.  The other shelter leaked so much in the rainstorms that it flooded.   think we will se our pallets to floor the shelters.


We hired some day laborers to help us put up the 4' welded wire.  We used welded wire because of the price since it was going on top of the existing 5' fence.  The reason we needed to extend the fence up is that the inside slope had sloughed down to where the fence was only about 3-4 feet high on the inside of the pasture.  I did not want the dogs going over the fence after any coyotes that decided to come in after lambs.  Coyotes can jump a 6' fence from a standing position.  My dogs might have gone over the fence after them to teach them a lesson and I don't want my dogs earning that they cn jump over our fences.  Especially with the new puppy.  Anyway, we needed more people to hold the wire up in the air as it was stretched from post to post and attached.   We put up 300' and ran out of wire and posts.  We have the posts but need to attach them to the fence.  That side of the property fence has not got as much slough on it and is still about 5' high.  We will attach those posts this weekend and then have the men come back out and finish putting up the wire.  We need to buy more wire too.  I will sleep a lot easier once this is done.  Although having the access gate for the dogs to guard the pasture makes me much happier.

After they finished with stringing the fence extension wire, we had them remove and carry up the old chain link fencing from the area where we want to put the new pasture.  NEVER USE CHAIN LINK FOR LIVESTOCK!!!  We did not know that 30 years ago and now are having to remove the 6' chain link wire that was stretched out and ruined by our goats and horses.   Some of the pipes are still good, others have been bent and broken by the horses.  The wire is ok enough to finish attaching to the bottom of the perimeter fencing and laying it out along the ground a few feet inside the fence to keep dogs in and coyotes out.

We will have the workers dig the post holes for the new pasture fence 200' out and down that we have to clear for fire clearance.  That fence will be woven wire and up 6" off the ground so the slough will not damage it.  Hopefully the 2nd flock of sheep can then be locked in there and clear that area.  That pasture is totally inside the perimeter fence so it does not need to be higher than 4' and we can worry about dog access to it later.  It will make a good mama and lamb pen too since it is totally inside the perimeter.  We will put a shelter and creep inside it later.  We have a bunch of cross arms (4"x5" treated posts used for the cross arms on electrical poles) to use for fence posts.  We brought them home when the DWP climbing center changed locations and were dumping them.  They are 10' and 12' long so we will cut them in half and use them for fence posts.  We already have them so the only cost will be the wire and staples.  We will probably not move for another 2 years , so might as well do what we can here to make our operation work better.  I have wanted cross fenced pastures for the past 15 years.

Angel is coming along and spends any time she is not in the pastures with the sheep following Bubba around.  He plays with her while Rika scolds her.  She is very big now, weighing about 90 lbs. and will be 6 months old May 9.  I have to be alert to catch her in season so I can lock her up. 

The wind is picking up again.  The rain predicted last week never materialized.    Probably not going to get anymore since it is now almost May.  Hills are starting to brown off since it has been warming up - temperature about 80 degrees.  The dried forage will be ok for the sheep to eat, just not as nourishing.  We will probably have to start supplementing late this summer or early fall.  We will have to buy hay at the end of the summer when the prices are low to lay in a supply for the winter.  One of the Dorsets (No Tag) has marked now.  Waiting for the rest of them to mark and to see if they remark.  By the time we leave for Texas all should be bred and settled.   Hoping for November lambs again.


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## Mike CHS

I got tired reading that post  but congratulations on getting so much work done.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> DS2's girlfriend (soon to be fiancé)


You THINK! He has to ask and she has to say yes first 



Ridgetop said:


> DS2 has already said that if we move to Texas he will sign the books to work in Texas for a couple months and see if he likes it.


Hmmm, what if the soon to be fiancée isn't interested in moving to TX?


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## Ridgetop

Mike CHS said:


> I got tired reading that post  but congratulations on getting so much work done.


Take a nap - that is what DH did afterwards! 



Bruce said:


> You THINK! He has to ask and she has to say yes first


I know but we all love her! 
He said he would come out, visit and work for a few months, not necessarily _move_ to Texas yet.  I am just hopeful that my children will move close to us if we go to Texas.


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## Ridgetop

Another week comes to an end and our heavy work weekend starts.  DS1 has been putting up the extension posts and has half of them up.  Tomorrow the rest of the fence post extensions go up, the rolls of wire get bought, I plant the veggies (about which I have been procrastinating all week), and the usual laundry and other housework gets done (possibly).  Monday the men come back to put the wire up on the extension posts.  DH and I will count and measure the cross arms and cut them in half for fence posts for the new pasture fencing.  Next week DS1 will measure with DH and decide where they want to install the posts for the new pasture fence.  We need a gate at the bottom of the pasture - I would like to have a gate from each pasture into the other if possible but might not be able to get one installed since other pastures are already fenced without a lower gate. 

We don't want to do too much since we will not be staying here too many more years.  OTOH we might, so we want to make it easier to run this place as we age.     I would like to put in a runway and squeeze for giving shots and drenching, but don't know where I want it or if I want to spend the $$$.  If (when) we move to our new place, we will plan the runway and gates for that purpose when planning out the fencing, pastures, and barns. 

On a good note, I had good cards today at bridge.


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## Ridgetop

Another day, another dollar the government wants to take. . . .        I have stopped watching any news programs for a while.  No matter which network it is, the news is all bad and depressing.  Instead I put on the oldies country radio station.  I also get more work done if I am listening to country instead of news programs.  DH loves Fox and while I prefer it to CNN or MSNBC, I can only listen to so much.

Well, DS1 got most of the remaining extension posts up.  Tomorrow he will finish across the gully and up to the rear fence corner.  The rear fence sits on top of a cliff so not too much danger there of coyotes leaping into the property and surviving the fall or the dogs, and no danger of the dogs leaping straight up a cliff and over the fence.  Monday the wire goes up.

DH and I went to Lowes (no Tractor Supply around) and bought 600' of 48" welded wire.  Again since it sits about 4-5' above the ground and the lower half of the fence is no climb, welded should not be a problem and is one third the price.  Probably could have used chicken wire since it is just to raise the fence in the air, needn't take a lot of pushing, etc.  But might as well put up something more substantial since we are doing all this work. 

DS1 needed another 180 #56 stainless steel 3 1/16"-4" pipe clamps.  They come in contractor packs of 6.  We could only get 12.  I needed 30.  DH had ordered the first set along with the extra heavy duty steel pipes so we did not realize the hardware store did not routinely stock large amounts of them.  The salesman checked the inventory on the computer and said they had them in West Hills - 25 miles away.  I called first, they had 1 package of 6.   We drove to Hoe Depot where we got clamps that are not as sturdy for $.36 more each!  We got 30 clamps but DS1 says they will rust out too quickly so they need to go back if we cant find any of the better and cheaper ones at another Lowes.  I called DS1 who checked on his computer and the Burbank store supposedly has 12 packs, the Santa Clarita store has 24 packs.  The West Hills store still lists as having 22 packs.   

Tomorrow DS1 and DH will drive to both stores (opposite directions) and get however many they can.  If we can't get enough by Monday, we will still put the wire up but DS1 will have to wait to attach the bottom of the wire to the top rail of the existing fence.  I will have to go along with one of them or maybe I will go to the Burbank store myself to get the clamps since I need a 25' hose and 2 soaker hoses which I could not find today.   Again, . . . 

I did get the yellow crookneck and zucchini squash planted along with the cucumbers and bell peppers.  I also put in a climbing trellis for the cukes.  DH is digging up the tomato bed now and I will put the tomatoes in tomorrow.  I have to dig up another small bed to plant more rosemary (excellent with lamb), along with several containers of mint (for making ice tea) and strawberries for the grandkids.  All this for everyone else to harvest and enjoy while we are in Texas for 6 weeks!   Again, . . .   

It is time to replace the marking harness crayons with another color on Sunday.  2 ewes marked but not necessarily bred. 

I think we may have to fence 2 100' x 200' pastures to make sure that we don't have to cut any brush next year.  We may not have it all cut this year by the deadline which means we will have to cut it ourselves instead of relying on our fuzzy helpers.  Since we have to cut 200' out from the side and 200' down from any structure, we are looking at cutting over 40,000 s.f.  If we fence the first pasture at 200' x 200', next year we can cut it in half so we can do an intensive grazing and make sure that our little fuzzies don't just eat the prime stuff and leave the rest.  That is pretty much what they are doing now and will continue to do until they are forced to eat the unpalatable brush in about 7 months.  If we want them to graze off the "have to clear" areas we will need to confine them in that area long enough to force them to "clean their plates".  I will also add a few more ewes which will help.  At this time we have 4 sheep on the front half acre, another 3 sheep on 4 acres with the mule.  We lost our other 3 equine mowers since my friend selfishly wants to go to the Mule Days bash in Bishop she and her entire family have attended annually for over 30 years.  LOL 3 generations are showing there now.   Next year we will be going again too.  Spectators, not exhibitors.  Lots of fun!

Taking the 5th wheel in to the shop for all the little repairs and maintenance checks that have to be done before going on a long trip.  Of course, no matter  what we have done in repairs to the truck and trailer, something else will go wrong on our trip.  That is really why we rarely took vacations other than 1 week camping at the beach each year.  It is some sort of Robbins family curse.  Someday I will relate the stories of our trips.  All of them with hair raising events.  I need a stiff drink or 2 before I am strong enough to remember them.


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## Baymule

I make the cinnamon cucumber rings too. My Grandmother called them Mock Spiced Apple Rings. I soak them in lime water, then process with Red Hots cinnamon candy and cinnamon sticks. Is that how you do them too? 

Do you have a rough idea what days/weeks you will be in Texas? Can't wait to meet y'all. Tell your sons to sign up for hurricane repair crews, that will give them a crash course in the finer points of living in Texas. LOL Or at least the coastal areas. 

Your sheep are looking so good. You mentioned that the white head Dorpers are not mean like the black head Dorpers. My short experience is with the black head Dorpers and they are some bad boys. 

It sounds like Angel is coming right along with her training. We need updated pictures!


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## Ridgetop

Yes, the Cinamon Rings I make are the probably the same ones you make.  After soaking them in lime, they take several days of heating in the syrup, then letting them cool and sit for 24 hours.  Are they the same?  I like to get oversize cukes, slightly overripe since you pare out the woody seeds anyway.  A lot of work but OMG!     Got the recipe 35 years go from DH's cousin in Kansas.  My family LOVES them.

We are  really excited about meeting you too.  I am not sure of the exact date we will leave but we will be in Texas the whole month of July and probably into August.  We can't leave home until June 19 since we have physicals on the 18th and they are harder to schedule than hen's teeth.  DS3 and family only have 2 weeks vacation so once they are on their way home, we will get on with arranging to meet up with Erick in Austin, look at ranch property with Kris, and of course, coming out to your area to meet you and Devonviolet if she is available.  Once we know when we are leaving (depends on them) we will have a better idea of when we will be in Texas.  We plan to stay in Texas for a month so if they don't want to leave home until the end of the summer, we can skip driving out together and meet them in Fort Worth. 

Thank you for your compliments on our sheep.  Yes, last year Jane Patton (she and Wes are Glennland Dorpers) told me that the White Dorpers are sweet but the regular black headed Dorpers are mean.  They have both.  Since then several people have confirmed that the White Dorpers are much sweeter and gentler.  I have the White Dorpers which must be why I love them so much.  The ones we have are very gentle.  Actually, too gentle, which is why Angel had to go in with the bucks when she was younger and wanted to love on and play with one of the lambs.  LOL  Angel has grown tremendously, she is about 90 lbs. and will be 6 months on May 9.  Great puppy.  The rams were not mean to her, but taught her to respect them, and that sheep are not for playing with.


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## Ridgetop

after church DH and I drove to Lowes in Santa Clarita to pick up the clamps DS1 needs to finish the fencing posts.  They were supposed to have 24 contractor packs.  They had 2.  So I called DS1 who had gone to the local Lowes.  He had found 20 packs (2 cases).  He still needed another 10.  So we drove to another store in Santa Clarita 15 minutes from the first one.  There we got lucky and found a whole case.  So DS1 now has enough to finish the fence.  It only took 4 Lowes and 1 Home Depot to get what he needed.  Apparently this is not a popular size since they had lots of the other sizes.  Or instead of them not stocking very many of this size, this must be a very popular size and they keep running out.  Either way, we have enough to finish the fence extension.  The workers changed their date to Tuesday, so the wire will go up on Tuesday.  I found the soaker hoses too.  And  I found the only package of Romano Italian bean seeds in the entire 4 Lowes! 

When we came home I set up 3 planters and planted the dwarf cherry tomato plants my grandkids had asked for.  Then I planted some Romano Italian beans. Tomorrow I will plant the rosemary, strawberries, peppermint, sweet mint, and the remaining tomato plants.  I put the dwarf tomatoes and beans in tubs that I set in the middle of the children's old play area. While the middle of the play yard is not the best place for raised beds, it is the only place that will get full sun for most of the day.  I put a solar garden light in the middle of each tub to avoid falling over them in the dark. Then I added a solar garden light to the squash bed right at the spigot.  Now I will have enough light to turn the water off in the dark after I forget and leave it running.     Without falling over the planters.   We will eventually put artificial turf to replace the grandkids' wood chip play area.  This s not a California fancy thing, the artificial turf is necessary because the gophers will invade real grass (I have put in 4 sod lawns).  The gophers invade and the dogs search and destroy the gophers.  Great pest control, but then I have a dirt and grass area that looks like a mine field where lots of mines have exploded.  And lots of holes to fall into.  

Tomorrow, after DH finishes digging up the tomato bed, I will plant the tomatoes.  Then he will commence to building another wire lined raised bed for beans, carrots, and beets.  Lucky the bed is already built so he just needs to clear out all the junk that got dumped there, line it with wire, and fill it with dirt and planter mix ready for me to plant. 

Saint Rika became less perfect today.  She jumped over the garden fence into the narrow raised planter with the squash.  She ignored DH's commands and my coaxing to come out.  Couldn't drag her out through the young new squash plants.  Besides I had zip tied the garden fence to the posts.  I had to squirt her with the hose to make her leave the nice soft soil.  She sat on a pepper plant.  I think it might survive. 

Bad dog - no biscuit.


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## Ridgetop

SURPRISE!  Woke up during the night to a gentle rain!  Saw the dark clouds at sundown but figured they would blow away again.  Unfortunately DS2 (not so much of the darling at the moment) left or table saws out on the driveway.      We have to use them there since we don't have room in the tool shed to move large pieces of lumber around.  (Also since I cleaned it up I don't want sawdust on everything LOL)  Besides we have to pull them up a half flight of steps to use them so they live inside the barn in a small area all folded up.  Anyway, I figured on some strong words for DS2 since DS1 had been complaining that the saws were left out.  Then as I walked around I saw the weedwhacker had been left on the other side of the house in the open too.     Less surprising because DH planned to use it today and had just picked it up from the shop after maintenance.  So that is 2 times - things go in 3's but then I remember that DS1 had his driver disassembled and laid out to dry off after he accidently dropped it and it landed in a horse trough!  After 24 hours drying time it ran fine.  The rain was very light so probably everything else will dry out and be fine too.

I had been planting stuff, but the only thing I left out was a partial bag of planter mix in the wheelbarrow.  So embarrassing to get on everyone else and then find I am guilty too.    I always have to check first to cover my tracks!  LOL

At least I don't have to water my newly planted plants today!


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## Baymule

Yes, we make the same Spiced Mock Apple Rings. They are a lot of work, but nobody ever thinks that they are cucumbers! 

I know @Devonviolet will be available when y'all come to Texas. No way she would miss getting to meet y'all.


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## Devonviolet

Baymule said:


> I know @Devonviolet will be available when y'all come to Texas. No way she would miss getting to meet y'all.


Absolutely! Make sure I know when you come, for a visit, so I can meet you!


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## Ridgetop

Well, deep subject!  

Sorry, I am a little wacko right now after spending all day getting the paperwork done for the bridge tournament I am doing for the senior center.  Missing paperwork, incomplete lists, people who are supposed to play but did not turn in their paperwork because they thought some one else had done it for them.  AAARGH!  It is my fault though, I sold have planned to go on that cruise during the Senior Games so someone else could have run it.  That is what I did last year.  I also gave my file folder of paperwork from the past 3 years to the person who did it last year.  SHE TOSSED IT!!!  She could have just given it back to me since t had all the information I had amassed over the past 5 years of running the tournament! 


Never mind.  I have everything taken care of except I have to find 3 other people to make up a 4-some or tell someone they can't play. 
   Again  

I will take a tranquilizer or wait - I can open a bottle of wine.  That sounds better since I am actually very thirsty.

Last Sunday it rained unexpectedly.  That was OK since we always need rain and the men were not coming to work until Tuesday so we had a day to dry out right?  Wrong!  On Tuesday morning we woke up to a light rain.  The men were here and wanted to work so they finished hanging the fence extension in the morning.  It was very light rain (in Seattle it would not have counted as rain) and stopped and then dried up by the afternoon so when the fencing was done the men were able to do some week whacking.  Yes, not enough sheep this year, and too much forage!  No problem - instead of raking it up and getting rid of it as the fire department says to do, we let it lay and the sheep clean it up for us.  They like it dried out. 

Then I finally got the news that the lots were posted for the on line Dorper sale.  First I signed up as a bidder.  Then I went through and looked for the breeders I wanted who are in state.  I liked some stock from out of state breeders so I had to email to see if they would deliver to Wes Patton's ranch in Chico or somewhere thereabouts.  Then I had to look at the photos and videos for the body type and conformation I wanted.  Then I went back and checked pedigrees.  And descriptions.  And gradings as to body type, pigment and shed.  A lot of the ewes I was going to bid on were sired by the sires of my current ewes!  Since I really like them and what they gave me this year, that will be OK.  On the other hand, do I really want my tiny flock to be completely sired by 3 rams?   Choices, choices . . . .  I do like line breeding, especially since they are good lines.  And while I am learning Dorper lineage and pedigrees it is good not to be inundated by too many bloodlines.  After spending 2 days looking at all that info and pix I made a list and wrote down the maximum I will spend.   I really prefer to see the animals in person and touch them.  Call me Uncle Joe, but there is information you only get from feeling the animal's structure.  

Now I am exhausted!  Building fences is easier!  But I am ready for the auction next week.  This year I am more experienced and won't bother bidding until Sunday.  No need to worry ahead of time and get excited, then someone swoops in and snaps my chosen ones out from under me.  This year I plan to do the swooping and snapping up.  

In 2 weeks  we will go to Modesto for a sheep show and auction weekend.  Road trip for DH and me!  Stay in a motel and eat out!  It has been about 8 years since we were at a sheep show and auction.  So excited - love the smell of the barns and the excitement of the exhibitors!    Probably will bid there too.  The difference is that I can see some of the other exhibitors' stock instead of having to rely on the breeders I know and videos.  I may not buy anything since prices may get too high, but hearing the judge's comments will help me decide.  Often lesser known breeders have exceptional animals and bloodlines and you can afford them.  The judge is from South Africa so that will be interesting too. 

I also found out that the same program we used with our dairy goats is available in the Dorper Association.  Every 2 years you can sign up to have someone come to your farm and go over your flock and grade them for you.  We used to do that every couple of years with ADGA and it was super helpful for us. We learned so much.  The next grading program will be next year and by them I hope to have a few more of our own lambs on the ground.  Not too expensive either considering the help it can give you as a breeder.  Only a couple hundred dollars and that is the daily rate.  Since we have so few animals we can arrange for a half day.

Poor Angel is confined to the kennel for a week or two.    She has been limping of and on for a couple of days.  Not bad, some days she is fine but we decided to take her to the vet and have some xrays just in case.  Good thing we did since the vet says she has a small tear in her shoulder.  No knowing how it happened but since she is running with 2 other Anatolians in 5 acres of steep hills, it is not surprising.  Anyway, she is on anti inflamatories and light pain meds and is locked up in the 10 x12 kennel.   Poor baby.  The vet said he wants her confined even tighter and I considered using Bubba's ginormous crate, but she wouldn't be able to potty except when we took her out on a leash.    So I will use some of the horse fencing (PVC mesh) and make the kennel run about 5 x 10 for a while.  She goes back to the vet in 2 weeks to make sure it is healed.  We thought it might have been growing pains.  Some large breed dogs grow too fast and outgrow their joints for a while causing them to limp.  Bravo, one of our Pyrs, wet through that.  He would limp on one leg, then switch to another leg.  He had to be on Rimadyl and we cut his feed to lose weight and slow down his growth.  I wondered if that was Angel's problem. 

We tried to weigh her on the lamb sling scale and she weighed 89 lbs. which seemed high, but today on the vets scale she was only 75 lbs. which is a relief.  I am considering getting a digital sheep scale eventually and putting it in a runway.  Easier to use, but too expensive for the few lambs we weigh.  DS1 will just have to keep hoisting them up in the sling onto the hanging scale.  It takes all of us but it is good family bonding time.  

Got to get dinner on the table.  Bridge tomorrow.


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## greybeard

You ever think about just switching over to hold 'em or 5 card stud?
Not near as much drama


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## Baymule

Poor Angle! She is in puppy jail.

Won't you have fun at the online auction! You have all your research and are ready to BID. I hope you get some nice ewes at the right price.


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## Ridgetop

greybeard said:


> You ever think about just switching over to hold 'em or 5 card stud?
> Not near as much drama



*Drama is the key word!*  When I arrived at my bridge club today, I was told that someone had cancelled in a 4-some.  Hooray!  Since that meant that my odd man out would have a place to play, I quickly rearranged my tables.  Next I found out that several additional people had signed up but their names were also not on the list.  Since they did not sign up as a member of a 4-some, I did not catch it in my cross check.  I pulled in my substitute players and set up another 4-some.  Next I was told by a complete stranger that her friends had told her she could play if she signed up *today* so she did.   The friends already are in a 4-some, and *entries closed last week!*  I would have told her that she could not play but I still had an incomplete table so I rushed around finding 2 more players.  However, when I  read off the names to the club another person put her hand up to say she had entered several weeks ago and was not on the list.      So after arranging the last 4-some (so I thought), it turned out that _*another*_ person was left off the list!  I rounded up my 2 substitutes and told them they would be playing, gave them the forms, and asked for a 4th to play over the mike.  Unfortunately, the one person no one wants to play with (poor player, argumentative, and rude) raised her hand.  Aaaargh!  Everyone saw her hand go up, so I can't quietly find another 4th.  To be honest, I don't care.  Except that another couple told me afterwards that they would have been glad to play if they knew there was still a spot open.  And everyone likes to play with them!  To make matters worse, the lady taking care of the entry forms left early and I don't even know the mystery woman's name!  Now I have to make a bunch of calls this weekend. 
I knew it was going too well when I was able to arrange everything yesterday.   
However, DH wants to go out to dinner this evening with friends.  Mexican restaurant and they make good margaritas . . . .  I am going to order one, maybe two.   That is my limit because I have a week head for alcohol.     According to my family I am a "cheap drunk" since it doesn't cost much to put me under the table!    

Thinking about our road trip to the sheep show/auction is cheering me up.  We will skip bridge that Friday and drive up early.  We can drop our stock trailer at the Jr. College Stock Show Pavilion - no charge for parking.  We will walk around and check out the animals, talk with exhibitors, etc. Friday night.  The show starts at *5:00 a.m.* on Saturday!    Who thought of that crazy time?  However, I think the regular Dorper show starts first (black heads)  and as I recall the White Dorper show starts after that.  I certainly hope so since we won't have to arrive *IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!   *I have had my share of early morning show times and if we have to get there then, I bring a thermos of coffee.  Sadly, we will not be able to have the free Best Western breakfast if that is the case.   
DH is telling me it is time to leave for the restaurant.  IT'S MARGARITA TIME!!!


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## Ridgetop

Had 2 margaritas - sooo good!  Then went to friends' home and played bridge.  My partner and I won - I can't decide if I am a better player when slightly tipsy because I lose all fear or because I see twice as many points in my hand!

DH has gone to get the grandkids to take them to the Lineman's rodeo.  This is an annual thing where linemen compete for stuff like fastest climbing up the 80' pole in gaffs, mounting cross arms, pulling and hooking wires, etc.  Kids get to ride in the bucket truck and go way up high, there are free hot dogs, ice cream, a pony ride, and cute lineman shirts that family can buy for Christmas gifts.  First we have to go to a pancake breakfast at our old square dance club.  Yes I have to go too.  I will take a chair, my dark glasses, a cooler with water and snacks, and my kindle.  My boys are not entered this year but DH will see old retired friends and they will talk about the time the vault blew up, the night they had to string cable in an electrical storm, etc.  Good manly stuff.  I just need to smile and look properly awed like a good lineman wife does.


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## Mike CHS

Ridgetop said:


> I just need to smile and look properly awed like a good lineman wife does.



That cracked me up and had to show Teresa so she could join in.


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## Ridgetop

DS1 refers to them as  "the men that ride the lightening"!


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## Ridgetop

DS1 said that the one of the Scandinavian countries found a young Beluga whale off the coast wearing a harness with Russian made spy equipment in the North Sea.  The authorities thought that Russia might be trying to do something sneaky with training whales.  Now that whale is apparently hugging the coast of Norway, refusing to return to the open sea.  DS1 says it is probably trying to defect but can't figure out how to reach the embassy!


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## Baymule




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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Had 2 margaritas - sooo good!


I drink only for medicinal purposes nowadays........usually out of a vessel that is well over 100 yrs old.



 

It says:
_Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey_
In the center, it says _A Medicine_ and the outside is graduated in "teaspoon..dessert spoon--tablespoon"
All of that marking was important back in the day.....it made the whiskey maker/distiller rich..

(google Duffy's whisky if you want to know "the rest of the story")


Don't remember where I got them, but have had them for about a decade.


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## Ridgetop

greybeard said:


> You ever think about just switching over to hold 'em or 5 card stud?
> Not near as much drama



How many spoonfuls would it take to recover from my drama filled day above? 

I enjoy antiquing so I will look for one of these spoons, maybe I'll find one someday.  It would be good for taking my Gammy's special cough mixture.  One pint of whiskey in a quart canning jar with a bunch of rock candy dropped in until it melts and makes a heavy syrup.  She always had a little jarful in the cupboard for emergencies.  As Gammy said in her Alabama drawl "It'll burn that infection right out". 

I still make it and it works.  You have to gargle with it before swallowing.  You get a good night's sleep too.  That antique spoon would probably make the "medicine" work better than a modern spoon.


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## greybeard

They are fairly common on eBay and since Duffy and the drug/grocery stores gave away the spoons with each bottle of whiskey, there were many thousands of them out in the public. They're properly referred to as a pre prohibition  'dosing spoon' and tho Walter Duffy's distillery  folded well before prohibition, other distillers tried his idea and gave away little 'dosing' shot glasses with the same kind of measurements on them when prohibition came along .. they also tried to jump on the fed's mistake of applying the word 'pure' to mean it was a medicine and not booze, which didn't fly past the federal govt beginning in 1920 when the 18th amendment was signed into law..


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## Ridgetop

greybeard said:


> They are fairly common on eBay and since Duffy and the drug/grocery stores gave away the spoons with each bottle of whiskey, there were many thousands of them out in the public. They're properly referred to as a pre prohibition 'dosing spoon' and tho Walter Duffy's distillery folded well before prohibition, other distillers tried his idea and gave away little 'dosing' shot glasses with the same kind of measurements on them when prohibition came along .. they also tried to jump on the fed's mistake of applying the word 'pure' to mean it was a medicine and not booze, which didn't fly past the federal govt beginning in 1920 when the 18th amendment was signed into law..



If they are that common I will probably run across one eventually, and pick it up.  Can't wait to find one.

Got the tomatoes and strawberries planted today.  Only a couple plants but enough for us since we will be gone during most of the harvest.  DH insisted we plant a garden this year even though I told him we would be gone this summer.  He went out and dug up the beds, so I had to plant something.  It started to clear up from a gloomy morning, got hot while I was planting the tomatoes, then clouded up and thundered and lightening for a while.  But no rain!  Very strange weather for us.

Took the trailer into the shoo last week for it's summer overhaul before going on our trip to Texas.  Have a few things to repair and/or replace.  When it comes back we will have to do a complete clean out.  DH wants to shampoo the carpet as well.   Probably should replace it, but I want to remove the dinette and put in chairs and a table instead.  We don't need the extra bed space and the table/chairs combo would be more comfortable than the built in dinette.  Maybe after this trip.  Have to save the money for that.   This trailer is just about paid off so I don't want to get another.  We have kept it in good shape.  We have lived in it and traveled for over 2 months at a time comfortably.

DS1 and I changed the rams' crayons today.  Assuming the ewes do not re-mark (one or two usually do and they all might since it was in the 90-100 degree temps when we turned them in together) then the lambing dates would be: 
Dorpers - Red collar GLD 8040 due 9/6;  Blue collar GLD 7041 due 9/22; Green collar GLD 7088 due 9/22; bred to MOY M413
Dorsets - No tag due 9/13;  Green Tag 4 due 9/24; bred to Lewis 160264

Sr. Games Bridge Tournament tomorrow.  Took care of more problems today.      Will open a bottle of wine tomorrow night to celebrate a year before I have to do it again.  And running this is a volunteer position.   I promised when my last child graduated high school and 4-h that I was done volunteering.       


Deep breaths . . . .


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## Mike CHS

I think I will stay away from any Bridge tournaments.


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## Ridgetop

The tournaments are fun!  Running them is pure H**L!  However, it s over for another year.  If I plan well, I will be out of town for the next one and someone else can run it.

Now on to the sheep sales!


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## Ridgetop

Took off today from bridge to rest after the tournament dramas.  I just remembered that I did not write down the winners names so although I believe I have remembered 3 of the 4, I will have to detect the top 1st or 2nd place name.

Finished planting my mint, rosemary, and cilantro.  That is the last of what I planted.  The beans that were barely breaking through the earth day before yesterday are now 2" tall and have 2 leaves.  I had forgotten how much more fun it was to plant seeds and watch them sprout rather than plant the sets.  I will have to get more raised beds up and running so I can plant beets. 

Got a couple of young feral cats from a neighbor.  He was going to trap them and bring them over but got sidetracked by some "cat women" who insisted he have the cats neutered and get their shots first.  He still has a couple more to trap and deliver to the feral cat program where they do this for free.  If he wanted to do this it was fine with me since any litters of kittens around do not live more than a couple years what with the hawks, owls, coyotes, and bobcats. Barn cats have to take their chances but apparently although this gentleman felt that way the "cat women" disagreed.  He said he felt hunted by them until he let them take away the young feral cats and do their thing.  His neighbor feeds abandoned cats and her yard has become a breeding ground (literally) for these wild cats.  I really don't care whether they are neutered or have their shots since I will not be catching any wild cats to try to give them any vaccinations.  As long as they hunt and take care of the mouse and rat problem in the barn they are welcome.  There are plenty of places for them to shelter and escape from predators in and under the outbuildings.  They are currently in a cage in the barn while they get used to staying in the barn.  We are feeding them until they can be released.  Good hunting, cats!  Live in fear, rats and mice! 

Ok so DS1 and I moved the feral cats into a larger cage in the barn stall with the ewe lamb.  It is farther back in the barn and we hoped they would be less stressed by the dogs.  However, while Bubba loved Old Tom     (who went on to his reward many months ago at 18 years old) Bubba apparently does not feel the same about the new cats.        As we moved the cages into the other stall, Bubba tried to push himself into the stall.  As Bubba stood on my foot, pinning me in place, DS1 kept demanding I move back so he could shut the gate!   He was not impressed that I had been trapped by a gigantic dog hoping to get to and probably kill the cats.  Finally DS1 got Bubba off my foot, I hopped back and he closed the gate.  Bubba raced around to the upper side of the barn where he could stare evilly at the cats.   I handed the bowls of water and food over the gate, andDS1 placed the catch cage against the larger cage door.  Once the first cat was inside DS1 handed the catch cage over the gate to me and I started to carry it out of the barn.  Suddenly I was knocked over by Bubba who wanted whatever was in the catch cage.  I set the empty cage down and he grabbed the towel inside it and tried to drag it out.  Leaving Bubba to kill the towel, I returned to the stall where DS1 was turning the other cat into the cage.  Again he handed the empty cage over the gate while he placed the water and food inside.  This time I was ready for Bubba's onslaught.  As Bubba tried fruitlessly to find a cat in the empty cage DS1 came out of the stall.  By now Rika was riled up too, since obviously there was something dangerous in the empty catch cages.  Finally, we tried to throw the cat towel to Bubba but he was no longer interested in it.  Followed by a lunging Bubba and a watchful Rika, DS1 and I carried the cages through the house to the front porch to leave them there for pick up.

Hopefully Bubba will become accustomed to the cats.  Hopefully the cats are good at escaping from predators and large dogs.  Hopefully the nice neighbor will bring us more feral cats.  Apparently we will be needing a continuing supply of them.  

Angel is still locked in the kennel, and looked like she was healing up.  No limping.  BUT she escaped yesterday.  DH went in to get her supper bowl and she wriggled out the gate past him.  Then she took off with Bubba to run and play!  Terrific!    He said she looked like her shoulder was fine when she started out running, but when he finally caught her after panting all over the field (him not her) , she was limping again.  She will be incarcerated for an extra week since she probably damaged her shoulder again.  
 Bad dog!  No biscuit!  No pain pills either since we only had enough for 4 days.  She will have to tough it out.  Actually I was hoping she would miraculously come in season while she was locked up in the kennel.  She is 6 months old.  I have a feeling she won't do that for another few months since why would she make things simple for me.  She will probably come in season this summer while we are out of town.  DS1 will have to be checking her every day.  Just what he wants to do all summer - check a bitch's butt.  
On line sheep sale this weekend!      I have narrowed my list of ewes to bid on and decided on my maximum bids.   There is still the show and auction the weekend after this so I don't want to get too carried away this weekend.  On the other hand, I don't want to end up with nothing after both weekends.  

Since it is Mother's Day weekend DH, DS2, AND DD1 asked what I plan to do for Mother's Day.  Probably wondering what I plan to cook for everyone.     DD1 offered to take me out to lunch.  I told her it had to be early since I plan to be bidding at the auction until 5:00 p.m.    DS1 said he would cook dinner but it needs to be served after 5:00 p.m. which is when bidding ends, since I don't plan to be outbid by anyone at the last minute.  I plan to be on my computer all afternoon!    I hope to get some bargains like I did last year.  I was outbid on one ewe lamb I really wanted.  I thought I had the bid but someone got in and snatched her up at the last minute while I was checking my other bids!  That is the problem with on line auctions compared to live auctions. 

I love auctions.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> We don't need the extra bed space and the table/chairs combo would be more comfortable than the built in dinette.


What will keep them anchored when you are on the road?



Ridgetop said:


> Will open a bottle of wine tomorrow night to celebrate a year before I have to do it again.


Oh boy, running the tournament remote from Texas


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## Baymule

I feel sorry for your neighbor. We lived next to a cat hoarder at our old house and she fed all the feral cats. Of course, they bred and multiplied. Our dogs grew to hate cats and killed every one dumb enough to come into our yard. They barked at the cats that stayed maddenly must out of their reach-on the other side of the fence. I grew to hate them as well, since they peed on the corner of the house, the stench permeated the bedroom, they peed on the front porch and were welcomed home by the stench of cat pee and they pooped in the front yard and garden. 

Why don't those "do-gooder" cat women stalk his neighbor and insist on trapping and neutering HER cats? 

I hope your cats live long enough to catch rats and mice.


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## B&B Happy goats

I can't  cope with people who hoard any type of animal.....there is a stray male that sprays both our front and back porchs..I send the dogs after the cat, but boy does that cat fly ...off the porch , sails across the yard....and is catching air over the fence......pretty cat though


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## Ridgetop

That is why this neighbor decided to catch them and get rid of them,  His garden was filling up with cat poop and pee.  The cat hoarder has a cabana in the back of her pool where they live and breed.  They come over the fence into his yard to poop and pee!  She told him that they don't bother her and she likes to feed them.  He said that they bother him so he has started to trap them.  Another problem is that they carry fleas and spread them around.  Since all our tame barn cats died, our dogs don't get fleas so much and just a couple treatments take care of them.  When we had tame barn cats they would snuggle with the Pyrs and the Pyrs got fleas so bad I had to have them shaved in the summer to treat the fleas.  The house dogs also got them and I had to shave the Aussie and constantly was treating the other house dogs.  If these cats disappear, we will go back to traps, and fishing little bodies out of water buckets.

We never had that many cats around.  The kittens born would eventually disappear leaving only one or two survivors to take care of our rats.  I think I would use an air rifle to get rid of excess cats if there were that many.



Bruce said:


> What will keep them anchored when you are on the road?



The table folds up and so do the chairs.  There is a belt installed on the wall of the dinette area to anchor them in place when you travel.  It gives you more room to sit and eat, and you don't have to crowd 4 people into a small banquette.  When I use my computer at the banquette I feel like I am typing under my chin!  It will be a long time coming though and I might just get something to act as a booster seat for my computer work!  



Bruce said:


> Oh boy, running the tournament remote from Texas


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## Bruce

Can't you call the animal control people on the cat lady? There's got to be some requirement that one's animals not be a burden to others. It is one thing to trap and neuter and another to feed the kitten mill.


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## Ridgetop

I am not the neighbor of the cat lady.  Thank goodness!  _Her neighbor_ is the one trapping the cats and giving them to me. 

Here the Animal Control will loan you the cages but after you trap and capture the cats, you have to bring them to Animal Control.  Animal Control also has a catch and release after neutering program.  You can pay $35.00 to Animal Control and they will bring the feral cats to the adopter as barn cats after neutering, shots, and clipping off one ear tip.  The ear tip clipping is to identify the neutered cats if they are retrapped.  We adopted 3 cats 2 years ago from the feral program.  They were pretty wild and lasted about one year.  I don't care if they are feral or tame, except if they are tame, my grand kids can play with them.  In the case of the feral cats, we hardly see them after they are released.  We just notice if the number of rodents decreases. 

There are several of these catch and release programs in the area since there are so many feral cats.  By neutering them and releasing them, they help down the rodent population in warehouses, abandoned buildings, etc.  Since they are  neutered, they don't produce additional kittens so it works.


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## Baymule

I had a dog that would find the cat nests and eat the kittens in one gulp. I called them kitty snacks.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> That is why this neighbor decided to catch them and get rid of them,  His garden was filling up with cat poop and pee.  The cat hoarder has a cabana in the back of her pool where they live and breed.  They come over the fence into his yard to poop and pee!  She told him that they don't bother her and she likes to feed them.  He said that they bother him so he has started to trap them.  Another problem is that they carry fleas and spread them around.


That's rule #1 of being a property owner. You never ever ever do anything that adversely affects one of your neighbors.  No property owner should ever make his/her problems someone else's problems. 

(Feral cats are a rarity here. One word...Owls)


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## Ridgetop

Where we are the words are owls, hawks, and coyotes.  However, in the closer built areas with half and 3/4 acre lots cats tend to multiply especially when "kind" people feed them.  And you can't ever, ever mention owls', hawks' and coyotes' predilection for cat meat to an "animal lover" because they will attack you and drive you out of the Animal Control building and forbid you to return!  Personal experience.


It has been raining here - so strange in southern California in mid May!  And the weatherman says it will rain through the weekend.  Of course, that doesn't mean much.  It is dark and cloudy and does smell like rain though so he may be right.  DH said that he heard on the news this morning that we have a possibility of rain through the summer!    I am second generation in the San Fernando Valley  (rare) and we have only had rain in the summer twice in my lifetime.  Both times it was a ginormous tropical storm in August about 15 years apart.  Both times we had our roof torn off for replacement.  We carefully chose to do this in August because IT NEVER RAINS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN AUGUST!     It will be shocking if we get rain this summer because - you guessed it - we are not reroofing this summer!   

If we get more rain, we may have forage into June.  The cutting deadline is the end of this month and there is so much still standing that DH and DS1 have been spending a lot of time cutting.  In fact they ran out of fuel and string!  They have to clear 200' from all structures on the property for fire clearance.  Farther than that can be left growing and the sheep will eventually clear it off over the summer.  Technically, the cuttings are required to be gathered up and taken to the dump, but we leave it lay on the ground.  It dries out and the mule and sheep eat it.  Probably the older, coarser stuff tastes better cut and dried for them.  We used to gather it all up in the trailer and take it to the dump until we realized that if we left it the livestock would do the clearance job for us.     We do have to cut some dead wood up that is on the field.  And we also have to rent a cherry picker and cut out the dead half of a cedar tree.  We need to either cut that wood into firewood lengths or take it to the green dump.  DH suggested we cut it up, stack it, and then drive it to my sister's house again.  I coldly suggested we take it to the dump instead.  He laughed.  Smart Aleck! 

On another website I read a posting from a woman who said she had gone from feeding 100% grass hay over the winter to half hay and half pellets.  I am not sure whether the pellets are a particular sheep feed pellet or plain alfalfa pellets.  The protein level is 16%, and she said she had a terrific lambing season.  Almost all twins with lots of triplets and big and vigorous too, compared to her lambing season last year with mostly singles and smaller, weaker lambs.  She raises fat tailed sheep.   I posted asking what exactly she is feeding and will check it out when she reposts.  Since we feed mostly hay when we don't have lots of forage, pellets might be more economical since there is a lot of waste with hay.  I hope she will repost in the next day or so then I can research it on line.

*Do any of you sheep people* *use pellets or alfalfa pellets as part of your hay ration?*  I think most of you have pasture.  If anyone uses alfalfa pellets please let me know.   I think I will check on line and see if any of the Extension offices have articles about it.  With the cost of alfalfa here (the cheapest hay) as high as it is, I always like to check out alternatives.  Pellets would not waste as much hay since the little darlings prefer the leafy bits and turn up their noses at the dry stalky stuff left behind.  I pull it out for the horses, but if I could use pellets for part of their hay ration, it would be more economical.  I won't use it for more than 1/3 or half their hay ration because of rumen health.
Tomorrow is the on line sheep auction.  I am so excited!    

I guess you can tell I don't get out much.


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## Mike CHS

I fed alfalfa pellets when we first got sheep but I don't any longer.  Our sheep eat too fast and would often choke on the pellets.  We feed alfalfa hay and buy a custom blend feed from a feed mill not far away in Alabama.  They love the feed and a pound or so a day each will get the ewes back in condition when lactating.   This feed is small pellets and contains a mix of fiber and grain.  We feed fresh grass for our ewes in the dry lot and I give them enough of the feed to meet their nutrition needs.  It's actually cheaper to buy the feed 1000 lb at a time than it is to buy hay here and a whole lot easier to store.


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## Ridgetop

I will check to see if the feed mill in Riverside county is still operating.  I used to buy my dairy cow grain (for the dairy goats) in bulk there and it was a lot less expensive.  I haven't had to buy dairy grain in 1000 lb. bulk for years now so don't know if it is still there.  I as don't know if they have sheep grain or pellets since the cattle grain would be too high in copper.  We never fed it to the sheep.  I used to buy it for the dairy goats that needed the extra copper equivalent to dairy cows when we were milking 12to 20 daily.

I was thinking of using some alfalfa pellets to cut the expense of wasted hay.  I wish I had some sort of hay chopper so I could take all the stalky leftovers and blend it with grain to male a ration.  On the other hand, it all depends on the cost of the pellets.  If they do not average out to less than the expensive hay, it is not worth changing feeding practices.  I have cut back on the price of grain by switching to rolled barley corn instead of the expensive ewe and lamb ration I was using for the Dorsets.  I could just pray for the miracle of continued rain here in so Cal.  Predators are out tonight, the dogs are really working.  The damp air and ground must hold good scent for hunting. 

Always trying to find a more economical feed source while keeping everyone in top condition.  Alas, the hard life of a shepherd.  

If you have good grass pastures, you need to worm frequently.  If you have dry worm free land, it probably doesn't have anything growing on it!    So, no expensive worming program but expensive alfalfa.  I need to do a flow chart with the costs of everything to see if what I save on worming balances out the cost of buying all the hay.  Or maybe not - why bother when I am going to keep my sheep anyway!  It might just depress me.


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## Baymule

Win, lose or draw, we stay in the game, don't we?


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## Ridgetop

Amazing how we would rather buy livestock feed and equipment instead of fancy clothes and jewelry!    I told DH he was buying me a ewe or two for Mother's Day!    He said OK.  Such a good man!


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## Baymule

I told my husband when we married not to waste his money or time buying me jewelry or other gee-gaws. I want something practical and useful. For Mother's Day I got a $30 box of 3" deck screws.


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## Ridgetop

My husband didn't get me jewelry until we had been married 43 years!      When my DD1 and DIL showed him the diamond and ruby jewelry they had gotten from their husbands that Christmas, he got a funny look on his face and next Christmas I got my first piece of jewelry, other than my engagement and wedding ring.  Then he offered to get me a larger diamond ring to replace my original wedding set, but I wouldn't let him.  (I love what he chose 48 years ago)  Instead I had him get me a high quality CZ ring that everyone thinks it is real!  I just smile and thank everyone when they compliment me on my huge  "rock"!    Last year I told him not to get me any more jewelry.  There are only so many places you can wear the good stuff after all, and I like  my money in the bank.  This Mother's Day he bought me some White Dorper ewes!  That is true love.

When we got married (the same year as DH's sister) SIL and BIL asked for a top of the line stereo system.  I asked for a freezer.  I think I won my father-in-law's heart with that.    I told them that a freezer would be more economical since we could save money on groceries.  My SIL and BIL replaced their stereo after 3 years.  That freezer lasted 30 years!   

*Happy Mother’s Day!      (Also Happy On Line Western States Dorper Sale Day!)   * 
I received 3 arrangements of flowers from my various children and DH.   I love getting flowers!    Then DS3 called and told me all about what he is doing building his barn, and planning when we can come up and set up a small rabbitry for DGS 3 who will be joining 4-H next year.  DS3 had to get off mid conversation because the coyote he saw earlier chasing his neighbor's peacock had come back after the neighbor's sheep.  He had to go shoot it since it was eyeing his poultry and trying to decide between a lamb or chicken dinner.  Heavy coyotes up there right now.  When he called back he told me about his plans to divide his property into several paddocks for grazing  and his need for a LGD eventually.  We had a lovely chat and then I went back to the computer to check on my bids.  Having eradicated the coyote DS3 was taking DIL and 2 children out to dinner. 

DH and DS1 came in and asked when we could go to dinner.  I told them yesterday that I didn’t want to go to dinner since I needed to keep bidding (up to my maximum decided price) on my selected ewes.  I thought they were ok with this.  But no, they wanted to take me to dinner tonight.  DH said we would go at 5:00 since that was when the auction was supposed to close.  I said that ws too early since the auction would not actually be over at that time.   It seems that as soon as another bid is made the time to close is extended, apparently to give the losers a chance to bid again.  I had competition on two of the lots on which I was bidding.  Apparently, I have a good eye for a sheep.  LOL   I had to keep checking the bidding.  

I explained that I could not leave until the bidding closed on the lots I was interested in.  DH and DS2 decided to go at 6:30 p.m. figuring that the auction would be over by 6:00 p.m.  I warned them that the auction does not always close at the advertised time but they figured 6:30 p.m. would be safe.  At 4:30 pm I figured up the amount of time left on the open lots and told them that it looked like I might not be able to go at 6:30 pm after all.  It looked like the auction would not be closing until 7:00 p.m. since people kept overbidding  me on my chosen ewes.  Now I was in trouble with the family since the auction would go past that time  and I refused to abandon the auction to go to dinner.   Anyway, I really didn’t want to go to dinner with the family since I was having a good time on this auction.  This is what I had planned for weeks for my Mother’s Day treat!  I told them _*in advance*_ that this auction was my Mother’s Day gift to me. 

Unhappy Mother's Day!  DH was mad at me because he had called DD1 and DD2 to arrange for them to meet us at the restaurant for a surprise.  DS2 was mad when I suggested we go at 7:30pm,  because he can’t go to dinner late since he has to be up on the road to work at 4:30 am.  DD2 was already on her way to Burbank to hang out with DD2's significant other and meet us at the restaurant - she would be mad.   DD1 was mad because they can’t go late - the children need to go to bed early for school tomorrow, etc.  I am now mad because everyone is blaming me!  The only happy person was DS3 who shot the coyote sneaking up on his chickens and his neighbor’s sheep today!  (DS3 lives 3 hours north and was not planning on going out with us anyway.)  Everyone was upset with me even though I had told them for the past week I was staying home on my computer all afternoon and evening today!   
And this is MY fault for "ruining Mother's Day" even though I told them I could not go to dinner tonight!!!     

Deep breaths, deep breaths . . . .

Somehow, the auction did finish by 6:00 p.m.    I told DH to call DS2 who had gone on ahead to the restaurant and ran to get ready.  DS2 was going to meet DD1 and DD2 there and wait at the restaurant for a table since they do not do reservations on Mother's Day.  We made it on time and were able to have a loud and enjoyable Mother's Day dinner after all.   I had a stiff drink.

Oh yes, the auction!  Well I bought 3 of the 4 lots I had bid on and for less than what I was prepared to pay.    One lot I was bidding against another person in a bidding war.  Finally, he or she had dropped out and at 1 minute and 46 seconds they suddenly made another bid!  I was pretty unhappy, but had since my previous bid was more than I wanted to pay, and it was one of those "take that Red Baron" take outs, and  had waited until 2 minutes before the bidding closed, I let the pen of 2 ewes go.  I will call the breeder tomorrow and ask if he has any similar ewes or ewe lambs for sale that he could send to the Modesto sale next weekend.  His dad is coming to Modesto and could bring her since that is how he was going to arrange getting the 2 ewes to me anyway.      I really only want 1 anyway, and there might be some good stuff at the sale next weekend.

Next year I am going to get another Lewis ram.  There were a couple of terrific stud rams in the sale.  Paul Lewis is on ASBV and all his rams have the genetic potentials listed.  I am learning to read the charts which are confusing at first. I am so happy with the Lewis ram we got last year.  I think he may be better than the Hijo sired ram I am using this year.  The photos of Lewis' rams are always taken of them just off the pasture without being cleaned up at all or shorn so you can see how they are shedding.  The charts give the % values of potential meat, muscling, early weaning weights, etc.  Everything you need to know to improve your flock is in the value system charts.  I got lucky last year and picked up my Lewis ram for $400.  This year his rams were going for $900 to $1200.  Prices otherwise this year were low, and I got 3 top quality yearling and fall ewe lambs for half of what I paid last year. 
*Happy Mother's Day to me! *    Maybe I can't wear my lovely new ewes, but then my pretty pearl necklace can't produce delicious lamb chops either!


----------



## Ridgetop

Well, sent off my auction check and made arrangements to pick up the yearling ewe and 2 fall lambs after the show next weekend. We will have to drive another couple hours north of Modesto  but at least the ewes won't be locked in a stock trailer for a whole weekend. 

There is a Membership Social Saturday night after the show we will attend, then on Sunday morning a seminar before the auction that I also plan to attend.  Raymond Read is a south African breeder and judge and he will be giving the talk.  We plan to arrive early Friday while people are unloading to drop our stock trailer.  We will be able to walk through the barn and meet some of the breeders I have spoken to over the past year, and look at their animals.  I will be meeting a couple of people there so they can show me their stock. 

There is also a separate Youth show, with breeding classes, a Jackpot market show, and showmanship.   Glen Patton will be judging the Youth market and showmanship division.  Raymond Read will be judging the Youth breeding show as well as the Open show.  The kids will be lucky to show under both these excellent judges.  The adult breeding show will auction, but the youth animals will not auction unless they are entered in the open show as well.  It is a chance for the kids to show twice.  There is also a raffle for both a black headed Dorper ewe lamb and a White Dorper ewe lamb.  The raffle proceeds go to support the Western States Dorper Association Youth Program.  I never win anything, but will buy tickets.  Hope springs eternal as they say.

I am looking forward to this weekend even more than I did the auction last weekend!  I just love livestock shows and auctions.  My grandchildren would already be showing if only 4-H had not died in our area.  Even the Los Angeles County Fair does not have livestock shows any more.  So sad.  

Three of the ewes have remarked.  One Dorset and one Dorper just marked once.  At least I think so, since the 3rd Dorper has green crayon on her face and shoulder so either the ram walked into her while she was laying down, or he was seriously confused.  I have written all the possible dates on my calendar anyway.  After I pick up the new ewes, they will go into quarantine for a couple of weeks.  Then the yearling ewe (or two if I am lucky to get something at the sale next weekend) will join the Dorset ewes with the Lewis ram.   The other 2 are fall lambs and will join our home bred fall lamb in her little pasture.  She will be so happy!  That is, after she establishes dominance over the interlopers.  They are all young so it shouldn't be a problem. 

I had a call from my vet asking if I had any sheep for sale.  I am hoping that her client will want my bred Dorset ewes.  It will save me a 3 hour round trip to the auction yard.  The buyer will get a 2 for 1 special on them.  Otherwise we will wait until they lamb in September or October, expose them again and then take them to the sale.  They are nice ewes, easy lambing, good moms, and have great lambs, but I am so over shearing.

Poor Angel is still in durance vile.  She is now in the barn pen though.  We had several days of light rain and I felt guilty that she was laying I the rain.  Before anyone thinks I am cruel and inhuman, she did have a giant Igloo crate in the kennel for shelter, but apparently preferred to sleep on the wet ground in the rain.  Since she persisted in sleeping in the rain I put her in the barn for my own peace of mind.  She wants to be out with the sheep but can't go out until the vet gives the ok.  She has an appointment on Thursday.  Hopefully she will be ok otherwise she will have to go back in the little pen in the barn.  It is only 5 x 10 but the vet doesn't want her moving more than that.  She is very sad.  After I fed her this morning DS1 went to the barn and checked on her.  She was sitting in front of the pen holding her food dish in her mouth!    So cute!  He asked if I had fed her enough!  LOL

We saw terrible news of flooding in the north east Texas region as well as most of Louisiana.  The reports said the rivers were flooded and then we saw that Austin had flooded streets too.  I think I better call my friend in Leander outside of Austin.  When the rain is that bad and it floods, he can't get his goats across the little stream in his pasture.  The little stream becomes a raging torrent that they cant cross.  It even has swept some of his Anatolians down stream when they tried to cross it.  They were ok, but he worries.   

Got the dates from DS3 and DIl.  They are leaving for Texas July 22 in order to be back by August 4.  They want to go by way of the Grand Canyon and then we will meet them at Carlsbad Caverns and go on into San Antonio together.  Then on to Dallas FW until they leave to go home.  I hope they love Texas as well s we do.  We will both stay in the Weatherford RV park where we stayed before.  Great pool, family friendly, and close enough to downtown Fort Worth for touristy stuff.  After they leave, we will be able to take care of our business, start looking for ranch property, and check out the desirability of different locations for ranching and taxes. 

And, of course, finally meet Baymule and Devonviolet!  If anyone else wants to meet, let us know.


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## Rammy

What is durance vile?


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## Ridgetop

Sorry, "durance" is an archaic term for imprisonment.  Durance vile is just an old saying for horrible captivity or prison.  I'm not sure where it came from but my family used it a lot, mainly when children were sent to their rooms as punishment.   Of course now all children have computers, TVs and video game systems in their rooms so sending them to their rooms would not be durance vile at all.  LOL


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## Rammy

Ridgetop said:


> Sorry, "durance" is an archaic term for imprisonment.  Durance vile is just an old saying for horrible captivity or prison.  I'm not sure where it came from but my family used it a lot, mainly when children were sent to their rooms as punishment.   Of course now all children have computers, TVs and video game systems in their rooms so sending them to their rooms would not be durance vile at all.  LOL


I thought it was some sort of sickness.  Ive never heard that term.  Very interesting.


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## Baymule

That sounds like a darn good Mother's Day to me! Hooray for you! And YES! We definitely won't miss the chance to finally meet in person when y'all come to Texas.


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## Bruce

You best be paying attention to elevation and local flood areas when you farm shop!


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## greybeard

One of my relatives and her husband ranch in Weatherford Tx, where he makes his living at it and working as a pickup rider on the pro Rodeo circuit.
Nice country, tho a bit dry for most people's tastes.

Most of the flooding in Tx except in the lower Brazos, West San Jacinto, and Trinity River bottoms is over for this round.

A far greater and much more widespread danger exists on the Mississippi River just North of Baton Rouge La. Old River Control Structure. Failure of that structure is a guaranteed thing..only the date it fails is uncertain, but the impact will be national, even global.
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/A...ississippi-Rivers-Old-River-Control-Structure
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/E...ver-Control-Structure-Risk?cm_ven=cat6-widget


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## Bruce

greybeard said:


> Failure of that structure is a guaranteed thing..only the date it fails is uncertain


Yep. And I'm sure it will be a case of "we don't have the money to fix it before the disaster, but will find 50X that after".


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> You best be paying attention to elevation and local flood areas when you farm shop!



Yes, while we don't want another cliff dwelling situation, rolling land with a rise for the house and barn would be good.  Enough to keep flooding at a minimum while being able to use a tractor, etc. on the land.



Bruce said:


> Yep. And I'm sure it will be a case of "we don't have the money to fix it before the disaster, but will find 50X that after".



Like California's politicians after last year's floods nearly took or a couple of dams.  They knew the 2 dams needed fixing for years.  California had the money in the General Fund appropriated by a bond issue, but Gov. Jerry Brown used it all for his High Speed Rail disaster that the taxpayers did not want.  The General Fund is open for any grabby hands that can dip into it.  The General Fund is empty now and the HSR was a failure.  The new governor has abandoned the HSR, but he wants free medical and college for all the illegals.  Do any of these people actually PAY taxes?!  We all know they don't live in any of the areas affected by any of the problems.



greybeard said:


> One of my relatives and her husband ranch in Weatherford Tx, where he makes his living at it and working as a pickup rider on the pro Rodeo circuit.
> Nice country, tho a bit dry for most people's tastes.



But do they have enough water for ranching?  We are from southern California so dry to some is not dry to us.  We just need a good well and enough water to irrigate pasture if necessary.  100 acres plus would be good.  We like Weatherford a lot and stay in the RV park there when we are in Texas on business.  Do you think that would be a good ranch location?  Remember we will be wanting to _*lease out *_our pasture for cattle and hay raising to larger professional raisers, while keeping only a certain amount of pasture for rotational grazing for our sheep.  Is there enough water there for that? 

Getting closer to moving.  New "fees" will add another $1,000 annually to our tax bill.  Maybe we will find our dream ranch this summer.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Getting closer to moving. New "fees" will add another $1,000 annually to our tax bill.


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## Ridgetop

YES, THAT IS HOW WE FEEL.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> But do they have enough water for ranching? We are from southern California so dry to some is not dry to us. We just need a good well and enough water to irrigate pasture if necessary. 100 acres plus would be good. We like Weatherford a lot and stay in the RV park there when we are in Texas on business. Do you think that would be a good ranch location? Remember we will be wanting to _*lease out *_our pasture for cattle and hay raising to larger professional raisers, while keeping only a certain amount of pasture for rotational grazing for our sheep. Is there enough water there for that?





> One of my relatives and her husband ranch in Weatherford Tx, *where he makes his living at it*


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## Ridgetop

We will check out the Weatherford area as well.


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## greybeard

The only real problem with Weatherford is it's close proximity to Ft Worth, which drives property values up significantly, but if you can't ranch in Parker County Tx, you can't ranch anywhere. High 6 to 7 figures for around 100 acres of at least partially improved land is what I've seen.  A finished horse ranch, significantly higher than that. Old O&G money abounds there so there's competition for anything going up for sale.
$1.2M for 130 ac..no residence or buildings, but does have O&G  production to convey to new owner. 
https://www.landandfarm.com/property/Pittman_Ranch_Potential_Development-8446451/

Pretty typical of smaller parcels....37 acres of raw land:
_"
*LOCATION:*

Approximately 5 minutes south of Interstate 20.

*TERRAIN:*

The land is gently rolling to sloping native country.  The dominate cover includes post oak, live oak, mesquite, cedar, and hackberry.  Browse includes greenbrier, elbow or skunk bush, sumac, and other varieties. Excellent cover for deer and turkey.

*WATER:*

Water wells are on the adjoining properties so drilling for water should not be a problem.

*COMMENTS:*

The land is scenic with many building sites, minutes from Weatherford High School or Interstate 20.

*PRICE:*

*Asking $16,500.00 PER ACRE due to area sales.*_*"*



Talked to a fellow cowman just today that told me he lives 20 miles south of Weatherford, and I know him well enough to know he's doing good with minimum inputs.


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## Ridgetop

This property sounds nice, but expensive.  O & G income would be good, but price of land probably reflects income.  Sinking a well would be expensive although you would find water.  On the other hand it does not have an existing AG designation which would need several years to acquire.  5 out of 7 years must be worked as AG before obtaining AG deduction for property taxes? Familiar with Tin Top Road - is very close to town (specs say 4 miles off IS20).  I would not mind being a little farther out from town but maybe this is the area to look in.  Probably could lease the land for cattle or hay easily and keep enough for ourselves to run our sheep on pasture.   What about Brownwood? 

Probably could afford it but it would not leave us any working capital after improvements.  That would be bad since we are coming to this with no cattle or haying experience.  If we had to take over the cattle or hay operations, we would need some fall back capital to hire workers and carry us over.


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## Ridgetop

DH is entertaining me by reading off the internet about animals most likely to kill you in every state.  Surprisingly Oklahoma has escaped tigers roaming around.  Rafting fire ants are the killers in Texas.  New Jersey it is domestic cows.  Illinois or Indiana apparently has "zombie coyotes".  Not really zombies, but rabid coyotes that people mistake for an injured dog and try to help, getting themselves attacked.  California it is several kinds of rattlesnakes.  Montana is grizzlies and Colorado is cougars.  When you combine that with oceans full of sharks, it makes you want to stay inside a darkened room protected by automatic insect sprayers.  Yes, one of the states listed mosquitoes as the biggest killer!


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> What about Brownwood?


Gets pretty dry in Brownwood and it's rougher terrain.  In addition, it's rocky soil and that is mesquite and pear country.
This one is off market but is pretty typical of the Brownwood area. I lived/worked about 90 miles farther West for about 10 years so I'm pretty familar with the region.
https://www.landandfarm.com/propert...excellent_hunting_surface_water_oaks-8015153/

If I were single and starting over, I would be looking hard around Burleson County Tx.
Better grass, better soil, adequate rainfall, and more affordable land.
https://www.landwatch.com/Texas_land_for_sale/Burleson_County/Farms-Ranches

But it's too far East for my wife so we'll move farther West.


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## Baymule

Land is getting stupid high, here's some possibilities

https://www.landandfarm.com/search/TX/Van-Zandt-County-land-for-sale/?MinAcreage=100&MaxAcreage=125

https://www.landandfarm.com/search/TX/Wood-County-land-for-sale/?MinAcreage=75&MaxAcreage=125


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## greybeard

Baymule said:


> Land is getting stupid high, here's some possibilities
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.landandfarm.com/search/TX/Wood-County-land-for-sale/?MinAcreage=75&MaxAcreage=125



Nice place, and a relatively low price...but in 36 pictures, it doesn't show any of the real fences, just the showy _look at us!_ "front pasture" steel fence, no real pics of barns, outbuildings or working facilities.
And.......how many bridge players are nearby?

This is missing information that is really important.

Upside..I see at least 10 different commercial poultry operations within 8-10 mile radius...should be plenty of free/low cost fertilizer available,


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## Ridgetop

QUOTE="greybeard, post: 609025, member: 5064"]Nice place, and a relatively low price...but in 36 pictures, it doesn't show any of the real fences, just the showy _look at us!_ "front pasture" steel fence, no real pics of barns, outbuildings or working facilities.
And.......how many bridge players are nearby?

Bridge is very important, but we will commute for bridge!  More important is the AG designation for taxes, good well - sufficient GPM, fencing in adequate repair, terrain, and outbuildings.  House less important since we can reno, we are not looking for a brand new fancy show place type "ranch".  We want a working ranch and are willing to put in some improvements.  Good cattle fences will be excellent since we can rent out to cattle raiser right away.  Hay fields ditto.  We will put in sheep fences (LGD proof), convert outbuildings to lambing barns and feed storage.  Overseed and fertilize pastures for sheep and cattle if needed.  We like rolling type land for high ground in case of flooding, trees and brush on part is ok since sons want to come and hunt.

I did see a property in Burleson with possibilities with Ag designation being grazed by horses.  Can't use fertilizer on fields due to creek, but as grazing land it will be fertilized anyway.  LOL

We will expand search to Burleson County.

Greybeard:  By the way is that ranch you mentioned still on the market?



greybeard said:


> I know just the East Tx place for you, and it's going on the market this year too. You won't have to worry about water. Got nearly 100" of rain last year. (of course almost 1/2 of that was in a 4 day period...........)



I think it was affordable too . . . .



greybeard said:


> As a special deal just for such a good BYH member, I'll let you have it for it's new, post-Harvey appraised market value


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## greybeard

Yep, it's going on market this year but I can tell you, it will take a special kind of new owner to be able to manage it. I have only a few insurmountable problems but I've been here on and off for over 50 yrs.
Lack of water is not a problem.
I sometimes have enough to float a battleship..


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## Ridgetop

I the new owner's name Noah?


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> I the new owner's name Noah?


Yet to be determined, but it does help to be able to part the waters...or at least walk on 'em..from one of my rough and rowdy days here


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## Ridgetop

Now we know your real identity - it's Moses!  I see the waters gushing forth, but what happened to the rock?


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## Ridgetop

We had rain yesterday and today.  It is supposed to come in again over this weekend.  DS1 says it is also supposed to rain occasionally during the entire summer.  We have not had to feed any hay for 3 months to the sheep.  And we have half the property still covered in forage.  Dry forage is higher in protein so maybe we will not have to feed hay for another 3 months!         If this keeps up for several years, we may decide to stay.  Especially if the gully fills partially with water and we can stock it with catfish!  Maybe this climate change will cause southern California to become a rain drenched paradise!   

Greybeard's property will become an inland sea.  Don't sell it!  You will have beach front property eventually!


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## Baymule

Send some of that inland sea my way, I already got the beach sand!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Just caught back up.  Regarding:



Ridgetop said:


> I will pull up all STA's posts ad have him read everything Greybeard and others posted about tractors.



it's good to know that my journal provides something in addition to comic relief! 



Ridgetop said:


> DS1 and I changed the rams' crayons today



Huh?  Was he getting bored with that crayon and wanted a different color?  Does he draw in a coloring book?

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

Tut, tut STA!  He can't even color within the lines without his opposable thumbs!  LOL

The crayons are square blocks of colored soft wax that fit into a "marking harness" that the ram or buck wears during breeding season.  In the case of a large herd (200-1000 head) on pasture, it is not usually done but in a small operation like mine with registered sheep, I need to know which rams are siring which lambs from which ewes.  I divide my ewes into breeding groups and put them with different rams depending on their bloodlines and what the ram will bring to the lambs in the way of conformation and meat.  The colors of the different crayons get changed every 2 weeks.  When the rams breed the ewes the crayon rubs off on their butt (see my Avatar).  The ewes recycle every 3 weeks if not pregnant.  Mating is shown by the soft crayon color rubbing off on the ewe's rump.  By changing the color every 2 weeks you will know if the ewe "settled" (got pregnant) from the first mating or on a subsequent mating as shown by the different color marking showing up on her rump.  You must check the ewes every day to make sure that another color does or does not show up.  of course, you mark down the day that the ewe has a mark on her rump each time.  The date the last color shows up and no  subsequent color shows up on her is the last date she was bred.  Gestation is 155 days.  By writing down the date the ewe marks on the calendar you can determine what date the ewe will lamb.   To be safe I write down all the possible lambing dates.  The marking harness is the best way to know when each ewe will lamb so I can pen her in a lambing pen in the barn.  If she needs help (dystocia) I can pull her lambs.  It beats pasture lambing with my ginormous ravine in the back where they prefer to lamb.  I do not have to chase the ewe all over the field or carry lambs up from the ravine to check the lamb, iodine the cord to avoid infection, vaccinate and dock.

Once the ewes are determined pregnant, I can combine the ewes and ewe lambs that are too young to breed yet into one flock and combine the rams into another pen.  Then I can put the lambs at 7-8 months and any ewes that are not pregnant in with another ram and have that ram breed those ewes.  He would be referred to as a "clean up" ram since he will cover any ewes that did not get bred before. 

After 2 breeding cycles, I will decide which ewes may be culled or removed from the flock,  Perhaps they did not breed  in 2 seasons, or only deliver singles, or are unthrifty keepers (requiring excess feeding and handling to keep condition on).  I need my little flock to produce to a certain standard or I will cull them and replace them with thrifty, productive animals.   

  Here is my old Dorset ram wearing a marking harness.  The crayon is mounted in a holder under his chest between the front legs, held on by a system of adjustable nylon straps. 
   Here are some ewes after marking  The ram was very enthusiastic and the crayon was soft in the heat.


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## greybeard

Baymule said:


> Send some of that inland sea my way, I already got the beach sand!


Again?
Your area (and mine) was once part of a vast inland sea.
So was this..even the highest elevations in West Texas was under water, and you can reach down just about anywhere and find coral and other fossilized sea life.
When My brother and I were out there in 2017, he was amazed that there were so many sea shells everywhere. He was sitting with loose seashells under his feet.  You can clearly see the sedimentary layers everywhere. Your sand is just mountains that eroded down.


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## Ridgetop

Just returned from the Modesto show and auction.  What a lovely get away for DH and me!  No children!  No grandchildren!  No cooking!  The smell of livestock barns!  The bleating of sheep!  Talking to people that speak the same language!  Social hour at the Mexican restaurant with people that don't mind discussing livestock diseases!  Margaritas!  Livestock seminars!  Aaaah!  

Got to feed the aforementioned kids and DH.  Back soon. . . .


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## Ridgetop

OK!  Now to tell everyone about our lovely, lovely trip. 

Major rainstorms were predicted for the weekend so we left on Friday.  Had a leisurely drive up the I-5, stopping in the early evening for dinner, then on to Modesto.  There was very little rain on the way.  All the rain California had gotten had done well for the farmers.  The reservoirs looked to be in good shape too - possibly a bit low still but certainly better than the past few years. As we drove through the San Joaquin Valley, all the crops looked good, the vineyards were doing well and the orchards were in great shape.  Of course the lovely green croplands and vineyards were interspersed with large areas of desert looking brush.  That is what happens when California gets no water on its fields.  Our farmers were cut off from most of their water several years ago by our California lawmakers because Sacramento decided a tiny little minnow needed it more than they did to grow our food.  It was nice to see the fields looking good from the rains. 

We drove straight to Modesto Jr. College where the show was to be held.  We dropped our trailer, and then walked through the barns looking around and greeting people we knew.  Located the pens belonging to the breeders in whose animals I was interested and met the Utah breeders.  Their ewes were lovely, and I was glad that I had checked into the different bloodlines before I came.  They would all be a good fit with my ewes and rams, if I was lucky to get one.  I checked out several other breeders but one was  going to be too expensive for what they had.  I was interested in only 2 spring lambs of theirs.  I was a little worried since several breeders had not come to the show.  A couple families had health or personal problems while another was moving his ranch and flock to other premises and couldn't make it.  With fewer available sheep for sale, prices would be higher.  It was possible that we would not be able to afford any ewes at all.  If that were the case we would still have a good time, would attend the Social, and the seminar run by Raymond Read, a South African Dorper inspector and judge.  We looked around, double checked the time the show was to start, and then went to the motel where we had an early night.

The next morning we were up early, had a big breakfast at the motel - DH loves Best Western because of their free hot breakfast!  The day was overcast but the sun came out as we got to the showgrounds.  We were in time for complimentary coffee and donuts. We bought raffle tickets - the raffle was supporting the youth program.  (I did not win but the raffle tickets will be tax deductible as a charitable deduction.)  Next I wandered around the barn meeting people and lusting over the ewes I wanted.  LOL  Finally, DH and I got into our seats.  Bleacher seats and very uncomfortable for old people like us.    We have comfortable padded large stadium seats, BUT they were in  trailer which was in the shop getting checked out before our trip to Texas.  Next year I will take them out.  Thank goodness the club had made another giant pot of coffee.  The rain began to pour down outside.

The show finally started an hour late.  This judge did things the south African way, I guess.  instead of just having the exhibitors enter the ring and parade around with their sheep, he had a separate little pen set up.  The exhibitor would turn their entry loose and let it move around freely before putting the halter back on, entering the ring and joining the line up.  Most of the sheep did not want to walk around all alone in that little pen and tried desperately to return to their flock buddies.  Lots of sheep screams!  Some of the black headed Dorpers tried to jump out of the pen!  Most of the sheep had to be chased around to make them move away from the gate they had entered through, and behind which were the rest of the sheep.  One tht ordeal was over the owners rehaltered them and tried to get them into the ring.  Many of the sheep tried to strangle themselves on their halters as the owners attempted to walk them into the ring.  Having trained numerous lambs to halters in my time and laughed as my children tried to do the same, I was able to appreciate   that it was happening to others and not me.  The show settled into a calm routine and I was able to make lots of notes about the entries in the classes I was most interested in. 

Having started late, the show proceeded to run 2 hours later than planned.  The Board meeting was rescheduled to be held after the Social at the Mexican Restaurant.  Luckily the rain had eased off and we were able to get to the restaurant while the rest of the exhibitors were feeding.  As it turned out this was lucky for us because there was almost no parking at the restaurant and we were driving our big truck.  This restaurant had been selected because it was *walking distance* from the Marriott where most of the exhibitors were staying.  We were at the Best Western, thus saving over $50.00 per night to put on our sheep purchases.  The Marriott didn't offer a free hot breakfast either.   The walking distance may have sounded great when the board was planning this shindig, but considering the pouring rain no one would be strolling to and from the hotel!  Anyway, the food was ok, the drinks ok, and prices very ok, and the company was terrific.  We met a lot more fun people and shared lots of livestock stories about ourselves and others.  Then back to the good old Best Western for another early night before the auction the next morning.  Again it rained heavily all night.

After another good, hot breakfast, DH and I arrived at the showgrounds at 8:20 a.m.  It was not raining, and a group of people were standing in front of the pavilion.  DH and I hitched the trailer, then walked around to the front since the side doors were  unaccountably locked.  The group turned out to be the auctioneers who had been waiting there since 8:00 a.m.   The facility was locked up tight.  The auctioneer had been making calls to get hold of the chairperson.  Finally the college security people showed up, opened the building, and turned on all the lights.  By now it was almost 9:00 a.m. and still no one had showed up to organize the auction or feed and water their animals!  Our little group decided that the Board had partied late and were probably nursing hangovers back at the hotel.    Once inside, the auctioneers raced off to set up the auction.  In the absence of any show personnel, I proceeded to start making the coffee.  It was an emergency situation - lack of caffeine!  Finally, another exhibitor showed up and she and I finished making the coffee.  The committee arrived at 9:30 with the donuts and the activities began - only 2 hours late.  After checking the silent auction, I found a number for the person selling large field "scratchers".  they were actually the brushes off street sweepers.  The young man selling them was earning money to support his breeding projects in 4-H and FFA. He got them from his uncle who owned a street sweeping business, and sold them as field scratchers for livestock!  He had brought 10 to sell and I got the last one.  I thought it might help the Dorpers rid themselves of their shedding wool.  I registered for the auction, got the printed auction list, and collected my number.

Finally, it was time for the seminar and we trooped off to the classroom to hear what Raymond Read had to tell us about the Dorper breed and its uses.  His seminar was much more informative though, since he also talked about setting up your first tie business flock, etc.  I found the seminar extremely interesting and much better than a simple talk on what to look for in show animals.  He discussed the progression of the breed over the past 80 years, what to look for in breeding stock (not just show stock, but in commercial breeding flocks), and a lot of other useful information.  The junior members who had won the essay contest were introduced and presented with their prizes.  They received vouchers in a certain amount they could use to spend for breeding stock animals.  The vouchers were good for up to a year but the kids probably spent them at the auction. 

After the seminar we all trooped out into the barns again.  The judge had the Champion black Dorper ram, and the Champion white Dorper ewe (surprisingly a fall lamb) brought up to the arena.  He then pointed out the excellence of each, and showed what you should look for and how to judge your own animals.  Judge Read answered questions.  Instead of going off afterwards and just hobnobbing with the major breeders, Mr. Read then made himself available to anyone who wanted him to look at animals they were interested in buying.  I asked his opinion on several ewes I was interested in, and he amplified why they had placed where they did in the show.  His only critique was that their heads were slightly coarse, but since he told me that was the easiest flaw to improve by using a buck with a good head I was delighted.  Several people had him look at their animals that had not placed well, or had been DQ'd for color spots, wool, shoulders, mouths, etc. and for his opinions on how to improve.  He spent the entire morning until the auction started walking through the pens and talking to exhibitors, buyers, and most importantly, those of us just starting out with this breed.  He was a wonderful person to have as a judge and teacher, as well as a great spokesman for the Dorper sheep.

One would think that it was NOW time for the auction but NO!  they were _still_ running late.  A lunch wagon had been contracted for and they were serving a special Dorper lamb dish.  I bought a plate for DH and myself.  DH had wisely found a chair and moved it over to the bleachers where the bidding was to take place.  He was a lot more comfortable in the chair than on the bleachers.  He was enjoying chatting with a group of people.  Finally, it was time for the raffle drawing for the black Dorper and the White Dorper yearling ewes.   I did not win the beautiful White Dorper ewe, but I was super happy when the winner showed up to claim his prize and turned out to be a little boy about 10 years old!  What a great start for him in his breeding project!

The lots on which I wanted to bid were at the end.    The powers that be decided to sell from the youngest to the eldest and alternate black and white Dorpers.  Very odd.  The bidding was kind of low too.  Disappointing for the consignors, some of whom had come from Arizona, Washington, Oregon, and Utah.   I wrote down all the prices and many animals did not get the minimum bid and were passed out.  A few animals went high, but most were going for around $500-700.  Anyway, at the end of the auction Yearling White Dorper rams were selling.  I ended up buying a yearling ram.  I didn't need him, but he was soooo nice I put up my card at the bottom price.  Surprise!  There were no other offers and I got him for $400.00!  I was shocked since this breeder sells privately off his ranch for a lot more than this.  He told me afterwards that he forgot to put reserves on his rams.  The auction was winding down and the last lots were coming in.  I was worried since often the highest prices are bid at the beginning and at the end when people realize they need to bid if they want anything.  I was lucky enough to get 2 of the yearling ewes I wanted for the minimum opening bid of $400 each!  I had to pay a bit more for one of the ewes but $700 was not extreme.  Remember these were all registered animals with great bloodlines and structure.  After the auction ended, the Utah breeder I had bought 3 animals from offered me another ewe.  He had a reserve on her of $1000.00 since he wanted to keep her.  I thought she had sold for $700 but since it did not meet the reserve, she didn't sell.  He offered her to me and I bought her for $750.  Luckily, since that was the end of my budget!  I was also offered another ewe by a Dorper exhibitor I became friends with.  She did not want her since she was the only White Dorper she had.  I would have picked her up on the way home but she was ready to lamb any day and I did not want to take a chance on her lambing on the way home in the trailer.  We were already transporting a ram and 7 ewes.  Luckily, our 16' stock trailer has 3 compartments.  It was designed for the dairy goats so all the doors have sliding gates on the swing gates.  So wonderful for loading the small stock with out danger of broken legs from the heavy swing doors!  She is giving me a great price on her and I told her I will pick her up after she lambs and the lambs are weaned.  The lambs are out of a black headed Dorper sire so the lambs only have value as locker lambs.  The meat price on the lambs will help make up the value of the ewe who is an inspected and tagged Type 5.  I will pick her up in another 2 months and she will be rebred in September to Lewis along with the fall ewe lambs.  

We had a great time at the show and sale.  Axtell is already harnessed, and in with the ewes we bought - they are in quarantine together.  The ewe lambs are in quarantine also, as is the half sister to Axtell who will go to Lewis or Ramborghini in a couple weeks. 
  Here is Axtell harnessed up and ready to do his duty.  Love the length and hind quarters on him.  My bid card went up all by itself!

    The other 4 ewes we bough at the auction.  This last ewe is an AI ewe from imported Australian lines that we got at the Mother's Day on line sale.   The final picture is of the ewes and ram in the barn relaxing.  The ewe at the end of the barn is the one that won't be bred to Axtell but will go to one of the other rams.  She is the half sister to Axtell and the second ewe pictured above.  Ewes 1 and 3 have the same sire - an S Bar T ram.  The 4th ewe is taller, lovely, and is out of similar bloodlines to my original ewes.  The pictures are not that good since they had spent 48 hours in the trailer and 14 hours on the road. They were happy to be out of the trailer but nervous at being separated for the few minutes it took to walk them into the barn. 

My pretty girls and guys!  A couple of the others have recycled , but lambing dates will be September through October for the first group, and February-March for the next group.  So excited!  Amazing buys too.  For all the sheep I bought at the last 2 sales, my price per head averaged out to $490!  All but one is 1 year old or less, while the ewe I pick up after she weans her lambs is only 2 years old. They are all healthy, excellent bloodlines, beautiful structure, and in great condition. 

I am lucky that sheep stealing is not a hanging offense or I would be in danger of the noose!


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## Ridgetop

So back from Bridge and surprise!  beautiful sunny morning turning to thunder, lightening, and tremendous rain during Bridge game.  DH (sweetie that he is) ran to get the car since I had not thought I would need a coat.  A little wet but didn't melt.

Rika looks to have recovered over the weekend from the neck muscle injury she somehow sustained.  Probably from having dumb bunny Bubba bash into her while playing!  He is a monster who doesn't know his own strength when playing.  The vet, at last Thursday's recheck, said that Angel looked to have recovered too, so she was released from confinement.  Sadly she is back in jail.  This time in the giant Bubba crate.  We had to put it in the barn in one of the sheep pens because it continues to rain.  She is back on anti-inflamatories and pain meds, and has to go back in 3 weeks.  If she is not better, she will be referred to a specialist.  Not even going to worry about that right now.  Apparently the growth plate has separated.  ???  Depending on what happens in 3 weeks, and what kind of specialist it is, we might just end up with a gimpy LDG.  She doesn't seem to let it slow her down since as soon as she gets out she races and jumps!  Hopefully confining her in a 36" x 48" x 40" cage will keep her movement curtailed enough to heal, if it does, we may confine her in the kennel for an additional several weeks after the vet pronounces her able to leave the "Dark Hole of Calcutta" in the barn.

The 3 young ewes in with Ramborghini have all marked.  2 remarked on the 11th of May.  The 2 Dorsets in with Lewis are marked, the last one on 7th May.  So lambs expected in September and October from those ewes.  3 of the 4 ewes we brought home and penned with Axtell also were marked this morning.  He apparently didn't waste any time.    Only one left to breed to him.  Some may still remark.  The 2 new fall ewe lambs we picked up that are n quarantine will go in with Lewis along with the remaining yearling ewe in September or October for early spring lambs.  I also have a ewe that I bought who needs to be picked up when we return from Texas.  She was due to lamb any minute and we did not want her riding in a trailer full of other sheep so close to lambing.  I just got a text with the photo of her and her twins!  Her owner is keeping her until the end of August to raise the lambs.  When we return from Texas we will pick her up and her lambs can be sold for meat.  I will flush her for a month to get her back in condition then put her in to breed for February lambs.  Our home bred fall ewe lamb will go in with Axtell.  She was sired by Lewis so either Ramborghini or Axtell will be chosen to breed her.  She doesn't look to be a good shedder at the moment so I think it will be Axtell, since Ramborghini (I really have to shorten his name!) doesn't look to be a good shedder either.  If they don't shed well by 2 years old, I plan to cull them since I only want good shedders. 

DH has rented a cherry picker for this weekend to take down the dead cedar tree that overhangs the driveway where we park the 5th wheel trailer.  After the incredible winds of last winter, we are asking for trouble not removing it.  We were surprised that it didn't come down when we lost the barn roof since it is right at the edge of the barn.  DH2 has the holiday weekend off so we will have both boys to help us.  DH1 will have to empty one of the little sheds and move it so we can get the cherry picker into the area to get at the tree.  DH can get at it with DS2 and hand line the pieces down onto the driveway.  Time was DH would just have buckled on his gaffs and belted off to climb the tree and take it down that way.    Now he will have to direct operations instead. 

As soon as the tree is down the trailer can be brought home to get ready for our trip.  However we found out there was a recall on the fridge so want to get that taken care of before the trip.  I am waiting for a return call from the guy that does all the recall repairs and replacements.  We hope to take the trailer straight from the shop we use to the guy for the recall replacement.  Less work and stress to do everything that way.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I did not win but the raffle tickets will be tax deductible as a charitable deduction.


You need a LOT of deductions with the new tax law for those to do any good toward reducing taxes.


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## Ridgetop

I know but it was for the youth program and we are suckers for those kids. 

Our Nonning sired ewe marked this am.  Bred to the new Axtell ram.  Then we picked up the meat from our lambs and will have leg of lamb tomorrow. 

Butcher Kent raved over the lamb carcasses again and said he can sell any I have.  Apparently he posted a picture of my Lewis ram on the wall of his office as being the ideal of a meat carrying ram.  I am looking forward to his comments about the new ram when I email him a photo.  He is just as good.

I am planning my lambings carefully to have lambs every 2-3 months so I will have a steady supply but not too many at one time for him.  I also have private customers and we will eat several ourselves.  I am currently discussing things with BK to see also f he needs ethnic BBQ size lambs and when.  My ewes will produce lambs every 8 months and by staggering the ewes and breeding dates I can supply all year long.  Excited, but it will take extensive planning.

More heavy rain yesterday.  I hope this breaks the drought and we will get backing a seasonal heavy winter rain for several years to come.  The areas DH and DS1 already cut next to the house are sprouting green again.  DS1 said he wants to fence in 200 feet from the fence for the sheep to graze off where he needs to cut first.  Those pastures can be subdivided and cross fenced to clean them off quickly then move the ewes/rams into the next ones.  I had suggested that last year but got the hairy eyeball from DH and DS1 and DS2.  Now since it is their idea it may get done!  

Going to a kindergarten play tomorrow.  Actually cancelled Bridge to go and little Elizabeth lit up and threw herself into my arms.     She has been telling us all about it and is excited because she is "the Narrator because I am the best reader in the class".  Got to treasure these days when the grandkids think we are special.  Eventually they will still love us but not feel like we are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!  Best ages ever!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I know but it was for the youth program and we are suckers for those kids.


And that is the RIGHT reason!!!



Ridgetop said:


> I also have private customers and we will eat several ourselves.



Oh my, I really don't think you should post that in public, there might be police presence here!


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## Ridgetop

I am a card carrying member of PETA - People Eating Tasty Animals!  Besides I didn't work my way to the top of the food chain to eat vegetables!


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## Baymule

You sure got some very nice ewes and that ram! he is so nice, it doesn't surprise me one bit that he went home with you. When you come to Texas, I really think that you need to smuggle a little ewe lamb in a dog crate for a special friend...….


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## Ridgetop

I wish I could.  But no lambs on the horizon right now.  Almost everyone is bred hopefully.  I guess we will have to arrange _another_
if you want a lamb.  Oh No!  Not another trip to my favorite state!  Let me consult my charts - I have ewes due to lamb in September, October . . . and some planned for lambing in December - February . . . . Sadly, they only come in white.  Will that color be ok?


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## greybeard

I know of a place that is going to go on market very soon, tho may be smallish for your plans, but the good news is, the whole place is fenced in chain link except the front. Last time I was by there, the front had an ornamental steel fence. Rock house with 2 bedrooms I believe. Only 35 acres if I remember right. One of my friends has been landscaper/caretaker/farm manager for the property for several years. Out of state resident owner that is up there in age and is liquidating all his/her away from home assets before they get too decrepit to travel to them.
Going to be pricey too. Probably in the $600K range.
I'll let you know when it hits the market..Coldwell Real Estate is going to be the agent.


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## Baymule

White will do very nicely.


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## greybeard

Pretty sure this is that property. (things look different on google earth than in real life)

 



 
Been quite awhile since I've by there.


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## Ridgetop

Thank you,  we will look at it.  But chain link???  We have finally gotten rid of the last of that stuff.  Put it in before we knew what we were doing.  $600,000 is pretty high for 35 acres.  Well over $17,000 per acre.  2 BR house, no AG designation.  Doesn't sound like what we are looking for, but you never know.  Taxes would be around 12,000 at 2% rate which is more than we pay now.  We need the AG designation to afford the taxes.


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## Ridgetop

Spent today getting several flats of strawberries ready for jam.  Also made split pea soup with rest of ham bones.  Now I need to freeze it.  Will make another 30 or so lbs of meat loaf tomorrow also for freezer.

Brought our lambs home from butcher.  Having leg of lamb tonight.  Can't wait to eat lamb again.  We have been out of lamb for a year.

DH, DS1 and DS2 spent yesterday and today taking down the dead tree by the barn.  This morning when they went to cut up the larger pieces they found that the extremely large chainsaw DH rented needed a new chain.  The old one was so cull t was trying to burn its way through the wood.  The rental place is closed until Tuesday.  So DH had to go  looking for another chain to buy for the rental saw.  The new chain keeps loosening and slipping off too.  Harsh words will fly on Tuesday at the rental store.

DD1 brought our eldest grandson, age 11, over with the instructions to "work him till he drops, then throw water on him and work him some more".  Apparently he is dilatory in getting his school reports etc. done.  He is in a highly gifted magnet and can easily do the work but procrastinates on doing the work until DD1 can't stand it.  According to DS1, DD1 has sent him for the night and to work tomorrow.  Well, I will let his grandfather and uncles deal with him.  I dealt with enough children fooling around instead of getting their homework done quickly and I didn't put up with it then.  I guess he will be working all weekend on hard labor.  DS1 is taking GS2 and GD1 to see the Aladdin movie.  GS1 lost that privilege last week.  Just shows that smart kids can be awfully dumb.


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## Ridgetop

RAIN!?  IN END OF MAY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA?!    Can AOC be right about the world ending in 12 years?  No, she doesn't even now what a garbage disposal is.  While I don't use mine that often being on a septic system, at least I know what it is.  And she thinks that because tornados are hitting the country that it means the end of the world too.  What?!  Can't wait to see what AOC says next! 
 She is a hoot!  But sadly some people believe that she knows what she is talking about . . . .

Oh well, back to the rain.  It rained Saturday night, all day Sunday, then Sunday night into the early hours.  The stuff that was cut and cleared will be up again in no time.  DS1 has decided to put in more cross fencing.  He plans to fence 200' out from all buildings and down fro all buildings.  I suggested this before but was vetoed - too much work for too little gain.  Now that they are looking at clearing several times the work in installing 200-800' feet of woven wire fence looks like less work than falling down a ravine multiple times while weed whacking.  We have lots of 4"x5" cross arms that are 12' long.  We can cut them in half and sink them in the ground 2' and run 42" woven wire or even 48" field fence which is much cheaper and is woven also.  Since this is an interior fence, the larger spaces are ok and we don't have to go all the way to the ground which is uneven anyway.  We also have 10' cross arms which we can use as corner posts, gate posts, and intersperse between the 6' posts.   We will put gates between the fields so we can drive the sheep through.  Although since our sheep are trained to follow a grain bucket, it may not be necessary to put gates between the pastures.  We can't drive in there - it is too steep, and we don't want to chase the sheep around on a 60 degree slope!    The number of gates are still up for discussion.  We need to build the V shaped dog gates in though so the dogs can access all the pens easily.  We will also put up another interior fold with our arena fencing and out another teepee sheep shelter in it.  We would fence onto the flat area at the top of the gully and put the shelters in each pen, but we need room to pull our trailers out and turn around on the flat area, so the top fencing will be just below the rim of the flat.

My friend has asked if we want to sell Josie the Mule.  She plans to sell her donkey and would be interested in buying Josie for her partner.  She already has a mule as well.  I have decided to do it.   I never ride Josie any more and she is lonely with no equine friends.  My friend is a long time mule owner  and rider and would give her the best care and attention.  I don't really want to do it, but it would be the best for Josie.  She loves trail riding and would be much happier.  She would only be a few miles away, but it will be sad for us.

Poor DH caught a bad cold Friday.  He was miserable while they were taking down the tree and yesterday, but s feeling better.  He catches something and it lasts for 2-3 days max, I catch something and have it for weeks!  Not Fair!    But I am happy he is feeling better.  Now DS1 and DS2 are hacking around the house.  I am in hiding.  

Yesterday I made meatloaf with 20 lbs. of assorted ground  meat - beef, pork, chicken, and lamb.  Exhausted last night from being on my feet all day.  I did 4 loads of laundry too.  Then cleaned the refrigerator.  Several loads of dishes - no matter how much I clean the sink, I always end up with dirty dishes.  My new and improved energy efficient dishwasher takes a minimum of 113 minutes to do a load.  Heavy duty time is 246 minutes!  I loved my old dishwasher - only half hour to produce clean dry dishes.  I could power through 2 loads of milking and pasteurizing equipment, the cleanup from jam and pickle making, a huge family dinner, and be done in 3 hours.  Now one load takes forever.  If I do a lot of cooking in the afternoon then I can't load the dinner dishes into the dishwasher after dinner since the thing is still running!   

My tomatoes are looking very odd.  Almost dead on top even though DS1 watered them while I was out of town.  They look burned in the middle.  A couple don't have any burns on the outside of them, just the inside of the crown!  I think I have figured it out though.  Bubba is very tall and they are still only about 15" tall so I think he is peeing right on top of them.  Bad Bubba, no biscuit!  Hopefully they will continue to grow and get tall soon enough to escape Bubba's acid rainfall.  The other garden plants are doing well.  The cucumbers are starting up their support, the zuchini are huge, the beans are up, the strawberries are starting to bear, and the children's cherry tomatoes are doing well.  BUT 3 of the yellow crookneck are gone.  I now only have 4 hills left and they are our favorite squash.  They suffered when DS1 was repairing the water line.  It didn't help that Bubba and Rika wanted to help him.  I tried to get Bubba out and finally went to turn the hose on him, but NO WATER !  The water line had come apart again and DS1 was off getting parts.  Finally I coaxed and fussed until Bubba jumped out. The Crookneck are in a raised bed.  I put a 30" tall garden fence around them but Rika and Bubba are so big that it was nothing for them.  At least they haven't gotten in and dug a soft bed.  They are doing that in the tomato bed.  Luckily I just planted tomatoes far apart there since I plant indeterminate varieties and they continue to grow.  I used to planted them  close together and it was like fighting through the jungle to pick mu tomatoes. 

Consider this picture, I was surrounding by swirling vines, my hands and basket full of tomatoes, trying not to crush tomatoes and vines under foot and contorted like I was paying a game of Twister.  Suddenly I was confronted by a tomato hornworm!  t was right next to the tomato I was reaching for!  Those suckers are huge and ugly!  I tried to jump back, was caught in the vines and fell into the bushes spewing tomatoes everywhere.  Attracted by my shrieks, DH came out and had himself a good laugh!        I live to make life enjoyable for my family. 

Now I plant the tomatoes farther apart.  It means more weeding but easier picking.  And no sneak attacks by those disgusting hornworms.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Thank you,  we will look at it.  But chain link???  We have finally gotten rid of the last of that stuff.  Put it in before we knew what we were doing.  $600,000 is pretty high for 35 acres.  Well over $17,000 per acre.  2 BR house, no AG designation.  Doesn't sound like what we are looking for, but you never know.  Taxes would be around 12,000 at 2% rate which is more than we pay now.  We need the AG designation to afford the taxes.



Asking price has already been met and bidding, even tho it isn't officially on market is now $800K.


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## Baymule

Yes that is sad about Josie the mule, but sometimes we have to do what is best for those we love. I know how much you love and cherish her, letting her go to a home where she will be happier is hard, but better for her. 

What dishwasher do you have so that I never buy one like it. My $300 one does just fine, but someday it will die and need to be replaced. Why don't they include run time on those efficiency tags? 

My garden is sporting the most lush weeds you ever saw. I also have kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts that are doing well. The eggplant is finally deciding to grow, maybe it was applications of fresh Cornish cross chicken poop that made them stop languishing about and start putting out new leaves and even a couple of blooms. The tomatoes are blooming and I even have tiny tomatoes on the New Yorker, a determinate variety. I also have German Johnson and Cherokee Purple which never stop making vines. The lettuce is bolting and is disgusting, spit it OUT bitter. The broccoli is a flop, with a few tiny heads. Onions are ready to pull. The wild black eyed susans are huge and blooming, a cheery spot. Beets are just meh. I planted what is supposed to be a summer replacement for lettuce, called mizuna, it loves the heat. The leaves taste a little like radish, don't know if we're going to like a salad made out of them, we'll see. 

At least I don't have dogs peeing on the garden, it is fenced. LOL LOL


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## Ridgetop

greybeard said:


> Asking price has already been met and bidding, even tho it isn't officially on market is now $800K.



OK.  Thanks.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> At least I don't have dogs peeing on the garden, it is fenced. LOL LOL



Garden fencing needs to be 6' high I guess.  The tomatoes are not fenced because there is enough space to jump into the garden area  We have separate areas for our tomatoes, zuchini, crookneck, etc.  The strawberries and beans are planted in raised plastic tubs.  They are the large black storage bins with the yellow tops available at Lowes and Walmart.  DD2 had a bunch of heavy stuff packed in them.  After stacking them all the way up and storing for a year or two, the tops have cracked.  Instead of dumping the bottoms we thought of other uses.   We used them for feeders in the barn, and occasionally water, but DS1 says they are too flimsy so I decided to use them for small raised planters.  I drilled 4 drainage holes, filled them with garden mix, and planted.  Bubba doesn't pee on them for some reason.  We are planning to move the corral fence (8 bar panels) over 10' and fence off the area between the side chain link fencing to make a 10' by 30' garden area.  I plan to build raised beds though since I need to line them with wire against gophers.  Then we will fence off each end of the 30' length with a gate at one end and voila!  A nice fenced off garden space adjacent to my current garden beds.


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## Ridgetop

My shearer came out and took the baby wool off the young yearling ram we bought last year and the fall ewe lamb we bred.  I wanted to see their body type before deciding if I would keep them or sell them.  Not really sure about ether one  I like the fall ewe lamb, but will have to see if she sheds out next year.  It the yearling ram doesn't shed out next year, I might sell him.

My shearer decided he wanted to buy the last 2 Dorset ewes I had.  They have been exposed to my Lewis ram for 2 months now.  He sheared them and we loaded them into his truck.  They are nice big ewes, easy lambers, good moms  Hopefully he will get September-October lambs out of them.  He has an acre piece to clear  but his dad has 40 acres in the Antelope Valley.  High Desert, but after the rains last winter full of pasture forage.  If he pumps enough water AV grows excellent alfalfa.  Not sure if he has enough AG water for it though.  His dad used to grow alfalfa so could do it now that he is retired from line work.  They are  an old 4-H family, so experienced in dealing with sheep.  No worries there.

Now we can bring in the Lewis ram from the main field and turn out the new ewes and ram n the large field.  That way we will not have to feed them hay.  Next month, we will turn out the ewelings with them.  If the front flock have not remarked we will turn them out with the Axtell ram as well, and use him as a clean up ram.  The other 2 rams will go into the small pen in the back and the rest of the sheep will be on the large field until it is time to lamb the first group. 

We will also fence off 2 more 100 x 200 pastures in the large field so we can turn the ewes and lambs in when the rains bring up the forage again.  Our goal is no field cutting no matter how much rain we get.  We need intensive rotational grazing pastures to accomplish this.

Hay prices are down and we are stocking up on hay for the winter.  We can leave the hay stacked on the field inside the empty horse corrals.  Come rainy season, we will tarp the stacks.  It is not humid here like the south east so tarping the stacks on top doesn't cause the hay to mold.  DH wants to get another Connex container and put it about 12' from the 1st.  Then he will roof between the 2 containers and that will be a hay storage shed.  It will be open on each end for air circulation, loading and unloading the hay bales.   

Still planning our trip to Texas.  Wondering if north west TX might be a good place to settle with our sheep.  Lots of sheep there so access to the slaughter facilities might be easier.   On the other hand, can we lease out hay fields there?  Are there hayfields there?  Would we have to have AG water and irrigation lines?


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## greybeard

We refer to that as the Texas Panhandle.  In a word, it's 'dry', but
the Ogallala Aquifer is under it and if you can capture it, you can have it..........maybe.

https://www.hppr.org/post/down-last-drop-texas-panhandle-water-crisis

windy and dusty there. And the coldest part of Texas in the winter.
USAToday describes it as 26,000 sq miles of "hot and dusty".
climate of the Texas Panhandle region:
https://traveltips.usatoday.com/climate-texas-panhandle-104945.html
Land is cheap tho. For a reason.
Here's one perfect for you....a full section, 640ac
https://www.point2homes.com/US/Vacant-Land-For-Sale/TX/Dalhart/Dalhart-Airport-Grass/69654351.html




Yes you would have to irrigate..that's what the round areas are in the picture of the one above.

It's typical...the above tract is one of these:




I say go for it! You'll love it out there.


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## Baymule

Well, you are already used to hot and dry. In the Texas panhandle, crop circles do not refer to visitations by space aliens.


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## greybeard

Oh, wildfires in the Panhandle are frequent, and they're frequently very bad. 
https://features.texasmonthly.com/editorial/the-day-the-fire-came/


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## Baymule

You are used to fires too! You'll feel right at home.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Here is what Texas summers are like, including east Texas where Miss @Baymule is, as well as the Texas panhandle: Miss Baymule and her DH were out working all day one summer, battling Miss Baymule's nemesis, green briars.  Finally her DH had all he could handle and went in to take a shower and rest.  Miss Baymule continued working for about 30 more minutes, and then she decided she had enough as well.  She was hot, sweaty, and filthy from all of the dirty work and was looking forward to a nice shower.  When she got into the house, she met her DH coming out of the shower.  He had a sheepish look on his face.  He told her, "I'm sorry, dear, but I am afraid I used up all of the *cold* water!"


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## greybeard

I was on a drilling rig one day, out in the Permian Basin (Midland Odessa area)  pulling 3 miles of  4-1/2" pipe out at 3/4 million lb hookload and looked down on the engine floor and saw a long line of them yellow/black stripped lizards  cooling their feet on the exhaust pipes....


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## Ridgetop

Back again but very confused abut where to look in Texas.  Also, it is getting expensive there now.  Also, heard something I find it hard to believe - supposedly Dallas is no longer treating theft as a crime!  Is that true?  Or is the Dallas police community just letting Texans shoot thieves?  Works for me and would certainly be cheaper than arresting, trying, and imprisoning them.  Also heard that my beloved Texas is beginning to have similar problems (homeless camping out on sidewalks, etc.) as in the heavily liberal cities and states.  Please say it aint so! 

We are coming to Texas in July and will be there in August.  Hotter than *&^%@! but might as well come out then as any other time.  Especially if we plan to move there we need to face up to the general weather. 

We have a movie company filming at the neighbor's house for the next 8 days.  They have to give everyone a hold harmless, and pay to cross the private road since we all have to pay to repair/replace it.  DH has rented them our field to park on so they won't be driving up and down the single lane private road all day.  They are going to pay us, BUT WHAT A HASSLE!  I don't want to do it since we have to put Josie the mule in a corral, keep the sheep locked up in a small corral, and kennel the LGDs so they don't eat the film crew.  The file crew will have their cars parked on the field for 12 hours a day.  At 7pm they are soused to leave and we can shut the gate and turn the dogs loose. 

DH says we will buy a second Connex container in order to transfer all the stuff in the rented one and get out from under that payment.  He is also putting the second one 10' away from the first one and will then put a roof over the 10' x 25' space between the 2 containers which we will then use for a hayshed.  We are buying all the hay we can get right now.  Prime alfalfa runs $20/bale (100 lbs) in the winter and we are getting it for $13.00.  DS3 is coming down from Nipomo with his flatbed trailer tomorrow to pick up 100 bales since he is paying $20/bale right now in the central coast area.  We have about 180 bales in our barn and sheds right now.  The sheep have not cleared off all the acreage either so they still have plenty to eat on the field.  We want to get more hay if we can find a place to store it.  IT RAINED AGAIN LAST NIGHT!  And looks like it might rain tomorrow too.  Any rain we get just  makes the forage grow and saves us on hay.  So I say, come on rain . . . .

Most of the sheep are bred now.  3 are definitely bred for late September and early October lambing.  Several more are bred for late October and early November lambing.  4 will be bred for late January or early February lambing.  I am considering taking a couple of fall and spring ewe lambs to the Western States Dorper show to get opinions on them next May.  All the ram lambs will be wethered for freezer lambs. 

After our Texas trip we will be putting up more fencing to be able to turn the ewes and lambs into separate rotational grazing pens to clean off the forage before fire clearance season.  We won't have to do any fire clearance that way.  I have been trying to convince my family that was the way to go but they wouldn't listen  This year DS1 had to Do a lot of weed wacking and has finally decided to LISTEN TO HIS MOTHER!  Of course, to hear DS1 and DH tall this is their great idea!     As long as it gets done . . . .

I m also going to get some 1" x 4" 8' cheap construction lumber and build some 36"-42" high panels to use for a runway and chute.  It will be so much easier to handle the sheep for vaccinations, etc. instead of trying to catch them.  They will come up to us but not if they see a halter or rope.  Got to fix dinner - more later.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Back again but very confused abut where to look in Texas. Also, it is getting expensive there now. Also, heard something I find it hard to believe - supposedly Dallas is no longer treating theft as a crime! Is that true? Or is the Dallas police community just letting Texans shoot thieves? Works for me and would certainly be cheaper than arresting, trying, and imprisoning them. Also heard that my beloved Texas is beginning to have similar problems (homeless camping out on sidewalks, etc.) as in the heavily liberal cities and states. Please say it aint so!



I don't think the DFW police have stopped treating theft as a crime nor has the district attorneys' offices. May be a backlog on court dockets but it's still a crime.
Homeless and vagrants? Yep..everywhere. Always been a few just like any place but as more and more people move here and immigrate here, the problem has multiplied. In Houston, the beggars are on every corner.  Scam artists, bogus doctors, snake oil salesmen from every sector..you name it, it's here. They did it where ever they were before and brought their idiosyncrasies with them. Never fails. Worse in Austin, El Paso, and Bexar than anywhere else but every place has their share.

Yes, it will be hot in July and probably dry as a bone. It's Texas, it's July...that's the way it's supposed to be, hot and dry.

If you cross the Tx Panhandle on US83/60, look for the big green dinosaur up on the bluff South of Canadian.


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## Ridgetop

Will do!  Hot weather, cold weather, rain, you need to know and be ready to accept whatever the climate brings wherever you live.  Growing up in So Cal makes me understand how to live in hot dry desert areas.  Do all your shopping in the am or after dark, stay in the shade as much as possible, protect your skin with sunscreen and your head with a hat.  If you have to do physical work in the heat of the day drink lots of water and take frequent breaks in the shade.  In cold weather, dress in layers, and don't dress so heavy that you are sweating under your clothes.  Drink lots of water then too, only it should be warm water or of course, COFFEE!  Wet areas, know ho the land drains, where the creeks and ponds flood, etc. 

IOW know your surroundings.  Texas will b a whole new lot of stuff to learn, with no grandparents to tell us how it used to be.  Those old stories of how it used to be are good learning tools to learn the weather patterns, etc.  Too bad so many kids are not interested in learning from their grandparents and parents.  It's their loss - the smart ones listen.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> Do all your shopping in the am or after dark, stay in the shade as much as possible, protect your skin with sunscreen and your head with a hat. If you have to do physical work in the heat of the day drink lots of water and take frequent breaks in the shade


I haven't used sunscreen in 40 years, and don't know any ranchers that do and I tend to take my shade with me where ever I go. Still wear the same palm hat as in this 11 year old picture.


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## Ridgetop

Neither did DH in all his years hanging off power poles.  Now he gets skin cancers all the time and has to be vigilant.  I keep warning my sons but they don't use it either.  However, they do wear hard hats at work, and feed caps when working outside.  I wear a hat, and try to remember to use sunscreen and don't sunbathe any more.  (But that is due to my advanced age and fear of traumatizing small children - although I should put it to good use clearing the beach quickly so we can have the best spot! LOL   

DH3 drove down and picked up 88 bales of prime alfalfa - all the guy had left.  He is cutting back on his hay business but will have hay 4 days a week so no problem except as winter comes in it will go up in price  All the rain this year has brought in a bumper crop of high quality alfalfa here in the southwest.  My Austin friend says that you can't feed alfalfa grown below the Red River to horses since it tends to have some sort of poisonous to horses bug in it.  He says that you have to feel coastal hay and supplement with grain and concentrates.  Here we don't have to supplement at all since our alfalfa is so rich.  Different locations, different feeding practices.

DS3 is going to check for a Connex container for us.  He said he can get the watertight/weatherproof used containers for about $2100 if he brings it down.   He will load it on his flatbed trailer with the tilt bed and bring it up, then take back another 100 bales of alfalfa.  That will save us the $250 delivery fee.   We need 2 more of them.  DS3 is also going to bring us some large power poles to use to roof over the space between the Connexes.  He says to space them 14'-15' apart but he used his tractor to put those power poles in position and I am not sure we can get them in place without a pole cat or tractor.  However, we can at least fill another container with more hay before winter prices hit.  If we stockpile enough alfalfa, and we get good rains this winter again, we will make a profit on our lamb crop.        Break even is ok too, since the $$$ we would have to spend on clearing the property without the sheep would be considered profit.

I want to make enough of a profit/break even that we can deduct all the investment into the new sheep, fencing, etc.  The Connexes are also deductible since they are for hay storage.  If (when) we move to Texas, we will fill them with our boxes, equipment, etc. and ship them to the new place.  Once we get there we will have to cut vents into them and install air turbines on top to avoid buildup of moisture in the Texas humidity so they will be usable.

I want to say right now that I have learned so much from all you guys about stuff we will need to know in Texas - we will never have the knowledge of Texans born and raised  but I am learning as fast as possible.   THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!   

CAN'T WAIT TO MEET BAYMULE AND DEVONVIOLET THIS SUMMER.  ANYONE ELSE WANT TO TRY TO MEET UP LET ME KNOW.  We will be travelling home through Atchison KS and Durango CO to visit with DH's cousins too, so anyone along the route want to get together to meet and have ice tea or coffee let me know.   

*Greybeard:*  Bringing my old cowboy hat too!  Keeps the sun off all around.


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## greybeard

The quickest way to lose some  money in the cattle business is to do it just the way grandpa did it.
The quickest way to lose everything in the cattle business is to forget how grandpa did it.


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## Baymule

That bug is a blister beetle. They are toxic and kill horses if they ingest them. 

https://extension2.missouri.edu/g4569

https://www.vet.k-state.edu/vhc/services/equine/timely-topics/blisterbeetleFeb16.html

http://factsheets.okstate.edu/documents/epp-2072-blister-beetles-and-alfalfa/


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## Ridgetop

Well the film people are here for the second day.  Sheep are in pens, dogs in kennel, and Josie the Mule is very unhappy in her 12' x24' stall.   After several lovely cool and overcast days the temperature has shot back up to the 90's again.  Very hot after the rain and chill. 

I spent the morning cleaning my office, desk, and filing all my paperwork.  Booooring!  but necessary.  Then I walked the entire steep half acre in the front looking for Lewis Ram's green plastic chain collar and bell  He removed the bell after one day, and then he removed the collar the next day.  The collar is bright green and everything is brown and yellow out there so it should have shown up but could not find it and I searched the entire field.  I wonder if Angel found it and took it away to the Area 21 of dog toys and found items.  It may or may not turn up some day in the future. 

Poor Josie kept calling to her ram buddy, Lewis, who we moved into the front pasture.  She hates being in her corral since now she can't walk down the fence line and chat with Lewis.  One of the film people annoyed DS1 by telling him that it was too bad Josie had to stay in the corral instead of being able to run around a larger area ???  DS1 told her the only reason every animal on the place was locked up was becaause the film people were parking on the property and we had to keep all the gates open. Duh!   Then she said we should keep the piles of poop picked up - there were 2 piles - and put fly spray on her.    The lady told DS1 she lives in west L.A. and has a horse.  Since there are no horse properties in West L.A., she must keep her horse in one of the affluent areas where people board their horses in box stalls with shavings and stable people to clean them.  DS1 was a bit annoyed but he had already told me he wanted to move her down into the half acre front pen with the rams.

DH went out to clean up the pile of poop and I put on Josie's old fly mask (which she had pretty well shredded last April).  DS1 had to dismantle the fence to get her in since the other entrance to that sheep pen requires stairs.  I put on her halter and walked her down there.   Josie is thrilled to be back with her best buddy the older ram, Lewis, and she can move around in the half acre pen.  There are also a couple shade trees out there.  I am much happier to have her down there where she has a lot more room and is with her buddy. 

DH1 has been cleaning out the storage bins on our 5th wheel trailer to get ready for our Texas trip.  DS3 told us yesterday that he had to put his 5th wheel in the shop since half the electrical died.  He just used the trailer last summer to go on vacation and is stymied as to why it malfunctioned.  He tried to repair it but couldn't figure out where the problem was.  He is hoping the shop can figure out what happened and fix it in time for DS3, DIL and the 2 grandchildren to leave the end of July.

He said he decided they will head to the Grand Canyon the end of July, then hightail it to Fort Worth in order to spend as much time in Texas as possible.  He said he and DIL are getting really tired of California even though they love their new place and have done a lot to it.  It sounds like he is considering moving to Texas in a few years.  He has already bought 3 rental houses in the FW area so . . . .  

However, now DH has discovered that our slide out is not going all the way out on one side.     The slide out should be extended completely into the exterior seal.  Instead there is a 5" gap on one end.  It was just repaired!!!! and we have to take it back to the shop again.  Also he found a drip/leak in the water lines under the belly in the storage compartment.  I think probably the connectors just need to be tightened but DH says since he has to take it in for the slide out adjustment he will have them check it out.     I was going to clean out the trailer, wipe everything down, empty and repack the storage cabinets to make sure we have paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates, plastic silverware, etc., and make a list of what foodstuffs need to be packed.  COFFEE first, then ice tea bags, soap, laundry supplies, swim suits, swim goggles, towels, etc.  Now I will have to wait for it to come back from the shop again.      Getting the 5th wheel ready for a trip is like a small scale moving house.  Except we don't have t worry about the livestock or dog.  Normally we would take DH's little mini Dachshund, Pretzel, but we lost her 1 or 2 years ago.  Quite a heartache storing the dog panels away that we carried to make a small yard outside the trailer door so she could go in and out when she wanted.  Eventually I will have to shop for another little puppy for DH but not yet.

Looks like the film people have left - DH is locking the gates and letting Bubba, Rika, and Angel out.  The sheep are screaming to be fed.  Angel is doing so well, we were so lucky to get Angel.  She is only 6 months old and working at night with the big dogs.  She often runs with Bubba, but lately when Bubba and Rika are in the front, Angel is guarding the back.  I hear her working most of the night now with the other 2.  Erick can really choose a good guardian dog.  Can't wait to get together with him in Austin again, sit and visit with ice tea, and just enjoy talking LGDs. 

Lamb chops for dinner tonight.  Oh yeah, I have to go on line and order some wound pine tar for Bubba, and a new fly mask.  Make that 2 fly masks - Josie is hard on them.  Bubba is chewing to spots on his legs and making sores on them.  I wonder if he is allergic to something - he doesn't seem to have any fleas but I will doctor all the dogs for those too.


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## Ridgetop

DS2 bought himself a truck.  ford 350, crew cab, 4wd, dually, 5th wheel hitch installed, all the bells and whistles - used - 2 years old and a fairly good price.  DH found it for him, and called him at work and told him about it.  That night he raced over with his girlfriend, met DH at the dealership, and fell in love with it .  After DH looked at it with a salesman earlier, some kid had come in and said his dad would buy it for him. (Lucky kid, right?!)  The kid started filling out the paperwork but couldn't complete it since his dad was going to buy it.  He said his dad couldn't come in that night, did not put a down payment to hold it, told the salesman they would come back in the next day and left.  DH and DS2 went in that evening, DS2 filled out paperwork, qualified for the loan, gave the guy a $20,000 down payment, and bought it.  Next day the salesman called DS2 and told him to come pick it up fast since the kid and his dad were back screaming that it was their truck and they should have it.  DH and DS2 immediately ran down to pick it up and brought it home.  It is currently residing on the field beside our lovely tan 350 crew cab known as "Twinkles".

We are going out with champagne now to christen it "My Precious, The Black Dragon of Shadow Hills".  No, we will not be breaking the bottle of champagne over the hood.  Not only do we not want to scratch "My Precious", but it would be a shameful waste of champagne!


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## Baymule

Money talks and bull hockey walks. "Their" truck? I don't think so! Put up or shut up. Haha! Glad that your son got such a nice truck. Maybe a nice glass of wine sitting on the tailgate to celebrate?


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> After DH looked at it with a salesman earlier, some kid had come in and said his dad would buy it for him. (Lucky kid, right?!) The kid started filling out the paperwork but couldn't complete it since his dad was going to buy it. He said his dad couldn't come in that night, did not put a down payment to hold it, told the salesman they would come back in the next day and left.


Old school I guess but around here, a man's word is still his bond, even if he's a used car salesman. (assuming the salesman did tell the kid or infer that the truck would still be there the next day)
..I've sure seen a few people get a butt whippin for much less..or shot.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> Maybe a nice glass of wine sitting on the tailgate to celebrate?



A bottle of champagne, 4 glasses, and DS2 showed me all the bells and whistles.  I am glad I did not go to look at it with DH because I might have decided to pull our money out and buy it ourselves.  Then "Twinkles" would have hurt feelings! I did tale pox of DS2 with his girlfriend holding the champagne with the truck!   And he has now decided to buy an engagement ring for her!  I am so happy for them!  He said "First the truck, now the ring, a man has his priorities!"     We have now christened it Black Dragon.  



greybeard said:


> Old school I guess but around here, a man's word is still his bond, even if he's a used car salesman. (assuming the salesman did tell the kid or infer that the truck would still be there the next day)
> ..I've sure seen a few people get a butt whippin for much less..or shot.



I would agree but I think you really have to know the man whose word you are going to take as his bond to know if he is trustworthy.  I am talking about the kid here who said his dad would come in and buy a $65,000 truck for him.  

Since the *kid* did not have any money, could not qualify for a loan for the price of the truck, had to get his daddy to pony up the money, since that salesman was not there when DS2 and DH went in, since the truck did not have a hold on it, and since DH had seen it first and talked to another salesman several hours before the kid ever showed up, and since the kid had not finished any paperwork since he could not qualify for the loan, did not offer any deposit of any size to hold the truck for even 24 hours, and his Dad did not want to come down that day, then maybe that kid should get a job, earn some money, save it up and the next time he sees a truck that he wants, _he_ can go in and put $20,000 down, qualify for the loan, and buy that truck.  But maybe you are right, maybe the salesman who works on commission to feed his family should have waited to see if he even came back, and possibly missed out on both sales. 

What is that saying?  Oh yeah, a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush!

If you are selling cattle and some kid you don't know comes by and says he wants to buy those cattle but can't give you a deposit, hasn't got the money for them, and says his dad (who you also don't know) will buy them for him but can't or won't come over then, and you have to wait to see if he even returns the next day, and another buyer comes in that afternoon with his cattle truck and cash in his hand what will you do?

A man's word may be his bond when it comes to buying something, but he needs to be able to back it up with the cash.  You have to know his word is good.  There are a lot of people I know that I would trust with just their word, but there are also a lot that can't be trusted.  We have been taken by a couple of "friends" before.  Sad but true.


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## greybeard

Ridgetop said:


> If you are selling cattle and some kid you don't know comes by and says he wants to buy those cattle but can't give you a deposit, hasn't got the money for them, and says his dad (who you also don't know) will buy them for him but can't or won't come over then, and you have to wait to see if he even returns the next day, and another buyer comes in that afternoon with his cattle truck and cash in his hand what will you do?



I would probably ask the guy with the trailer if he keeps his head up his butt for the warmth and then tell him the cows are already spoken for and he dang well should have called before going to all the trouble of hooking up his trailer and dragging it down my road. Anyone that is stupid enough to do that, I wouldn't want to sell to anyway.

But yes, yall taught the young kid a valuable life lesson ie, that some people's word don't mean crap and, that anyone can be taken advantage of, and if you can..do. 
I've bought lots of calves (and sold them) on nothing but a handshake, to be paid for when they were weaned and they were always there waiting for me when I went to get them months later. 
Money don't mean nothing to me but my word does. It's attached to my name and when I'm gone from this world, all that's going to be left here is my name engraved on a piece of stone and the most I can hope for is that people will see that inscription and know an honest man lays below it.
Diogenes sure wouldn't have stopped and picked me out but I like to think he would have slowed down and taken a hard look at me.


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## Ridgetop

greybeard said:


> But yes, yall taught the young kid a valuable life lesson ie, that some people's word don't mean crap and, that anyone can be taken advantage of, and if you can..do.



Since the salesman did not promise to keep the truck for the kid with no money, and since DH had said he would bring our son to look at it several hours before the kid ever came in, which one of them do you think the salesman was supposed to hold it for?  It was for sale on a large dealership used car lot, not privately.  No deposit was placed on it and no paperwork filled out.  No promises were made.  How many people do you think tell a used car salesman they will be back and then never show up?  Nobody took advantage of that kid and nobody gave their word about the truck.  The salesman has a boss to answer to when it comes to selling.

Are you saying that DH and DS2 did something dishonest when they went onto the used car lot and bought a truck that other people had also looked at?   Are you saying that _they_ took advantage of that guy in some way?  DH saw the truck early in the day, called DS2 who immediately met DH at the dealership after work.  They went in, DS2 test drove it and bought the truck immediately.  DH had been looking for a Ford F350 truck for DS2 for some time.  DS2 went in with DH immediately because DH told him the truck was great and looked to be a good deal.  They did not know anyone else was going to buy the truck.  The next evening they found out that the guy came back and was mad because the truck was sold after he left the dealership the day before.  How did they take advantage of him?  That guy could have bought the truck before they ever came down that night.  Or maybe a third party would have shown up and bought it out from under both DS2 and the other guy.  Would that 3rd buyer have been "taking advantage" of anyone by buying it before DS2 or the other guy could buy it?   

I also have bought and sold livestock on my word.  I have also taken other people's word when they told me they were going to buy animals that I held for them without a deposit, and then they didn't show up or backed out of the deal.  The worst one was someone backing out after I had refused 2 higher offers for the animals, and after the person for whom I was holding them had extended the pick up date by 2 months.  Not only did I end up selling the animals for less when I eventually found another buyer but I was also out an extra 2 months keep.  When I buy something I put a deposit on it to hold it.  My word is good too, but in business sales other people often require more than just your word, especially if they don't know you.  DH told our hay guy that DS3 would drive down from Nipomo (a 3 hour trip) to buy 100 bales of alfalfa because it was $7.00 per bale cheaper than DS3 was paying up north.  The hay guy said he would have the 100 bales for him.  We arrived on the dot of when we told the guy we would come for the hay but he only had 88 bales left.  Did he take advantage of DS3 because he sold those 12 bales?  DS3 loaded up 88 bales on his trailer and a couple more people showed up looking to buy alfalfa.  Did DS3 take advantage of _them _because he bought all 88 bales that were left?  And DS3 did not kick up a hissy fit because the hay guy was 12 bales short either. 

Business is business.


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## Baymule

Having been a car sales person before, if I turned down a $20,000 down payment from a customer who was buying NOW versus a "beback" with no skin in the game, my boss would have fired me.


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## Ridgetop

The film people are gone - finished early on /Saturday and left in the morning.  To Bubba's great relief! 

So the first couple of days, he was shocked and saddened at being locked in the kennel all day long.  On the 3rd day the dogs got clever.  They were doing their rounds out in the brush when DH went out to call them in and kennel them.  they wouldn't come.  After about 10 minutes DH noticed a big head poking up over the brush, again he called and the head disappeared.  He kept watching and in a few more minutes 2  heads peeked up over the brush  As soon as they saw DH standing there with the leashes in his hand they ducked down again.  DH walked out and sternly called them in.  They came in very reluctantly.  On the 4th day Bubba was being led to the kennel on his leash when he alerted on something in the gully.  Rika dashed into the gully barking and DH let Bubba off since they were after something  a few minutes later they both came up and walked back to DH.  Poor bubba went back into the kennel but DS1 decided to put Rika in the lower back pen with the fall ewe lambs.  She ended up staying back there with Angel for the final 5 days of the shoot.  DH and I worried that Bubba, whose protection drive is much higher, would go over the barn pen gate and come up after the parade of strangers walking on and off the property.  Also we had to keep the gate open for the cars and trucks coming and going from the field.  Just safer to leave him in the kennel during the times the film people were there and then when they left and we closed the gates all the dogs were released.  By the final day Bubba was howling his sadness at being kept in the kennel.  There were also a lot of sirens that day which contributed to it. 

Thank goodness it is over and the dogs are free - they are so much happier.  I am noticing that Angel is taking guard duty turns with the others now that she is 7 months old.  I can recognize her bark from Rika's and Bubba's.  They all work well together.  Angel does not like coming in the house at night for family time as much as they others though.  It is surprising since she loved coming in when she was a baby.

Poor Bubba has to go to the vet tomorrow.  He has been getting 'hot spots" and licking or chewing his skin.  He now has several spots on his feet and lower legs that are raw.  I sprayed it with Blue Kote today he continued to lick at the spots so I need the vet to take a look. None of the dogs show any signs of fleas.  DS1 is thinking he is sensitive to something he is walking in.  If it is something on the property we are in big trouble.  Maybe he needs to take Benedryl if he has allergies.  Off to the vet.  I could try spraying it with Alumashield spray but I am afraid it might be toxic.  It works great on the horses, but they don't chew their sores. I saw some sort of antibiotic gel spray that is non toxic and stops itching on the Chewy website.  I will order that out too.  Poor Bubba!

We are finally having a 4th of July BBQ at our place again.  We missed the past 2 summers since the patio was crowded with everything from the garage and laundry area, and our gazebo was set up as a "pantry jail".  LOL  We are finally cleaning off the patio and scrubbing the patio furniture.  The cushions have  been put away for 2 years in their storage deck boxes (after Rika ate the original set of cushions, we bought 3 giant deck boxes to store them in.  It was a real pain to take the out and put the away every time, but after having to spend almost $1000.00 in new cushions for all our wrought iron patio furniture I felt it was worth the extra $500.00 for the 3 huge weatherproof and dogproof deck boxes in which to store them.  Especially since the glider and sofa cushions were different sizes and the store bought cushions were too large to fit.  The smaller size was too small.  I had to buy the large chair size cushions and cut them down to fit.  That meant recutting and sewing the cushion covers after I cut the foam cushions down to size.  I just barely got them all finished before the July 4th party 5 years ago!  After all that work I sure don't want to have to do it all over again!  However, those deck boxes sure do keep the cushions in pristine condition. 

 I was hoping that we could just put the cushions out and then put chair covers over them, but I am not sure if that will work.  Angel seems to be entering her teenage chewing cycle now.  While Kathleen and I were enjoying an adult beverage on the clean patio watching a gorgeous sunset, we noticed Angel attempting to drag one of the chairs to the dining table away for a chew toy.  We stopped her but this morning I saw her with Josie's fly mask taking it across the patio.  Josie routinely rips her fly mask off and this one was already in bad shape.  When getting the 4th July party goods from the storage shed on the field I found where Angel had carefully placed it with her other treasures - a chewed garden glove and a large stick.  Apparently that is her hoarding place.  The fly mask, needless to say, was a complete loss - whether from Josie's removal of it or Angel is unknown.  I will be buying another couple of fly masks for Josie.  Annoying since they are expensive but I really like to protect her eyes from the flies.  The fly masks are especially useful when we get the Santa Ana winds that blow dust, dirt and debris into the animals eyes. 

Well, DS2 had ben learning that there are even more options on his new truck.  Black Dragon is a diesel.  DS2 had me come out and sit in the front seat and experience the massage feature.  Not only do the seats heat and cool but also massage your tush.  The mirrors are automatic as are the running boards, the tail gate is automatic, the truck has full moon roofs, the bed has a tonneau cover.  It is fitted out with the attachments for 5th wheel and gooseneck towing.  There are some really good features on the truck in the way of storage too.  DS2 and his girlfriend, Kathleen, sat in it the other day with the manual for a couple hours to learn all the features.  There are some thing they still have not discovered.  BD is very tall since it is a 4WD dually and the previous owner put on some very large knobby tires.  I told him that I can just see those automatic running boards malfunctioning one day as he steps out of the truck.  Splat!  He better look first before he steps out.  LOL

All I can think is so much to go wrong and need $$$ repairs, but greater love hath no man than that of a man for his first truck. 
DS2 takes good care of his vehicles so black Dragon should last him 30 years or more.

I love our reliable old Twinkles and I have a very comfortable back cushion massager with heat that plugs into the cigarette lighter that I enjoy on long trips.  Poor DH had pulled a muscle before we went to Idaho for Angel and I talked him into trying my massage cushion.  BIG MISTAKE!  I DID NOT GET IT BACK FOR THE WHOLE TRIP!     Oh well, sweetie was doing all the driving.

Tomorrow I have to go out to complete my shopping for the 4th July BBQ.  Almost everything is taken care of so I will make the potato salad and bean salad Tuesday (bridge all day Wednesday), devilled eggs and Ambrosia Wednesday evening.  Have the guys chill the beer and soda Thursday am.  We used to have great big 4th July BBQs for 50 people every year.  Only 14-16 people this year it is easy peasy.  This is why old people are so good at everything - decades of practice.  LOL 

*Happy 4th July everyone!    *


----------



## Baymule

I am glad that the film people are gone and things can get back to your level of abnormal. I hope you can find the cause of Bubba's hot spots and get him some relief. It's like telling a child not to scratch the itch, they just don't get it, that it only makes it worse.

A party sounds like fun. Our DD and family are gone for the week, we are babysitting their dog, a beautiful half Australian Shepherd, half Blue Heeler pup about 7 months old that they just adopted. She is doing very well considering that she has never been exposed to farm animals. The Looney Gooney trio run loose and she started to take a dive for them, but came back when I scolded her. It was amusing to watch the male guinea make short runs at her, protecting his girls. The pup is blue, speckled all over, has a black head and pale blue eyes. They named her Pepper.

Deviled eggs sound good, that's a good party finger food.  A fun day with family and friends on the patio sounds like a good way to spend the 4th.

My husband hurt his back one time and I bought him 2 of those chair massage things. He had one at home and one at work. I teased that he just drove back and forth between them. They really are a great thing to have for sore muscles. When we moved here, I bought adjustable beds with massage and he adores his. 

The Black Dragon sounds like a dream. Trucks now have more whistles and bells than what I have ever seen. I don't know that I could ever figure them all out. LOL 

Have fun with your party!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> On the 3rd day the dogs got clever.


The text that followed could be made into a cartoon.


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## greybeard

Baymule said:


> Having been a car sales person before, if I turned down a $20,000 down payment from a customer who was buying NOW versus a "beback" with no skin in the game, my boss would have fired me.


Probably so, but there are lots of jobs out there. 
I won't work for an unethical boss or owner, no matter how much it might line my own pocket. Used care dealers and salesmen have a very very well earned reputation, depending how one looks at things, one rung below or one rung above lawyers.

My nieces are still PO'd at me for telling them about and then insisting they divulge where my brother buried about 20 old tires, big chunks of concrete and..big  pieces of asbestos laden transite on his property. Drew them a map about a month  after his funeral of exactly where it was. They said 'We only have to divulge what we know and we didn't know about that.'

I said. now you do, and as soon as I get back to Texas I'll take that same map to the realtor you are using and give it to her and by law she HAS to divulge it.


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## Baymule

greybeard said:


> Probably so, but there are lots of jobs out there.
> I won't work for an unethical boss or owner, no matter how much it might line my own pocket. Used care dealers and salesmen have a very very well earned reputation, depending how one looks at things, one rung below or one rung above lawyers.



I hope you are not suggesting that I am or ever was unethical, or ever worked for anyone that used unethical practices, with my knowledge or approval. I did work for a man one time, that when I found out his business practices, I made sure to make right to every customer I had and inform them of his ways, then I quit. I had a sterling reputation in the town I lived in, that I had earned over many years of doing business, owning my own business and working at various places. I carefully guarded my good name and did nothing to besmirch my reputation. I always strove to deal with people in the most honest and truthful way possible, no matter what my occupation. Such was my reputation that people knew that they wouldn't get screwed over in dealing with me. 

Your comment, aimed at me, is insulting.


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## AmberLops

I don't think that was the best thing to say. No point in insulting someone like that especially when it comes to their ethics and reputation.


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## Mike CHS

There are some people that the ignore button was made for. @Baymule isn't the first person that he has insulted and I doubt she will be the last.


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## Devonviolet

I can attest to @Baymule's ethics. I would trust her with my life! She is as honest as the day is long!

I, too, consider the previous comment about used car salesmen/dealers and lawyers to be an insult to both professions! Some people should just keep their opinions to themselves! As I always told my children, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all!"


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## greybeard

Baymule said:


> I hope you are not suggesting that I am or ever was unethical, or ever worked for anyone that used unethical practices, with my knowledge or approval.



I did not, nor did I think it.
You alone know your ethics and I certainly don't dispute them. There are good and bad in every field of endeavor.
I said only what I would do and what I have done in regards to employment. I have walked away from very good paying jobs because I knew the owner or my immediate supervisor was sticking it to customers. The last job I held was as a mechanic (tech they call them nowadays) in a Kubota dealership and it happened every day both in the parts dept and in the service dept.
 The auto sales sector perennially rates just below or just above politicians in terms of public trust.
From a gallup poll:





More recently:
_
CHICAGO — April 11, 2016 — MAXDigital, a premium end-to-end software provider for automotive dealers, released new strategic dealer research on the subject of trust and transparency in the digital age. In conjunction with Erickson Research, MAXDigital surveyed U.S. dealers during the 2017 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention.

Key findings from the research include:
Dealers are overestimating their trust by customers. Nearly 70 percent of dealers said their customers have a high level of trust in their salespeople. That is a huge disconnect from the December 2016 Gallup poll that showed just 9 percent of consumers have a high level of trust in car salespeople.
In 2016, a Harris poll showed this:
*Consumer Dissatisfaction with Auto Dealerships*
_


_

56% would rather clean their homes than negotiate with a car salesperson

87% dislike “something” about the process of shopping at auto dealerships

34% of 18-to-24-year-olds would rather wait in line at the DMV

24% of the 35 – 44 demographic prefer to get a root canal

52% of all age groups feel anxious or uncomfortable at auto dealerships
_
_

Again, in 2018:





There is a reason for this distrust, and that reason is personal experience with auto sales people.

I never said nor inferred you were unethical, but did state I would never work for an unethical boss. _


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## Baymule

@greybeard you are well known on this forum for your blunt way of putting things. Just this week I got a PM from someone who asked if you were mad or didn't like this person or was this just how you are. Every thing this person said, you had a remark to make. My reply was that you are a wealth of information, you are helpful to others and generous with advice when asked. I also said not to take it personally, you are an a$$hole to everyone. I said pretty soon you would move on to your next victim, and you did. It was Ridgetop. You not only badgered her half to death over a truck purchase, you strapped rowel spurs on and gigged her good. Then it was my turn. Most of the time I just ignore your comments and let it slide. Your snide remark ticked me off.

Then you come back with your researched charts and polls to back up  your statement. Did you ever think that maybe you should apologize for being rude? Has it ever crossed your mind that you can come across as a real jerk? You are, in fact, pretty darn good at it. I don't care about those stupid charts, but if you feel the need to prove somehow that you are "right", then go for it. Whether you intended to or not, your remark to me was rude. You should apologize for it. You are all about your word, I am sorry are some words that you could include in your vocabulary. You should, in fact, also apologize to Ridgetop. Your remarks to her were definitely not your finest moment.


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## Mike CHS

I'm glad you said all of that since I wasn't sure how other than resort to his way.


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## AmberLops

It's important to help others and give advice, but it's also important to know when to stop and when you're just being rude and hurtful rather than helpful.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

All,

At the risk of having everyone mad at me, I'd like to comment.  I trust you, Miss @Ridgetop, you, Miss @Baymule, and you, Mr. @greybeard, enough that I would gladly buy a used car from any of you, or would trust you to do my taxes and not to steal my identity or screw me over.  You three are among my favorite of folks here on this forum.

I hate to see you folks go at one another as I like all three of you a lot.  I wish that we could all calm down and not say any more hurtful things to one another.  I think the issue is that you three disagree as to what the right thing to do is in this particular case.  That's OK.  None of us has cornered the market either in wisdom or ethical behavior.  So please, don't be saying any more hurtful things about each other.  None of us can boast of having always done the right thing.

I think the world would be a so much better place if we each took to heart these four words: I might be wrong.

Now.  You folks can tear into me if you wish.  Just please don't do so to each other any more.

Senile Texas Aggie

P.S.: Apologies to Miss @Ridgetop for hijacking your journel.


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## Baymule

I would not tear into you @Senile_Texas_Aggie  and there is truth in what you say. I like @greybeard, he is an asset to this forum and very helpful to members here. He is also known to make people angry with some of his comments. The proper thing to do in such a situation is to apologize. I don't wear my feelings on my shirt sleeve, I'm practically impervious, but don't smear my name. Whether he meant to or not, that's how it came out and not only me, but others have commented along the same line. 

@Ridgetop hasn't even been on her thread, she's busy getting ready for her 4th of July party. Ridgetop I am sorry for blowing up your journal. When you come to Texas, I'll have some chilled wine and we can share some laughs. What is your favorite? Rose', red, white? 

I'm moving on. I'm not waiting on GB to make it right with his rudeness, not holding my breath on that one. I still like greybeard. I still think he is a donkey. I've had donkeys, I like donkeys. He's in good company.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Are you and your family OK?  Miss @Baymule said that you have been busy preparing for the 4th of July party.  But with the 2 earthquakes out near your area, I'm a bit concerned.  Please let us know how you are doing.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

Thanks for all your concern, we are fine and the party was great.
Yup!  2 big ones.  They hit near Ridgecrest CA which is the earthquake capitol of the world.   It is about 100-50 miles northeast toward Death Valley.  I missed the first one since I was on my hands and knees peering into a lower cabinet looking for some of my party stuff.  I thought I was just dizzy from being upside down!   LOL  DH and DS1 starting saying "Earthquake" while DS2's soon-to-be-fiancée was in the process of opening the fridge to put away party food and thought the fridge was falling on her!  Yesterday as I was putting away the party stuff and unloading the dishwasher the second big one hit.  It was larger than the first 6.4 one at 7.1and lasted abut 1-2 minutes.  That is long for an earthquake.  It felt like it was stopping and then would get stronger again.  I always check the light fixtures and fans  to see if they are swaying.  LOL  No damage where we were.

Years ago when we had a barn full of hanging rabbit cages I had just put a doe into a buck's cage for them to breed and turned away to do another chore.  The cages started swaying and rattling.  I thought that buck must be pretty excited until I realized it was an earthquake!


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## Ridgetop

Sorry!  Just went back and saw what everyone had been posting about GB.  He was definitely rude to Baymule and should apologize to her.    And I appreciate everyone's defense of us.  

As for me I know what he is like and should have expected it and not bothered to respond.  I enjoy a lot of his dry humor and pithy remarks so try not to get upset when they are turned on me.   Life is too short to wait for any apologies from GB. 

As far as his remarks to me -  Gammy used to say "Water off a Duck's Back" . . . .  

Still getting over the 4th July party - anyone want to come over for leftovers?  DD2 took some with her but DS2 and GF went up to visit DS3 and DIL in Nipomo.  I thought they might take some of the leftovers with them but NO!  We will be eating leftovers for days.  Good thing is I don't have to cook!    Sent emergency text to DD1 to come get some of this food.


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## Ridgetop

And GB is always ready to help with info on fencing, weather patterns, cattle, etc.  I will cut him some slack. 

BAYMULE:  YOU ARE ON AND I WILL BRING WINE!  PLANNING TO BE IN WEATHERFORD BY THE 25TH!  TEXAS HERE WE COME!


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## AmberLops

I'm glad you guys are alright with those earthquakes and all! That's pretty scary


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## Baymule

We have some good Texas wines. My favorite is Llano Sweet Red. I’m not much of a wine connoisseur LOL. If you are a fan of country singer Miranda Lambert, her parents own a store in Lindale called The Pink Pistol. Her father is on the board of directors of quite a few wineries and The Pink Pistol has a wine tasting room. Do you think y’all will make it over this way? We’ll invite @Devonviolet and her husband for steaks on the grill so they can meet y’all too.


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## Baymule

I just looked up the distance from Lindale to Weatherford, it's about 2 1/2 hours from Lindale. We can come see you or you can come see us.


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## Devonviolet

I can sure identify with your experiences with the earthquake!  I was living in Southern California, back in 1971, when there was a 6.5 magnitude quake in Sylmar.  

I had spent the night on the sofa, at a friend’s apartment. It woke me up, at 6:00 AM, when a huge plywood painting, on the wall over the sofa, started swinging away from the wall and banging back - repeatedly.  The swimming pool had huge waves and the water was splashing out, over the edge of the pool.  It was really scary!


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## Ridgetop

So finally recovered from the 4th July weekend, and back checking everything out, and updating everyone on everything!

About the earthquakes - they are always quite a shock when they happen!    Sorry - bad pun! 

In 1971 DH was working as a security guard at the Castaic Dam that was being built by DWP.  He was in the guard shack when it hit and the guard shack fell right over with him in it!  LOL  It took him hours to get home - usually a half hour trip on his motorcycle.  The freeway had collapsed during that shaker - sadly killing a CHP officer heading for work to assist, along with portions of Olive View Hospital in Sylmar.  It was pretty bad - the epicenter was much closer to us at the time - along the San Andreas fault.

The next BIG one was Northridge in 1992(?) on Martin Luther King Day.  Several apartment buildings collapse along with the multi-level parking structure at Northridge mall.  That epicenter was actually in Northridge - about 20 miles from us.  Pretty scary.  Our youngest boy wa 6 at the time and insisted on sleeping with us for 6 months.  Our middle boy was 8 and slept through the entire thing. I had to literally drag him from the lower bunk into the doorway for safety.  He never woke up until it was over, when he wanted to know why he was on the floor in the hall!   DD1, age 15, was screaming from her room that "we are all going to die!"   The aftershocks on that one were very strong and continued for about a week.  Lots of damage.  We had earthquake insurance - some of the few people that carried it at the time.  I always had it on our policy because at the time it was only about $25/year with a $100.00 deductible.  Now it is several thousand dollars per year and the deductibles start at $10,000-15,000.00!  Not worth it.



Baymule said:


> Do you think y’all will make it over this way? We’ll invite @Devonviolet and her husband for steaks on the grill so they can meet y’all too.



Just try to keep us away!  Sooooo looking forward to meeting you, Baymule and Devonviolet, it is going to be the high point of our trip!   

Got all the decorations from the 4th July party put away.  Left the cushion covers on the patio furniture overnight but covered them with the new outdoor furniture covers.  Why am I so optimistic?    *Naughty* Angel decided to lay in comfort on the patio sofa and whiled away the time chewing several holes in the new outdoor sofa cover.  Luckily, she did not chew through to the cushions.  She also retrieved 3 or 4 of the solar garden lights I had put out at the edge of the patio to avoid anyone not seeing the drop off, and chewed them up.  So the next day I put all the cushions away in the deck boxes, folded up the outdoor chair and loveseat covers and repacked them, covered up the fire pit and large glass table again.  I retrieved all the solar lights and relocated them behind the garden fences in the flowerbeds where she can't get to them.  Bubba liked destroying those lights too when he was young so I should have retrieved them that night.  My bad.  After putting away all the cushions, I left out 2 rattan chairs since they had been sitting on the other side of the house for the past year without any problem.  Cunningly, I left the very old cushions on them thinking that the_ cushions_ would tempt Angel but that I could replace _them_ cheaply if necessary.  *BAD *Angel ignored the cushions and ate the arm of one of the wicker chairs instead.     There are 3 left and we can replace that chair at Lowes but I am not going to do so nor leave anything out for another year when hopefully she will be out of this chewing stage.  DH suggested we put her back in the small sheep pen to avoid more chewing, but DS1 and I vetoed that suggestion since it would not teach her not to chew up our furniture.  She just has to outgrow it.  I probably should have expected it, after all it is the reason we have wrought iron furniture on our patio.  Those comfortable wicker chairs were the ones I had bought for my aunt since they were easy for her to move around on her patio in Yelm.  

The ewes seem to be all bred, the last one marked was about 3 weeks ago so we pulled off the ram that was with them and put all 3 rams in the small lower pen.  I need to increase their feed a bit since the 2 that were with the ewes lost a little weight and condition.  Breeding takes it out of the rams  so now is the time to put a little condition back on them.  The 3 fall ewe lambs are out with the ewes now in the large pasture.  In early September I will pick up the last Dorper ewe that I bought.  She was due right when I bought her so we did not want to transport her then.  She lambed 2 days later.  I will pick her up when we get back from Texas when she will have weaned her lambs.  Then a little heavy feeding to flush her and the 3 lambs, then we will turn the ram in with the entire ewe flock so he can cover any ewe that missed or didn't settle. Haven't decided which ram yet.

DH bought another Connex container and it will be delivered Thursday.  We hope to get more alfalfa at $13/bale.  I now that sounds high for all you east of the Rockies, but here in California it is cheap for prime alfalfa.  DH and DS1 plan to put the new container about 15' from the first one and parallel.  Then they will roof between them and fence off each end.  That will become our new hay barn.  We can hang tarps over the ends of the hay in bad rainstorms.

DH cleaned out the truck yesterday for our trip.  He also bought mud flaps since 4 years ago we got a fix it ticket for not having any on the truck in Texas.  Unfortunately the ones he bought were impossible to attach so they went back and I think DS1 has ordered another set.  If we don't get them before we go to Texas, we will buy some and have them installed there.  Since every truck has to have them in Texas, they must have a lot of shops that will do it.

Hopefully the trailer is coming home tomorrow and I will start cleaning it.  Every surface has to be wiped down, and the cushions vacuumed.  If I have time, I want to frame in a door under the bedframe and attach a door for access.  That way I can stick stuff under the bed without having to raise the entire mattress and platform.  I can raise it but holding it up while I put stuff in and take stuff out is a real pain.  Literally, since I rest it on my head while I am doing it.      However, we are not taking as much stuff with us since Pretzel will not be traveling with us.  (That way we have room to "borrow" Baymule's new chute gates )  We have packed the trailer for long trips so many times that we have it down pretty good now.  Although I still pack way too much, I have gotten a lot better over the years.  (Like mother, like daughter though - the first time we went on a long summer trip with DD2 (age 17) she packed _all her high heel shoes, _several date dresses, her entire case of makeup, 3 swimsuits, stereo, etc.    We were touring Arizona and hiking to see all the cliff dwellings, the Grand Canyon, old mines, etc.!  2 weeks into the trip I made her put everything into garbage bags and stashed it in the underneath storage compartment.  The first 2 weeks we couldn't walk through the trailer!  LOL

*GOOD NEWS!*  *DD1 and SIL have finally bought a house!*  Escrow closes August 8 but the sellers need several weeks to get out of the house since their new one is not ready.  DD1 and SIL have to be out of their rental so they will be moving into our house while we are in Texas.  The house has everything they want along with a large dance 1000S.F. studio buiIt onto the house.  The seller ran it as a professional dance studio where she gave lessons as well as choreographing dances.  DD1 and SIL plan to use it as a party room and dojo for doing karate (the whole family is into this and many of their friends also).  The dojo room also has a huge screen for movies and built in projector for them  They are excited about holding parties there.  Tons of storage especially in the Dojo room While it does not have anywhere to keep horses, I don't think they will ever get any. There is a small area where they can put a chicken coop, there are several fruit trees, grape vines, etc.  The back of the property is steep but has paths and steps to the upper garden areas, everything has drip lines, and it has a great pool.  Best of all for SIL the house s covered in solar panels and apparently the sellers get $700/mo credit back on their utility bills every month.  That includes with A/C and heating the pool in the winter.  Probably why SIL bought it.  Anyway, they are ecstatic.  It the pix are still up, you can find the listing at Zillow 9940 Shadow Hills Drive, Shadow Hills, CA.  Great house with lots of room to hold entire family for ALL HOLIDAYS!    

So happy for them and already planning to move all my party stuff (chafing dishes, party ware, etc.) over there.  Also giving them some of my patio furniture, and of course other furniture and paintings, rugs etc. that have been stored in "Mom's Furniture Warehouse"!  Also, now DD1 will be able to take delivery of the gold Picard china and other antiques that her great grandmother left her and I have been storing for what seems like centuries!   The sellers are letting them transfer all their stuff into the dojo room since they have to be out of the rental.  SIL is hiring movers so their furniture will stay stored until they can actually bring it into the house.

Have I mentioned that this is GOOD NEWS! and A WONDERFUL THING!  They are happy that they finally have the house they love and I am happy that I can finally unload all the stuff they have been storing here back into their home!!!  

However, some worrying news.  Bubba has been chewing his paws and lower legs.  I worried that it was hot spots and took him to the vet.  Since he does not have fleas, the vet thinks it is some sort of OCD thing.  ??????   Really?!  He is on some sort of light meds to see if it will control his chewing.  Otherwise it is Prozac time!  Since I don't believe in putting him on a drug like that (I keep all the good stuff for myself!) we will have to see.  The vet thought that having him kenneled for the 8 days with the film thing might have made him more upset and made him chew himself more.  I am ordering something from Chewey that is spray on and designed to be safe if he chews it off.  It is designed to stop the itching but if this is a nervous habit who knows if it will work.  I will try it anywy.  I'm also considering grinding some hot chilis into stuff to brush on his legs, but will it burn his skin?  Not sure and don't want to go from one bad thing to another.  He also has damaged his left eye, the pupil is distended.  I have an appointment with a doggy opthamologist on the 18th - the earliest I could get but am not hopeful.  I mainly want to make sure that it was from an injury rather than genetic or a disease.  If it is a disease or genetic I will immediately notify Erick and make arrangements to have Bubba neutered.  I was getting ready to have him OFAed so Erick could collect him but if it is genetic I know Erick will have me fix him ASAP.  That was always my plan after having him collected anyway.  We will see what the eye doctor says about it.  Poor Bubba actually sort of growled at Dr. Stern when I took him in for the chewing and his eye (which we just had discovered the night before).  Dr. Stern was shocked since Bubba had never done that before.  But the raw patches  his legs might have hurt and of course if he was having trouble out of his left eye it would make him nervous.  DS1 said Bubba had growled when he looked at his oweys the day before.  He didn't growl at me, but as we all know I am the ALPHA BITCH!  HEE HEE HEE!

I will let you now what happens.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> It the pix are still up, you can find the listing at Zillow


Looks really nice ... but I'm glad I don't have to come up with the mortgage payments for it!


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## Baymule

That's a super nice place. It is described as a horse property.....where is the horse supposed to go? I can see why they are excited to have it, it is a beautiful home. 

Poor Bubba, I hope the root cause for his chewing can be found. Poor guy!

So looking forward to meeting you and your husband!


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## AmberLops

Ridgetop said:


> So finally recovered from the 4th July weekend, and back checking everything out, and updating everyone on everything!
> 
> About the earthquakes - they are always quite a shock when they happen!    Sorry - bad pun!
> 
> In 1971 DH was working as a security guard at the Castaic Dam that was being built by DWP.  He was in the guard shack when it hit and the guard shack fell right over with him in it!  LOL  It took him hours to get home - usually a half hour trip on his motorcycle.  The freeway had collapsed during that shaker - sadly killing a CHP officer heading for work to assist, along with portions of Olive View Hospital in Sylmar.  It was pretty bad - the epicenter was much closer to us at the time - along the San Andreas fault.
> 
> The next BIG one was Northridge in 1992(?) on Martin Luther King Day.  Several apartment buildings collapse along with the multi-level parking structure at Northridge mall.  That epicenter was actually in Northridge - about 20 miles from us.  Pretty scary.  Our youngest boy wa 6 at the time and insisted on sleeping with us for 6 months.  Our middle boy was 8 and slept through the entire thing. I had to literally drag him from the lower bunk into the doorway for safety.  He never woke up until it was over, when he wanted to know why he was on the floor in the hall!   DD1, age 15, was screaming from her room that "we are all going to die!"   The aftershocks on that one were very strong and continued for about a week.  Lots of damage.  We had earthquake insurance - some of the few people that carried it at the time.  I always had it on our policy because at the time it was only about $25/year with a $100.00 deductible.  Now it is several thousand dollars per year and the deductibles start at $10,000-15,000.00!  Not worth it.
> 
> 
> 
> Just try to keep us away!  Sooooo looking forward to meeting you, Baymule and Devonviolet, it is going to be the high point of our trip!
> 
> Got all the decorations from the 4th July party put away.  Left the cushion covers on the patio furniture overnight but covered them with the new outdoor furniture covers.  Why am I so optimistic?    *Naughty* Angel decided to lay in comfort on the patio sofa and whiled away the time chewing several holes in the new outdoor sofa cover.  Luckily, she did not chew through to the cushions.  She also retrieved 3 or 4 of the solar garden lights I had put out at the edge of the patio to avoid anyone not seeing the drop off, and chewed them up.  So the next day I put all the cushions away in the deck boxes, folded up the outdoor chair and loveseat covers and repacked them, covered up the fire pit and large glass table again.  I retrieved all the solar lights and relocated them behind the garden fences in the flowerbeds where she can't get to them.  Bubba liked destroying those lights too when he was young so I should have retrieved them that night.  My bad.  After putting away all the cushions, I left out 2 rattan chairs since they had been sitting on the other side of the house for the past year without any problem.  Cunningly, I left the very old cushions on them thinking that the_ cushions_ would tempt Angel but that I could replace _them_ cheaply if necessary.  *BAD *Angel ignored the cushions and ate the arm of one of the wicker chairs instead.     There are 3 left and we can replace that chair at Lowes but I am not going to do so nor leave anything out for another year when hopefully she will be out of this chewing stage.  DH suggested we put her back in the small sheep pen to avoid more chewing, but DS1 and I vetoed that suggestion since it would not teach her not to chew up our furniture.  She just has to outgrow it.  I probably should have expected it, after all it is the reason we have wrought iron furniture on our patio.  Those comfortable wicker chairs were the ones I had bought for my aunt since they were easy for her to move around on her patio in Yelm.
> 
> The ewes seem to be all bred, the last one marked was about 3 weeks ago so we pulled off the ram that was with them and put all 3 rams in the small lower pen.  I need to increase their feed a bit since the 2 that were with the ewes lost a little weight and condition.  Breeding takes it out of the rams  so now is the time to put a little condition back on them.  The 3 fall ewe lambs are out with the ewes now in the large pasture.  In early September I will pick up the last Dorper ewe that I bought.  She was due right when I bought her so we did not want to transport her then.  She lambed 2 days later.  I will pick her up when we get back from Texas when she will have weaned her lambs.  Then a little heavy feeding to flush her and the 3 lambs, then we will turn the ram in with the entire ewe flock so he can cover any ewe that missed or didn't settle. Haven't decided which ram yet.
> 
> DH bought another Connex container and it will be delivered Thursday.  We hope to get more alfalfa at $13/bale.  I now that sounds high for all you east of the Rockies, but here in California it is cheap for prime alfalfa.  DH and DS1 plan to put the new container about 15' from the first one and parallel.  Then they will roof between them and fence off each end.  That will become our new hay barn.  We can hang tarps over the ends of the hay in bad rainstorms.
> 
> DH cleaned out the truck yesterday for our trip.  He also bought mud flaps since 4 years ago we got a fix it ticket for not having any on the truck in Texas.  Unfortunately the ones he bought were impossible to attach so they went back and I think DS1 has ordered another set.  If we don't get them before we go to Texas, we will buy some and have them installed there.  Since every truck has to have them in Texas, they must have a lot of shops that will do it.
> 
> Hopefully the trailer is coming home tomorrow and I will start cleaning it.  Every surface has to be wiped down, and the cushions vacuumed.  If I have time, I want to frame in a door under the bedframe and attach a door for access.  That way I can stick stuff under the bed without having to raise the entire mattress and platform.  I can raise it but holding it up while I put stuff in and take stuff out is a real pain.  Literally, since I rest it on my head while I am doing it.      However, we are not taking as much stuff with us since Pretzel will not be traveling with us.  (That way we have room to "borrow" Baymule's new chute gates )  We have packed the trailer for long trips so many times that we have it down pretty good now.  Although I still pack way too much, I have gotten a lot better over the years.  (Like mother, like daughter though - the first time we went on a long summer trip with DD2 (age 17) she packed _all her high heel shoes, _several date dresses, her entire case of makeup, 3 swimsuits, stereo, etc.    We were touring Arizona and hiking to see all the cliff dwellings, the Grand Canyon, old mines, etc.!  2 weeks into the trip I made her put everything into garbage bags and stashed it in the underneath storage compartment.  The first 2 weeks we couldn't walk through the trailer!  LOL
> 
> *GOOD NEWS!*  *DD1 and SIL have finally bought a house!*  Escrow closes August 8 but the sellers need several weeks to get out of the house since their new one is not ready.  DD1 and SIL have to be out of their rental so they will be moving into our house while we are in Texas.  The house has everything they want along with a large dance 1000S.F. studio buiIt onto the house.  The seller ran it as a professional dance studio where she gave lessons as well as choreographing dances.  DD1 and SIL plan to use it as a party room and dojo for doing karate (the whole family is into this and many of their friends also).  The dojo room also has a huge screen for movies and built in projector for them  They are excited about holding parties there.  Tons of storage especially in the Dojo room While it does not have anywhere to keep horses, I don't think they will ever get any. There is a small area where they can put a chicken coop, there are several fruit trees, grape vines, etc.  The back of the property is steep but has paths and steps to the upper garden areas, everything has drip lines, and it has a great pool.  Best of all for SIL the house s covered in solar panels and apparently the sellers get $700/mo credit back on their utility bills every month.  That includes with A/C and heating the pool in the winter.  Probably why SIL bought it.  Anyway, they are ecstatic.  It the pix are still up, you can find the listing at Zillow 9940 Shadow Hills Drive, Shadow Hills, CA.  Great house with lots of room to hold entire family for ALL HOLIDAYS!
> 
> So happy for them and already planning to move all my party stuff (chafing dishes, party ware, etc.) over there.  Also giving them some of my patio furniture, and of course other furniture and paintings, rugs etc. that have been stored in "Mom's Furniture Warehouse"!  Also, now DD1 will be able to take delivery of the gold Picard china and other antiques that her great grandmother left her and I have been storing for what seems like centuries!   The sellers are letting them transfer all their stuff into the dojo room since they have to be out of the rental.  SIL is hiring movers so their furniture will stay stored until they can actually bring it into the house.
> 
> Have I mentioned that this is GOOD NEWS! and A WONDERFUL THING!  They are happy that they finally have the house they love and I am happy that I can finally unload all the stuff they have been storing here back into their home!!!
> 
> However, some worrying news.  Bubba has been chewing his paws and lower legs.  I worried that it was hot spots and took him to the vet.  Since he does not have fleas, the vet thinks it is some sort of OCD thing.  ??????   Really?!  He is on some sort of light meds to see if it will control his chewing.  Otherwise it is Prozac time!  Since I don't believe in putting him on a drug like that (I keep all the good stuff for myself!) we will have to see.  The vet thought that having him kenneled for the 8 days with the film thing might have made him more upset and made him chew himself more.  I am ordering something from Chewey that is spray on and designed to be safe if he chews it off.  It is designed to stop the itching but if this is a nervous habit who knows if it will work.  I will try it anywy.  I'm also considering grinding some hot chilis into stuff to brush on his legs, but will it burn his skin?  Not sure and don't want to go from one bad thing to another.  He also has damaged his left eye, the pupil is distended.  I have an appointment with a doggy opthamologist on the 18th - the earliest I could get but am not hopeful.  I mainly want to make sure that it was from an injury rather than genetic or a disease.  If it is a disease or genetic I will immediately notify Erick and make arrangements to have Bubba neutered.  I was getting ready to have him OFAed so Erick could collect him but if it is genetic I know Erick will have me fix him ASAP.  That was always my plan after having him collected anyway.  We will see what the eye doctor says about it.  Poor Bubba actually sort of growled at Dr. Stern when I took him in for the chewing and his eye (which we just had discovered the night before).  Dr. Stern was shocked since Bubba had never done that before.  But the raw patches  his legs might have hurt and of course if he was having trouble out of his left eye it would make him nervous.  DS1 said Bubba had growled when he looked at his oweys the day before.  He didn't growl at me, but as we all know I am the ALPHA BITCH!  HEE HEE HEE!
> 
> I will let you now what happens.


I know this sounds silly...but a lot of dogs will start frantically chewing their legs/feet if their anal glands are full.
It can actually cause some strange behaviors but that's #1  Maybe try expressing them and see if that helps too?


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## Ridgetop

Good idea - I will check him and try it.  I haven't noticed him rubbing his butt which is what our mini Dachs did before I expressed hers - she weighed abut 7 lbs. and the smell nearly knocked me over!    Can't wait to express Bubba's - he weighs 150 lbs!     LOL


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## Devonviolet




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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> That's a super nice place. It is described as a horse property.....where is the horse supposed to go? I can see why they are excited to have it, it is a beautiful home.



Nowhere for the horse to go except - you guessed it - Mom and Dad's!  However, they don't have time to ride, for the kids to have any lessons, much less take care of any horses, and SIL never had any pets so he isn't even too receptive to a puppy. 
They take the kids to church activities, karate, music lessons, sports, swim team, junior lifeguard, etc. 

On the other hand, they love entertaining and this house will make it easy to do so.  They will need a pool man, gardener, and a cleaning crew every week though.  Lots of $$$.  But both of them work and they can afford it.  DD1 has never had a house this large and both of them work long hours. 

Last night was DS1's birthday party and our family were discussing holding monthly or every 2 monthly movie nights with popcorn and root beer floats in the Dojo room which has the giant movie screen and projector equipment. (Sellers are leaving that.)  Our entire family likes each other and enjoys being together - my brother in Seattle says we are dysfunctional.   

That is what makes the decision to move away so hard.   DD1 has already scoped out the ways for the grandkids to ride their bikes or hike to our house from their new one.  It would be super simple if they had ponies or horses, otherwise they have to hike over two steep hills (see photos of our back pasture) and then around to the back gate.   In a few more years they will be older too, and not so interested in seeing us.


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## AmberLops

Ridgetop said:


> Good idea - I will check him and try it.  I haven't noticed him rubbing his butt which is what our mini Dachs did before I expressed hers - she weighed abut 7 lbs. and the smell nearly knocked me over!    Can't wait to express Bubba's - he weighs 150 lbs!     LOL


Oh I know...the smell is terrible! When you do it pretty much for a living (like 60% of appointments at the clinic are expressions) you start to notice that every dogs glands have a different smell ha ha!


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## Ridgetop

OMG!  AmberLops!  I really feel for you.  I read somewhere that when at an autopsy police officers will often put a dab of Vicks type ointment under their noses.  Can you do that?  Or a clothespin?  

Just got a call from the doggy eye doctor.  They have a cancellation for this afternoon so will take Bubba in at 1:30 pm. today.  Happy to see what is going on.  He seems more calm so may be getting used to his vision problem.  I would be more worried about him working as a solitary LGD if he turns out to have lost the sight in one eye.  Having a blindside in a fight would be bad, but the other 2 dogs will help him in the event of a predator fight.  I hope it is some type of temporary injury.

I tried expressing his glands but didn't seem to have anything to express.  I will try again later .  He is pretty big so even with DS1 holding him I may not have found them!    I did apologize and give him a hug afterwards for embarrassing him.


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## Ridgetop

Ridgetop said:


> I did apologize and give him a hug afterwards for embarrassing him.



Bubba, not DS1.


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## AmberLops

Ha ha I think I would offend the dogs owners by wearing a clothespin  and usually my face is buried in the dogs fur when I restrain them so the ointment would be...hairy  Good ideas though! I'm sure they both work.
I hope his vision problem is minor and that it can be fixed 

Maybe the doggy eye doctor can express his glands?? ha ha!
If you can stomach this, and if he'll tolerate it...going in and expressing them internally is a lot easier and faster.
You just need a glove and tons of paper towels  If you lived closer I would do it!


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## Bruce

AmberLops said:


> You just need a glove and tons of paper towels  If you lived closer I would do it!


Sooooo, if they move to TX, you'll drive all the way from TN to express the dog's glands??



Ridgetop said:


> Bubba, not DS1.


The funny part of this is that over on BYC there is a woman who calls her son Bubba. When I read you were going to express Bubba's glands ...


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## AmberLops

Bruce said:


> Sooooo, if they move to TX, you'll drive all the way from TN to express the dog's glands??
> 
> 
> The funny part of this is that over on BYC there is a woman who calls her son Bubba. When I read you were going to express Bubba's glands ...


Ha ha! I would if I could


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## Baymule

AmberLops said:


> Ha ha! I would if I could


Then we would throw a Texas Party!


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## AmberLops

Baymule said:


> Then we would throw a Texas Party!


A Texas party...that sounds like fun! Don't start it without me


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> The funny part of this is that over on BYC there is a woman who calls her son Bubba. When I read you were going to express Bubba's glands ...


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## Ridgetop

Well back from the vet and the news is not good.  Only minor quiet growling at the unknown lady vet who was shining bright lights in his eyes and then sticking drops in to deaden it, poking it, etc.  Final verdict - poor Bubba has a cataract in that eye and a detached retina as well.  His left eye is blind with no hope of sight recovery in that eye.  On the other hand, his right eye is perfect.  I was worried about this being a genetic condition since he has not had any injury lately - the doctor kept asking about injuries.  He was kenneled for a week, Josie the mule was moved to another pasture where he was nowhere near her, then suddeny his eye dilated and would not contract!  No injuries - but suddenly I remembered that Erick had called me very upset about a bad injury he suffered to his face and eye when he was about 12 weeks old.  He was bitten in the face by either his mother or another adult dog.  The bite was at his eye socket, and his eye was swollen out of the socket for several days.  Erick was afraid he was going to be permanently maimed but it eventually healed with no sign of the bite wound or eye trauma, as both Erick and we thought.  The vet opthalmologist said that puppyhood injury was most probably the cause of this.  She said that he probably suffered trauma to the eye structure in that wound as a puppy and that it has taken this long to show up.  She felt that the original injury caused either the early development of the cataract which then caused irritation to the eye causing the detached retina, or the detached retina causing the cataract.  She lost me at that point as to which came first.  Her original recommendation was to neuter him thinking it might be a genetic abnormality, but after she heard about the injury as a puppy she reversed her opinion and said that it was probably a delayed reaction to that injury.  That was good news since I was worried he might eventually suffer the same problem in the right eye.

I immediately called Erick since I was planning to have him OFAed before we left for Texas and my contract requires I allow Erick to collect him depending on the results of his OFA x-rays.  I explained everything to Erick and after we discussed the injury (which he remembered as one of the most horrible things he had seen) we have decided to go forward with the OFA and eventual collection.  He really wants Bubba's genetics since he doesn't have anything out of Bubba's mother and she has true Anatolian character - IOW she is very suspicious of strangers!  LOL  So is Bubba.  His father is super mellow like his litter mate Rika.  Akis is not, being really watchful and not trusting any strangers (and some acquaintances) at all - just like Bubba. LOL

Hopefully, Bubba will adjust to only having sight in his right eye.  He has the other 2 Anatolians to back him up in any predator battles (so glad we got Angel) and he will do just fine at his job of LGD.  DH brought up a possibility about his licking the hair off his feet and lower legs.  Dr. Star hadsaid the "hot spots" were actually granulomas caused by him obsessively licking all the fur off his paws and lower legs in spots.  He thought it was a nervous OCD.  He said that it could be made worse by stress - like when he was kenneled when the film people were here.  We did notice that he had a  lot more raw spots then.  Anyway, DH suggested that the licking might have started when Bubba began having vision problems in his left eye some months ago.  We couldn't see these changes or the cataract until his pupil dilated and refused to contract last week, but the cataract had to have been forming for some months and the retina detaching would have caused vision loss too.  Hopefully, he will eventually adjust to the change in his vision and the obsessive licking will stop.  The medication we got from Dr. Star has already caused a lessening of the licking problem and all but 2 sores have healed up.  The last 2 open sores are much smaller and seem to be closing up too.   I am going to order some spray on anti itch antibiotic non-toxic stuff from Chewey and also my prescriptions for the stuff Dr. Star gave us and the eye salve and drops that we have to use on Bubba's left eye now - forever.    Poor boy.  

It could have been a lot worse.  It could have been some type of degenerative eye disease that would have eventually left him blind in both eyes.  However the vet today said his other eye was perfect so he should be able to cope and live to a ripe old age with sight in just one eye.  We will just have to put salve in his bad eye 3x weekly, drops 1x daily, and the Atrip??? stuff for the licking 1x daily.  He is worth it - my sweet Bubba. 


    

The trailer is back from the repair shop.  tomorrow after bridge DH wants to go to Camping World and get some stuff for our trip.  Then we have to repack the underbelly, clean the interior, make up the bed, check the supplies, and start loading our clothes and STUFF for Texas.  Time to make lists . . .  long lists  . . . many lists . . . .


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## AmberLops

I'm sorry about his eye...but it could be worse as you said that it could have been genetic.
Have you thought about doing an enucleation for that eye in the future? It makes the process a whole lot easier, especially for you guys. He could be the one-eyed bandit on your farm!


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## Baymule

AmberLops said:


> I'm sorry about his eye...but it could be worse as you said that it could have been genetic.
> You might want to look into doing an enucleation for that eye in the future. It makes the process a whole lot easier, especially for you guys. He could be the one-eyed bandit on your farm!


That's what I was thinking. If he is blind in that eye, wouldn't it be easier on all involved to have it removed? Slap me down if I am wrong, I don't want to hurt any feelings here. It has to be a terrible shock to get this diagnosis on your beloved Bubba. Poor baby, he sure is a majestic dog. At least now you know and can give him the care he needs.


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## RollingAcres

Poor Bubba, sorry to hear about his left eye.


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## Ridgetop

The vet ophthalmologist said that she did not want to remove the eye unless it really bothered him or started causing a problem - infections etc.  She wants to see him again in November and at that time depending on what is going on with it we can address the issue.  Eventually, after getting him OFAed (scheduled for next Monday) and collected - Erick prefers to collect in fall or spring - we will have him neutered.  If we decide to have the eye removed I think I will arrange to have it done at the same time.  Anatolians are sensitive to anesthesia - I need to remind the vet that they are like Greyhounds - so the less he has to go under the better it would be for him and us. 

His eye doesn't bother him at the moment so we will see how it goes.  I am wondering now how long the cataract was affecting his sight before he finally lost all sight from the retina detaching.  Of course, he couldn't tell us anything poor boy.  It doesn't seem to make any difference to him in his activities - playing with the other dogs, working, guarding, etc.  I imagine that with the cataract the loss of sight may have come on gradually and he just adjusted to it over time.

It does take the pressure to try showing him again off me though!  He didn't like the judge trying to look in his mouth and I really don't want him DQed with a reputation for a bad temperament!  Erick told me that when we collect him I should have some straws collected for myself as well, since there are many breeders on the west coast who would like to have the Lucky Hit genetics.  I was shocked when he told me how much to charge for 1 straw!   I will certainly collect some for myself, especially since Erick will do the work of okaying any bitch whose owner wants a breeding.  I really am not interested in breeding dogs anymore, although  looove puppies!  I prefer buying them already whelped, introduced to livestock, and their working abilities checked out by Erick!  LOL  Angel is a case in point.  Excellent guarding ability and as soon as she outgrows her desire to chew everything she sees she will be perfect.  Hopefully she lives that long since she tried to chew Black Dragon's running board the other day!  DH2 was not amused.    Luckily the running board retracts so she avoided premature death.  LOL 

Poor sweet Bubba.  Such a good boy.  You can't even tell about his eye by looking at him.  He is as beautiful and impressive as ever.  He'll be around a long time.  We were lucky.


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## Baymule

Oh NOOOOOOO!!!!!! Not the Black Dragon!!! BAD ANGEL!! Whew! She narrowly avoided the death penalty or incarceration for life!  

I'm glad that Bubba is adjusting to his blind eye, hope he does ok with it.


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## AmberLops

Baymule said:


> Oh NOOOOOOO!!!!!! Not the Black Dragon!!! BAD ANGEL!! Whew! She narrowly avoided the death penalty or incarceration for life!
> 
> I'm glad that Bubba is adjusting to his blind eye, hope he does ok with it.


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## Ridgetop




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## Ridgetop

I got out the clippers, blades, lube, etc.  Luckily I don't have to go into the Connex (which I would have had to unload until I found the correct box).  I had moved the hand shears into the large blade box.  Here are doe photos of them.  The brands of large electric clippers are Andis and Heinigger - both German made clippers.  Our small clippers are Andis and Oster.  We have had about 6-8 sets of them over the years.   The 2 in the photo are Oster and Andis variable speed clippers with interchangeable blades.  I have another one in the house that I used to cut my boys' hair when the old human hair clipper broke.    No sense buying one just for humans when I have heavier duty ones that will do the job.  




 These are only some of the clippers and blades we have.


 These are the hand shears with leather scabbards.  They are spring formed and back in the day would have been what you would hire lots of shearers to shear your flock with.  These haven't ben used to completely shear wool sheep since the invention of the electric clippers - blessings on the head of that person!  Years ago when we first showed breeding sheep in the wool, these were used to "sculpt" the sheep.  In other words, after the basic wash and shear to leave about 4-6" of wool, you would feather shear the wool to hide faults and improve good points.  Again, blessings on the sheep industry when they decided that breeding sheep should be shown slick shorn.  Back in the day a good fitter could and did make a poor animal look great.



 This is DS2's Hoeniger clipper with the sheep head on it.  The cutting blades attach to the prongs.  The large head to the right rear is a cattle head which he used to body clip the 30-50 goats we would take to shows.  It took weeks to shave them all, and DS2 decided to speed up the clipping by doing the bodies with the larger clipper with wider blades and then finish them off with the smaller clippers.  The 2 toothy thing in front are the come (top) and the cutter (bottom).  Thee 2 pieces work together to cut the wool.  Blades - combs and cutters - come in different sizes.  The ones shown here are for basic shearing of long wool.  The bottle of oil is to oil the clipper motor to keep it cool, not the blades.  The black box to the left is a blade box to keep your blades in  They are expensive and dropping them can snap off teeth making for a ragged cut.  I prefer to keep my just sharpened blades wrapped in a paper towel soaked in oil.  This keeps them from rusting.  You want several sets of combs and cutters since you need to replace them as they dull while shearing.  



  This is an Andis shears belonging to DS1 then DS3.  It has only the sheep head on it since DS1 did not do dairy goats after he realized he hated milking!    I have several sets of blades shown  here ranging from the basic shearing blade for sheep in wool through slick shearing for market lambs.  You will notice that the teeth are closer together as they make a closer shear.  For the tighter shear for market lambs and showing stock you wash the lambs first in dish soap to removed as much of the lanolin and dirt as possible.  This makes for a smoother shear for the show ring. 


 These are smaller hand clippers for doing legs, heads, faces, and goats.  They are an Oster and an Andis with interchangeable blades.  The blades for these are one piece and I have shown a wider body blade, a medium blade, and a surgical blade that is used for udders.  The  boys were not allowed to use the surgical blade until they were very proficient in shaving since the surgical blade can easily cut skin.  The round plastic box in the back is for holding blades.  Protecting blades is paramount since they run from $10 a set to $25 a set 20 years ago and are more now.  These clippers also need to have the motors occasionally oiled.  The 2 cans to the rear are spray blade disinfectant and spray Kool Lube.  I didn't have any blade wash so will have to get some. 

With the number of goats the boys were exhibiting, we used to have to replace 1 or 2 of these smaller hand clippers annually.  I also used them to clean up the horses' fetlocks and bridle paths when the kids were in a parade.  Very useful, but not enough power to cut through lanolin enriched wool.  Using an under powered clipper on sheep will burn out the motor.

I am posting this now, then I will post pix of the stanchion.


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## Ridgetop

Here is a picture of our first stanchion.  It is a double so we could put both of our first milkers in at once.  They were star milkers and gave huge amounts of mill all season b were not super god show goats.  They were not bad, just not terrific.  We gradually built up the quality.   They had extremely good attachments though which was necessary since they were such prolific milkers.

As you can see, this stanchion used 4x4s as legs and corner posts for the framework of each stanchion.  2x4s were the framework for the  platform.  The side bars were 1x6.  The lower side piece was the side support for the grain box.  There was a hinged top for the grain box that we shut after milking so rats didn't get in the feeding box and pee on the grain.  The platform was cut from a sheet of plywood and formed a seat between the 2 stanchions for milking ease.  The drawback of this plywood platform is obvious.  We had to hose it off frequently due to pee and poop that couldn't fall through.  On the other hand, it was economical to build and very sturdy.  If you want a permanent stanchion this worked beautifully, although you will have to switch the animal from side to side when shearing since you can't reach more than one side of the goat or sheep.  We had 2 of these side by side in the milkshed by the time our younger boys were running goat herds since DS2 milked our 12-18 milkers with a machine am and pm year round. 



 

  This is a portable metal stanchion that folds up for storage or transport to shows.  The left picture is the stanchion with a sheep head.  The head locks the sheep into position for fitting so it can't move around.  I don't like this head since it is too narrow for larger rams.  I had an adjustable one that I sold.    My bad.  the center picture is the same stanchion with the goat head piece and the hoop below for holding a grain bucket.  We found that a plastic 5 quart ice cream bucket fit perfectly so didn't need to replace any buckets after that.  (4 kids - figure it out!)    Notice that the support of both headpieces is square tubing and they both fit into the same square tubing holder with a turn screw to hold them firm.  Also note that there are 4 additional square tubing pieces welded to the platform.  These are used for side bars that slide into them to keep the sheep from falling or stepping off the side of the stanchion and strangling themselves.  NEVER leave the animal unattended on the stanchion, since this is a sheep's favorite hobby - causing heart failure in the owner as you struggle to lift 100-300 lbs of struggling sheep back onto the stanchion.  The only thing they like more is if they are soaking wet!     The pictures below is the stanchion folded up for storage or transport, and the stanchion and lambing jugs folded and disassembled for storage until needed.


 


These folding stanchions are really nice since you can fold them up store them until needed.  Some companies are even making them in lightweight versions of aluminum.  However, unless your  animals are trained to this stanchion, they can fall (or try to jump)off pulling the stanchion over on themselves.  Even more heart stopping.  There are various other types, including crank up ones where you walk the larger breeds on then crank the stanchion into a higher position.  DS1 had one but it was too much for me to crank so only he could actually use it. 

Can't load any more files so will post and go on to the next one.


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## Ridgetop

???OOPS!!!

Oh well, to continue. Here is a picture f DS2 showng a younger boy how to shear one of our Dorsets.


 They are using a general shearing blade since this yearling ewe is wearing a full year's fleece.  I am too old to get down like that any more.     Or rather once I am down I can't get up and once I am up I can't walk!  

The next 2 pix are old ones from DS1's 4-H record book.  The left one shows him shearing his yearling market production flock sire using the stanchion and head piece.  That was a great market sire DS1 saved up and bought from a lovely breeder in Bakersfield.  She brought that lamb's sire in from a top breeder in Indiana or Iowa and saved the best ram lamb for DS1.   He produced top quality market show lambs.                                       The right hand picture is the finished product. 


 

 

 The final picture is DS1 placing 1st in Sr. Market Lamb Showmanship at the fair with a properly fitted lamb.  Have to get in a little bragging on my boy.  The picture is from 23 years ago.  I just love looking through their old record books and seeing them looking so young and remembering all the fun we had.  When DS1 was 11 he decided to enter the 4-H horse show.  He polished his boots for hours.  After the show his chestnut paint horse had black horizontal stripes where DS1 had not got all the boot polish off his boots!   

Anyway, hope these long posts help.  Please excuse the bragging.


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## Mike CHS

There is a big difference between bragging and showing a Mom's pride.


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## Baymule

What great memories! haha, I can't squat down anymore and durn sure can't kneel-it hurts too bad! I'd just have to set on my butt and scoot around to shear a sheep like that. LOL Stanchions are looking better and better. That I can manage. Thanks for the stanchion pictures, it gives me ideas. We can use the sorting gate to either let them go or to direct them to a stanchion. I just have to come up with one. 

That is a shears collection that anybody would be proud of. I sure do appreciate you getting them out, taking pics to show me. I really appreciate you bringing some and teaching me how to shear. Dunno how that is going to go-I have no stanchion yet and as mentioned above, can't kneel or squat. I hope it doesn't come down to me and you sprawled out on the dirt, rolling a sheep around and scooting on our butts after it.  That would make a good America's Funniest Home Video. 

This is going to be fun!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> These haven't ben used to completely shear wool sheep since the invention of the electric clippers - blessings on the head of that person!


That is the type I used to shear Teddy on Sunday, DD1 and DW took turns with regular scissors on the neck and legs. I have a Premier 1 electric shearer with both regular and camelid combs. But I can't get it to cut more than maybe half a side before it isn't cutting well at all. I think there is just too much dirt in those animals' fiber. They do enjoy rolling around in a dirt pit anytime there is no snow on the ground.


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## Baymule

@Bruce you just need to give them a good shampoo first!


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## Bruce

Bless your heart Bay


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## Mike CHS

When we were loading the wether for @Latestarter  to go to the butcher, we had him at the trailer and I saw him eye balling the open space (about 18 inches) under the gate and just knew he was going to go for it.  When he dived down to get under the gate I dived down on top of him so he still got loaded.  We (all of us) can do it when we have to.


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## Baymule

We've done some crazy sheep loading around here. Steer doggin' ain't got nuthin on sheep tackling.


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## Ridgetop

DS1 is the clipper expert around here.  DS2 runs a close second.  I shear but make them put the blades on for me. LOL   DS1 is giving me lessons on correctly attaching the blades before I come back there.  Not only do you have to adjust the blades at just the right length from the end of the comb, but you have to also adjust the tension at which they move back and forth to cut.  We haven't done any shearing in years so have to do some work on the clippers tomorrow.  We cleaned the head tonight, and tomorrow will take the air filter out and clean it.  I have about 4 or 5 cutter blades that I wrapped in oil soaked paper towels when I got them back from being sharpened.  I packed them away without using them, and I unwrapped a couple and the blades look like new.  DS1 is going to get a new can of SAE20 oil for the motor (we have some but not much) and I will get some Oster Blade Wash to run the blades and head through.  This was a good opportunity to get the clippers out and give them a going over.  They have been in their cases in the shed unused for the past 15 years!  LOL  I will work on the hand shears too - they have developed a little rust on the edges and I will use some Naval jelly and steel wool to clean them up.   DS1 sorted out the blades, and has separated out the heavy duty shearing ones and the closer slick shearing ones for sheep from the blades we used with the cattle head for the goats.  They have dfferent screw spacing.  I will just bring back the Hoeniger clipper, sheep shearing blades, Kool Lube, blade disinfectant (always good to use between sheep and flocks) and blade wash.  (Tupping harnesses and hot temp crayons are already packed in trailer.)  Getting ready to go!  

As long as you have halters it won't take much work to take the strip of wool off the top of their backs.  They won't need much more than that.  I haven't bothered taking the wool off mine that don't completely shed out since it protects them from sunburn.  And gives me a "handle" when necessary!  LOL  However, they really look so much better when slicked shed or clipped off.  This will be fun.  And if I start showing some of my White Dorpers, I will have to start show shearing again anyway.



Bruce said:


> That is the type I used to shear Teddy on Sunday, DD1 and DW took turns with regular scissors on the neck and legs. I have a Premier 1 electric shearer with both regular and camelid combs. But I can't get it to cut more than maybe half a side before it isn't cutting well at all. I think there is just too much dirt in those animals' fiber.



Bruce, maybe you do not have the comb and cutter at the right length or maybe the tension is not right.  Also, if your clipper does not have a sheep head, you won't be able to cut well either.  The cattle head won't do it.   Adjusting the blades and tension can be tricky - I have a hard time although DS1 is  excellent at it.  Most shearers I know can tell the correct blade adjustment and tension by the sound of their clipper when they start it up.  Then they fine tune it before starting to shear.  I don't know anything about the Premier clipper, but Premier has always had excellent customer service so I think if you called them they would be able to help you figure out the problem.  Washing the lambs before slick shearing for a show helps, but you shouldn't have to wash them for a standard annual shearing with the large blade.  You should get at least 6 animals shorn before having to change blades due to dulling - if you start with a set of sharp cutter blades.  Not having the blades adjusted properly will cause them to dull faster though.  I think you should call Premier and tell them your problem with their shears.

(By the way, the comb and cutter I am talking about is the large one that can take off a finger, teat or other apparatus.  If you are using a smaller tooth cutter that may be the problem if the animal's wool is natural in the grease.)

More trailer work - emptying of cabinets, cleaning, and packing tomorrow.  I am trying to cut back on the amount of stuff I usually pack, however, the emptiness of the cabinets has me nervous and wanting to fill them.   I keep telling myself that the less weight in the rig the less gas it will take.   I hope I can keep myself under control.     I get nervous thinking I won't have something I need.  However, isn't that what Wal-Mart is for?  LOL 

DH has been working on the exterior, checking the rig, and repacking all the items he needs - sewer lines, clean water hoses, flushing the water tanks and holding tanks, etc.  He already filled the propane tanks and we have our reservations in the Weatherford KOA.  It is such a nice park and has a lovely pool.  Reserved a spot for DS3 and DIL too.  Also bought the birthday gifts for the grandsons.  Some water toys for the pool, and books for their trip home.  Our plans are to arrive around July 24, and they will be heading home around July 31.  After that the fun starts!  BBQ with Baymule and Devonviolet, fecal exams and shearing.  Life is good!  Bringing wine!

The new Connex container arrived today and DH and DS1 marked out where they wanted it dropped  DH suggested I go out and help decide where it would go but I refused.  If I tried to suggest a different spot they would both tell me to go in the house so why go out in the first place?   They know what they are doing and I had trailer cleaning to do.  It is here now and while we are gone DS1 will have to transfer about 50 bales of hay into it from the barn so we can set up the lambing pens in the barn the end of September.  My first 3 ewes are due September 6 and 7, but they remarked so I really don't expect lambs until the 22nd.  I have an alternate lambing area as well so I'm not worried.  The main group to lamb (5) will be in October.  The last batch (4) will be in December-January.  That is if they have all settled.  The first 3 are definitely looking pregnant and a couple of the others are somewhat rotund as well.  They are all in good condition and so cute with their little collars and bells.     Even hardened animal keepers like me can get sentimental about my sweeties.  LOL

Working on my lists of things to do.  Got Bubba's OFA scheduled.  Other stuff under control so far.  have to get my Board meeting agendas out for the VP while I am gone.  Need to deliver jam Thank yous to outgoing Bridge Club Board members and incoming Board members tomorrow.  I like to sweeten up the Board before the year begins and thank them and other volunteers for the work they have done.  Ordered pies and will pick up tomorrow for club.  I am sure something will go wrong soon.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I think you should call Premier and tell them your problem with their shears.


I did after shearing them 2 years ago when the machine was new. Sent it back for them to check out and sharpen the blades. As I said I have the standard comb and the camelid comb, each with their own cutter. They said the machine was fine and sent it back, no shipping charge even so yes good customer service. They did suggest not doing "second cuts" since the short stuff gloms up in the cutter/comb pair.  Don't oil too much. Have to use more for alpacas though because they don't have lanolin like sheep. But last year I still had the same trouble. I had ordered the hand shears and they sent those in the case when they sent the shearing unit back. Slower but at least they cut. 

These boys are super dirty, they roll in their dirt pit all the time. Once tied to the stand you can run your fingers through the fiber and dirt falls out. So I figure running the cutters through dirt in fiber isn't much different than running a chainsaw into the ground, insta-dull.


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> Our plans are to arrive around July 24, and they will be heading home around July 31.  After that the fun starts!  BBQ with Baymule and Devonviolet, fecal exams and shearing.  Life is good!  Bringing wine!


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## Bruce

Time is getting short!


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## Ridgetop

Well, on our way to Durango on last stage of trip to TX and back - unless DH decides to take side trip to Utah or one of his legendary "short cuts" which take us ????
We had a blast with Bay and her DH!  Drove down early to fix "bad toupees" on sheep, went to dinner and Miranda Lambert place in Lindale.  Devonviolet and her DH took us around the area.  A week later we came out with the trailer and met Devonviolet and her DH.  Bay fixed terrific Keto Lasagne!!!  Got the recipe it was so good.  Too hot for BBQ.  Had BLUE BELL ice cream for first time with Bay's Blueberry Betty.  Wonderful made with oat crust instead of dough crust.  Later had watermelon from their garden! 

Had a great poop party but had trouble spotting worms in fecals.  I thought I was just a deficient worm egg spotter but it turns out that *Devonviolet's goats are almost worm free*!   She has *terrific* management skills to control parasites in her goats. 

I can't wait to try this at home.  Need to buy a microscope.   Maybe I can sneak my grandson's microscope - his mother never let him open it since their house was tiny.  Now they are in the new place I will help unpack and borrow it.  Fecal exams would make a great Science Fair exhibit!  Before and after worming showing the  efficacy of proper parasite control.  DGS1 loves science so would probably love helping with this.

Got to get on the road for Durango.  More about our trip and probable move to TEXAS!  Actually almost definite!  Lots to do first though.


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## Mike CHS

Learning how to do the fecals makes it so much easier to manage the sheep and it sounds like everyone had a good time in Texas.


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## Baymule

We had a blast with @Ridgetop and her husband. While us gals were at the table eyeballing poop, the guys were talking up a storm. @Devonviolet's husband was feeling much better after having open heart surgery. We all had fun and enjoyed ourselves. 

RT, y'all need to get it together, sell your place and get to Texas!


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## Ridgetop

Well, finally back home after 4 weeks in Texas and 2 weeks coming home through Kansas and Colorado to visit DH's cousins.  Then a quick 3 days in Utah. 

We had a great time in Texas with Baymule and her DH, and met Devonviolet and her DH.  We had a wonderful time learning to do fecal exams and Devonviolet has the most worm free goats ever!  I was not finding any worm eggs at all until finally there was one egg!  Thank goodness because I was beginning to think I was just failing to recognize the worm eggs!  Now I need to buy a  microscope to check my own sheep.  I will borrow my grandson's microscope first and see if it is powerful enough.  I think I will need to get a more powerful one with a light in it though.  We had a blast visiting with Baymule and her DH!  They were so much fun.  When we ran the sheep through her chute I was struck with intense lust for her set up.     I must buy a set of gates and set up a chute of my own. 

Next we went to eastern Kansas to visit DH's cousins and it was somewhat bittersweet.  We were shocked to learn that one cousin had died suddenly the previously year.  They all thought we knew since they had told DH's sister but she did not let us know.  Another cousin's husband had Alzheimers and that was sad too.   But all in all we enjoyed our visit with them.  We felt very badly for the farmers whose first plantings had been flooded out.  The farmers replanted but hail destroyed the young wheat.  Most of the crops we saw were soybeans which had been planted late but were doing well.  Some milo and corn was up in western Kansas.   Many of the corn fields were not looking too good.  

Then on to Colorado and what a surprise to travel the Wolf Creek pass!  It had been years since we were there and they had completely rebuilt the highway!  We did not even recognize little Pagosa Springs which is now a huge tourist vacation spot!  The scenery was lovely and I did not need to travel the pass with my eyes shut!  On the way, luckily before we reached the pass we had a blowout on our trailer  Luckily DH had replaced the spare before we left after noticing it did not look too good.  We called AAA and had it changed.  Once we reached Durango DH bought a new tire to replace the spare.  We had a lovely time visiting DH's relatives in Durango.  While there we finally took the Durange-Silverton narrow gauge railroad trip.  DH has wanted to go on it since he was a child when he would come every summer to visit his grandmother in Durango.  Every time we had been in Durango we couldn't get tickets.  This time I made reservations early.  When DH found out how much they cost now, he hyperventilated a bit then said he did not need to go on the train.  I said he would go and enjoy it!  I do not plan to be told on his deathbed that I had never let him ride the Durango-Silverton narrow gauge train!  

When we left Durange DH announced we would go to Utah and visit a Dorper sheep breeder we met at the show in May.  We had bought 4v of his animals and he told us to come see him if we were in Utah.  We had never been there and the scenery was fantastic.  Our acquaintance, Travis, is a sheep farmer and hay grower (alfalfa and grain hay) in south central Utah.  He told us to go to Capital Reef National Park which is a lesser known park in the state.  How gorgeous!  Deep red cliffs intersected with thick white strata - looked like a red velvet cake with white filling and frosting!  DH and I marveled at the extremely rough terrain and the courage of those Mormon pioneers who traveled through that harsh landscape with its sheer cliffs intersected with broken ground, sand, and tilted upshoots of sharp rock and shale.  Beautiful and deadly land without water, then suddenly a small river in what is called a "waterfold"!  Incredible area!

More later - family just arrived and we haven't seen them in 6 weeks.


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## RollingAcres

Sounds like a great trip!


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## Baymule

Yay! Family is there! Round 'em up and bring them with ya'll to Texas!


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## Ridgetop

Back now! Baymule - Instead of bringing our family with us I will be happy to leave them in our dust.  After discussing our proposed sale of our house and move to Texas which we have been talking about for 3 years, our children are very upset with us.  They have completely ignored our reasons - financial improvement, change in neighborhood, loss of horse keeping zoning, horrible state government, etc., etc. 

DD1 is angry and "disappointed" in us for moving to Texas.  Apparently if DS1 goes with us she will have no one to ferry her children to and from sports activities.  She has told him he can live with them (as long as she needs him to watch her children).  No salary was mentioned.  It is our fault.  Having just moved into her new house the day before we returned, she was too angry and upset to tell me anything about it because I told her we had a real estate broker coming out tomorrow to give us an idea of the value and pricing of the property.

Our grandchildren starting crying and begging us to stay. 

DS2 is worried that we may be making a "stupid" mistake in "starting a large sheep operation" in Texas.  I don't know where he got the idea that we would be running hundreds of sheep since we don't plan to increase our flock to more than about 25-30 head and that would be gradually. We currently have 15 head.  I asked him what he thought we had been doing for years now - no answer.    He wasn't worried when he and DS3 had 150 dairy goats.

DS1 hates the thought of leaving his niece and nephews (as do we) but is afraid to let us go alone because he thinks we "may be too old to manage" without him.    Now where did I leave my walker???  (DS1 read this over my shoulder and insists he did not say we were too old, just that we are too "feeble"!   ) 

DD2 has not favored us with her opinion of us for moving since she is no longer talking to us because we disagree with her quitting her good job WITH PAID HEALTHCARE to live with her loser good-for-nothing boyfriend and support him. 
At this point I am looking forward to leaving them all behind!   

Anyway, tomorrow we have a 10 am appointment with an excellent broker (_not _the one DD1 used) and will have more idea of whether or not it will be financially feasible.  Once we know for how much to list, and how fast it might sell, we will probably put in a contingency offer on a property we saw when we were in Texas.  Back tomorrow, too annoyed with my children to write more now.


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## Baymule

Hammer a*  G.T.T.* note on your door...….

for those of you who don't know, in the 1800's, people nailed a GTT piece of paper to their door, loaded up and were GONE TO TEXAS.

Life is an adventure. I'm going to live every minute of it.


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## RollingAcres

Sorry to hear of your "troubles" with your children. I don't think you "owe" them any explanation of why you and your DH want to move to Texas. 



Ridgetop said:


> she will have no one to ferry her children to and from sports activities.


Sorry, some of us don't have family close by to do that for us. So you figure it out yourself, juggle your work schedule or hire someone to do that. Or work something out with another sports parent to see if they each can car pool or something. 

I like what @Baymule said about G.T.T!


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## High Desert Cowboy

Sounds like a good trip overall.  Durango is a nice area, I used to cowboy in a little town west of it called Mancos and it’s one of my favorite places on earth. I’d probably still be living there if I was still cowboying.  Where at in south central Utah did you pass through?  I imagine it’s frustrating with your children, I’m currently in their shoes as my mom and stepdad just moved to Oklahoma but you gotta do what’s right for you.


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## Mike CHS

Teresa's 3 kids tried to talk us out of moving to Tennessee 5 years ago when we bought our place.  As it turns out, one moved to California, one moved to Nevada and the third is still in South Carolina but not where he used to live.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

I hope you do what you and your DH think is best for you.  Your children and grandchildren will adjust.  Will you and your DH regret moving Texas and missing your kids and grandkids?  Might happen.  But as Mr. @Mike CHS pointed out, your kids may decide to move somewhere else, leaving you and your DH there by yourselves.  And it is not as if you can't change your mind.  If you get to Texas and decide it's not for you, then the highway runs both ways from California to Texas!

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

Thank you all for your support!  The children will adjust and if they don't, it will not affect us since we will be in Texas!  LOL  I am feeling better today, although still annoyed at their temerity in trying to tell us what to do.  We are not in our dotage yet (although feeble ad old!)  LOL

Anyway, our agent came by this morning and liked the house and property.  She loved our workshop, barn, and additional outbuildings.  The patio was considered fantastic and of course the view is to die for.  It is almost 360 degrees and encompasses city lights as well as country hills and mountains.  However, since Shadow Hills has only 2 tract homes developments, all the homes are custom and unusual sizes of property.  Our property consists of 2 lots, so she  said she has to check around for more comps on bare land.  Sadly, our area is losing horse people, the people that are moving in want giant mansions, prices are all over the board, and she doesn't know how long it would take to get a buyer.  Sales have been slow all year and she is afraid of a repeat of 2008 when property tanked.  On the other hand, sales typically slow down between now and the end of the year so we will have time to get all the junk (that I have been hassling DH about for years) off the property, and tidy up the yard areas that are currently dirt.  We will fill I the front area that you enter through with good quality astroturf, but she said that the other areas could be mulched instead.  Much cheaper and easier.  We were not planning to sell now but found a ranch in Texas we really like.  It has been on the market for over a year, so is probably over priced which means that we have a chance at getting it eventually.  The seller is receptveto a contingency offer.  We don't want to close and move until after Christmas, but if necessary we can put up temporary fencing on DS3's 5 acres and move the sheep and dogs there should we get an offer.  We can put all our furniture into storage and live in our 5th wheel trailer temporarily.  We are negotiable on the price.  We have been here for 32 years so DH is calculating how far we can lower the price to avoid capital gains, still have enough for our move, and be attractively priced.  Lots to do.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch the mustachioed villain is tying Little Dora to the railway tracks . . . .  Oops, wrong story!  Actually DD1, SIL, and the 3 grandchildren moved into their new house the day before we returned.  They have been living in our house since the day after we drove away!  Along with DS1, DS2, his fiancée, and SIL's brother and sister in law who came for a week or two to stay with DD1 and her family in their new house.  Since they could not actually get into their house the relatives joined the rest of the family in _our_ house.  DS1 got the extra double bed mattress and springs out of the storage container and set them up in the children's playroom,  previously DD2's bedroom.  The mattress and spring are still there since we want to remove the other furniture that is going to DD1's new house out of the storage container and take it over there first.  We also have to remove half the furniture from the patio and relocate it to DD1's patio.  Not to mention all their other belongings, bicycles, and toys.  

So, back to our trip - we had a lovely time but also had 2 blowouts on our trailer tires!  The first one occurred in Colorado as we approached Wolf Creek pass.  Luckily there was a ranch road (actually purveyors of elk, bison, and goat jerky, roasts, etc.) and we turned in there since the road we were on was a single lane wide.  The blown tire pieces damaged the skirting of the trailer.    But we were not hurt - DH is an excellent driver!  We relaxed in the shade as we waited for AAA to come out and change the tire.

    
We had a brand new spare tire - DS1 having noticed that the old spare was not looking too good, like the tread was peeling etc.  DH had replaced the spare before the trip, so AAA put it on and we continued into Durango.  In Durango he replaced the devastated tire with another new spare tire. 

The second blowout occurred as we left Utah.  Luckily it was just before we crossed the border since Utah has DOT personnel patrolling their roads to assist people who break down, have blowouts, etc. 
   Again some minor damage to the underside of the trailer but not as bad as the other side.  
Again AAA came out and changed the tire.  It took longer for the call and transfers to the appropriate AAA people (each of whom asked for the same information before passing me on to the "correct" extension) than it did for the tow truck to arrive!  The kind DOT man stayed with us and helped to change the shredded tire for our new Durango spare. 
OH NO!  THE NEW SPARE WAS SMALLER THAN THE NORMAL TIRE!!!    WHAT?!!
 The tow truck man and the Dot man both helpfully pointed out that the other tire on that side was also damaged and about to blow.     Slowly and carefully DH drove to the off ramp and into town where we had been told by the DOT man that there was a Discount Tire.   

DH bought 4 new tires, and we put the brand new spare that had replaced the first blowout back into the spare tire position.  The small tire he put the truck to return to the dealer with some choice words!  After a short delay of 3 hours, we were again on the road home.

Those blowouts and the Colorado KOA campground that warned us not to walk around outside after dark because the neighbor's Pyrenees had treed a bear in the camp the previous night were our only brushes with danger.  LOL  I will upload some of the fabulous scenery pix tomorrow.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Wow, you and your DH had quite the adventures with tires!  Glad you folks weren't stranded somewhere that would have necessitated walking 20 miles to the nearest highway!    Maybe on your trip back to Texas you should put 4 spares in the back of the truck!  Looking forward to the pictures!


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## Baymule

I hate blowouts! Y’all got the right idea, call, sit in shade until help arrives. That stinks about the damage, but it can be fixed. 

Sounds like your kids are realizing y’all ain’t ready for sitting in a rocking chair in a drooling stupor— at least not yet!


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## Ridgetop

DS2 popped the question last night! No one noticed the ring until tonight when I saw the sparkle on her hand at DD1's house!  So happy and excited for them both.  She hasn't told her mom and dad yet although DS2 went to her dad to ask permission.  She is planning to go tomorrow after church.  They will be happy too!  A wedding and bridal showers are on the horizon!  DD1 got her nice new house just in time!  Although I might host the shower here - a last party at this house.

DD1's house is nice, but very cluttered with all their moving boxes.  The pool and patio are lovely and the kids are enjoying swimming with their uncles.  This evening we took over their patio furniture and some of the pieces we are giving them.  I think she will have to get rid of some of her old furniture too!

Yes, everyone, we have real estate people coming to give us appraisals on our house in readiness to sell and move to Texas.  We really can't wait anymore and still be able bodied enough to make a success of our move.  We have a tree guy coming on Wednesday to remove the rest of the tree trunk from the tree that fell on our house several years ago.  DS3 said we can come get the dump trailer next week so we can begin throwing out everything that we do not want to take with us or give to our children.  Some of the stuff we don't take and they don't want will be donated to St. Vincent de Paul.  It will probably take quite a few loads to clear out everything since a lot of the stuff here is building materials that we have been planning to use on future "projects".  Too bad, but now when I look at it I just see junk that needs to be hauled away!  LOL

DH and I figured out the most $$ we can clear in a sale and not have to pay capital gains taxes.  We will compare that with what the various real estate agents want to price the house and land at, and hopefully meet in the middle for a quick sale.  Since nothing usually moves between October and January, we probably will be able to get downsized and ready for the move by the time the house sells and goes through escrow.  We are trying to decide whether to breed our 2 yearling ewes though since they will be lambing in January right when we hope to be moving. 

3 of our ewes are  huge and have large udders.  One is the ewe I really want a ewe lamb out of, and the other is a yearling first freshener.  She is huge, but was a larger ewe anyway.  One of the second timers is not very big, but may still produce twins.  Hopefully so.  The others are due between October and early November.  We need to get the lambing jugs set up but the barn is full of alfalfa bales.  We need to move some of them out in order to set up the jugs.  They will go in the new Connex container we bought before leaving for Texas.  Before we can move them in there though, we have to level and stabilize the container since it is off balance where the company duped it,  DH tried to move it with his truck and ropes but both sets of ropes snapped so now he  needs a heavier rope!  Since only one corner was on a lower patch of ground, DD1 and I had suggested using the heavy duty car jack to raise that corner and shim is with concrete blocks.  DH thought it would be easer to do it this way since he did not think shimming it was too good.  I don't know how they will do it but DH, S1 and dS2 will work on it together tomorrow.  There is nothing they can't do when they work together.  Once the container is stabilized we can transfer bales of hay from the big barn into it, and then move some of the furniture over to DD1's new house.  DS2 and future DIL will take some of the furniture, china, crystal, etc. for their new apartment when we move to Texas.  On a positive note DD1 is speaking to me again.  I don't think I will be able to do much to help her since when we were there tonight there were boxes everywhere and she couldn't unpack since she did not know where to put anything.  They are all going to a birthday party tomorrow after church so I won't be able to help her anyway.  I have decided that I need to put all my efforts into decluttering and emptying my house.  Thank heavens I already got the workshop, old milkshed and the barn relatively cleared, sorted and labeled.  Now the yard is the next thing to clear up ad then the house interior.  I need to put a new wood look vinyl floor in the office since the laminate flooring surface has peeled away from the under boards.  I have the vinyl, and if the self stick doesn't stick (old vinyl strips) I will just use vinyl flooring adhesive.  It won't take long, the biggest part will be removing the desks and file cabinets, detaching all the computer wires, and then moving everything back in again! 

Falling sleep at the keyboard!  More news tomorrow - and pix of Utah!


----------



## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I said he would go and enjoy it!


You WILL go and you WILL enjoy it OR ELSE!!! 



Ridgetop said:


> When we left Durango DH announced we would go to Utah and visit a Dorper sheep breeder we met at the show in May.


Nice that you were given advance notice!



Ridgetop said:


> He told us to go to Capitol Reef National Park which is a lesser known park in the state. How gorgeous!


Been there, yes it is quite amazing.



Ridgetop said:


> DH and I marveled at the extremely rough terrain and the courage of those Mormon pioneers who traveled through that harsh landscape with its sheer cliffs intersected with broken ground, sand, and tilted upshoots of sharp rock and shale.


Couldn't exactly stop and set up a town there so they HAD to keep going!



Ridgetop said:


> It is almost 360 degrees and encompasses city lights as well as country hills and mountains. However, since Shadow Hills has only 2 tract homes developments, all the homes are custom and unusual sizes of property. Our property consists of 2 lots, so she said she has to check around for more comps on bare land. Sadly, our area is losing horse people, the people that are moving in want giant mansions, prices are all over the board, and she doesn't know how long it would take to get a buyer.


With those views and the double lot, I'd not be surprised if someone with BIG bucks comes by and doesn't even care what the house looks like since it will be replaced with a McMansion anyway.



Ridgetop said:


> We have been here for 32 years so DH is calculating how far we can lower the price to avoid capital gains, still have enough for our move, and be attractively priced. Lots to do.


I can't imagine how that would be possible after 32 years, it is worth WAY, WAY more than you paid for it. And unless you are in a 100% tax bracket (which doesn't exist and Cap gains is generally lower than income tax rates), you'll lose money on every dollar you lower the price. Paying $15 in tax on $100 of sale is $85 better than taking $100 less on the sale.



Ridgetop said:


> DH and I figured out the most $$ we can clear in a sale and not have to pay capital gains taxes.


CA capital gains???? There won't be any Federal gains since you are buying a replacement primary home. Don't forget to deduct the 6% the realtors will get from the sale price.


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## Ridgetop

Awake now and having done a few chores - picked up a lot of rubbish, sorted our all my large plant pots for DD1.  She has a 3' high drop from one level of her patio next to the actually steps.  She is justifiably worried that someone would accidently step off the side thinking the steps extended all the way across.  Large plant pots lined up along the drop will effectively block it off.   am not sure that my pots are large enough, but we'll see.  DS1 and DS2 are starting to move some of our hay out of the barn into the hayshed in order to make room for my lambing jugs.  My 3 girls are due this month starting 9/22.  2 of them remarked, but are big and have udders so he may have just been excited, or they are due on 10/3.  The next 5 are spaced out from 10/14 through 11/11.  I will be keeping a close eye on them all though since I have had some bucks get over excited and remark a ewe that was already bred.  Luckily, I write down all the marking dates, not just the last one.  Once they have moved a few of the stacks, we can start putting up the jugs.  Hard to believe that it is lambing time again!  Time seems to move faster the older we get!

Here are a few of the pix of our trip. 
        Some pictures of the Durango-Silverton narrow gauge train.  This was such a fun trip, the scenery was amazing and we met fellow passengers from all over the US on the 4 hour trip up to Silverton.  We had a couple hours walking around the historic mining town, had a nice lunch, bought a few souvenirs, then a 3 1/2 hour trip back to Durango.  So, pictures top row L to R - DH in front of the train as it coupled up; the track is so narrow and the track so tight that we could see the train ahead of us rounding a curve; the deep gorge into the Animas River (one of the most dangerous rivers around - it has underground sinkholes that suck you down); the Animas as it flattened out - the orange color of the rocks is from the Obama administration EPA "accident" when they decided to clean up an old mine and ruptured the sealed holding basin with their equipment!  They released tons of toxic effluent into the river.     The river still had a brownish tint near Silverton after 3 years!.  "We're from the government - we're here to help"! 

More pictures coming - wont let me upload more till next posting.

Sorting out more items to give DD1.  Her house is made for entertaining and I will give her all my entertainment equipment, chafing dishes, pretty serving platters, plastic party ware for BBQ and pool parties, etc.  Luckily she has a lot of storage.  Too bad she doesn't have time to put her stuff away and unpack her boxes since she is back to work!  CI am not sure I am going to help her unpack since she still hasn't decided what furniture she wants in which room.  no point unpacking books, china, crystal if she is going to move the china closet and bookcases again.   However, she does want at least one of my oriental rugs - probably Uncle George's Chinese rug.  She has also decided now that she does want the loveseats.  Of course so does Kathleen since they will be moving into an apartment for a while.  On the other hand, I will not be taking my lovely white sectional from the parlor since white furniture does not belong in the only sitting room of a ranch!  It was fine when I had a formal living room and a family room, but since the new place will only have one living room I am taking the family room leather furniture.  It will be easy to clean and practical.  I will be taking most of my lovely art pieces and family things, although I am going to give the kids a lot of my good crystal, and the bone china dinner service for 30 since I will not be hosting those large family dinners any more.  It is DD1's turn.  Too bad she did not have this large house before now!

We have also decided to give her the rest of our wrought iron patio furniture - 3 man settee & 2 large armchairs with cushions, propane fire pit and 4 more armchairs with cushions, so as not to have to move it to Texas.  We can buy stuff there when we see what the patio needs and how large it is.  I _am_ bringing my 100 year old glider with cushions but my heart is set on rocking chairs!  LOL  The cute fountain will also go to her house since the sellers took away the fancy bronze statue and left a spot lit plinth bare.
There are lights everywhere on this house!  All over the hillside yard, the pool area, in the trees, etc.  It is really lovely but I was worried about the electric bill since SIL hated to even run the AC in their tiny house before.  They reminded me that the entire roof of this house is covered with solar panels.  I wondered why they had left all the inside lights on - I had been going room to room turning them off.  I would never be able to live in this house though, the lights are all computerized, and have complicated switches.  DD1 and SIL have not entirely mapped them out yet.  However my oldest grandson knew how to turn on the pool lights last night.  LOL  Trust the little kids to know everything!

Anyway, today DH has a tummy bug and is back in bed after feeding and having 1 cup of coffee.  I will go out and start dragging stuff away from the tree trunk that is going to be ground up Wednesday am.  I am making a new rubbish pile on the field since that is where we will put the dump trailer next week. 

Whether we move or not, I realized that all the stuff that has been allowed to accumulate here with DS3 and DD1 moving in and out, our adding a 5th bedroom for my aunt, the tree falling on the house and having to do repairs, has gotten out of hand!  We really need to take several loads to the dump, but DH has a phobia about going to the dump.  He feels I have a dump fetish because i always say lets load up all the junk and take it to the dump.  It goes in one load, and that is that, right?  Nope!  DH hates going to the dump - I say he has a phobia about going to the dump.  Probably the extortionate dump fees they charge, but at least it gets rid of all the garbage at once.  There is only so much you can cram into a 60 gallon garbage receptacle and leave at the curb.  "But it s free!"  sobs DH.  "But it takes years to get rid of stuff" snarl I.  And there is the problem of not being able to cram certain things like an 8' nail studded 2 x 12 into a trash can.  However, DS3 will loan us his dump trailer next week and I can throw everything I can get hold of and physically lift into it for a non-stop trip to the dump!  DH is ok with _this_ since the minimum fee they charge will not be any more for a pickup load than the high sided 30 foot dump trailer.  We will both be happy - especially since we can do several trips to the dump while we have the trailer.


Well, time to start dragging stuff to the dump pile.  Unfortunately, Angel, now 10 months old, has developed an affinity for seizing on junk and claiming it as her own  She "hides" these items behind the Connex containers.  When she needs a bit of relaxation she visits her treasures and thoughtfully gnaws on them.  Apparently while we were gone, DD1 rinsed out a small rug and put it to dry outside.  It disappeared.  Knowing the hbbits of large LGDs, she finally tracked it down in Angel's treasure pile on the field.  It was only slightly chewed, so under Angel's hurt gaze she removed it, and ran it through the laundry.  LOL  This junk fetsh mist be genetic in our dogs because Bubba went through the same thing around this age.  It didn't bother me except when he found an antique Kewpie doll and brought it up.  Eureka!  I could have been rich but unfortunately by the time I saw it he had amputated it's foot.  Oh well, you don't miss what you never had.  The trash pile from the old days on our property has produced old sun colored bottles, and even an old rusted revolver!  The children fondly imagined it to be a hidden murder weapon from some long past crime spree.  I suppose I could label it as "Believed to have belonged to Bonnie & Clyde" like they do in some of the little tourist museums.  They can't state a provenance due to the threat of lawsuits, but they can imply, infer, and practically state it depending on the language they use!  It is interesting hanging on the wall next to the old broken plough share found in the same trash heap!


----------



## Baymule

When we lived in Livingston, anything I didn't want got set out at the curb. It would be gone in no time. Amazing what people would stop and get. Our old behemoth 42" TV gave out and we set it on the curb. In about 20 minutes someone rang our doorbell asking for it. When we bought this place, I tore out all the carpeting. I cut it in 3' strips and rolled it up. I took it home to Livingston where I knew the trash men would toss it in the garbage truck. Nope. It was picked up in less than 45 minutes. One day we set out a corner cabinet and a woman stopped before we took our hands off it. Another woman stopped immediately, but I told her the other lady already had dibs on it. Lady #1 called her son to come RIGHT NOW with a pick up to get it. Too bad you don't have curbside shoppers like we used to. 

Great pictures! I am glad you dragged him on that train ride!


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## RollingAcres

Great pictures! Thank you for sharing!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Beautiful pictures!  I have always wanted to ride that train.  My Beautiful Gal and I along with her parents rode the Cumbres and Toltic (sp?) steam narrow gauge railroad from Chama, NM to San Antonito, CO.  My MIL was afraid during most of the trip!  She wouldn't walk onto the Rio Grande River Gorge bridge near Taos because it is so deep!

I am glad you are making steady progress on getting ready to move.  Mr. @Bruce is right, even if you have to pay capital gains tax, I can't imagine how that wouldn't be better than lowering the price, but maybe I am missing something.

Once you get to Texas, will you change your name to something like Cap Rock Annie?

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

We are on a private road, as is our daughter now, so we could put some of the usable stuff at the bottom of our road on the street.  It is how we got rid of a bunch of stuff before - shelving, cabinets, large children's toys etc.  Our neighbor took down a tree and put the wood out on the curb for several days and it all disappeared too! 

Good Will is now calling itself the "upscale thrift store".  Last time we took a load of items they rejected all the baby items that had been stored in plastic and were like new, saying that it was for health reasons.    Then they looked over everything very carefully and rejected anything with a scratch or stain, and in fact, rejected everything less than new!      Apparently low income persons are no longer willing to settle for less than brand new items from the thrift store.  That being the case, I will stifle my parsimonious streak and toss all the items I do not have the time to fix and recycle myself into the dump trailer to go to the dump. 

Another real estate agent came up today accompanied by her partner.  Again I was told that this property is "one of a kind" and that they will have trouble deciding on what it would bring.  At least they gave us a figure higher than the previous agent.  Of course, says the cynic, they all tell you more than they know they can sell it for, then explain why the market has "softened" and why you must lower your price when when they bring you a lower offer!      They did give me the name and number of a real estate appraiser who has lived in Shadow Hills for years and I have a call in to him as to the amount he will charge to appraise the house.  Hopefully it will not cost thousands to do an appraisal of the property but . . . .  

I went on the online sheep equipment auction yesterday and began bidding on some stuff.  I had looked up all the prices for all the equipment on line on the manufacturer's web site.     When the auction started and the minimum opening bids were posted I was shocked!   It was _used_ equipment!  I had downloaded the catalog and marked in what I was interested in and the new manufacturer's price.  I had also put in the prices that I thought the items would probably start at and the max I would pay.  I lowered my expectations of getting any "deals", but bid on a couple of items anyway. 

The seller listed the equipment manufacturer on everything.  Most of the sheep equipment was made by Schaul's in northern California, located about 1 hour north of the auction premises.  There were 4 sets of double 5 x 5 lambing jugs with a walk thru gate into each one, so 1 - 10' panel with 2 gates, 1 10' plain panel, and 3 5' panels.  Schaul's sells this basic double jug for $680.00.  Add California's 10% sales tax and you will pay new $748.00 out the door at the manufacturer.  It was a 2 day auction and on Sunday the bidders suddenly went berserk!  My top bid on the jugs (which I didn't really need but thought an actual opening gate into each 5x5' jug would be nice) was $400.  Buyers bid the jugs up to $875.00.  Remember this was for USED jugs which the buyers had to pick up at the ranch which is 1 hour south of the manufacturer!  They could have bought new for $125 less at the manufacturer!!! 

Next thing I bid on was a blind alley and tilt table.  6 - 8' blind panels, 3 separator gates, one sorting gate, and tilt table.  pried new, these items came to $2310 plus 10% tax for a total of $2541.  Opening bid was $1700 which I placed and which lasted until an hour before close of auction.  I eventually came up to $2000 grudgingly and was outbid for a final sale price of $2300!  New price for old equipment although the buyer did save the tax!  I am considering buying the Schaul's Tilt Table new later on.  I was not going to bid on it but our friend Travis in Utah showed us his that he was using to trim the feet of his 500 sheep.  It is a Schaul's.  He loved it and said that it worked beautifully and easily so I took a chance.  it was mine until 4 hours before the end of the auction at which point frenzied bidding drove the price up.  

There were 8 - 6' hay and grain field feeders, Schaul's price new is $324 plus the ever present 10% California sales tax.  Opening bid was $275.  Final bids on all 8 feeders were $345-$355 apiece.  New prices on used equipment.  I must admit that I was guilty of buying one of these feeders .   I really needed one, since it is so wasteful to feed on the ground, but I forgot to refer back to the new price I had written down before I placed my final bid.    However, mine was one of the $345 closing bids, not the wasteful $355 bids!.  

Next I needed some grain troughs.  There were 4 extra deep heavy duty 8' ones which I really wanted.  Long before the close of the auction they were out of my reach.  Opening bid $150, closing bid $205 each.  Ok, with the heavy duty ones out of reach, I turned my attention to the standard V grain troughs.  These cost new $168, opening bid was $100 each.  I was able to snag 2 of the first ones offered for $100 and $105 apiece.  As the last of the 8 troughs were closing out the prices began to rise with the last few closing at $110 each! 

There was a sorting alley retailing at $1139 - 1 sorting 3 way gate, 2 divider gates and 4 - 7' solid panels.  Opening required bid $800 and sold at $1000!

Numerous panels and wire farm gates (too many to tell here), all selling for almost new prices, even the ones showing that the pin together hooks were broken!  Plastic hang over buckets that sell new for $11 on line sold for $20 for 2, etc., etc. 

Anyway, In addition to my overpriced field feeder and grain troughs, I did end up with a digital Tru-Test scale and scale box for my opening bid of $1500.  Probably too much but there was no bid on it at all, so I took a chance figuring if outbid I didn't care.  I
also bought 2 lots of 3 - 15 gallon rubber Tuff Stuff grain/water tubs for $35 per lot, and a lot of 5 flat rubber grain pans for $45. 

I was shocked at the prices those people got at their on line auction.  A lot of stuff did not sell though.  They sold 2 sets of Premier clippers for $235 each.  Then they offered 9 sets of blades which they stated  " MAY NEED SHARPENNG"  .  Sharpening costs a lot.  Some of them sold for the opening bid of $50.  The Heiniger battery clipper "for trimming faces and ears" for which they wanted an opening bid of $280 went no sale. 

I have never seen such high opening bids and such high closing bids for used equipment.  I can buy those lambing jugs, the blind alley and tilt table and a lot of the stuff for less BRAND NEW at Schaul's an hour north of where we have to drive to pick up the auction stuff!  Selling it all at the auction was brilliant merchandising.  They sold all their remaining spring ewe lambs for high prices, the buy of the sale was one lovely spring ewe lamb that went for $800.  The rams not so good, they were left with 5 nice young ram lambs out of 7 they put up in the auction.  I think they made a big profit on all their equipment since they had used it for years and then sold it for new prices.  They also put their 2017 Denali short bed pick up truck (37,500 miles) in for $42,000 minimum bid, a 24' gooseneck low profile aluminum customized stock trailer, minimum bid $27,500 and a 16' bumper pull aluminum customized stock trailer for $8,500 minimum bid.  There were no bids on the truck and trailers.

Gosh I wish I could do that - I seem to buy high and sell low. 

So more on the moving front. The real estate appraiser will be up next Monday to do an appraisal of the value of the property.  I think that will give us a better idea of what we can sell for since he appraises property for bank loans.  I hope it is high,  also hope the market doesn't crash before we can sell.

DS3 in Nipomo called today to say the dump trailer will be available for pick up the end of the week.  We can pick it up on the way back from Sacramento when we pick up the auction equipment on Saturday.  He also said we can come up there and live in our trailer - first he suggested we build a granny flat on his property and move there, but when I reminded him we were selling to G.T.T. he said ok to the trailer.  I also told him to discuss it with his wife, my DIL whom I love , in case she didn't want her in-laws living in her back yard!

However, it is good to know that we can move our portable rodeo corrals up there and set them up.  We will put wire on the panels and move the sheep and dogs into them while we finalize our move.  Bubba is not welcome since DIL is afraid of him.  We have to lock him up when the real estate people come over. He is extremely protective.  After talking to DS3 I am beginning to wonder if we should plan a move to 60 acres or if we would be better off around 20 acres or so.  I will go on line to see what is available.  So much to consider.

I can't wait till the dump trailer arrives!     Good bye rubbish!!!


----------



## Ridgetop

Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> Miss @Ridgetop,
> 
> Beautiful pictures! I have always wanted to ride that train. My Beautiful Gal and I along with her parents rode the Cumbres and Toltic (sp?) steam narrow gauge railroad from Chama, NM to San Antonito, CO. My MIL was afraid during most of the trip! She wouldn't walk onto the Rio Grande River Gorge bridge near Taos because it is so deep!
> 
> I am glad you are making steady progress on getting ready to move. Mr. @Bruce is right, even if you have to pay capital gains tax, I can't imagine how that wouldn't be better than lowering the price, but maybe I am missing something.
> 
> Once you get to Texas, will you change your name to something like Cap Rock Annie?


----------



## Ridgetop

Will not change our names.  As to capital gains, we like to know all the options  if it looks like the market is going down, we need to know the bottom price and top price we can go.  We don't want to chase the market if it tanks so knowing ahead of time our pricing options is valuable.  We would rather take a little less and sell.  DH says that usually your first offer is the often the best you get.


----------



## Baymule

Your DH is right. All too often people get the idea that their place is worth so much from the realtor or their own fantasy price, that when they get a real life offer, they turn it down. Then their home languishes on the market and they wind up selling for less than their first offer. If the object is to SELL the home, then G. T. M.!! GET THE MONEY!!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Last time we took a load of items they rejected all the baby items that had been stored in plastic and were like new, saying that it was for health reasons.


They rejected the diaper covers I took for that reason. Yet they will take used underwear???? 



Ridgetop said:


> I think they made a big profit on all their equipment since they had used it for years and then sold it for new prices.


They definitely made money since the new price when they bought it was less than the current new price. I guess all those buyers never checked to see what the items cost new. Hopefully they won't find out because they will get hurt kicking themselves in the butt.


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## Ridgetop

Actually, the word I received from a third party is that the manufacturer is backlogged due to one employee leaving.  When he  ordered his tilt table last year Travis waited 3 months for delivery.  Maybe people just did not want to wait for the equipment, had the extra money to get it now, and paid a premium not to wait several months.  I will have to order and wait for my stuff since I can't afford to pay more than I have to.  In the meantime, when I get to Texas, Baymule - Queen of the Craigslist Deals - and I can shop auctions and sales.

On the other hand, I did get the Tru-Test scale for $1500.  Only bid.  At first I thought that was a lot to pay, but it has a scale box with doors on each end, is self-leveling, has the bars, battery operated with charger so you can operate it anywhere with no power.  The scale is apparently one of the top models.  It looks brand new too.  In fact DS1 had me go down and purchase a cover for it to keep it nice.  LOL  I actually wanted to cover it to avoid dirt interfering with the self-leveling apparatus, but the cover is about 18" too short to cover it to the ground.  I have a torn patio furniture cover that I was going to dispose of but now will cut off the bottom and stitch it to the new cover to extend it.  Slip covers for my sheep equipment!  The sellers also gave me 5 sheep rope halters, and a bag of elastrator bands.  And I ended up buying a 50 gallon sheep water tub (shorter for lambs) and 2 other 15 gallons octagonal tubs for feed or water.

I thought DS1 and DS2 would be happy that we would not have to hoick 70-100 lb. lambs onto the sling scale anymore.  Instead they flexed their muscles and said that it kept them in shape!  Grown men going on teenagers!  Last time I told them that as they were lifting those big lambs up, I just heard bad words!  LOL

Anyway, I did not mention that when we went up to northern California to pick up the auction purchases, we had gotten a call from a Dorper friend about another 100 miles north.  He raises Dexter cattle as well (a sort of miniature breed) and asked if we would be willing to take a yearling bull he had just sold down to the buyer in Ojai which is an hour from us.  Naturally I agreed.  He then said that the buyer would pay for transport.   

On Friday 13, we left to drive north to pick up our auction stuff outside Sacramento.  DH watches his gas consumption carefully and can usually tell to within a few gallons when to fuel.  He has been known to put 39 gallons into a 40 gallon tank however, and I often get a tad nervous.  When we left he said he would gas in Kettleman - he had almost half a tank and didn't want to stop before then.  OK.  We went through Kettleman and midway to Arven (where the cheap-for-California diesel station actually is) the truck lost power.  As we coasted to a stop I asked if we were out of gas. No, said DH, we should be able to go another 100 miles since the red "no gas" light was not on.  Also the battery light was the only light that was on.  But, I said, I can see the red "no gas" light is on.  It was hard to see since there was sun glare on the instrument panel.  No said DH, it must be something else - we better call for a tow.   When I got hold of AAA they said they could not tow the truck and stock trailer even though we had Premier RV service.  According to the agent we would have to drop the trailer by the side of the freeway and then they could tow the truck somewhere.  DH and the agent exchanged some testy words, then DH, having by then seen for himself that the "no gas" light was actually on told them to just bring 5 gallons of diesel.  Half an hour later the tow truck showed up and put diesel in the truck.  Worried that the truck would not start, since we had been told to NEVER run out of gas in a diesel, we drew a big breath of relief when the engine started.   Although Twinkles coughed a bit she finally steadied into her sweet purr and off we went 2 miles up the road to the station where we filled up our thirsty truck with diesel. 

Having dealt with one problem, we proceeded to run into constant traffic caused by several accidents, and a couple of breakdowns.  The GPS routed us on and off the freeway to avoid delays, completely confusing us as to which way she was directing us.  I resorted to the ma just in case but we finally reached the auction seller's place, only 3 hours later than we had expected.  We loaded up and finally reached the motel around 8:00pm.  They had a pool so we rushed into our suits and dashed over for a refreshing swim.  
BRRR!  Not a heated pool and in spite of daytime temps of 100 degrees plus the pool was frigid.  We consoled ourselves with a hot shower, a piece of cold chicken from our cooler (no restaurants or fast food near the motel   ), and went to bed.

After our 10 hour trip north, the next morning we whizzed along to Orland.  After loading the bull, we found out from our friends that they had arranged for someone to transport their auction purchases up to them.  That morning they received a call  that that person was not going to be going there after all.  We were bummed since we could have easily brought up their stuff when we drove up to get the bull.     While talking to them, the bull tried to climb out the back of the trailer.  Visions of Latestarter Joe's pig episode flew through my mind!  I was afraid the bull would get a leg caught and break it so we hurried to leave.  Anyway, we pulled out and drove south to Ojai and the buyer's house. 

Sadly, I had forgotten that Ojai has 1 narrow, winding, 2 lane road serving the entire town.  I also forgot that it is completely off any freeway access.  After another 10 hour drive, we arrived at the buyer's house to deliver the bull.  It was sunset.  The buyer, who turned out to be a 17 year old boy, met us at the entrance to his private road.  His house was half a mile down the road BUT they had nowhere to turn the trailer around so DH had to do a 3 point turn at the T, then back the trailer up a half mile of single lane road to their driveway.  Halfway down that road the sun went completely down and he was backing up in the pitch dark.  The backup lights on the truck were no help since they were blocked by the trailer and the trailer does not have back up lights.  I asked the young man, Sam, if he had any flashlights since DH could no longer see my hand signals in the dark.  He got 2 flashlights and we stood at each rear corner end of the trailer to help him back up.  Unfortunately, Sam tried to help by shining his flashlight towards the front of the truck, catching DH right in the eyes through the mirror.  I switched sides with Sam and told him to point his light at the ground.  We finally reached the driveway.  

Then DH was told they wanted him to make a 90 degree turn into an even narrower 8' wide dirt road between boulders and overhanging tree branches.  DH checked it out and said he could make it.  DH had to pull forward and back up several times to avoid several boulders, posts, guy wires, and bicycles stacked in the way.  DH made that turn.    After backing 75' down that road the buyer wanted DH to make another 90 degree turn to back up across a large deep dip into the pasture gate.  At that point, I put my foot down and said "No.  We would unload right there".  The bull had not had a halter on since he was a calf, but Wes had made sure he was wearing one when he was loaded.  I informed Sam that we would just block off one side of the road with the trailer gate.  The other side of the trailer was flush with a telephone pole guy wire and shoved into what I discovered to be a pyracantha thorn bush.  Ouch.  The his dad and I would block the open end of the driveway which went further on into the darkness.  That open end of the drive worried me since Sam had told me the day before on the hone that one of his cows with her calf had gotten away from him and run up that road into open country.  it had taken him 4 hours to catch her, and I was not planning to stay and help catch this bull!   

Sam decided that he could lead the bull out if his dad had one of the cows there for the bull to follow.  We were now in pitch blackness, working with 2 small flashlights.  His dad held the cow where I told him to go (blocking the open end of the road).  I explained that cows don't really like to move much in the dark so if they shone their flashlights on the ground the bull would probably walk along with the cow into the pasture.  Sam pulled on the bull who had decided by now that he really _loved_ our trailer and didn't want to come out.  I tried to reach through the side of the trailer and give the bull a gentle tap but couldn't reach him.  Every time Sam got him to the edge of the trailer the bull would change his mind and retreat into the depths.  Since the bull was a dark brown, it was hard to see what he was doing.  DH called to me to come around to his side of the trailer and help with the bull.  I was willing but held captive by the thorn bush, the guy wire and the trailer.  I finally untangled my posterior from the pyracantha bush, and my leg from the guy wire, so I could go around and reach the bull.  After falling into other bushes  I finally was able to get to the other side of the trailer.  Just as I was about to climb into the trailer with the bull in desperation and twist his tail to get him out, the bull gave up and came out.    After collecting our $$ and explaining to Sam that he had to keep his transport slip (and any future ones) with his registration papers, we finally drove away.  There was a slight odor of cow on my shoes due to having to scrape bull patties off the door of the trailer to get it to close.    We had arrived at Sam's house at 7:30 pm.  We left his house at 9:30 pm.  It took us 2 hours to back down the narrow road, make that turn, back down another narrow road, and coax the bull out of the trailer!  Our trips are fraught with adventure!
13 hours from the time we picked up the bull we arrived at home.      That was yesterday.  Today Travis called and said he was driving to the auction seller's place next Saturday to pick up the rams and ewe he had bought from them.  He wanted to know if I wanted to drive up to their place and pick up the bred ewe I bought from him in Utah!    I opted for the second choice - to meet him in 2 weeks in Victorville (which is only about 2 hours away) when he will be on his way back from delivering a small flock of commercial Dorpers to a date farm in Palm Springs. 

Tomorrow I will have to set up my lambing jugs ready for the 3 ewes that will be lambing starting next Sunday.  One is definitely due then, and her bag is huge.  The other 2 have additional marking dates showing them to be due October 3.  The FF is simply enormous and she is not due until October 3, another 2-3 weeks!  Time to set up the jugs.  Also tomorrow I will put a marking harness back on one of the bucks and turn him in with the ewes to service the 2 yearlings.  Also as a catch up ram for anyone who is not yet bred.  I haven't decided which of the 3 to use yet.  It may be the one we catch first!    Hopefully, the rest of the ewes are all bred and settled.    When the new ewe arrives, she will go in with him as well and if she is not pregnant, she will get bred too.  I thought about keeping them open, because of the possible move, but DH said even if they lamb during the move they need to be bred.  He is right, since if you don't breed ewes young enough you can end up with erratic breeders who don't become reliable brood ewes. 

Looking forward to seeing what I get out of these ewes since I bred them to my young ram.  He is very long and I hope to see that in his lambs.  He was lovely as a very young lamb, then in April though June when I bred him to these ewes he went through a really lanky, ugly period.     I was considering selling him but decided to wait and see what he produced.  He has grown out since being away from the ewes (less stress?) and has put on some weight.  He is looking much better now so I plan to keep him.  Also his bloodlines are excellent, he was a quad so I am hoping for heavy multiples from any daughters, and he has a very mild temperament.  All good things, so since he is just a yearling himself, he should improve even more over the next couple of years as he matures.  Just have to wait and see.


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## Baymule

That is some very poor planning on the part of the Dexter bull buyer, NOT to have a place to turn a trailer around.  I bet they never find anyone as accommodating as you and your DH on delivering any kind of animal. When you have a farm, trailers kinda go along with farming, not making room for a trailer turn around is stupid in my estimation. I don't know whether to cheer for your DH's excellent backing skills or say he's nuts for doing all that backing up for people with poor planning and no room to turn around.  Either way, he got it done and y'all got the bull unloaded at his new home. 

I hate to run out of fuel. I can just hear the exchange of words over THAT one! My DH and I were squabbling over lag bolts in the aisle in Lowes yesterday, when a young man offered to help us. I asked him if he was married, he said no. I told him to NEVER get married! We squabbled some more and finally with the help of the nice, but confused, young man, we selected the bolts and he bagged them up for us. I can just picture us on the side of the road, out of fuel. 

Glad you got the equipment and got it home, even with the detour.


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## Bruce

You have to wonder how the prior animals got to Sam's house! Given the length of the driveway/private road, they surely have enough property to create a circle for turning around.


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## Mike CHS

Isn't Ojai where the Six million dollar man (or Bionic Woman) supposedly the home in one of the shows?  That's going back a ways in memory.


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## Ridgetop

Apparently he had them delivered too.  Those people had a 24' gooseneck and arrived at his place at 11:30 pm!  They were delivering a cow.  I wondered why he was so quick to offer me $400 to deliver the bull!    Sam is 17 years old and these Dexter cattle are his 4-H project.  Nice and small but not large enough to fill a freezer with meat for a family I wouldn't think.  However if you _want_ to work with cattle in limited space these might be interesting.  We don't really like working with cattle except for bottle calves.  And they are delicate and chancy.   Replacement heifers raised as bottle calves are ok too, but our land is too steep to feel safe working with steers and cattle.  No where to escape to if you get knocked or pushed over the edge!  Like my DS1 said about going to Texas and having to raise cattle - "We are sheep people not cattle people!".  Young Sam doesn't even have a mini truck, or any kind of stock trailer so I am not sure how he expects to get his cattle to the Fair or stock shows.  Actually, with show cattle that are used to a halter, he could easily lead the animals down the narrow private road to the pasture.  If he gets the bull trained he shouldn't have too much trouble  If I were him, however, I would put a gate across the open end of the driveway that runs up into the wild hills!

Speaking of cattle keeping in Texas, Baymule gave me great joy when she told me that we do not actually have to raise cattle on our AG property in Texas to qualify for the AG exemption.    Since we are buying property planted in coastal hay, we can just continue the haying operation and add our sheep!  I feel like dancing!  Not gracefully, but enthusiastically!  DH, DS1, and I were all relieved.

Speaking again of the sheep, after our intense weekend, I relaxed by cleaning out the barn and setting up 3 lambing jugs for my ewes that are due to lamb.  Then I installed shelving in the Ikea cabinets DS1 had installed in our front entry while we were gone.
That evening DS1 came in and said the first ewe looked like she might be starting to lamb.  DS2, DS2F (DS2's Fiancee) and I came out to help DS1 separate the lambing ewe and the other 2 enormously pregnant ones.  Sure enough she was losing her mucous plug.  This doesn't mean she is in labor though since I have had does and ewes slip their mucous plug up to a week in advance just to annoy and frustrate me with fruitless trips to the barn to check on them.  They smirk as I come in the barn.  

My chart (filled out religiously) showed lambing date of 9/7 and 9/22 according to the marking dates.  I had checked her tail head and udder earlier that day and she was bagged and the tail was separating so we moved her into a jug.  At which point she ignored anything happening n her nether regions and proceeded to attack the hay in her feeder.  Obviously not in hard labor!  She lambed that evening with no problems.  DS1 and DS2 decided she was the best ewe in the flock by 1.  Not lambing in the gully, and 2. Lambing while we were at supper so we could go to bed at our regular times.  I, on the other hand, had just completed my shower, had to resume my barn clothes, and iodine the cords, getting slimed in the process.  As I too my second shower I considered that this ewe just had a perverted sense of humor.

In accordance with all Ridgetop history, this ewe had 2 very different looking ram lambs.  If you remember I mentioned how years ago a large Suffolk ewe produced a giant lamb one night and the next morning produced 2 normal sized twin lambs.  We were present at both births and I had reached inside looking for more lambs the previous night so we know that these were 2 different pregnancies in separate uterine horns.  As you will see in the photos I am posting, the same thing apparently happened again with the main difference being that apparently with 2 different breeding dates! 

So the first born lamb was tiny, scrawny, almost no hair or wool (pink in the pix) although lively.  The second born ram caused his mama more problems, being a huge hairy lamb covered in mercomium - that orangey stuff you can also see in the pix. Both were dumb as boards, the scrawny one refusing to allow me to help him to find a nipple, while the larger one just stumbled around the jug.  Typical brainless ram lambs!  (DS1 tried to excuse this by pointing out that they were less than an hour old, but having acquired slime I was unforgiving.)  The scrawny one showed a lot of liveliness in spite of being about 2 weeks younger, and kept looking for the nipple.  He finally found it and I figured I could go for my shower.  This morning both have full bellies and are more alert.


  Pinky is the scrawny one, and Orangey is the giant one.  I will weigh them today. 

  Here are the next 2 to go.  The one facing away has the same marking and due dates at the first one to lamb, as well as a 3rd date of October 3.  Her udder is not too big yet, nor is she, although this is her second lambing, so maybe October 3 is correct on her.   The ram was young and a maiden so he may have been shooting blanks at first.  It happens when they haven't been used for a while.  The one facing has 2 marking dates, with due dates on 9/6 (obviously not happening) and October 3.  She s ginormous as a FF but not too much udder enlargement yet.   Sure hope for twins, I don't want to have to try to pull a lamb as big as she is out!  On the other hand she is actually my largest ewe so hopefully will be ok.  I am going to turn my Lewis ram out with the flock today now that these ewes are in the jugs.  I have 2 yearlings to be bred and he gives me low birth weight, high growth rate lambs.  Also, we lost his only daughter so I have no offspring from him.  Hoping for a ewe lamb since he is a slick shed ram.  As you can see a couple of mine have "bad toupees".  Since we have little shade on the field, I don't mind the personal sunshades they carry around.  If  were going to exhibit them or sell them for breeding stock, I would shear them off but no need.  No sunburn either.  I saw a ram at the WSDA show that had been shorn to the skin, then transported in direct sun in a truck cage.  OUCH!  Poor thing was so sunburnt  he was bright red and could hardly be handled in the ring since he was so tender. 
Anyway, lambing season has started!  Weights on next post.


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## Ridgetop

Went down today and weighed - Scrawny 7.7 lbs;  Big guy 9.9 lbs.  Huge difference in weights.

Mom and lambs doing well, others relaxing in barn with full hay baskets enjoying the good life.

Let Bubba out of kennel to which he was sentenced last night after trying to attack every living creature surrounding HIS lambs, including the ewe, and the other ewes calmly eating in their own separate jugs. 

He started out well, calmly laying down next to the jug watching as the ewe cleaned her newborns.  He received lots of praise for his quiet and appropriate LGD behaviour.  Rika, as usual, was her perfect LGD self calmly watching the ewe and lambs.  Angel, wondering why everyone was congregating in the barn come to have a look.  She entered in her puppy way, causing both dogs to drive heraway from viewing the newborns.  She ended up cringing on the haystack until she could make her escape past them outside where she peered around the entrance to the barn.  Every now and then she was rewarded for her humble attitude with a stern grown from Rika not to enter.  With several tons of our bargain alfalfa stacked in the barn the interior space, never too large, seemed dwarfed.  DH and DS2F watched from the windows while DS1 and I were in the barn.  As I tried vainly to get Scrawny to nurse, Bubba styed calmly laying down.  However, he then got more and more excited s he tried to clean up the lambs inside the pen.  Finally, he started growling.  The ewe, worried about her babies with this monster acting this way, came to the side of the jug to nudge them away from him.  Bubba was infuriated that this ewe was removing his small charged and snapped at her, then he turned to her companion next door and tried to drive her back in the pen.  That ewe just stared at him, affronted.  At frst we were able to calm Bubb don by voice commands and petting him, but as Bubba worked himself up even these methods finally lost effect.   DS1 got the leash to remove Bubba so he could calm down away from the lambs. 

At this point, as I stepped out of the jug, Rika decided she had had enough of this bad behavior.  She went for Bubba.  Wonderful, I had just stepped into the middle of 300 lbs. of infuriated snapping teeth, whirling muscular bodies, and enraged snarling filling the barn.   
 As they cannoned towards me, DS1 reached out and snatched me out of the way.  The 2 Anatolians crashed back and forth, tufts of fur filled the air, I worried about Rika, smaller and older at 7 being able to hold her own with massive Bubba, now in his prime at 3.   _*Never underestimate a woman, boys!*_  Rika knocked him down.  Then he was up and tried to overpower her, but she had taught him his fighting ability and whirled out of his way.  Suddenly _she_ was on top again and a combination of growls interspersed with yelps were coming from Bubba.  Rika had hold of him by his cheek and ear.  Relentlessly, she held him pinned until he calmed down and submitted!  _*What a woman!*_ 

DS1 quickly leashed him and he was banished to the kennel on the field for the night!  We did not intend to be woken up by any more problem behavior.  Rika spent the night at the top of the barn steps.  Angel spent the night at the gate to the field.  Bubba spent the night in his kennel on the field far from the lambs.    Strangely after that ferocious fight no skin was even broken!

This morning we allowed him out of the kennel and he checked out the lambs much chastened and calmer.  He was praised heavily for his calm attitude.  We moved him in with the rams in the pen at the other end of the barn while we weighed the lambs since their crying worried him.  He was fine in their pen until the second lamb really let loose with some loud bleats, then Bubba chased the 3 rams out of the barn and down the hill.     Some LGDs take a lot more training - sigh . . . .  Time to call Erick for advice and inspiration on training Bubba.

I think that Bubba has a very high protection drive, and a very high desire to mother babies.  He loves the lambs, licking and cleaning them, and was terrific with Angel as a puppy.  He still lets her jump on him and play with him - with Anatolians this means biting him and trying to drag him around by his neck.  I also think that the smell of the birthing really inflames his intense protective nature.  However, he is very possessive of the newborns and apparently feels that their mothers are unfit!  LOL   From now on, I don't think we will allow him in the barn until the next morning when the stimulation is not so high.  Up to now we have been feeling that the exposure to the ewes and lambs early on would be good for him, but I have decided that as good a protector as he is, he does not have the right attitude and set of skills to be an obstetric LGD.  

Off to finish up my cabinet shelves, then install molding and baseboards prior to painting the new entryway.  Next weekend I will lay the new vinyl wood plank floor in the office.  Good thing I did not dispose of the leftover self stick vinyl wood plank flooring from our old apartment building reno.  I would have used it up but by the last 3 units I ran out of knee power and had the vinyl wood plank floors professionally laid.  These strips are just the lay 'em down kind, not the click together vinyl wood plank, so they will go in easily and why spend $$$ for new materials?  I have these and am putting the house on the market for our move to TEXAS!  I do have to re-floor the office though since the laminate did not last and has peeled up - DH thinks from the rollers on our office chairs.  The other 3 rooms I laid with the same cheap laminate have held up well.  The office will just be a 1 day job since I am going to have DS1 and DH move the furniture to the other side of the room, lay down the floor and roll it, then move the furniture onto that side and lay the rest.  I am not even removing the baseboards since they have base shoe that I will carefully remove and replace.  This method will prevent us having to disconnect and remove all our computer paraphanalia, saving a day's work.

Off to the shelves and then to filling them!


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## Mike CHS

Marvelous dogs!


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## Baymule

I was smiling at Bubba and his antics. Good Bubba! Bad Bubba!  Poor guy, obviously he has a lot of love for lambs and wants to protect them from even their moms. Rika did a good job on him, Good Rika!


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## Ridgetop

Mike CHS said:


> Marvelous dogs!


yesterday

Yup!  Those of us with LGDs know their value.  I wouldn't be without mine, even though Bubba is a challenge.  He was very good yesterday, quiet in the barn with the lambs.  He got lots of praise for his behavior.  Then last night as he and Rika lay sprawled on the patio while I BBQed, he decided Rika was too close to the appetizing smell of the steaks!  Another little spat, quickly resolved.  After which he came up to me hoping for love, I told him that arguments while I was at the hot BBQ were not permitted.  I told him to go lay down, and then praised Rika who was not the aggressor.  Sadly, I thought I detected an assumed saintly look in her eyes as she turned away and sneered at Bubba.  Alas, typical good child, bad child behavior abounds at Ridgetop, both human and canine.  LOL


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## Baymule

Children. Both human and animal have a lot of the same traits. LOL


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## Bruce

I do believe that sheep are considered an agricultural endeavour, even in Texas. Thus you could keep the ag extension with either the hay or the sheep or both.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

You may find this link interesting: http://www.tsgra.com/index.php

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

Thank you STA, I will go on that link.  Yup, Baymule told me that hay alone would keep the AG designation.    Plus our sheep we should be set.  We can even add a few more ewes and rams eventually.  Happy, happy, happy . . .


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## Ridgetop

Second ewe lambed this am.  no fuss, no muss, large single ewe lamb.  She looks good for only a few days old.  We'll see how she develops in another few months.  She has a hair coat so won't be a woolie, rather she will shed clean. 

Bubba very calm in the barn while ewe was lambing and cleaning baby.  Other dogs were in the barn as well.  I was alone in barn with them, so I think it may be that the more people, talking, and activity upsets him around newborns.  This time around he has been an angel! 

Still cleaning out barn lofts.  One down the second to finish.  Also dragging out stuff that has been stored around the place for eventual use somehow, sometime, somewhere . . . .  We _all _have those piles, but I am not bringing them to Texas LOL.  I have enough _usable_ stuff to bring with me, and I am sure I will find enough other stuff back there for new piles.   

Remember the overpriced tilt table and equipment?  I found the same tilt table used (actually brand new, never used) for $900 and bought it.  It doesn't have any alley panels, but I have a bunch of railed panels that I can use as alleyways so just need a fold gate, guillotine gates, and 3 way sorting gate now.  Also on my wish list are the lambing jugs with gates, however, I can do without those until I find them for a good price.  Especially since I already have so much sheep equipment to bring back to Texas.  It doesn't pay me to sell it here since it will not bring much - I don't have enough equipment to do an online sale like the breeder did.  Besides  I will have to rebuy in Texas.

Also, bought the wood look strips for the entry way.  DS1 will prep the concrete floor tonight and I will lay the floor tomorrow.  Then we will cut and install the door moldings and next week I will lay the vinyl wood strips in the office. 

We will be listing the house in about 2 weeks.  We got our official appraisal and it came in high enough to sell and move.  The appraiser also told us we could probably get more than the appraised price so we will list higher.  Every little bit helps!  We have put a contingency offer on the Texas property.  If we don't get it, we will get something else in east Texas after we sell here.


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## Baymule

We have put a contingency offer on the Texas property.


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## Bruce

Quotes Bay, QUOTES!!! Anyone just passing through would think you are the ones moving.


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## Baymule

My grammar is generally pretty good. In my early 20’s it bothered me that I mangled language so badly, so I took English grammar classes at a Junior College. I made the highest grades in the class, and still sound like an ignorant redneck. But I write a lot better. Sometimes the redneck leaks out on the written word. LOL I can clean it up and speak intelligently when I want to, then slide back into my Texas drawl and slang.


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## Ridgetop

Using "Texan" fools people into thinking you are not as good a negotiator!

DH's grammar is not the best.  He wears his old raggedy T-shirt, worn jeans, and looks and sounds like he is uneducated while dickering.  The person buying or selling thinks DH has no clue and they are home free when suddenly - WHAMMO - DH goes in for the kill and they are left wondering what happened!  LOL

I LOVE THAT MAN!

Laid the vinyl wood look planks in the entry Tuesday and Wednesday evening.  Just have to run them along the front of the step and then install the edging , baseboards etc.  I will do that this weekend.  It looks so good I almost wish we were staying here - I would continue it throughout the laundry room.  Note to Bay - I said "almost"!  LOL  Pix of t when it s finished.

Brought the left over vinyl wood look planks into the house to get them used to the indoor climate before I lay that floor this Saturday.  It is cooler today and is expected to be cooler through the rest of the weekend.  I am going to lay this floor crosswise over the laminate that is de-laminating, and will just move the furniture over as I lay it.  No need to empty the room.

DD1 came over and got some of the furniture she decided she wanted from our storage shed.  Then DD2 came over the next week and wanted her stuff.  She is not too happy that her sister has beaten her to the other pieces, but as I said - you snooze - you lose.  I have been after them for almost 6 month to take it and they always have excuses why they can't get it.  Doofus did not drive his truck over to get their stuff ether, so DH had to load up all their stuff (half of it actually was all that would fit in our truck).  I asked why they did not bring their own truck and she said "Oh, I thought you said Daddy would drive it over for us".      No, dear.  I did not say that.  And they could have moved the other half of their stuff if Doofus had brought his own truck!  Oh well, they are supposedly trying to rent a house in Big Bear.  According to DD2 it is cheaper up there.  I just need them to come back and get the rest of their belongings.  Maybe in another 6 months . . . .

At least the old milking shed is almost cleared out.  Now I can move the rabbit cages that I need to disassemble and package up (DH wants another rabbitry in Texas) in there and finish storing some of our other animal equipment.  I need to clean out the rest of the shed and take down the overhead racks that everyone hits their heads on.  The stuff that was stored there I already got rid of so . . . .

Moving right along.


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## Bruce

Since I'm assuming DD2 and Doofus aren't independently wealthy nor retired, where do they work? It can be a long way from Big Bear and that road in the winter can be "fun".


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> Using "Texan" fools people into thinking you are not as good a negotiator!
> 
> DH's grammar is not the best.  He wears his old raggedy T-shirt, worn jeans, and looks and sounds like he is uneducated while dickering.  The person buying or selling thinks DH has no clue and they are home free when suddenly - WHAMMO - DH goes in for the kill and they are left wondering what happened!  LOL
> 
> I LOVE THAT MAN!



I call it Dumb Like A Fox. 

Yes, you are moving right along. Sounds like you are making a LOT of progress.


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## Ridgetop

*Bruce:*  Just able to get back on here.  DD2 and Doofus have moved to Big Bear and are working up there.  They are trying to rent a place in the area.  However, DD2 has to drive all the way back to the San Fernando Valley several times a week to pick up and return his baby since they now have some sort of joint custody arrangement.  I prefer not to know since I love DD2 and hoe everything works out for her.  

We have now taken 2 dump trailer loads of stuff to the dump and are currently loading a 3rd load.  The entry is almost finished, floor down, moldings installed, just have to caulk the moldings, patch the areas where we removed the door hinges, etc., and do the painting.  The step turned out beautifully thanks to DS1 who is a genius at mitered angle cuts. 

Sadly, the new vinyl floor in the office did not come out so well.  Using the old vinyl plank that I had stored in the barn was not a good choice.  Even using a vinyl floor adhesive to try to get it down did not work.  I think the vinyl strips have warped.  We threw out the vinyl, and I am now going to try to remove the adhesive with acetone.  If it works, I will pull up the floor I have already laid and clean up the adhesive.  If not, then we will pull out the entire floor including the laminate.  DH wants to do that right now, but that will mean removing all the file cabinets, paperwork, computers, printers, etc., etc., and miles of tangled cords for all the electronics.    If I can remove the adhesive with the acetone, I can just pull up the vinyl pieces and then relay another floor with new vinyl planking.  I tried to be frugal and thrifty and it kicked me in the posterior! 

The way I did it first, it would have worked beautifully, negating any need to remove everything from the room.  I removed the all the paperwork and files fro DH's file cabinet and moved it into the room then laid that portion of the floor.  After that side of the room was down, we moved the file cabinet back and started to move the other furniture over to continue working my way into the room.  Unfortunately, after laying almost half the floor I realized that some pieces were not adhering, while other pieces were warped and crooked.  Now if I remove the entire floor I will have a full half inch difference in floor height from the ceramic tiled hallway to the concrete subfloor.  I can lay a ceramic tile floor but it will be expensive, and we don't want carpet in the office.  After this experience with the laminate I really don't want to lay more of it in the house.  It is also more labor intensive than self stick vinyl plank.  If we do have to tear out the laminate it will not be hard since it is a "floating floor", and I can then lay the vinyl on the concrete.  The problem rises in finding a reducer threshold, to bridge the half inch drop. 

Anyway, another real estate agent will be coming out next week to talk to us about listing the house.  There is no rush to sell anymore since I pulled the offer on the Texas property.  The owner would not counter on our offer and the house was more than we wanted to pay with having spend a lot to add additional fencing, a carport, and barn.  Also, DH wanted a larger pond. 

This new real estate agent is Armenian, and is also a buyer for BBQ lambs.  Apparently he and his brother like to buy 60 lb. lambs for family dinners and have trouble finding any.  I told him he came to the right person for that.  His brother also does business with several Arabian business people and they also like small lambs.  Hopefully, I will be able to sell some of my lambs at about 2 months old and can then rebreed the ewes in a timely fashion.  Now we are considering whether to take our time clearing everything up and moving some of our equipment to DS3's in Nipomo.  Maybe get DS2 married off first.  It will be easier to do that than trying to commute with a flock of sheep. 

On the other hand, I am still waiting for 8040 to lamb.  She has looked like a giant round inflated sheep for months now.  I expected her to lamb 2 weeks ago, then a week ago, but no lambs.  I have haltered her and checked her tail head and vulva just in case of problems.  If the lamb is too large or several are tangled inside and the ewe can't deliver, she will sometimes stop labor altogether.  Then after the lamb finally dies inside, no hormones tell her to push until the ewe goes septic and dies.  I like to check them internally to make sure that the ewe is just not able to give birth but trying.  However, in this case, she was tight and her tail head was not as loose as it should have been.  Then I went back through my calendar and have a possible new date of this Friday.  At this point I have stopped checking on her since she always looks like she is in labor but never is.  You know how they look when they are so huge - uncomfortable and panting, then stopping and taking a deep breath, etc.  All just to make a sheep granny upset.  This ewe watches for me to come and peer at her - when I leave I am sure she is snickering with the other 2 ewes about how she has me worried! 

Next we harnessed Lewis and turned him out with the flock to breed the yearling ewes.  No marks on anyone for a week or so. Then DS1 noticed that the crayon was missing!    Caught him and replaced the crayon.  Used a hot temp crayon and the weather turned cool.  Ooookaaay.  Then he decided to mark a bred ewe.  He was not marking her because she was not bred, she already has an udder!  Apparently he was just being friendly.    Anyway, he has finally marked at least one of the yearlings. 

Now we are not sure what is happening with our move.    BUT we are still cleaning out stuff and decluttering and getting rid of all the extra furniture, valuable items in our sheds (aka junk) and getting ready to move eventually.


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## Bruce

Cleaning out the unused stuff is good regardless of if or when you move.


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## Baymule

It is good to hear from you. Don't worry about the property in Hawkins, something better will come along. Keep on with what you are doing, it will make your house look better! That is cool that your realtor wants lamb, and so do his friends. Customers!


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## Bruce

I don't know Bay, the realtor may try REAL hard to NOT sell the property. To do so means losing his newly found source of quality small lambs


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## Mini Horses

Nope.  A realtor lives for the commission, not the lamb!!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Are you being impacted by the wildfires in the Los Angeles area?  I hope you are OK.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

Sound asleep last night at 10:00 pm, phone rings and DD2 wants to now if the fire is near us and f we are alright.  ?????  What fire???
told her no fire here and went back to sleep.  10 minutes later she calls back and says "Yes there is a fire in Sylmar".  ???  Sylmar is not far away - about 5 miles - so I get up and look out the window and sure enough there is a big fire on the ridge line across the wash.  DH turns on the TV news (now 11:00 pm) and the fire is al over the news.  Started around 9:00 pm and had grown to 250 acres, jumped the 5 freeway, heading into the hills to the northwest.  2 neighborhoods were mandatorily evacuated.  We are southeast so we are ok - not coming our way, rather blowing away from us.  Watched the reports for a couple of hours then I fell asleep again while DH kept watching the news.  At 8:00 am this morning, we saw that it was now at 4700 acres, had taken 7 homes, 1 person dead of a heart attack, 1 firefighter injured, had spread into large residential neighborhoods in Porter Ranch, and was heading into more residential areas in Simi, Santa Clarita, and Chatsworth.  No containment expected until Sunday because the winds are driving it west into brushy areas where the firefighters don't have access.  The planes and helicopters are dumping fire retardant and water hoping to control it.  In the meantime, more neighborhoods have been evacuated as it spreads across heavily occupied residential areas.

 Just smoke today blowing slightly away from us.  DS2 just called and can't get home - all freeways to and from that area are closed.  He will try to get a motel room somewhere but a lot of them are full with fire evacuees.  I am surprised that he made it to work this am with the freeways closed!

DH and I signed up to help transport horses and livestock to safety areas if needed.  The stock trailer can be divided into 3 sections if needed and we also have a lot of large animal crates for small livestock, dogs, and poultry if needed.

Angel has been removed from our property and taken to a boarding kennel for 2 weeks while she finishes up her cycle  Yes, Angel is IN SEASON at 11 months old.  Finally we are no longer having to do embarrassing butt checks every few days as we have done since she was 6 months old.  She came in season and I noticed it right away.  Bubba did not.  He did try to mount Rika, so may have been confused as to who was in season.  We locked her in the kennel immediately.  After 3 days she dug out.  We captured her as she came prancing onto the porch.  DS1 and DH brought stall mats and lined the kennel with them.  2 days later she was out again!   She had pulled out the chain link fencing from the kennel frame.  Another job to repair it!  Again she was caught as she came happily to the porch.  They blocked the hole with a chain link gate and large horse tubs.  She still got out in 24 hours, not sure how, so DS1 put her in the ram pen.  After another 2 days she decided to dig out of that pen too and came strolling up onto the driveway!  Off to the Kennel with her!  Bubba still seemed completely oblivious to her being in season.  However, he is annoying Rika by following _her_ around.  LOL
   Stall mats to prevent digging . . . .  Torn up chain link fence . . . .
  Blocked hole - didn't work!   
DS1 took her to the kennel with a bag of kibble to blend with what they feed (Nutro Lamb & Rice so a good brand), her health records, emergency numbers, and strict instructions to only kennel her between bitches and not let her out for any exercise since she in untrustworthy while in season.  We never had a dog that would pull off the chain link wire before - these Anatolians are powerful!!!  I will be having her spayed in 3 months.    No puppy worries hopefully - we will know in 63 days.      Since Bubba seemed not to be even interested in Angel I think we are ok.  



Baymule said:


> It is good to hear from you. Don't worry about the property in Hawkins, something better will come along. Keep on with what you are doing, it will make your house look better! That is cool that your realtor wants lamb, and so do his friends. Customers!



I do think we will find something else that is meant for us in Texas.  Not going to give up, although sometimes I worry that we are getting too decrepit to take this on.   Can't think that way though since if I do we will end up just waiting to die somewhere and we are too young to do that!   LOL   DS2 actually said he loves the house and would like to keep it but is not sure if he could do the up keep with the hours he is working.  He certainly can't manage the sheep flock with the hours he is working, and the sheep are what keep down the brush.  Things will work out - God will provide a solution.



Bruce said:


> Cleaning out the unused stuff is good regardless of if or when you move.



I agree!  Getting all the junk - I mean, _valuable antiques and salvage_ - anyone want to buy something? - cleaned out and disposed of will take a lot of the worry about moving off our backs.  Anyway, we are working on cleaning up everything and will eventually get there. 

Shaul's Manufacturing is back n business and I have ordered some gates to make a chute.  We will pick that equipment up when we go north and pick up the turn table.  We still have to get down and reweigh the lambs, vaccinate the ewes and worm them this year.  After all the rain, although they are in good body condition, I want to worm them anyway.  One of them looks very big in the belly still and it may be from worms.  I haven't gotten a microscope yet so can't do the fecal exams on the ewes.  Immediately post lambing is the best time to worm so will drench them this weekend while weighing and vaccinating.  I am not docking the ram lambs since the Armenian buyer said they like their lambs with the tails left on.  He doesn't care if they are castrated or not although I told him to please ask his Arab buyers if they prefer them entire.  Depending on the weights and how fast they are growing, I might not castrate either.  We do need to dock the ewe lamb though.  I like to be able to see their vulvas and udders even when they are wearing their winter woolies. 

Well, I guess I should go check up n the news about the fires.  Bay says they are having rain in east Texas - I wish we could get some out here to douse the fires.


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## Mike CHS

You have one intense escape artist dog.

I wouldn't worry about age as long as you are doing what you are happy doing.  We didn't move on to our place until I was 65 but we keep it manageable as much as we can.  We will lighten the load if it starts to get too hard.  

My biggest gripe now is one of our steers has decided he likes to lick my legs so now that it's getting to be cooler, I'll start wearing long pants.


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## Baymule

I wish you could get rain too. Fires like that are terrible--and you're worried over tornadoes and hurricanes in Texas? 

I like the long tails on my Katahdins. I have two ewes with no tails, first one we bought, and they just don't look right to me. It makes no sense to me to cut the tails off Dorpers, they are hair sheep!


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## Bruce

The amount of rain they get would not even make a steam fizzle on that fire. They get so little that 1/8" is a big deal.


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## Ridgetop

Back again after a week with no computer!  The fire is out and we had a few days of no wind and cooler weather.  The winds are back again, and the hot dry weather is also back.

Painted the front entry, installed the moldings and laid the floor.  Pix later.

Then I tried pulling up the 60 sf of vinyl plank that were not sticking properly.  Using the left over vinyl from the apartment was a bad idea since they had not been stored properly and had warped.  DH wanted to pull out the entire laminate floor before I put new vinyl down.  I really didn't want to do that since we would have to completely remove everything from the office so instead I tried simply pulling the installed vinyl up from the floor.  It came up fairly easily (although my muscles complained badly the next day) and I was able to lay the new floor planks easily.    However, the project has grown to include installation of new moldings, and a partial repaint of the lower walls up to the nursery border.  Or I might decide to remove the border and paint the entire room.  Either way I am now using my computer on the kitchen table with my cell phone providing internet access.  

The ginormous ewe that looked like she was going to pop last month finally lambed yesterday in the middle of painting the entry.  The first lamb was a nice ewe lamb and I iodined her cord then went back to painting.  I waited about half an hour for another lamb to show up but nothing, so I checked her there was another lamb ready to come out.  I gave it another 15-20 minutes but still no lamb so I went in and found the lamb was stuck with his head positioned but forelegs tucked under and back.  I was able to get one foot forward and finally just pulled him out by the head alive and healthy.   Made sure he was getting up, iodined the cord, and went back to painting.  This morning I saw a white dot in the large night fold and sure enough another ewe had lambed.  Sadly one of the ewe twins did not make it - the sack was still over its face.  The ewe was a first timer.  She probably had the first lamb and got preoccupied with it and didn't realize she had two to take care of, or the second one came too fast and the same thing happened.  Anyway, several ewes are due around the same time now so we will keep them in the large night fold for the next few days.   The month old lambs are looking gorgeous!  They are out of the young ram .  The latest lamb and all the next lambs until January are out of the new ram.  Looking forward to seeing how all the lambs turn out.  So far I have 3 ewe lambs, and 3 ram lambs (for meat) out of the first 4 ewes.  Still 4 ewes to lamb between now and November, and another 3 ewes due in January/February.

I will try to post pix eventually, but no fancy colors like Bay's lambs!  Just plain old white lambs!  The only difference between them is their coats.  2 of the lambs have wooly coats while the other 4 have hair type coats.  Woolies don't shed as well so I only plan to keep hair ewe lambs for my flock.  You can tell the difference in their coats when they are born.  They fooled me when we had our first lambs - we had one hair and one wool (the cross breeds didn't count since they were going in the freezer anyway).  The one with a hair coat freaked me out - it was a ram so destined for the freezer but I thought something might be wrong with it!   I was only used to wooly lambs so they looked normal while the hair coat was strange.  When I went to the Western States Dorper  Show in May I discussed with the Judge how to tell which would shed well and which would not shed completely.  The Judge was so nice and approachable.  Not only had he done a seminar for everyone who was interested, but was willing to talk individually with us about the breed.  He showed me a newborn lamb with a hair coat and said that any lambs like that would be good shedders.  So instead being some sort of freak, the little ram lamb had the desirable coat!  I have been able to identify the best shedders in my flock - easy to do when they shed out LOL - and am now able to identify the good eventual shedders in the newborn lambs.  

So here are pix of lambs and differences in woolies and hair coats.    Left is wooly - looks like a dirty tight perm.  Right is hair - straight and clean looking.
  Month old keeper ewe lamb - hair coat.  Love the thickness and length on this ewe lamb.  Probably through sire's top line which is known for its long thick bodies.  Worried about shoulders which seem rather wide at the moment  (possible birthing problems?) but as butt catches up when out of small pen and onto hillside should turn into a very desirable ewe.
   Twin month old ram lambs - front is larger by 2 lbs at birth so much larger now although smaller brother is gaining in same proportion as larger brother.  Smaller lamb is a wooly as can be seen by the difference in coat color.  Same thickness and length showing.  Final picture is top view to show thickness in relation to length.  Looking forward to seeing how younger lambs develop.  One more ewe is bred to this ram.  I got her at the show and sale and she has exceptional bloodlines and is a beautiful ewe.   She is still to lamb and I am really excited about what she produces since both the ewe and ram are Hijo sired - the line producing exceptional thickness and length.
 No pasture left except some dry stuff in the far edge of the property.  Feeding prime alfalfa to ewes near lambing and lactating - where are the rains???  Need green stuff for my babies!   Southern California at it's driest!  Thank goodness we brought in 10 tons of prime alfalfa last summer at low price (for us).  Hope it lasts until the rains bring green forage.

Tomorrow we will weigh lambs and separate the ewes and month old lambs into a small field with the new ram in his breeding harness.  That will allow us room to put the newer lambs into a larger barn pen, and free up 2 lambing pens for the ewes coming on to lamb any day.

Angel is out of season and home from doggy prison.  She is sooo happy to be back.  I am happy she is home too since we will need our third LGD now that the lambs are on the ground and being moved out of the barn lambing pens to larger field pens.  In another 3 months I will arrange to have her spayed.  She will be 15 months old and I really don't want to go through another season with a male dog on property even though he didn't seem to realize what it meant.   I still have to have him collected for Erick and he wants me to have him collected for my self too.  Still trying to decide about that but as long as I can have him neutered afterward I am fine with it.  Easier to sell semen than mess around with bringing a bitch in season on the property with 2 mature Anatolian bitches here!     Not a good situation.  From now on I will only buy replacement LGD Anatolian bitches.  We love Bubba, but males are a lot more difficult to train and deal with.  Much more aggressive.

Speaking of Bubba, I have figured out how to deal with him around the newborns, Absolute calm and no talking except sweetly and encouragingly to Bubba in the barn.  Complete about face from previous behavior resulting from him!  Still wants to be in with HIS babies, but much calmer about it.   Not sure how much the change results from being incarcerated last time, and how much is from change in how we deal with lambing ourselves, but either way it is a good change in his behavior.

I have typed a lot this time since I don't know when I will be back here.  So much to do since I have to finish the office painting and molding, rearrange the furniture to a better design, add some shelves for DH and the computer equipment, and then spend a couple days refiling all the paperwork, etc.    Once it is done it should be more workable - if DH keeps his filing and desktop under control!!     LOL

Once I am back in the office I will have to catch up with everyone's posts.  I have marked everyone for watching them but don't seem to get the messages in my emails.  Maybe I need to check to see if they are going into the spam file?  Just occurred to me.  I am not a big computer operator.  More in another week or so.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Southern California at it's driest!


In other words: normal. I lived there the first 23 years of my lift.


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## Baymule

Good to hear from you, I know you have been busy. Those sure are some gorgeous lambs! You have some very nice sheep, you should be proud of them.

Glad the fire is out, you have fires and earthquakes, we have tornadoes. I would say hurrricanes, but I am far enough inland, that they really don't matter much. LOL

You are a whirlwind of activity! So much to do! At some point, you need to have some down time for you!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Just checking in with you again.  I see there are fires continuing to burn in both Northern and Southern California and am wondering if you are being impacted.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

Fire was all around us for about 2 weeks.  It seemed like every day or two another started up, but the wind blew the smoke away!   Very lucky.

Two more ewes have lambed but the rest have not.  I am trying to remember if I actually saw udders on all of them or not.  The end of November will be the last dates they were exposed to the 2 bucks I used this year.  Next dates ill be January and February and any lambs then will be sired by Lewis.  I used him last year and he threw nice lambs, so all is not lost.  He is a very good ram.  Low birth weights, but incredible ADG.  I have no ewe lambs out of him yet so we will have to see what he throws.  His lambs were incredibly long.

I finished the entry and the office.  See pix.  I ant to add by pass closet doors in the office since we will be using it as an overflow closet and will look cleaner.  We took the doors off years ago when we put DH's desk in the closet nook and had a crib and bed in the room.  Now it is just a shared office for DH and myself.  Lots of file cabinets and some storage.You can't see it but I removed and replaced all the oak moldings with white painted MDF. I also painted around the nursery paper border because I like the bright colors and cute animals. What?! It's _my_ office and I can have a nursery dado if I want!  LOL  I am probably heading into my second childhood anyway so . . . .  One nice thing is the window that looks out across the ravine. 

The entry came out very nicely.  It looks like a real front entryway!  Haven't had one of those in 30 years!  LOLAgain white MDF moldings, but there were no oak ones in there to start with because it was a garage.  You can see the barn style doors to the laundry room next to the antique ice box in the first picture.  In the second one the doors are on the right side just before the step up into the main house.

It took forever to finish those 2 rooms mainly because I came down with a cold - thank you DH - who thanks DS1! This cold laid us all low, although I crawled out of my bed for several hours a day to work on the office.   Finally feeling better and getting over this, hopefully.

Weighed the  lambs yesterday, vaccinated, docked and castrated.  I know Bay doesn't like docking tails in hair sheep, but it is what I am used to.  I like it since I can see changes in the vulvas without having to catch and handle the ewes when they are ready to lamb.  I can also see the first udder growth in the pregnant ewes too.  So we docked only the ewe lambs this year since my Armenian meat buyer wants his lambs to have tails and the other buyers don't care. Then we castrated 2 of the 3 ram lambs.  I have a buyer for this ram lamb who is double bred on a terrific bloodline.  He is super thick, long and all around very nice.  Weighed 45 lbs. at 8 weeks, is one of twins, will be good shedder when grown, purebred, all the good thing.  Plus, if the buyer backs out we can eat him.  LOL  It's a win-win.  He will go in with the older rams when weaned at 10-12 weeks.  The ewes will be in with one of the other rams and we will remove the second ram from the ewes in another week, then after a month the third ram can go in with them if they have not shown any udder tissue yet.  I think a couple of the must have reabsorbed their lambs since they were definitely bred but that is livestock for you!  At least Dorpers are not seasonal breeders!  We need to sort out the rams pronto too since we need to set up a creep for the lambs so they can eat undisturbed by their moms.  No rain, no forage, so no grazing.  That means carry feed and competition for grain.  We don't give them that much so it is important that they can each have their share.  Since I don't plan to hand feed anyone, we need to have enough space at the feeders for everyone.  Having a creep pen where the lambs can eat undisturbed makes sense even when not feeding them special grain rations.  

We drove up to Turlock just before catching our colds.  DH actually started feeling bad on the way home.  We took DS3's dump trailer back to him since he needed it and we had take quite a few loads to the dump already.  Since he is just outside San Luis Obispo we were part of the way up so when Susan Schaul called and said they were going to be at a Boer goat show in Turlock if we wanted to get the squeeze, DH said yes.  When we got there it was the final dy and she actually had some of the things I had ordered that they were using as samples as well as some on my "wish list".  I went ahead and bought a 3 way sorting gate, picked up the 2 guillotine gates, another 6' field feeder, a 3' creep that opens as a gate (so nice to be able to go fro the creep to the large pen without having to go out and around) and 4 of the panels for the lambing jugs.  We will pick up the rest on our way back from Washington state later.  As they were loading the truck, Susan and I were going over what she had left and I kept encouraging the men that it would all fit.  We only had the truck without the stock trailer but they got everything on.  Now we have to put everything together and make our alleyway, find a location for the large walk in scale (the older lambs are already 45 lbs.!) and the tile table/squeeze.  We actually have a narrow area about 4' wide between the chain link fence to the yard and the large night fold.  When we try to pen the sheep they like to run through there to escape from us.  DS1 and DS2 and I re going to set up a small pen to sort the sheep into at the end of the run, and then make that part of the alleyway.  We just have to attach panels at the end to narrow it to a single sheep width before the sorting gate.  Having an alley way and sorting catch pen will be so much  more handy to drench the rams and ewes and vaccinate them.  Then we also need to do some sort of shelter over the tilt table to use it so we are not in the blistering sun when trimming hooves.  And of course another run into the scale.  So much fun!  

So upcoming work for this week - setting up the sorting pens with the Red River rodeo panels (10' long, 5' high, 7 bars so they hold the adult sheep) which are light enough for me to move without help.  Put the creep gate in the smaller hillside barn pen.  Break down and pack the moving boxes which my daughter keeps bringing over and wrap them in cheap plastic paint drop cloths.  We will need the eventually when we come to Texas.  I bet y'all forget about that!  Then I have to move them into the barn loft which I also have to finish cleaning out.  OH NO!  But first thing in the morning I have to move all the purchased Christmas gifts out of the 5th wheel trailer since DH is taking it in to have the water pump replaced.  OOPS!  Forgot I have to do that before the grandkids come home tomorrow afternoon.  

Anyway, lots of stuff to continue doing here to get ready for DS2's wedding and also eventual house sale and move to Texas.   Next time I will take pix and post of our new lawn.  After 30 years of living with dirt and gophers, we finally broke down and installed artificial turf in the front of the house (good curb appeal) and at the end of the patio wrapping around behind the house.  Looks great, but the dogs don't understand they should be pooping on it.  This morning I went out at dawn to remove a giant poop but it turned out to be half of a decayed rabbit which proceeded to leak maggots into my new (albeit fake - sorry "faux") grass!  Managed to get it onto a shovel and dumped it in the trash so they couldn't bring it back.  Don't look at me with sad eyes, guys, this is new grass - at least let it get faded and worn before desecrating it!  LOL

Gotta go serve dinner. . . .


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## Baymule

The entrance and office look so nice! You sure have been working hard to get all that work done! 

Fake grass and confused dogs! 


I want pictures of all that awesome equipment you got! All these years of "block and tackle" working sheep and 1 day of playing with my sheep equipment and you went crazy on it! YAY for YOU!!! Pictures!!!

You are going to have to stuff a couple of ewe lambs in your RV next time y'all come to Texas, tails on please!


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## Bruce

You are going to hava a LOT of stuff to move to TX, I guess you'll need TWO moving trucks!



Ridgetop said:


> You can't see it but I removed and replaced all the oak moldings with white painted MDF.


Sorry, gotta ask. Why would you replace quality hardwood with (what I consider crap) MDF??


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## Ridgetop

More like 10 moving trucks - a convoy!  With big signs saying "gone to Texas"! 

The oak moldings in the office did not look right with the new flooring.  I could not get golden oak looking vinyl plank.  I could have painted the oak moldings, but the idea of painting quality oak that I sanded, stained and varnished 30 years ago went against the grain for me.  The front entry never had moldings.  Painting MDF was easier and cheaper than buying, staining and varnishing new oak.  I only replaced the oak moldings in the office.  I kept the old oak moldings and baseboards from the office.  I had to replace a set of door casings in the main part of the house, so I used the ones from the office.  I also need to replace a damaged oak baseboard in the family room and will use the baseboards from the office to do so.   I can no longer match the old oak baseboards and door casings in new stock so I used the old ones that match.  Since I am selling the house in another year or so, I did not want to invest in oak for the office.  Besides several years ago we installed a set of floor to ceiling cabinets in the office (in addition to the closet) that are white - used from Habitat.  Now the woodwork (except the entry door is all white.  I can also use inexpensive panel doors from Lowes for the by pass closet doors and paint them white to match.

The baseboards in the office were a little short behind the door anyway, but I didn't bother to buy another piece of oak, stain and varnish it 30 years ago for the 3/4" gap in the corner.  We were rebuilding the entire house at the time and short on time with 4 kids, a barnyard of livestock, 4-H activities, and DH working 6-7 day weeks.

I am in agreement with you though, normally I would have replaced the old oak with new oak, finished it and installed it, but I am getting old and tired and didn't want to spend the extra time finishing oak moldings.  The oak throughout the rest of the house is not going anywhere.  I have not had to paint moldings in 30 years due to my oak moldings!  LOL  I do have to scrub them periodically with TSP.  Speaking of which my oak kitchen cabinets need a good scrubbing!  LOL

As to buying the new equipment, at my age and physical shape, the right equipment will mean I can do a lot of the sheep work myself instead of having to drag DS1 or DH out with me to catch, hold, weigh, trim, vaccinate, or separate sheep and rams.  It is often more exhausting rounding up "the boys" to help me than doing the actual work!   I just have to put the alleyways together!

I had a lot of Sydell equipment at one time but sold most of it when DS2 and DS3 graduated from 4-H.  The right equipment can make life so much easier.  One item I have that I refuse to part with is my castrating stand from Sydell.  It is a tube on a stand and you slip the kid or lamb in it feet first so it holds him securely for you while you band him.  Since I like to vaccinate in the groin area (the friction of the legs rubbing o the injection site makes sure no lump forms) I used to used it for that too.  The second vaccination and castrating at one time - easy peasy!  I used to be able to do 30 at a time by myself.  I would run them into a small catch pen (I had the equipment then) Grab and slide into the tube.  I only had a problem once when the Boer kid had gotten a little large - he got stuck in the tube!

I still have most of the old show equipment stored in the barn.  It will go to my grandchildren in Nipomo - show sticks for cattle, hog sticks, lamb sleeves, goat collars and show leads, etc.  The newborn calf halters from the veal calves actually fit the large rams so I will keep those.  I bought 2 new halters (now sold as leather ram halters) since I had misplaced the old ones after I disassembled them to soak them in neet's foot oil.  _Naturally_ I found them after I had bought new ones, used them!!!  LOL  The oil soaking did wonders for the leather - they are as good as new except for the gnawed ends of the leads where the calves used to chew them!

I would build a shed to hold the tilt table and scale, but don't want to do that much work and expense.  Instead I am considering getting one of the large prefab vinyl sheds, and running the alley into it through the doors, then attaching the alley to the scale and tilt table, then cutting an opening through the back out into the alleyway and sorting gates some how.  Actually now I think about it, I could use the sorting gate to turn the sheep into either the scale or tilt table . . . .  Too complicated maybe?   I really only want to protect the scale from dust, and to be in the shade when working.  Perhaps A/C?  I can dream too!

By the way -
Is anyone looking for trained LGDs?  Angel's breeder, Debra, has 2 of Angel's brothers (now just 1 year old) that she has trained and is looking to sell.  She has *not* asked me to sell the dogs for her, I am letting people know about them since our Angel is so awesome.  The dam is a Lucky Hit bitch, and the sire is out of a Turkish import.  Debra also videos her training and puts it on u-tube so you could probably see the dogs working.   Debra lives in Idaho and her dogs defend her Dorpers and dairy goats against cougar, bear, WOLVES, foxes and coyotes.  She makes her living selling meat and dairy products at Farmer's Markets so the 7 dogs protecting her flocks are really life and death for her. 

I hope this is not considered an ad since it is not meant that way, nor do I get anything from it other than satisfaction helping someone find an awesome trained LGD.  There are so many bad LGDs out there that finding a good one is a joy.  Maybe this will help someone.

Here are pix of my new "grass"!  Still have to raise the block planter wall, fill it with new dirs./manure/planter mix and plant my roses - with the roots wrapped in wire.  The planters are lined with wire already but why tale chances?  The garden will be moved to the other side of the house here the tree fell over and we had the roots removed.  Raised planter beds lined with wire - pesky gophers!  
Top picture is front of house from road - you can hardly see the grass because I had to stand in a bad spot since the sun was glaring into my camera lens.  Next pic is front of house looking out onto the road.  Then next 3 pics are of the lawn at the end of the patio looking towards sheep area on other side of bushes and fence.  Final picture s looking around back of house - sheep teepee shelter is in view on left.  

Green stuff!   And we don't have to water it and pay the fiendish water tax the liberal dems have foisted on us - take that Gov. Newson!


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## Baymule

I love it! If it gets faded from the sun, spray paint it! My Daddy raised Christmas trees, they are sprayed with a special paint to keep the needles from falling off when they are cut. One year he had paint leftover, so he sprayed the front yard, it was all nice and green! 

Lamb tube? Can you post a picture?


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## B&B Happy goats

Absolutely  love your new lawn !


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I kept the old oak moldings and baseboards from the office. I had to replace a set of door casings in the main part of the house, so I used the ones from the office. I also need to replace a damaged oak baseboard in the family room and will use the baseboards from the office to do so. I can no longer match the old oak baseboards and door casings in new stock so I used the old ones that match.


Phew!, glad they were saved to be reused.



Ridgetop said:


> I am in agreement with you though, normally I would have replaced the old oak with new oak, finished it and installed it, but I am getting old and tired and didn't want to spend the extra time finishing oak moldings.


I hear you on the getting old and tired part. Still I think for the sake of the future owners I would have at least bought pine and painted that rather than sawdust and glue board. But it isn't my house!


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## Ridgetop

I keep getting different thing from different people.  Half say that someone will buy the house to live in others say some one will buy to tear down and build 4-6  houses on the property.  No point in putting in too much money when we want to move to Texas next year after the wedding. 

Angel has to go back to the kennel again.  She apparently had a false heat in September/October, and is now in definite heat, the hussy.  Aside from a hugely swollen vulva, Bubba now is interested in her.  She is interested back.  Yesterday Bubba, quite a gentleman, gently was positioning her to DO THE DEED!  She was very happy, flagging her tail!  When she sat down he tried to nose her up to a standing position.  Hopefully she did not get bred in the past few days when I thought we were completely safe.    She is barely a year old now.  However, like Erick said if she did get bred, at least they are both great working dogs and both Anatolians.  She is also a beautiful bitch, just too young.  We will see in about 60 days anyway.

We have starting emptying out our rental Connex.  It went very fast since the first 5-6 feet were huge boxes of Christmas decorations!   For some reason Christmas decorations are so bulky! Anyway, we just put those straight into the empty Connex while we sorted out and moved stuff we were keeping from the rental to the partially filled one. We found a lot of stuff belonging to DD1 which I schlepped over to her. There is also more of DD2's stuff out there. Her future FIL is coming down to empty their current storage unit and drag everything up to Big Bear to a new storage unit. At least it will be out of mine. We still have DS1's and DS2's stuff from their previous apartments stored but hopefully DS2 will move his junk to another storage unit after he get married. I am being very harsh on what I keep and what I toss and donate. I actually found a pretty pair of small scale blue velvet French knuckle chairs that used to be in my bedroom. I forgot they were in there. They can go to my children or to the thrift store. Although thrift stores are getting pretty choosy these days. If worst comes to worst, we will call for large item pickup (DS3's dump trailer went home )  and put them at the curb.  Someone will probably grab them and take them home.  Like I say, at least they won't be in my storage unit.  I also have a really nice knotty pine captain's bed that I refinished years ago that is in beautiful shape and lots of storage.  Perfect for a child's room.  I tried to give it to DD2 for my oldest grandson (age 12) since she wants to move him into his own room.  They did not want it.  I guess I will post it on Craigslist.  I wonder if I should post the 2 chairs too.  I will see if DD2 wants them.

I got the paint for the spare bedroom (we just removed the captain's bed) and I need to patch the holes DD2 and DS2 each left in the walls from shelves, pictures, TV and computer cables, etc., etc.   I hate the bright blue that DD2 painted the room.  I am painting a quiet shade of sage green.  

3:00 am and the smoke detector in our room went off!  Got up, checked around, no smoke, fire, etc. so DH got the ladder (high ceilings) reset it and back to bed.  Just fell asleep when it went off again.  Same thing, ladder, reset, half an hour and off it went for the 3rd time!  It was hardwired with a battery backup that was weak.  So DH disconnected it but by now we had a hard time falling asleep again.   This morning I noticed a strange buzzing in the hall.  Another hardwired detector was making the strange noises so I got the ladder and took it down and took out the battery.  Then I went to the shed and got several more smoke detectors (the last of my stash from the apartment)  I put new batteries in the backup compartment of the first 2 detectors and a large alarm went off.  I removed the batteries but the alarm kept going off.  It was coming from the room where I had removed the detector, disconnected and no battery.  It almost sounded like it was in the attic.  I removed the crawl hole cover and looked around inside with my flashlight.  It is too narrow to actually get in there.  I couldn't see anything, except that the HVAC people had removed most of the insulation.  I have a large bundle of insulation that I will shove in there though so no problem.  The detector was beginning to deafen e so I went out to DH and DS1 who were working on the field and told them I had a problem with the smoke detectors.  I thought maybe if one hardwired detector failed it would set off all of them but couldn't figure out why it kept going off in the room with the disconnected detector.  DS1 said he would come and look.  He said I was probably just thinking I had disconnected it and one was still connected.   I told him that if he could find it I would give home $100!  By then the noise was making me punchy.  I walked back into the office where the noise was coming from and saw the light flashing on the NEW detector I had just unwrapped to install!  It is one of those lithium sealed battery ones that are good for 10 years once you activate them.  Somehow I had activated it when I unwrapped it!      I walked out to tell DS1 not to bother - I saved myself $100!  Anyway, I installed 2 new smoke detectors, 1 was still good, and I realized I needed 2 more in the other bedrooms as well as CO2 detectors so they will go in tomorrow.  Luckily no fire or smoke!  

Next I went outside and DS1 and DH were working on the field.  DH was tractoring, and DS1 was setting up the alleyway and sorting gate.  Grandchildren, 9 and 6, were "helping".  DS1 and I held a spirited discussion about how to install the alleyway and sorting pen.  Since our night fold is set up about 3 feet from the chain link yard fence, I decoded we would save a lot of money on panels by using that 3' runway as an alleyway.  The darn sheep use it as an escape hatch every time we try to round them up and they don't want to go.  We finally got it set up and it will send the trapped sheep into either the large night fold, or into a small catch pen.  Once they are in the sorting chute, we can do shots, etc.  We still have to decide where to put the scale and tilt squeeze.  Tomorrow we will run the rams through the chute, vaccinate, and separate them out.  Axtell will go back in the steep small pen with the ewes that have lambed.  We will put in a 3' wide creep gate for the larger lambs.  Then the other 2 rams will go down in the front pen.  In another couple of weeks the ram lamb will go down there until we take him to Idaho to the buyer.  Heading to Washington state so will drop him off.  He is looking good, so hope to get some good photos of him for the buyer.  The ewe lamb born around the same time is looking even better.  So happy since she is a keeper.  The others are still young, but looking really nice too.  It s looking more and more like the 3 ewes that were in with Axtell did not take so they will lamb in January out of Lewis.  One of my new ewes looks to be threatening a rectal prolapse when she lays down.  When she gets up it goes back in.  I really hope I don't have to cull her.  We had a big Suffolk ewe that did that when she was pregnant.  The pressure of the lamb when she was laying down seemed to cause it to bulge out.  I would sew her up is it was a uterine prolapse but a rectal prolapse, not a good idea.  Just have to wait and see.  This is why I don't dock very short.  I keep about 2" or so from the vulva.  I will check the ear number and let Travis know.

Pictures tomorrow of my alleyway and sorting gate.


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## Baymule

As always, you are busy like a bee hive. LOL Pictures of the alleyway and sorting gate! Can't wait to see them! How about some sheep pictures while you are at it? You know we never get enough pictures!


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## Ridgetop

Pics?  Here they are:
First is view of the funnel opening to the alleyway.  It is situated immediately to the left of the new wooden gate from the driveway to the field.  To the left is the kennel run and behind the kennel and to the right of the alley is the night fold which is made of 10' long 5' high 7 rail Red River rodeo arena panels.  We had left a narrow walkway between the corralling and the chain link yard fence.  This turned out to be (annoying and awkward as we chased sheep around and around in an attempt to get them to go where they preferred not to be  . 

Next is a closer vew of the alleyway where it begins with a guillotine gate.  This gate ill have to be operated from ether the yard side of the fence or inside the night fold.  Awkward, buy doable.  A folding gate like Bay has (and one of which I have ordered for a separate alleyway to the scale or tit table) would be impossible to operate here since this alley has 5' fencing on each side.  

As those precious brainless darlings enter the alleyway and the guillotine falls behind them they continue along 20'-30' of alley until they reach a right hand turn which will send them into the sorting gate.  This picture is taken from the other side of the alley way.  The yard fence is now on the right and the tall panels of the night fold is visble with the teepee shelter on the left.The short green panels can be unpinned to provide access to the alleyway from the small new holding pen attached.

Here is the alley turn showing the sorting gate attached to it at the end.  The sorting gate has a head catch panel but Susan wouldn't let me take it since she said it was not made correctly.  She is making another which we will pick up on our way back from Washington and Idaho after Thanksgiving.   The catch gate panel is lie a goat stanchion headpiece - adjustable for different size sheep, designed to catch them and hold them steady in the sorting gate so you can do whatever unmentionable procedures are necessary.  Since the sorting gates have multiple horizontal bars, these would not include hoof trimming or anything like that but that is what the tilt table/squeeze is for.  The head catch will make vaccinating and drenching large ewes and rams easy though.   Here is a front shot of the sorting gate box.  A gate opens in or out on either side.  This feature makes it easy to sort animals through the chute into pens on ether side, or you can open the gate in to use as a slanted side to shunt animals off into the chute from a pen. 

Here is a front view of the sorting gate box.  At the moment we have attached an arena panel across the open end until we get the head catch gate.   Once the head catch gate is in place it can be adjusted to form a flat panel which will close the chute and with an open gate allow sending the flock through from one pen to another, or as a catch gate for individual animals.  The catch gate will also esily unpin to form a 3rd gate straight head - Voila!  a 3 way sorting system!  

View of entire end run from inside the small catch pen.


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## Ridgetop

More pics!!!
Alleyway with sorting gate taken from inside large night fold, showing small catch pen on other side of sort gate.  Additional shot of sorting gate and catch pen. 

Shot of alleyway, sort gate and catch pen from other side of catch pen looking toward night fold.  
Please note the bright orange hay ropes holding together parts of the fencing.  This is an official form of fencing, known as 4-H fencing!  It s often seen at homes of 4-H families, only varying in color of hay ropes!  

Back later with sheep pics.  Got an appointment.


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## Baymule

Hey! That looks GREAT!! HOO-RAH!!!  I know you are delighted to have this equipment. It sure makes life easier. on you and the sheep too! I have some of that orange "safety twine" too! I am so happy for you that you have this equipment, it's awesome!


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## Ridgetop

RAIN!!!  Last night.  not much but most of the night and supposed to rain all day intermittently.  Hooray!  FORAGE!

Of course, now we cannot try out the new sorting pen.    LOL

Took pics of the ewes.  Most look pregnant, but not close so probably not bred to my new ram, Axtel, but probably to the cleanup ram, Lewis.  Oh well, that is life and he produces nice lambs too.  Also very fast growers.



Here is one just for Bay!Sweet Josie the Mule!

Here are some more of the current lambs.  The first picture is the ewe lamb I am keeping.  She is Hijo, Glenland Farms, Polman Howell.  Massively thick and extremely long although this is a terrible picture.


The next pictures are the young ram lamb and his now wethered brother.  They are double bred Hijo, Glenland Farms.  Again terrifically long and massively thick.  The ram is sold to a buyer in Idaho.
  The ram is the white hair lamb, his smaller brother (going to be good eating with his super long loin) is the darker wooly lamb.  These are the older lambs.  The others are still youngsters.

Got an idea how to use the same idea of existing runnway in the barn to make a scale alley.

Off to bridge!


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## Ridgetop

So here is my idea about the barn alley.  We have the same problem in the barn.  DH now has decided it is way too small, being only 24' wide x 36' long.  Massive when housing 100 rabbit holes in breeding operation, but when converted to larger animal, definitely limiting. 

Since the barn is built on a level 4' down from the driveway, the edges of the retaining wall in the barn are sloped and we can't put our portable pens up to the front wall of the barn.  We do attach the lambing pens to the side wall so this makes a 2' x 20' space between the back pen wall and the barn wall which is difficult to walk on since it s a rocky slope and dead ends into the side wall of the barn.  Totally unusable space.   Naturally when herding the sheep from one pen to another they immediately run behind the pens, getting themselves trapped.  Lambs are especially prone to this, probably having ewes whisper in their silly ears "Let's have some fun with those humans!" 

Since we have attachments on the side wall where we can pin the panels for the pens, my idea is to move them out 18" to form another alleyway.  Here are pix of current set up.  Please comment on whether you guys think this will work.  We will have to build a plywood platform to level the scale, no problem there.

  Back wall of barn from on top of driveway.  Lower left front is creep, upper left pen is larger ewe pen.  Sydell panels, easily moved.

  Again from top of driveway, looking into middle of barn, pen is creep 5' x 10'.  Plywood wall has attachments to which to pin Sydell panels.  By moving the creep over from the wall  18" using 2 extra panels, we make a run way behind the existing panels, around a corner and into an alley.  At the top of the creep, which would be the middle of the barn, I can put the scale.  Or when the lambs are off to slaughter the squeeze table.

 This is the end where we would send the sheep through into the alley.  Currently we have straw there for the lambing pens, since the area is not usable for anything, but that will move.  
  This shows the view towards the back of the barn from where the scale or alley would open back into the barn.  At the end the wooden gate opens into the small steep hillside pen for ewes and lambs.  The metal gate enters into the large creep.  This pen is where the ewes and lambs go after they are  several weeks old.  Right now, I have 2 rams in the left pen and the right creep is holding the older lambs.  I will be removing Moy to the front field with Lewis.  Axtell will stay in this pen with the ewes that have already lambed and are ready to rebreed.  Hopefully this weekend.  

 I want to relocate the scale since we have not ben able to use it and are still eighing 50 lb. lambs in the hanging scale.  Fine for DS1 who can still manage on his own (barely with the larger lambs) but I want to be able to weigh the larger lambs more easily, and also be able to weigh ewes and rams when drenching, and weigh yearlings to determine readiness for breeding, etc.

Comments everyone?


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## Baymule

I will comment that I LIKE your barn! I really like the block pony wall. Your barn sure beats mine by a country mile. I like the "plans" you outlined, don't cha love panels that are easily moved and reconfigured? If what you do doesn't quite work out, just move them. I like your plans, it sounds good to me. I have some serious scale envy going on here. One of my keeper ewe lambs is growing and is quite hefty, would love to be able to chart weight and growth on our lambs!


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## Wehner Homestead

Caught up! I was all the way back in May!!!! Sounds like you are making progress on developing your herd and moving to TX!


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## Ridgetop

😁Have not been on for a couple days. Had to let my blood pressure drop back to normal before I could continue with this journal. By rights DH, DS1, DS2, and myself should have been laying cold and dead from a massive family group stroke after Tuesday’s events.  

DD1 decided to Christmas shop with DD2. They had come up with this idea for sisterly bonding and decided that the children would come to our house without consulting any of us.    DH and I were at the DMV getting our driver's licenses converted to "real driver's licenses". 9:45 am appointment, arrived at 9:30 am. DD2 brought Doofus Dominic and his 2 year old to our house, DD1 brought her 3 children, aged 12, 9, 6 to our house. While DH and I were trapped in bureaucratic limbo, DS1 and DS2 got Doofus to help them move the retaining wall blocks around and continue raising the flower bed at the end of the new grass yard. They loaded the blocks off the field onto the truck bed, backed it up to the fence and had Doofus hand the blocks over to them as they stacked and built the wall. These are the blocks that simply stack in place to hold dirt, no mortar needed. It was over and done quickly.

When DH and I arrived home around 2:00 pm (yes it did take that long) Doofus was gone with his little girl. Apparently before he could be roped into any other chores, Doofus remembered that he urgently needed to find a birthday gift for DD2.  He never returned. The birthday gift? A cat. DD2 and Doofus are living with his father and step-mom in a small 2 BR 1 BA house belonging to the step-mom in Big Bear. I don’t know if the parents want a cat or not. Maybe we will eventually acquire a barn cat???   The thought processes of Doofusses are mysterious. However, we have now found out how to rid ourselves of Doofus - have him help us with some sort of manual labor. LOL   

The skies were getting dark, temperatures were plummeting, and a massive storm was predicted. Due to the DMV fiasco we were late starting this project. The only good part was that DH and I had missed seeing Doofus. The only bad part was DH and I had missed seeing Doofus WORKING.   

Now we had to finally get to our sheep chores: Weighing lambs, installing a creep gate in another pen, attaching the pull rope to the guillotine gates so they could be operated from the outside of the run way, catching and vaccinating the two rams in one pen, moving Moy to another pen, putting a breeding harness on Axtell and turning him in with the ewes that have lambed. Then in the large pen with the ewes that had not given birth yet, catching Lewis, vaccinating him, removing his breeding harness and removing him to the other pen, The Field of Celibacy,  with Moy. Those two, Lewis and Moy, will remain celibate for the next few months. Axtell will get the goodies for a while. We started in the barn because the field job would be easy – we had an alleyway to the sorting gate remember? That job would only take about 15 minutes.  😁

The 4 of us, DH, DS1, DS2, and myself, were working in the barn in an attempt to beat the rain.  A big storm was due in and we needed to finish moving the sheep around.  The grandsons - 12 and 9 - were instructed to assist with the sheep chores.  They kept disappearing, while the 6 year old copied them as they climbed on high retaining walls, sword fought with long sticks, all normal things EXCEPT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE ASSISTING US! They kept disappearing, often with our tools.  While DH and DS1 installed the new creep gate in the large ewe/lamb pen, DS2 and I weighed lambs. The grandsons were told to help us. The 6 year old granddaughter was more help but too small to do much. Finally, DS2 managed to teach the 12 year old how to catch and hold on to a lamb. Then it actually went ok.   The 9 year old was useless, he doesn't like animals and after disgustedly watching him in the pen trying to figure out how to catch a sheep without using his hands or actually touching it,  DS2 got in with him and showed him how to do it. Then he made him catch and release several times. Then we called in the 12 year old (who is just as annoying but for other reasons) and finished the job.  

Anyway, once everyone was weighed, the dance of the musical pens began.  I will omit a description of this maneuver, assisted by the children.    Suffice it to say we moved the 2 ewes and their 3 lambs into the small lambing pen from the large creep. Then we drove the 2 rams that had been in the small pen, separated from the ewes, into the large creep. We caught them, vaccinated them and haltered them. One went to the front ram pen, while the other was placed in a marking harness and returned to the small pen. This small pen is actually a nice sized steep pen on the back of the barn where the ewes and lambs are kept (after they are moved out of the lambing pens) until the lambs are about 80-100 lbs. Then the lambs go to slaughter. Now we had the ram in his harness in the pen, we moved the ewes back across the barn with their lambs in with him and set up the creep. We had to make the creep gate spacing wider since the older lambs couldn't get though it any more. Reaching the exhaustion point (mainly due to the children) we still needed to carry on.

So, 2 chores down, 2 to go. We had to catch the ram in the night fold pen, vaccinate him, remove his marking harness since he was finished breeding, halter him and lead him to the Field of Celibacy. Easy-peasy we assured DS2 and DH. Lewis was a gentle, easygoing ram, and with our new super duper alleyway, we should be done and inside in about 15 minutes.

OK. So, the alleyway was a great idea and WOULD have worked well except . . . .

Out on the field, we opened the large field/driveway gate to make one wing leading into the funnel opening. We then stationed future DIL on the rope of the guillotine gate, DH at the edge of the gate holding up another panel, DS1, DS2, and myself stretched across the 15' open side. DS1 sent the 12 year old grandson into the pen with strict instructions to *walk slowly *around the sheep and gently herd them out of the pen. 🙄 Naturally, the sheep walked calmly out of the pen and obeying our gestures walked into the alley way. These are sheep. They did nothing of the sort. 

First, the ewes had been penned in the night fold for several weeks hoping they were going to lamb in October or early November. As soon as the sheep gate opened, the grandsons ignored their instructions and started to "herd" the sheep out of the night fold.   Now, granted the grandsons are not very knowledgeable about herding sheep, *BUT* running at the sheep waving their arms was not the slow gentle approach we had told them to use.  

The ram took off.   He must have been watching National Geographic specials because he proceeded to bound into the air like an impala on the Serengeti. Leaping like Nureyev in the Nutcracker Lewis sped past us followed by his 6 ewes. They all raced into the gully.   Angrily, we sent the boys into the steep gully to bring the sheep back up ignoring whines and mutters from them.  As they started to protest, 4 angry adults turned as one and advanced towards them. The boys ran into the gully after the sheep.  The 6 year old gladly ran after them "to help" but we called her back.  As they tried repeatedly to round up the sheep, the clouds kept darkening and the temperature plummeted. The 6 year old turned whiney.  Her grandmother tuned snarly. The atmosphere was dark and not just from the storm. 

As the children ignored our strict orders being given to "go slow" and "don't approach too close", the hilltop resounded to screams, shouts, and more screams.     The sheep were brought up twice, both times breaking back into the gully when the grandsons, in a hurry to have this end, ran at them and scattered them. I told DS1 we needed a good dog instead of the grandsons. Finally, DH put Josie the Mule into the night fold and the ram ran in after her bringing the sheep with him. As we quickly closed the gate, we decided to do this another way. Propping both sides of the sorting gate open, we tried to herd the now hysterical sheep through the sorting gate into the small holding pen on the other side. Finally, one ewe ran in. The others followed her. As the sheep circled the unfamiliar confines of the small pen, we finally were able to push the ram back through one gate into the chute. As we did this, the frightened sheep realized that one panel of the fence was rather high off the ground. We had noticed this when building the alleyway but hoped the sheep would not. One by one they squeezed under the panel and took off again. We ignored them to deal with the ram. Once locked into the chute, vaccinating him was a breeze as was removing his marking harness, haltering him, opening the sorting gate back into the large pen and leading him down to the front Field of Celibacy to join Moy.  The children were once again sent to round up the ewes from the gully.  This time, exhausted, they ran into the night fold and we closed the gate.

I gathered up the equipment from the field and barn and put it away. DH and DS1 fed. DS2 moved the large metal field feeder into the Field of Celibacy. Finally, we went inside. DGD1 received a banana to hold her over till dinner and to prevent her snarly grandmother from actions unbecoming. DH collapsed in his chair. DS1 and DS2 scrambled to reach the bathroom first for a shower. I threw some fish sticks on a tray in the oven and threw a salad on the table. Yum.    While the fish sticks baked I had a stiff drink. Sue me.

The atmosphere at supper was sullen. Those were the adults. There were no complaints about supper.  The children’s father showed up to take the eldest grandson to a scout meeting expecting to leave the younger 2 with us. Our faces were expressive. He took all 3 children with him.

Family consensus the following morning was that DD1's children exhibited a complete lack of listening and following instructions skills. It was decided by DH, DS1, and DS2 that they were normal children that had not had the benefit of growing up with the livestock. Their grandmother loudly disclaimed any responsibility since the children _*she*_ raised were excellent instruction followers. DS1 and DS2 claimed it was because I was no stranger to the wooden spoon. The  family decided I was just tired and stressed.  Once I did all the Thanksgiving prep I would be fine.    Everyone decided their training might be resumed when we have recovered our voices. Though beaten, like the phoenix, we rise from the ashes and try again. Our family refuses to accept defeat.  I did not say we were smart, just that we do not accept defeat.

The sorting chute worked properly although the alley approach needs improvement. DS1 and DS2 are working on alterations to the design by incorporating a gate into the chute from the large pen itself.  With the addition of a couple extra 5' panels, we will get it working.  The sorting chute was terrific.  Well, once we got the ram inside it.  

2 days to Thanksgiving.  I made it and am here so I am thankful.  
.


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## Mike CHS

I think if we had someone to coordinate all of the events on these small farms, we could probably have a best seller.  You do have a very descriptive writing talent.


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## Baymule




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## Ridgetop

The only thing that keeps me same is being able to laugh at myself and our adventures.

I really appreciate you guys being here to remind me that life is full of laughs, and we all experience forms of the same aggravation!

My email is not working very well, and when I write long posts like the one above my BYH freezes too.  I had to write the post in Word and paste it.  I don't like the new emogee format as well.  They seem to go places I don't mean them to go ad it is hard to find them again!


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## High Desert Cowboy

Don’t children just make everything so much better?  The older ones whine and the young ones help too much!


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## Ridgetop

THE RAINS HAVE COME! We are still muddling along although I have not had time since Thanksgiving to get on line with my BYH friends.

Thanksgiving came and went in a massive rainstorm (and blizzards through the mountains). DD2 could not get here for Thanksgiving because Big Bear was snowed in and the roads closed. Our Fort Worth, TX, friend, Kris, drove across the desert from Palm Springs and hit a snowstorm for about an hour on the way! We have gotten several inches of rain already, and another storm coming in next week! I hope it keeps raining off and on for the next 4-5 months so we will get forage. The storm also broke over the Santa Barbara fire. That fire had moved into the hills and was not contained. Lots of people evacuated. BUT it not only rained on the fire, it SNOWED! Put it out, thanks be to God.

I relented and allowed the 3 grandchildren to sit at the grownup table. I had threatened them with banishment to the kitchen after the harrowing episode with the sheep. They love sitting in the formal dining room on special holidays with the formal linens, sterling silver, china and crystal so they were devastated by the ban. For some reason they love eating with special dishes, silver , etc. where they have to be on their best behavior. I use my Waterford crystal and since my mother bought Waterford tumblers and juice glasses 55 years ago in Ireland, (why juice glasses I don’t know) I use those for the children. You are never too young to learn to appreciate nice things. I always wash the sterling silver and crystal by hand, but this year I ran the Waterford through the dishwasher. If it breaks, at least we can enjoy it until then. A childless friend inherited her mother’s crystal, her grandmother’s crystal and her mother-in-law’s crystal. She told me that after years of being afraid to use it and not wanting to wash it all by hand, she decided to just use it and run it through the dishwasher. Nothing broke, so she enjoyed using it and just ran it through the dishwasher. I decided to do that this year. It came through just fine, so I now see lots of fun times using it without handwashing. LOL

In our family I have been the only cook for years. This year my dear friend gave me a new electric turkey roaster, still in the box. It is the big white kind my grandmother and father-in-law always used (although the new ones are not quite so large as the old ones). Lois had purchased it, used it one time, and never used it again since she decided that at nearly 80 she shouldn’t have to cook any more turkeys. She brought it over and DS1 and I used it this year. We loved it! I was always afraid of the cleanup. Daddy used to do the turkey in a big roaster, and it was soooo good! Mine are good, but his seemed juicier. (Maybe because I didn’t have to cook it myself?) LOL Anyway this roaster is smaller than Daddy’s, but we managed to fit the 24 lb. bird in it. I know this roaster is smaller because it says “up to 22 lbs.” I remember when I was a child my grandfather used to get 30 lb. birds, and I myself 40 years ago never bought anything smaller than 26-28 LB. BIRDS. You can’t find those sizes anymore because the automated plucking machines won’t fit them. A judge told us that at the Fair one year when our entire 4-H club’s turkeys were DQed for being too large! They were the best looking birds but he said they were too large for the mechanical processing machines!

I had been dreading the cleanup but we lined the roaster pan with foil which helped and added water which I always do anyway. it cooked beautifully. DD1 saw it and said it will make it easy for DS1 and me to do the turkey when she hosts Thanksgiving since we can just bring the turkey over in the roaster!!! LOL

Bad news. I need a knee replacement soon. 25 years ago I got pinned between a truck and trailer and tore my knee cartilage/tendons/whatever is in there. No srgery but I was in a cast for several months.  No physical therapy but it seemed to be fine until this year. I am having so much trouble now with it that it is affecting my hip, ankle and back. Apparently, the torn ligament has weakened and caused or allowed the kneecap to rotate somehow. The knee doesn’t want to bend properly and often has started collapsing under me. I am in a lot of pain which doesn’t help when I lay floors, get up and down on ladders to paint, etc. Let alone standing on my feet all day cooking etc. It does get better when I stay off my feet makes it difficult to do any sheep operations. Hopefully I will get my sheep equipment set up with extra pens and chutes which will help.

More coming since this is only through the end of November.


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## Bruce

Did you invite Lois to dinner so she could appreciate her roaster?

Get that knee replaced before you screw up other parts of your body!! You sure don't need your back, hip and ankle going south on you. And likely you'll also be messing up your hip, knee and ankle on the other side as well!


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## Baymule

BJ can recommend a REAL GOOD knee replacement surgeon in Tyler, Texas! LOL And a great therapy center too!


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## Ridgetop

Lois was at her granddaughter's.  

Yes when it is really bad, it affects my hip and ankle.  I need to do something about it but I really dread having more surgery,  And I don't want to replace parts of my body with plastic parts!   LOL

Over Thanksgiving weekend we weighed the lambs. The large lambs had not had access to a creep, while the younger lambs had only had creep access for a week or so. The older lambs weighed:

#43 twin ram/wool - 70 days/45 lbs. - ADG of .53 lbs.
#44 twin ram/hair – 70 days/50 lbs. - ADG of .57 lbs.
#45 single ewe/ hair - 63 days/58 lbs. -ADG of .89 lbs.*
The 4 younger lambs weighed in at:
#48 twin ewe/hair – 38 days/36 lbs. – ADG .67 lbs.
#49 twin ram/hair – 38 days/31 lbs. – ADG of .54 lbs.
#46 single ewe/wool – 37 days/30 lbs. – ADG of .95 lbs.*
#47 single ewe/hair – 37 days/32 lbs. – ADG of .95 lbs.*

*The significant difference in ADG can be accounted for by the fact that these lambs are singles. #43, 44, and 45 are out of second time lambers, while all the others are first timers. I expect higher ADGs next year when the ewes come into heavier lactation. These lambs are also now in a creep situation, although only receiving rolled barleycorn and alfalfa. It will be interesting to see the difference, if any, in their ADGs after the next weighing. I think I will write a post about the use of weighing in determining Average Daily Gain. It will be helpful to see what others are doing on determining their lamb growth and weight gain charts, use of creeps, different feeding techniques, etc.

#45 is an extremely long, thickly muscled and wide ewe lamb –  
  DS2 tried to stack her up, but she is not halter broken yet so it was hard.  She is very thick and wide in addition to her length.  She is a keeper.

I wanted to get through Christmas, then lambing, then the end of January we are going on a cruise with friends. I had thought our last ewes would mostly be done lambing by late October or early November. Since they did not lamb by the last date of exposure of mid-November, they are now due in either January or February.  5 of them are bred by my Lewis while the other one is bred to a Texas ram. I hope they lamb before we leave the end of January, but their udders are still small so I expect the will start dropping their lambs as soon as we are on the ship for our cruise! It’s their way! LOL  

Anyway, I decorated the house, finished my Christmas shopping, wrapped all the gifts. and last job, made the Christmas cookies. Everything was ready for Christmas and I could relax. Then I went down with muscle spasms in my back! I was unable to move! Couldn’t walk! Couldn’t sit! Couldn’t turn over! Painkillers did not work! I was getting to the bathroom using 2 canes! I told DH that if it didn’t let up he would have to take me to the emergency room for a morphine shot in my back. Luckily, I found an old prescription of muscle relaxers in the back of the bureau. After 2 doses it began to clear up. After a week I was able to move around again.

DD1 did Christmas dinner this year and after several panic attacks on her part, she was able to carry it off. It was nice to have a quiet Christmas morning here with our sweet rolls and coffee. We opened our gifts and I actually got to see what everyone got and watched them open their gifts. Then we went to DD1’s house for dinner at 1:30 pm. *WE *were on time of course. DS1 *insisted* we make a point of it instead of doing as DH suggested and being several hours late like DD1 and her family usually are. They were of course not ready for us, but we were able to relax before dinner. I was a guest with my adult beverage and did not cook. We had already made our vegetable casseroles and brought them warm. The sweet potatoes were not quite done but we popped them into their oven since SIL was cooking the ham in his slow cooker. The pies had gone over the previous day, when I helped her set up the table and centerpiece. DD1 and SIL have a huge new kitchen with a *warming oven! *We put our casseroles in it and they were perfect at dinner. We had a lovely time.

After dinner we opened our gifts and I was able to watch everyone open theirs. This year I scored big with my gifts. Always iffy. Everyone was thrilled with what they received. I was concerned about DGS2 since Santa had brought him the Lego set I had bought for him, but I was able to fine it under the tree, run home, wrap the other present had that I had not been sure about – a Go Pro type camera kit I had bought at Costco before Thanksgiving. He loved it since a friend has a similar one and they like to make cartoons, etc. Another score was the Instapot for SIL. It was the last gift he opened, and he was thrilled. He is usually very quiet so I could tell it was a score.

SIL does a lot of the cooking on weekends and had been using his slow cooker lot. He decided he wanted a pressure cooker for Christmas since he could make meals faster. Then he heard about an Instapot. I found one at Lowes by Bella - specially brought in for Christmas along with crock pots, waffle irons, griddles and hot air fryers. I checked the reviews which were all 5 * same as the Instapot, and this one was 8 quart capacity while the Instapot was only 6 quarts. We get a 10% discount at Lowes too, so it was a good price, actually lower than the Instapot that was smaller. I went back and bought another for myself. The 8 quart size is perfect my large family. Made Chili Verde in it several weeks ago and did lamb stew last night. Lamb shanks in wine sauce tonight. I loved my pressure cooker, but this is electric and automatic! No need to adjust the flame and keep checking the pressure rocker. It also sautees, has a rice cooker function, slow cooker function, etc. I absolutely love it!

On Christmas Day Doofus antagonized and insulted every member of the family. He topped it off by insisting on returning to Big Bear at 2:00 am “to avoid traffic”. Christmas day we had a huge rainstorm and blizzards in the mountains all day. DD2 and Doofus had arrived on Christmas eve before the roads were closed. All mountain roads were closed Christmas by afternoon. DD1 and DS1 tried to convince them to stay the night as they had previously planned. DD2 wanted to stay and have family breakfast the next am (DD1 was cooking waffles on his new waffle maker) but Doofus insisted on leaving. DH and I were asleep so knew nothing of this until morning when DD2 was not in the guest room. DH was furious with Doofus for this stupid and dangerous stunt. DD2 finally called around 11:00 am to say that they had gotten home. It took over 7 hours to do a 2-3 hour drive, with chains and black ice. Needless to say, this is one more strike against Doofus.  

So on to other things. We set up our new scale and have used it twice now to weigh the lambs. The second time we also weighed all the ewes in that pen as well. 4 ewes came in at an average weight of 156, while the 5th one who os smaller framed weighed in at 138. We cut out all grain to encourage the ewes to dry up. We also switched them to a 3 way hay mix. We removed the ram and sent hi to the Feld of Celibacy with his brethren. The ewes and older lambs are now out in the large field where there is beginning to be some forage.

The rate of gain for the past month has slowed down but they are still on track. The older twin wether lambs are running around 65 lbs. at 16 weeks, while the single ewe lamb is 81 lbs. at 15 weeks. She is still pretty and a keeper. The younger 4 lambs averaged 56.6 at 1 month younger. We expect them to start gaining more now that they are out on forage in the big field. More exercise, and more space at the feeder even though they are not on grain. We are interested to see how they do on this new feeding program. With just a few, we can experiment with various feeds. They get a small hay feed in the am and a larger one in the pm, with full access to the field forage during the day.

That scale was the best buy I made in equipment!!! The battery scale holds the charge for several weeks, and is super easy to use with a self-leveling floor. We had it set up in the original lambing pen area with panels around it. We ran the sheep and lambs into the pen, then I closed off more of the pen. The first time we used it we did not run them into the small pen. Instead, DS2 and DS1 decided it would be easier to just catch the lambs in the creep and carry them to the scale. NOT! Much more work! This time since we were going to move them around anyway, the boys agreed to run them all into the small pen first. We ran them all into the small pen and with DS2 on one scale gate, me on the other, and future DIL with the pen and weight chart, we just gently guided them into the scale. We weighed all the lambs, ewes, and the ram in less time than it took to catch each lamb and weigh it 2 weeks ago!

When it came time to transfer the sheep from the field to the small pen, and vice versa, DS1 said to just open the gate and let them run into the barn. I set up panels for this in the barn, but unfortunately the sheep wanted to go out and forage in the gully so it did not work too well. I suggested that we use the panels to block the sheep off from the gully and run them into the other yard but was told by DS1 that he could get them to go into the barn easily. After the sheep ended up in the gully for the second time, I went inside to allow DS1 to do whatever he wanted. Later , he collected all the panels and set up a chute from the barn to the fold pen and ran the sheep from the barn into that. That evening when feeding he ran the others into the barn the same way.

I made fabric panels to attach to the barred panels to make a closed side chiute a la the “Bud’s pen” way. I think I will just order the solid panels next time I buy any more though. Each 5’ panel is only $10 more, and 5 lbs. heavier. It took me 2 days (I didn’t spend the entire day) to cut up the painter’s drop cloth and make 4 canvas panels with Velcro straps to attach to the barred panels. Although it probably saved me about $25 (considering the price of the drop cloth and Velcro), I think it is just better and easier to have the solid metal panels. I could also buy ¼” plywood, cut it and wire it on the existing panels. Easy enough to do to make my existing panels solid, but if I need to _buy _more panels though, I will just buy solid panels. In the long run cheaper, more long lasting, and easier.

BUT I LOVE MY SCALE!    I noticed that the ewes need their feet trimmed so I think I will get my sons to help me set up the tilt table on the field and start doing hoof trimming when I return from my cruise in February. I won’t do the pregnant ewes at this late date in their pregnancy in the tilt table since I don’t want to roll them over in case it displaces the lambs and causes lambing problems. After they lamb will be fine. They have been out on the big field so their hooves are not that bad. Yay! I can use another piece of equipment. I will let you know how it turns out. I should have taken pix of us weighing the sheep so you could see how wonderful this scale is.  Next time.


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## Baymule

I need a scale! But I want a deal on one..... LOL 

I am so sorry that you are in so much pain with your knee. Knee replacement changed BJ’s life. It will make a huge improvement in your life.


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## Ridgetop

Actually knee has recovered somewhat.  Problem is that I can't spend my life laying down with my feet up!  Everything I enjoy doing is on my feet!  LOL


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> And I don't want to replace parts of my body with plastic parts! LOL


You might want to talk to people who have had replacements and how it affected their quality of life. I personally don't know anyone who is sorry they had replacements. 



Ridgetop said:


> Needless to say, this is one more strike against Doofus.


Sadly you don't get to choose the kids' romantic partners. But he does sound a bit less than ideal. Does he kind of hide away in the corner at family gatherings or does he mesh with the crowd?


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## High Desert Cowboy

I know one person who doesn’t love their prosthetic knee, but that’s because it’s attached to a prosthetic leg!  Everyone else complains about the recovery but then they’re great.  Beats being in pain everyday.


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## thistlebloom

My big sister had both of her knees replaced. They are titanium, and she says they're heavy, but she's doing back flips (mentally, haha) because she's not hobbling around in pain like she was for years. She can now work outside in her yard all day long with no problem.


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## Ridgetop

Yes, my sister-in-law said she had her knee replacement done immediately when she was told she needed it.  She said it has been great and very little recovery and PT needed.  She was really encouraging me to have mine done.  She said that most people wait so long that there is a lot of damage to the knee and other bones by the time they decide to go for it.  Right now I don't have any pain but once I start doing a lot of my normal activities again, I'll be in pain again.  I don't know if I will be able to ride, but at lest I could do more walking again.



Bruce said:


> Sadly you don't get to choose the kids' romantic partners. But he does sound a bit less than ideal. Does he kind of hide away in the corner at family gatherings or does he mesh with the crowd?


No, Bruce, unfortunately he jumps right in trying to impress us.  I can't decide whether his bragging or his brown nosing to DH is more distasteful.  I am lighting candles and praying that it does not last.  It may be time for a Novena!

Nice start to the new year – first lamb of the second set of ewes was born today. This was a new ewe I bought already bred to an outside Texas ram. Sadly it is a single ram lamb  , so not a keeper, but he was 9.6 lbs. and healthy.  The ewe has good bloodlines, will produce well, and lambs easily so all good.  The lamb was born in the field, early am, no problems.  Rika was happily munching the afterbirth when DS1 came up mid morning to chide DH over not noticing that there was a newborn lamb in the pen when he fed! LOL First the hearing goes, then the eyesight! LOL

DS1 and I went down and separated the ewe and lamb out into a 5’ x 10’ jug. I iodined his cord, we weighed him, and then we marked the different pregnant ewes so we can identify them easily from outside the pen. I can identify some of my ewes by their faces and body types, but I have a few that are so similar that they are hard to tell apart. Same breeding, body types and heads, and of course, all white! Now they have sprays of neon green, orange, and pink (can says purple but . . . . ) livestock paint across their backs to identify them Their lambs will receive the same colors when they are born. The spray paint is much easier to use than the crayons I was using to identify them which re hard to rub on. I do need another color or two though. There are only so many combinations of green, orange, and pink you can make. I just realized that if I buy brown and black paint maybe I can avoid the switch to Katahdins. LOL

I am on the downward side of my second term as president of the bridge club!  I can't wait until the elections at the end of May. Then I will be free!  No guilt feelings about my long trip to Texas or having to arrange stuff in advance when I will be out of town.  I can't serve another term as president (2 years is the limit), and I have told the Board that I will not serve in any other position either. I have been on the Board for 6 years now and I believe that new blood needs to come in each year. It is better for the club to have new ideas and not stagnate as organizations do when the old guard refuses to give up their power. I am currently dealing with some problems with a member.   I had to warn him in person about his behavior, and now I have written a cautionary letter - the first steps in removing someone from the cub membership if they do not shape up and play nice with everyone.  When the Board asked if I needed any backup, I told them I had raised 5 children and no longer knew fear!  LOL

It is supposed to rain this week which will be good for the pasture growth.   Things are turning green on the hills.  Lots of lush grass but unfortunately not on my property.  I wish I could let my sheep graze the verges of the road, or arrange to turn them into the vacant 5 acre field at the bottom of the road.  I would have to leave 2 of the dogs with them during the day, then load them into the trailer and bring them home every night.  Not worth it.  The ewes and their lambs are happy to be out on our field and able graze.   The pregnant ewes are in a smaller field enclosure with access to the barn pen.  As they get near to lambing (or lamb in the field) we will move them into the jugs to bond.  Also, so we can keep a closer eye in them and their lambs for the first couple of weeks.  Having grassy fields or lush forage for grazing is something I dream about when we move.  

Thinking about lambing reminds me that I need to order more CDT vaccine for this next set of ewes and lambs.


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## Baymule

They can't all have twins and they can't all be ewes, I guess it's a good thing that we don't always get what we want. LOL Congrats on the healthy ram lamb. 

While you are busy painting your sheep, have you tried camo?   Paint your own Katahdins?


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## Mike CHS

I like the crayons with a summer coat but I don't even bother with the heavier winter coats.  I'm jealous that you are seeing green in your pastures since all I'm seeing is brown.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Now they have sprays of neon green, orange, and pink


Now they can join all the "cool kids" with bright unnaturally colored hair!



Ridgetop said:


> I am currently dealing with some problems with a member. I had to warn him in person about his behavior, and now I have written a cautionary letter - the first steps in removing someone from the cub membership if they do not shape up and play nice with everyone.


Had to do that when I was the president of the figure skating club. Not fun.


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## Ridgetop

Just when I thought it was safe to go back into the water . . . .

Last night at 5:15 pm DS1 came in from feeding and called me to come look at Angel. He said she would need to go to the vet for stitches. Anticipating a small cut that could be taken care of at home, I went out to find her laying by the back door.



She had a huge gash in her upper flank with the skin gaping open the size of the palm of my hand! No puncture wounds so not caused by a bite. It looked like she had snagged her skin on a piece of metal or wire and just torn herself open. DH had just left to post a letter so I had to wait for him to return. I immediately called our vet who was about to close and wanted to send us to an emergency vet. Then I call Dr. Dave, out local horse vet who lives around the corner. He had stitched up Lady when Rika tore her open 6 years ago. He called me back to say he was away on a horse emergency and wouldn’t be back for hours. The emergency vet he gave me was in Glendale at the height of office traffic. While DS1 went on line and to find the closest emergency 24 hour facility, future DDIL brought Angel inside.

I got out my emergency supplies and used a spray saline wash to clean the wound which was bleeding only slightly. I pulled out the skin to really get in the wound since the skin was completely torn open down to the muscle. Angel barely reacted. Then I got tube of Tomorrow udder infusion for mastitis and skirted the entire tub in under the skin. Grabbed a roll of vet wrap and a Kotex pad and bound up the gash to keep it clean until we could get her to the vet.  (FYI Kotex makes great pads for large wounds.  I knew someone who also used tampons when her horse suffered a large puncture wound.  She dipped it in antibiotic and pushed it in the wound as a temporary dressing.)

DS1 found several vets and we called to see who could take her mediately. Got there at 6:30 pm (traffic) and at 8:30 pm we saw the vet. Left Angel there for stitches under anesthesia. I wrote in huge letters all over the forms “Sensitive to anesthesia” since Anatolians can have a problem. Tell your vet that they react like Grayhounds and they immediately say OK, otherwise they think you are crazy and a wimpy owner with a huge dog like an Anatolian.

$1,650.00 later we were on our way home, leaving Angel there for an overnight stay after surgery. We could have saved $50.00 by taking her home at 1:00-2:00 am, but I didn’t want her trying to chase coyotes slightly groggy from anesthesia and with fresh stitches. It will be hard enough to try to confine her for a few days when we bring her home!  I had hoped to buy a nice pair of opal earrings in Hawaii.  Instead Angel is wearing them on her flank now.  

Angel weighed in at 100 lbs. even. Bubba weighed in at 174 lbs. last time he was at the vet. Bubba is on a slight diet, but Angel is still growing. She will be a larger dog than Rika. She is already taller, has grown into that extra long tail, and is now starting to fill out. She will stay leaner and rangier than either Bubba or Rika though. This is good since too large an LGD can lose agility in fighting with predators. Bubba is almost too big but he has a lot of mass.

The sheep are out on the field and I can see them from my desk as I write this. The lambs (weighing about 60-80 lbs.) are having a great time running into the gully and then running back up. So fun to watch even though they are getting harder to tell apart from the moms!   

My regular customers want lambs again and are thrilled to hear that I will have lambs every 6 months now. They didn’t get any last year since we were in the process of changing out the Dorset flock for Dorpers, and had a lot of lamb losses due to the fires. I also have a possible new customer whose family and friends want smaller lambs 20-30 lbs. and 70 lbs. I hope this happens since it means less feed going into the lambs before selling them.

More taxes are coming our way here in Los Angeles County! $.06 per square foot on our property for EMT and Fire services. We are not sure how the tax will be applied. First, it looked like it would be for the entire property which o our 6 acres would have come to about $16,000.00!!! Then, after DH recovered from his fainting spell, he tried to look it up on line. It looks like the tax would be applied to “improvements”. We are still not sure if that is just house sf or would it include the barns and outbuildings. Anyway, we are again being taxed out of the “Golden State”, so called because it takes all your gold to continue living here! Unless you are homeless or an illegal in which case you receive a shower of gold from our state politicians! Just call them Robin Hood. The Sheriff of Nottingham was probably the victim of bad press and “Fake News”!  

Leaving on our cruise on Tuesday so I am beginning the packing process. First, DH wants to get some new clothes. I don’t understand his metamorphosis, but since going on cruises he has become a clothes horse. Every new cruise causes him to buy a new wardrobe. When the suitcases come out it is like watching a hunting dog getting a whiff of the scent. His eyes brighten, his head lifts, I wait for it . . . “I’m going to need some new clothes” announces my sweet DH eagerly.

This man hates shopping so his first idea is _I_ will go to the store and buy a lot of stuff to bring home for him to try on. (I actually _used_ to do this – I was young and naïve.) BUT he also hates to try stuff on so . . . . Upshot is I drag him off to Burlington which has an exceptionally large Big Man’s department. DH is a BIG MAN and hard to fit. Because of his bad knees he has shrunk several inches in height. Because of his enjoyment of my cooking he has gained quite a few inches in girth. Retiring from an extremely physical job hanging off power poles and lifting immense weights onto the poles, he has “rehomed” some of those muscles. However, his carb free diet resulted in a loss of 50 lbs. over the past year or so. He is still struggling to remove more weight but has lost a couple of sizes. We are hopeful.

So off to the mall. DH is a darling, but I have spoiled him over the years. It is time for some “tough love”. A shopping trip for DH means I have to summon my inner strength and channel “the Force”.

First, dress pants since there are dressy nights on board in the formal restaurant dining room. We have decided to go to the restaurant every night instead of the buffet. This will cut down on the portions we eat (_I_ have also rehomed some of my curves) and we enjoy being treated like millionaires. (Or children, since the waiters open and place the napkins in your laps – at least they don’t tuck them under our chins or wipe our faces.) Anyway, we dress up for the dining room. Luckily my evening clothes only get out on cruises these days, and my friend has given me a lot of her beautiful beaded tops and silk pieces since they no longer fit her. I am lucky and can stretch out these lovely items with inexpensive pieces and accessories. DH, however, changes sizes with regularity.

DH has a nice sport coat but the change in his size means he needs a couple pairs of dress slacks. As I throw half a dozen different pairs in assorted sizes into the cart DH recoils in horror. Do I really expect him to waste his time trying on _all _those pants? Why yes, I do. It is unnecessary he pleads, as the eager hunting dog visibly shrinks into a whipped pup, since he KNOWS his size and these will all fit him. As I break into laughter, I ruthlessly push him into the dressing rooms. The women’s dressing rooms sensibly have chairs for men to sit and wait for their wives, but the men’s dressing rooms do not. Very sexist. After several trips back to the racks searching for sizes, he finally emerges with 3 pair that fit well. I will have to shorten them, but that is a minor matter. My ordeal has just begun . . . .

Now dress shirts. He has decided that he wants some new shirts and we again go through the entire process of him telling me he knows his size, he has worn it for years, etc. I sort through the shirts, rejecting all those saying “slim cut”. He tries on the first shirt which is too small, as is the second. The third shirt has one of those plastic locks on it. I send him to the counter to have it removed and he returns blustering that we will immediately leave this store since they will only remove one plastic lock at a time and his time is too valuable . . . . ! Ignoring his complaints, I shove him back into the dressing room with several shirts. The ones he tries on are larger sizes than the ones he assured me fit him. Some fit, some don’t. We select 3 shirts, 2 of which have plastic locks which by now the manager refuses to remove. We will buy them, he will try them on at home, and I will return whatever does not fit. By now, DH has retreated into whining. I would spank him, but he perks up at the threat. He will have to wait until we are home.

Now on to sport shirts and jeans. We select several sport shirts. Nowadays almost everything is 100% cotton. That means ironing. I do not cruise to launder and iron DH’s shirts. I do find a lovely shirt which is “Easy Care” meaning no iron polyester. Once again, we head for the dressing room with a cart full of shirts. Standing outside the dressing room, my feet and ankles start to hurt. By now DH’s complaints are getting louder, and my responses sharper and less conciliatory. He selects several shirts and this time I send him to look for the jeans. He returns with 1 pair. I insist that he go back for a few more and sullenly he does so. I once again push him into the dressing rooms. By now my feet, ankles, knees, and back hurt, along with my jaw from gritting my teeth. DH still wants a pair of tennis shoes.

Four hours later, in the checkout line DH, miraculously restored to good humor, chats pleasantly with the checkout girl about his upcoming cruise. All I can think about as we get into the car is going home for some aspirin and a lay down in a darkened room. Possibly a tranquilizer or a stiff drink too. DH turns to me and cheerfully asks what I am cooking for dinner.

I love the man.


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## thistlebloom

Sorry about Angels injury, but the good thing is how impressively quick animals seem to heal. 

Your account of shopping with your husband was amusing,  😄.
I have a complete non shopper also. He hasn't tried clothing on in a store since I don't know when. Fortunately he lives in Carhartts and t-shirts. He hates shopping so much the only store that doesn't make him hyperventilate is the local gun shop.

Have a good time on your cruise!


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## Mike CHS

Thank you for the laugh and I hope you have a great time.


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## Bruce

Poor Angel! And poor you, quite a trial and stressful event.


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## Ridgetop

Poor, poor Angel!  She came through the surgery well.  She not only has a gazillion stitches, but 3 drains in the wound.  The drains will come out Saturday.  The vet bandaged her entire body to try to keep the stitched area clean and dry since she is an outside dog.  If the bandage gets wet or muddy we have to take her right back for a new bandage.  We were instructed to "keep her quiet".   When we picked her up it took them a while to bring her up to the front Apparently the techs were all sitting on the floor petting Angel and in no hurry to return what they called "the sweetest dog in the world".   LOL   Not what they call Bubba as they rush him out of the clinic growling through the muzzle!  Angel smirked all the way home.

DS1 partitioned off the old creep to try to give her a confined place to recover.  We had just removed that partition so the pregnant ewes could lamb in the creep if necessary.  The creep area is further back in the barn and the floor stays dry.  Now they will have to lamb in the front of the pen if their lambs come before we move them to the jugs.  I really don't think they will lamb until the end of February so we are good there.  Having said that, they are sure to lamb while we are at sea!  DS1 knows what to do but his hands are not small enough if he has to pull any lambs.  Hopefully these Dorpers should do just fine on their own.

Back to Angel.  Having installed the divider panel, DS1 put Angel in the creep where she could smell and see her sheep. Angel was out before DS1 could reach the back door.  She just jumped on the retaining ledge, stepped over the divider and went under the fence where she routinely goes in and out of the pen.  DS1 raised the height of the divider twice.   Angel went under the gate.  DS1 continued to barricade the creep which now resembles a fortress.  Angel is quietly plotting her escape.

Angel only has to be in there until Saturday when the drains come out.  Since they are open to the incision they can allow bacteria to enter the wound.  She is on antibiotics and pain killer.  Maybe the pain killer will make her woozy and she will stay in the pen.  Who am I kidding?  She is an Anatolian LGD.  The only way to keep her still is to stake out her 4 paws and use a mummy wrap on her.  This will be a long 3 days.  Oh yes, and it is supposed to rain on Thursday.  Aaargh!

The bright red area is muscle tissue.  The tear was about 4" long but ragged.  The dark areas are from the oily antibiotic I squirted into the wound before getting her to the vet.  She never cried or even winced as we looked at the wound.  Unlike Big Baby Bubba with his broken toenail which sent him into spasms of whining and howling!  Women are tough!


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## Baymule

Bubba=typical male.

Angel=typical female


I'm glad that Angel is healing up, that had to be a horrible surprise.  Why do animals have to do crazy things right as the vet office is closing? I'm sure that Angel is NOT enjoying wearing your opal earrings.  Hope she stays down and minds her Momma and DS1 so she can heal up.

I read your posts to BJ and we laughed all the way through. Unlike your DH, my husband loves to shop. He loves shirts and collected so many of them that when we moved here 5 years ago, I made him go through his closet and get rid of over 100 shirts! He had pants that I had never even seen him wear in the 19 (at that time) years we had been married! I made him try them all on. Those pants won't even go up your thigh, ya' reckon that maybe, just maybe they might be too small??? Out! They got to GO! We got rid of over 40 pairs of pants. Then we packed up all his precious valuable clothing into hanging boxes, about a half dozen of them and shoved them on a U-Haul. 

When we unloaded the truck, his clothing boxes went into the closet, the bathroom and bedroom. I had taken out those crappy wire racks they put into mobile homes and vowed that they would never come back in the house--and they haven't. I found they make wonderful digging restrictors when placed around a chicken coop or the back of the house to keep the dogs from digging tunnels. Anyway, back to his closet. The poor man lived out of those dreadful boxes for over a year before I felt sufficiently sorry enough for him to stop outside projects long enough to build him a closet. I built him 2 towers, 18" deep, 7' tall, 1 is 2' wide, 1 is 3' wide and 5' long poles between them. His closet is something like 10' long and 4' wide, and I bought a full length mirror for him to admire himself in. Oh, he also got a bookcase to stack his shoes in, along with a neat row he keeps against the wall in the bedroom. Did I mention that he also loves shoes? And coats? LOL

.

​






​






​









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These pictures were taken shortly after we unpacked his boxes, purged clothing again and neatly arranged what was left in his new closet. Since then, more has been bought and all the empty places are now full. Oh, i did claim a small section on the bottom hanging pole for my coats and nice shirts, it's maybe 2' wide. 

And MY closet? 5 years later it is still a black hole of unpacked boxes, bang-bang sticks and ammo boxes. My needs are simple. LOL LOL


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## Baymule

Crap. Some of the pictures didn't show up. Later, got to get dressed and get out of here. Anyway you get the idea. Hahaha


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## Bruce

It doesn't look like anything missing to me. I was going to mention the empty spaces that need to be filled with new clothes until I got to the part about that picture being right after the boxes were unpacked.


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## Baymule

All the pictures did show up! I built him a nice closet, don't cha' think? LOL


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## Bruce

Yeah you did.


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## Ridgetop

He is SOOOOO lucky to have you!  Great closet!

DH and I pretty much live in jeans and Tees, except for bridge club/church clothes, and of course our formal cruise clothes.  Our formal clothes last forever though since we only wear them a couple of times a year.

Occasionally I go through DH's closet and remove everything with stains.  I do use Oxy spray pre treatment which helps take out stains.  My friend says the Oil Eater cleaning solution that Costco used to sell for cleaning garage floors is the best stain remover on the planet but she can't find it anymore.  Probably off the market for working too well.  We have a walk in closet but it is only about 6' wide by 6' long.  I make more space by doubling rodding.  I have an old oak armoire, small circa 1910, which I refinished after rescuing it from the curb with a "free sign".  It has the original rods, mirror, hat shelf, and even a tin holder for a camphor block for moth prevention.  I keep DH's suits and my formal dress clothes in It is my "cruise closet".  LOL  When I decide to clean out some of my things, I call my daughter and have her come over to help me go through my closet.  This works well.  Only once or twice I have had to call her to bring something back!  LOL

Some more boring doings from the land of muddle. 


 Bubba and his new lamb. This lamb has several tan splotches! Is he a closet Katahdin?

The day before yesterday morning we had _another_ emergency. DH came in to tell me that one of the pregnant ewes in the barn looked like she was prolapsing. Down we went and sure enough she had a _threatening_ rectal prolapse. This was one of my new ewes and I had noticed before that she had intermittent signs. DS1 went down to help put her into the jug and while chasing her around Lo and Behold! - the prolapse disappeared! We separated her and put her into one of the lambing jugs. This jug has a grafting panel. Good thing I decided to buy it and had it ready! I tricked the ewe to put her head through by placing bucket of grain on the other side on the ground. When she stuck her head through to eat the grain, I quickly locked her in the stanchion.  I went up, got an exam glove, and some Preparation H and proceeded to doctor her. She was not happy, but who would be?  

Years ago, we had an older Suffolk ewe that had a threatened rectal prolapse when heavily pregnant. I doctored her with Prep H throughout the last few weeks of her pregnancy. That ewe had triplets and after lambing the prolapse went away. Nothing to be done here except Prep H until after this ewe lambs. I texted Travis (breeder) who said he gets one about every 4-5 years. He suggested cutting her feed to avoid the lambs getting too large. This makes sense since it is the pressure from the expanding uterus that is pushing out the prolapse. I am hoping that after she lambs  it will not return. If it becomes a continual problem she will have to go.

As I doctor this ewe, I wonder why anyone would want to do what we do with livestock? Between worm scans, prolapses, Prep H on ewes, pulling lambs, stitches, all the yucky sort of stuff we do for and with livestock, maybe we should just sell out and move into a condo. Then I watch the little lambs jumping with sheer joy at being alive, look around at the acres between us and our neighbors, see the sunrises and sunsets, love on our LGDs and Josie the Mule, and realize that ranching and farming is a way of life that can’t be abandoned. You can be forced out of it by weather, health, or financial reasons, but those of us who love it cannot just walk away.

Anyway, after messing about with the sheep DH went to the feed store and bought a 12' section of 4' high chain link panel with a walk through gate to close off the main barn opening.  This was *genius* on his part since before we had to station family members in the opening to try to stop sheep from bolting out of the barn and then running all over the yard or getting out onto the field whenever we tried to move them around in the barn. I had mentioned that we should consider a gate of some sort but did not realize he was listening. DS1 installed it in the barn opening and it works great. This will make it super easy to set up the scale or squeeze in the barn and weigh or trim feet. DH had noticed the feed store had started carrying these panels lately and thought we should try some of these for the sheep pens. My Hero! 

I received a voicemail from the vet yesterday checking on Angel and reminding me to keep her calm and quiet. ??? He is a city vet and did not recognize the LGD breed or its purpose, so he can’t be blamed for not understanding how difficult it is to prevent her from doing her job.  These dogs are driven to work without regard to their own feelings of pain, etc. Love our big sweeties.

OK, this morning Angel tore off part of her bandage.    I had to remove it and clean up the area where the drains have been oozing. I went down to the shed and made sure I have plenty of vet wrap. I washed off the incision and drains with hydrogen peroxide and placed a new pad over the incision. It took 2 rolls of vet wrap to bandage her properly. Around 4:30 pm when we got home from playing bridge, she had again removed most of the bandages. What was left had been scraped backward and was gathered around her middle in a single lump. Once again, I cleaned up the incision and rebandaged her. Again used 2 rolls of vet wrap but this time wrapped the vet wrap over her shoulders and around her chest to try to keep her from being able to rub the bandages back off the incision. 4 hours later she had torn off every vestige of vet wrap and bandaging! At that point we decided to leave her without bandaging since she was due back to the vet on Saturday for removal of the drains.

 The 3 strange looking white things are the rubber tubing drains.

Angel went back to the vet today for her drains to come out and new bandaging. They were happy to see her since they remembered our sweet girl. The vet removed the drains and decided not to put any bandages over the incision which was healing well. As I was getting another 3 days of antibiotics and assuring the nurse that Angel was not bothering her incision and did not need a cone, we looked over to see her busily licking the incision! Angel is now a conehead.  



Today I got the prolapsing ewe into the headlock again and reapplied Prep H again. I took the opportunity to check her udder as well. It is pretty full so hopefully she will lamb soon. The prolapse seems to mainly poke out when she is laying down (just like that Suffolk ewe years ago). Pressure from her uterus full of lambs seems to push everything out. I hope it is not just one big lamb.

  Threatening rectal prolapse when laying down
 After standing up and moving around. Hopefully she will lamb soon and stop all this foolishness!

Today I start packing for our cruise. My usual routine is to get out all the clothing I think we will want to take for the number of days we will be gone. My goal is not to have to do _any_ laundry on the cruise. It costs money and takes away from my bridge playing and relaxation time. I also have to pack necessities - a large medicine kit to cover any emergencies cold meds, cough drops, antibiotics, painkillers, bandaids, meds for diarrhea, constipation, etc. Then other necessities – phone and kindle chargers, flashlight, walkie talkies and batteries for keeping in touch in shipboard where our cell phones don’t work (DH loves these – my friend and I forget to turn them on), binoculars, sunscreen, bug repellent, emergency sewing kit, corkscrew, knife, baggies, umbrella, rain ponchos, etc. Wine – 2 bottles, water and Perrier, bridge cards, books, the folding expandable duffle bag for the souvenirs we inevitably buy (after promising we won’t) that won’t fit in the suitcases to come home, etc. I assemble all of this in the spare bedroom along with the suitcases.  Too much you think?  And yet, in the middle of the ocean, what if we need one of thee items desperately?  Better safe than sorry, say I - the 4-H mom famous for her complete medical supply chest at all Fairs from Sacramento to San Diego.

Our daily medications, jewelry, passports, boarding passes, $$$ for tips, and wine all will go in the small suitcase on wheels which boards with us. Over the years I have learned that a shoulder bag is too much weight and inconvenient. The larger luggage will be checked with the porters at dockside. Oh yes, this year DH insists that we bring our canes. We will get better treatment if we are seen to be crippled. We *are *fairly crippled and have been told to use our canes but since _we_ think we are in *the prime of life* we don’t bother. This can come back to bite us when DH’s knee and my ankles and knee start to ache and make it hard to walk.  These ships are *huge*, and we have to do a LOT of walking from one place to another just on the ship.  Maybe canes _are_ a good idea.

Once it becomes difficult to walk into the spare room it is time to pack. I lay out the suitcases and start with the dressy clothes (cruising is the only time I wear my lovely evening wear and jewelry so we “dress for dinner” every night). Once the dressy clothes and suits are in the suitcase, I squeeze in everything else around them. When the suitcases won’t close, I unzip the extra space option, effectively enlarging the packable space by another 2”deeper. When they _still _won’t close, I have two options – get another suitcase or repack everything. The first couple cruises we took I added suitcases. Now I repack. Several times. I remove and replace clothing until we are just able to close the suitcases. Flushed with triumph and the struggle to zip the cases shut, I turn around and notice the items I had set aside as "*imperative to take - pack first"*! Oops.  I remove and repack everything again. And again, and again . . . . 

DH does not understand this process. His idea of packing is his toothbrush and an extra pair of undies in a paper bag. I have to explain that his new clothes will not fit in a brown paper bag. LOL

He wants to buy more suitcases!   Has exposure to BJ unleashed the hidden clothes monster? 😈 
Stay tuned in . . . .
















😈


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## Bruce

You need bigger brown paper bags!


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## Grant

I love cruises.  I don’t have one scheduled until September though.


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## Ridgetop

Grant said:


> I love cruises. I don’t have one scheduled until September though.


Where are you going?

Angel escaped today from the creep, dirtied her drainage holes, and necessitated being locked into the kennel run. Within an hour she was in more trouble.  She tried to bite the wires off and got her jaw stick in the wires cutting into her gums and lip.   She is now confined to the stock trailer.  I told DS1 that if she gets out of there, or the temperature gets warmer she will have to go back to the boarding kennel.  She has another day of meds to go.  As DS1 and I discussed, she doesn't try to leave the yard, just wants to be free to go to all areas where her sheep are.  Since she is obviously a Houdini who can enter and exit any sheep pen on the property at will, we can rest assured that all the sheep areas are protected!

Well, I think I may have the packing down now.  No need for larger paper bags or extra luggage.  I got everything packed without having to unzip the enlargement section!  I did have to unpack the clothes we plan to wear tomorrow am onto the ship since I had accidently packed them.   At any rate, all we have to do now is to throw in the toothbrushes and toiletries in the morning and we are ready. We were discussing how early we had to leave for the port when I noticed that the ship doesn't sail until 4:00 pm! We don't want to get there too early since we will just have to stand in long lines to board. We also can't order any liquor on board until we are out of port because they will charge us tax. It is a personal thing for DH. At 6:00 pm tomorrow when we get into our cabins I will find out what I forgot to pack.   There must be a reason why everything fit in the luggage.

This morning I vaccinated 2 ewes, and the new ram lamb, Prep H'd one,  and weighed the lamb.  He has more than doubled his birth weight in 14 days to 20.8  lbs.  I also set up a 3rd jug for DS1 in case of lambing while I am gone.  When we get back, we will weigh the older lambs again and see if any are heavy enough to go for slaughter.  Also ewes will be lambing then or may have more new lambs by then.  DS2 was down in the barn yesterday and I pointed out the ewe that is threatening the rectal prolapse.  He immediately said "Cull her."  DH1 responded "After she lambs and weans the lamb, we'll cull".  I have taught them well.


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## Grant

Ridgetop said:


> Where are you going?
> ".


We are flying to Copenhagen Denmark seeing, Finland Germany Estonia StPetersburg Russia and a couple of other stops across the Baltic countries.  I’ve not been to that part of Europe.  Really looking forward to it.  It is a Norwegian Cruise.


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## Baymule

Y’all go have fun!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> At any rate, all we have to do now is to throw in the toothbrushes and toiletries in the morning and we are ready.


And your daily medications!


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## Ridgetop

Grant said:


> We are flying to Copenhagen Denmark seeing, Finland Germany Estonia StPetersburg Russia and a couple of other stops across the Baltic countries. I’ve not been to that part of Europe. Really looking forward to it. It is a Norwegian Cruise.


That should be a great trip.  Sure hope the weather is nice and warm for you.  If you are flying back from Denmark, and your trip is in the early spring, try to head south from Denmark for a quick trip to Holland for the tulips.


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## High Desert Cowboy

Angel sounds like a good workaholic, though I understand it can be annoying.  Once Bella learned she could jump out she would immediately escape anytime I was in the vicinity of the sheep, because clearly I’m a silly two legged buffoon and have no idea how to do anything sheep related without her supervision.  I used to have Hotwire around the top but I had to move it when I swapped things around.  I put chicken wire across the top figuring a physical barrier would help.  There I am fixing my H brace in the sheep pen and who should appear to assist but Bella.  She climbed the side, tore a hole in the chicken wire, and came running with a grin on her muzzle.  Now I’ve got pasture fence across the top.  Just gotta make sure she doesn’t get her paws on wire cutters, she’d probably figure out how to use them.  All you can do is half heartedly scold them because hey, they wanna work and thank the good Lord for dogs.  If only we could find a way to get our kids to have that same enthusiasm right?


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## Bruce

High Desert Cowboy said:


> If only we could find a way to get our kids to have that same enthusiasm right?


For sure!


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## Beekissed

Ridgetop said:


> . Nothing to be done here except Prep H until after this ewe lambs. I texted Travis (breeder) who said he gets one about every 4-5 years. He suggested cutting her feed to avoid the lambs getting too large. This makes sense since it is the pressure from the expanding uterus that is pushing out the prolapse. I am hoping that after she lambs it will not return. If it becomes a continual problem she will have to go.



Was wondering if his frequent prolapses could be due to how closely he docks his sheep?   









						Length of docked tail and the incidence of rectal prolapse in lambs - PubMed
					

A multistate cooperative study was conducted to study the current issue of tail length in docked lambs and its relationship to incidence of rectal prolapse. A total of 1,227 lambs at six locations were randomly allocated to two or three tail dock treatments: 1) short--tail was removed as close...




					www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
				






			https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7953/8e8ebc6b60c84b7cd311a36080244cb894dc.pdf


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## Ridgetop

So, just back from our cruise last week. It has been Plague Central here. I got a cold last day or 2 of cruise. Came home and went to bed to get rid of it. DH got it and immediately called doctor in case it was Coronavirus. Came in and woke me up to reassure me that our symptoms did not fit CV. LOL I could have told him that it was some other form of contagion since the entire household had come down with a similar thing the day before we returned from cruise. Probably all exposed to same source just before leaving and took 14 days to mature. With DS2’s fiancée working as a nursery schoolteacher, DD1’s children in school and at our house every day after school, and DD1 teaching middle school, we had no hope of escape! We continue to argue over who patient Zero was, but do seem to be recovering now.  DS2 had to call in sick with a 103 degree fever - first time in 2 years he has called in sick to work!  Listening to the litany of coughing, moaning, and spewing throughout the house, I expected any time to hear a voice from the road calling "Bring out your dead" like they used to do in the middle ages during the Black Death.  

The cruise was fun although our friends were not feeling too well. They are older and are having some digestive issues. DH and I spent more time doing activities together, and less time playing bridge to allow them to rest. We really enjoyed the designated table and time dining this cruise and have decided to do that on every future cruise. We ate less and enjoyed it more.  The weather was great.

At the first show the cruise activities director came out on stage asking what countries we were all from. After naming off Great Britain, Canada, China, Japan and the US she asked if anyone was from any other country. A loud drawl down in front hollered “TEXAS”! We started cheering and hollering “YeeHaw”! LOL

We went to a “raffle” event which was actually a sales pitch touting recommended shops. We got “free” charm bracelets and then spent an hour every day at another designated pitch shop collecting the free charms.  A couple of the talks showed how they made the fine jewelry and was actually very interesting. After the first 5 talks we realized we could show up halfway through the pitch and just wait for them to hand out the charms which is what we started doing. DGD was over the moon about them when we got home and has not removed the bracelet to date. Any day her little wrist will probably turn green! LOL  DH got her a cute pair of palm tree studs.  I can't believe that Hawaii - land of the pukka shell - had no shell earrings other than fancy large ones carved out of mother of pearl!   Shocked!  Tourism has moved upscale!  So discouraging!

We went whale watching in Maui and it was wonderful. Actually, we saw so many whales from the cruise ship that we could have just asked for our money back for the tour and stayed aboard. Our friend adores whales and we always take a whale watching trip on any cruise in the Pacific. Since whaling was outlawed in 1970 the Humpbacks have been making a real comeback. In the past 50 years lots of whales have been born and are surviving to adulthood. They are really making a wonderful showing in their calving and breeding grounds. We saw an amazing number of moms with calves, moms with calves and nursemaid/escort whales, males showing off and competing for the females, and teenage whales just having a great time spouting, breeching and tail flapping! One breeched completely out of the water right next to the whale boat! Incredible!!! After we re-boarded our ship, we just sat on our balconies watching the whales all around us in the bay. Best whale watching ever!  I took a lot of photos but naturally they are all of the last bit of the tail going back into the water!  LOL

We took a small bus tour in Ensenada to see La Buffadora which is a blowhole. We had a great tour guide who explained that Ensenada does not have many homeless or able bodied welfare recipients there. According to him if you don’t want to work, you don’t eat and that takes care of the problem. While a few of the people on board seemed shocked, ourselves and our seat neighbors from Texas – obviously all of us politically unwoke – were nodding in agreement. LOL

No new lambs yet, but just before I left, I recalculated new lambing dates for last 5 ewes based on exposure to my clean up ram. New lambing dates started on February 7 and will last till June 5. However, they should lamb in the next several months by the looks of them and their udders. They are all in the small field pen attached to the barn so no worries about lambing in the rain. As soon as they are in labor or have newborns they will be easily moved into the jugs. My new mantra is “don’t sweat the small stuff”. They will be fine.

The ewe that has been threatening the rectal prolapse is still with us.  No lambs yet, but she is still doing ok. DS1 had the vet out twice for her while we were gone. She is getting mineral oil and pain killer and seems to be doing ok. I assume her lambs are alive inside otherwise she would not be doing so well. We will continue to watch, wait, and pray for a good outcome.



Beekissed said:


> Was wondering if his frequent prolapses could be due to how closely he docks his sheep?



That ewe_ is_ docked a bit shorter compared to our home docked ewes, but not more than most show sheep I have seen and longer than a lot that were showing before the new rules came out about 20 years ago.  Back then breeders were docking clear back up into the spinal processes to give the sheep the appearance of a high tail set and level hip instead of just breeding for that.  It resulted in lots of prolapses, especially in market lambs that were the ones being docked so excessively.  The ultra short dock damaged the rectal muscles.  I think this ewe is just prone to this and whether she was docked or not, may have prolapsed anyway.  With the breeder having a flock of over 500 ewes with an incidence rate of only 1 prolapse every 4-5 years, I don’t think it is hereditary. That would be a normal incidence rate, and it was just the luck of the draw that I bought the one that ended up with the problem. However, we will cull her after she lambs, and I will have to look at the lambs to decide whether to keep any ewe lambs out of her. Any ram lambs will be going to slaughter anyway. We leave at least 2 vertebrae of the tail out from the rectum when docking so if the prolapse is from short docking any ewe lambs should be ok. (We are not docking ram lambs any more.)  On the other hand, we usually don’t like to keep anything that has a prolapse history in our breeding stock. We prefer to be safe rather than sorry so we will have to decide if any ewe lambs go to freezer camp or ? LOL

Now that we are on our feet again (after the plague) we will be weighing the slaughter lambs again to see how close they are to butcher weight. I need to let my customers know we have lambs and when they will be going to the butcher. Easter lambs coming up!  Weighing will be easy with the barn interior able to be closed off with DH's new gate. We will just run the sheep off the field into the barn pens and then through the scale and back out.   

While we were gone, we had a lot of high winds here. DS1 said the first high wind gusts moved our Tipi shelter in the Field of Celibacy around so he and DS2 repositioned it. Several days later higher winds hit and flattened it! Luckily the rams prefer to shelter under the old trampoline so there were no casualties.   DS1 said he will reposition it with heavier stakes and ties. The strange thing was the Tipi that is exposed on top of the ridge line did just fine while this one was up against a wall in a hollow where it is sheltered! And you would have thought that the trampoline would have been tossed instead of those heavy corral shelter panels! You never know what happens with livestock!

BEFORE  
 AFTER   
                                                                                    You can see my 3 rams next to the flattened shelter!

Angel is out of her convalescence.  While her stitches healed poor Angel had to be confined in the stock trailer since she is such an escape artist. Luckily it was not too cold or too warm while we were gone, but DS1 kept a close eye on her. If the weather had turned bad, he would have taken her to the boarding kennel. As soon as her stitches healed, DS1 and DS2 took the stitches out and turned her loose. She was so happy to be free with her sheep and the other dogs! She has a huge scar but has recovered with no problems. Her cone had been chewed all around the edges. We are not sure how she managed to get it into her mouth – the other dogs could not get at it so it had to be Angel chewing on her own cone! LOL

DS1 took down all the horse corrals in preparation for setting up another large sheep pen using the rodeo panels, next to the one already on the field. It will be useful to pen 2 separates sets of breeding ewes, each flock with a different ram. We can alternate which flock goes out to graze.  He did not finish putting up the new pen before being struck down by the Angel of Contagion.  Eventually once we are all completely healthy we will all get out and work on this. DS1e is planning to have the sorting gate between the 2 pens so we can use the 2 pens to sort the flocks. I think he may be planning a third small pen as well.  

Well back to my unpacking.  Tomorrow I will do all the laundry and Lysol the house.  LOL


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## Grant

Welcome back. Glad you enjoyed the cruise and the away time.


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## Baymule

I’m so glad you are back! Sounds like y’all had a great time, relaxing and watching whales! Then home and slammed with the plague! Oh no! Glad you are feeling better now. 

WHOOP!! Angel is free! She is back at work and happy. I’m glad she is all healed up and happy.


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## Ridgetop

*OMG!  *This is sooo upsetting!  I disappear for 2 weeks and when I try to catch up with everyone's journals all I find is disaster.  My heart is breaking for all of you guys!  

Here I thought that the worst thing happening after Angel's giant stitches and my ewe with threatening rectal prolapse, was Sentry's dysplasia but now -

I have just read Babsbag's journal about selling the dairy!  I hear that Farmerjan had ankle surgery, her son is laid up with his own surgery recuperation, and FJ will need more knee surgery after her ankle heals!  B & B is fighting her terrible eye problems and Baymule is getting ready to have knee surgery as well!  Mike CHS sounded like he was hurting from something too - shoulder surgery?

I am praying for all of you and hope you all recover soon.


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## Bruce

FarmerJan's ankle replacement has been long planned, you just happened to be gone when it happened. She's been talking about her knee for some time as well. She just plum wore them out working too hard! Some of the others; oh yeah, blindsided by things no one could have thought up in a nightmare.


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## Baymule

And @babsbag  is ill from mold issues in her house. @farmerjan will get to go home soon, when she gets over this, she will have knee replacement. I turn 65 in May and will tentatively plan on knee replacement in the fall or winter. I'll have to reconfigure things around here to make it easier for BJ to take up my slack. 

It's just life-we sure didn't stop while you two were gallivanting around on the ocean in a big fancy boat!


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## Mike CHS

We aren't having major issues here, just some normal aches and pains that I vent about every once in awhile.


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## B&B Happy goats

Normal age related breaking down here, still functioning and loving life and our animals...no major crisis till we stop breathing, lol...happy to read you enjoyed your cruise


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> It's just life-we sure didn't stop while you two were gallivanting around on the ocean in a big fancy boat!


At least it wasn't the big fancy boat full of Coronavirus!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Ridgetop said:


> I am praying for all of you and hope you all recover soon.



Miss @Ridgetop,

That is so touching that you care so much.  Yes, a lot of bad things have happened to different folks on the forum.  Poor Miss @babsbag has had a really rough time.  I hope she is able to get through it all.  So has Miss @B&B Happy goats and Miss @Baymule.  But they both hide their pain with a combination of optimism and gallows type humor!   And Miss @farmerjan has been going nuts in the rehab center.  But that won't last much longer.  I am so happy for her to finally get her ankle fixed.  She has suffered enough working as hard as she has all of her life, and now it's finally time she gets some relief.

Thanks again for caring so much.  You are a wonderful woman.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Baymule

@Senile_Texas_Aggie you are a very caring man, full of love and concern for everyone. You are pretty awesome yourself!


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## Ridgetop

Thanks everyone for reassuring me about all our friends on BYH.  I don't keep up with everyone's threads all the time and when I suddenly find their posts about bad stuff happening I do worry.  Except for the mold issue and B&B's eye issue, it is good (?) that most problems seem to be age related.     

We are all getting there.  Sadly now that most of us have finally all reached our dream of retirement small farming and livestock we have to consider these problems occurring.  My dear friend keeps telling me that we should sell our livestock and move into a smaller place to "enjoy life" without the work.  She grew up on a sharecrop farm and knows hard work.  Her health is not good, and she is 20 years older than I am so I know she is look anticipating when we will be past all this.  I think she thinks that we have never considered it.   For now, we have help and it is a very small scale "hobby" operation.  

I am grateful that we have been able to experience the past 30+ years with our children and livestock.  We have had so much fun.  We all worked hard but it is worth it.  Like childbirth you forget the aches and pains and only remember the fun times!

We can still do this, and enjoy it all so are not looking to make any changes yet. but I have realized now that at my age (almost 70) Angel might be our last LGD and this small Dorper flock is the last livestock we will own.  It is OK.  I will have other dogs in my 70's, of course, but I won't have Anatolians once we sell off the sheep.  Anatolians will not be happy in a small neighborhood yard, and they would miss their sheep.  We have discussed the disposition of the dogs and livestock with our family.   Per our purchase contract the Anatolians will go back to their breeders depending on the decision between the breeders and my family.  Older dogs may stay with family.  Any young dogs will be placed by my family and their breeders in working homes, possibly with part of the Dorper flock.  Erick will investigate any new home carefully.  These are decisions that we look at each time we buy a new dog.  

The sheep will not go to the stockyard auction, but will be offered to the different flock owners that produced them.  I expect that between the multiple Dorper breeders we know across the western states, enough people will want their bloodlines, particularly the rams. Josie the Mule will be offered to my mule friend who will have no problem placing her with a good owner, or to my D-I-L and DS3 who have horses in Nipomo.    

Knowing what will happen to our dogs and livestock if anything happens to us is a big comfort.   
It seems dark to think about this, but like when the children were small and we made sure they would go to the appropriate loving guardian, I am comforted to know that our dogs and livestock will not be left with people desperately trying to get rid of them.  

I have decided to go back into my writings and retrieve the stories I wrote about our experiences and print them off for the children.  They will be fun for them to remember and to read to their children.  DD1 has already started telling her children about t=some of them.  The other day one of my grandchildren mentioned marching in parades and said her mother told her about riding their horses in Christmas parades with the 4-H club, and also the year DD1 rode on the tractor pulled float and her lamb spooked.  It jumped off the float and pulled her off to fall into the road.  She had to race after the float, toss her market lamb on, and get pulled back up onto the wagon by her friends!  LOL  There are so many memories to cherish.  I want to document them before they fade away.

I am still praying for all of you here on BYH so please recover from your problems quickly.  I love you all.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> My dear friend keeps telling me that we should sell our livestock and move into a smaller place to "enjoy life" without the work.


Ah, but it has been said that if you enjoy doing it, it isn't work


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## Baymule

Thank you for writing this. It is a great idea to make wills for our animals.


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## B&B Happy goats

We got our " in case " plans set and I keep a discount  crematorium  phone number by the phone list ....if one of us checks out we're  going the simple cardboard box direct cremation, $795....no frills, no bill's


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## Ridgetop

Oh, we haven't made plans for ourselves, just our animals in case we kick the bucket!  LOL  Can you tell who is more important around here - on the other hand, DH and I both hope to live forever.


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## Baymule

I’m going to live past 100. It runs in the family. I know it and it’s a fact. I’ll be around a long time.


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## Bruce

I don't think I'll be around to see you out Bay, no one in my lineage has made 100. Paternal grandfather was a few weeks shy of 96 but his mind had left years before. Maternal aunt made 93, mind still intact but her body gave out.


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## B&B Happy goats

Late eighties is enough for me, don't  want to sit in soggy depends and forget where I put the peanut butter...it runs in the family


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## Ridgetop

*Cruising* *can be dangerous!!!  *Having recovered from my cold, I proceeded to unpack.  I pulled a shoulder muscle while lifting the incredibly heavy suitcases onto the bed!  LOL

Rain expected tomorrow! Yahoo! We need more of it. The green stuff growing from the last rains is being nibbled by the sheep now and we need more for them. I hope to get the older lambs weighed this weekend. The ewe that is threatening to prolapse is still hanging in there. She is eating well, and seems to be ok. No smelly discharge from her vulva so lambs must be ok too.  

I have been using my Instapot to cook meals.  The oven (which is only 4 years old stopped working last Friday.  It got hot on the panel and started flashing the Error signal.  We followed the instructions to cool it down and start it again and the same thing happened next day.  We have an extended warranty on it.  It is a 30' wide double oven and a beast to get in and out of the cabinet so repairing it was a better option than replacement.  The repair guy came out and said that it was the sensor that controlled overheating.  naturally he dod not have one since he only used his little electronic thingy to find out the problem.  He would have to send the request in through the warranty people, then order the part, yadda yadda . . . .  So I have been cooking in the Instapot and on the stove.  I love the Instapot since I just shove everything in it, program it, and turn it on.  When it is done it automatically shuts off.    So easy and uncomplicated.  But  can only cook certain things - no baking or roasting.  Bummer.  

Oh yes, I forgot.  In Ridgetop tradition, while we were gone, the septic backed up.   DS1, DS2, and future DIL had to use the bathroom at Carl's Jr. for #2.  DS1 had to take the grandchildren there too.  We were in Hawaii when he called us so we had 4 days of cell phone service during which he could tell us his woes.  We had room service and a working toilet.     DS1 called Mike Diamond ("unclog for $100 or free) who checked the septic tank (cess pool? - can't remember the difference) and told DS1 it seemed to be full.  DS1 had figured it might be since the toilets wouldn't flush and the shower in our bathroom was backing up.  The plumber also said he might have to come out and clear the line after the pumping since sometimes lines clogged with a backup.   He already had a call in to the septic pumper guy but they couldn't get out for a week.  He called the second guy they recommended (who had actually dug our overflow tank years ago).  They were able to come out the next day and pumped it out.  Looking at the records we found that it had not ben pumped since the overflow tank had been dug 17 years ago!  There was still a problem so DS1 had Mike Diamond plumber out again and he cleared the line.  We think the only reason it filled up now is that when we had some plumbing work under the house done the guy told us he had found where the washing machine was not hooked to the septic.  We were running our gray water out onto the field.  He hooked it up and didn't tell us until the following week when he was doing some work at the apartment building!  AAARGH!  We had specifically hooked the washing machine to a gray water run off line!  Now we will have to pay another plumber to come out and unhook that drain line from the septic and connect it to the gray water line again.  

DS1 also handled the vet calls with the prolapsing ewe, her meds, and removing the stitches from Angel.   We are SOOOO lucky to have him here.  Without him we would not be able to go on any trips, or be able to deal with the sheep.  His help is why DH and DS1 keep refusing to put up the chutes I want built.  Since they think they can just manhandle the sheep around they don't think it is necessary.  But with the right arrangement of chutes I can handle the sheep myself which would take a lot off their shoulders.  In fact when I bought the new lambing jugs, I also got one panel as a grafting panel.  It has a head catch (stanchion) in the panel and you can lock the ewe in the panel to put lambs on a recalcitrant ewe.  It worked well when I was doctoring that prolapsing ewe, and would also work well when pulling lambs or helping weak lambs to nurse on a new flighty mom.  Luckily I don't have many of them, but it beats haltering the ewe and tying her to the pen while I crawl under her with a lamb that is too stupid to nurse and while she keeps moving around to try to lick his bum instead of letting him/her nurse!  I do like being able to stanchion a ewe in the jug instead of trying to lift her up on a milking stand.  Also I have noticed that the feet on some of my ewes are getting really overgrown so I want to get the squeeze table set up so I can use it to trim feet.  I can sit down on a stool instead of bending over.  Easier on the back.  LOL

Next month I will form up the Nomination Committee for the Bridge Club Board.  Only 4 more months to serve of my term and I will be a free woman!  I am NOT going to be on the Board next year.  I have served in some capacity for the past 6 years and it is time to step aside for new blood - whether they are willing or not!  LOL


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Ridgetop said:


> I have realized now that at my age (almost 70) Angel might be our last LGD and this small Dorper flock is the last livestock we will own.



Does this mean you won't be moving to Texas?  I thought that was one of the reasons you were considering moving, so you had more room for your flock.


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## Baymule

We live a long time, no dementia. 90’s to 108! 

Septic issues are a sh!tty thing to deal with. Icky-poo! LOL LOL Glad you got that fixed, boo on hooking up the greywater line. We had ours pumped out 4 years ago, it was making gurgling noises so I took the hint.


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## Mike CHS

It sounds like you picked the perfect time to be gone from home.


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## Ridgetop

Yes, Mike, we were congratulating ourselves on that on the ship!

STA - Bite your tongue!  Texas is still on our list.  Besides Bay would probably hunt me down and drag me back there!

We still want to move to Texas.  But I am wondering if a smaller place than 50+ acres would suit better, maybe 20 acres.   Easier to manage.  And a smaller flock of sheep - 20-30 max.  However, we need to make sure what the acreage restrictions tax wise would be.   Each county has different requirements for Ag tax exemptions.  DS1 would probably come with us so he would be there to help us.  We will not be doing anything about moving other than continuing to declutter and dispose of stuff until after DS2's wedding October 10, 2020.  We will be making our annual trip to Texas this year and hopefully further eastwards to the Katahdin show with Bay, BJ, Mike and Theresa (Take note you guys- Road Trip with stock trailers !).  We are doing several things to possibly be in position to buy a property before actually selling our place.  We need to be able to transport our livestock stuff to another location before actually moving ourselves, our flock, and our dogs from this place.


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## Ridgetop

*JUST WHEN I THINK I HAVE SEEN IT ALL, THOSE CRAZY RIDGETOP EXPERIENCES KEEP COMING!*
So another wild story in the Ridgetop saga.  This morning the prolapsing ewe finally gave birth. She had been on mineral oil and meds from the vet for the past 3 weeks to prevent her from total rectal prolapse. Her rectal processes were tremendously swollen, torpedo shaped - see picture.  I have never seen anything like it before. Actually in this picture the swelling had actually gone down, and the prolapsed rectum had sucked back in.  DS1 said it looked like she had a torpedo in her butt. 

 Yes, that is her rectum, prolapse tissue is inside, not hanging out, but incredible swelling! Weird right?

With that much swelling I worried that she would not be able to give birth properly. I even was worried that the lambs were dead inside her and she would die of infection due to retained fetuses. There was no smell, so I hoped the lambs were ok, but there was a very real probability that she might die from the prolapse rupturing during lambing. If that happened I was worried that I would have no colostrum for her lambs if they somehow survived the birth. I had planned to call my friend in Ventura and see if I could get any goat colostrum and goat milk to feed the lambs in case that happened. I had not done it yet though since I had no time to drive up to get it, and I was having nightmares.  I was almost considering shooting her and cutting her open to get the lambs out. But again no colostrum and no milk.  Besides, I was hoping it would not come to either eventuality.

This morning DH came up from feeding and told me that the ewe looked like she had a “pee bag hanging out of her butt”. I knew that it was probably the placenta since DH, even after 30+ years, has trouble identifying the birthing process.  I got dressed and went down to the barn with a couple towels, the antiseptic liquid soap, and gloves. 

The description of the rest of this is a little graphic so if you have a weak stomach you might want to skip everything to the last pictures.  

The ewe had the sac of amniotic fluid hanging out, but when I checked her, her rump was so swollen from the prolapse that I could barely get my fingers into the vulva.  Finally, I got two of my fingers inside but no lamb???!!! No nose or feet!  After pushing around for about 5 minutes, I was able to get my fingers in enough to find that due to the rectal swelling the lamb had been pushed _*up*_ over the pubic bones and was stuck there. I was able to push the head back under the bones and it presented but the opening was still too small to get more than the nose out. I used the soap to lubricate the lamb, and kept stretching the opening.  I finally got the nose and the front part of the head out up to the eyeballs. The lamb was still alive, but too big to pass through with the enormous swollen rectal process pressing on it. I couldn’t find a leg either to help me pull. I got the birthing snare but had nothing to attach it to. DS1 was holding the ewe by the head with one hand and trying to lift up the swollen butt with the other to try to take some of the pressure off.  Every time I let go of the lamb's head to try to find the leg or stretch the vulva, the lamb’s nose kept being pushed back inside the vaginal opening by the pressure of the rectal swelling. The vaginal opening was too tight to get my hand inside to find the leg, so I decided I would have to cut the vulva muscle to make more room.  

I got a scalpel and cut the *side* wall of the vulva to try to make the opening larger. Cutting upwards weakens the rectum; cutting downwards makes a problem with future deliveries. When cutting the vaginal opening to help a ewe with a lamb that can’t deliver normally, always cut horizontally to the side of the vaginal opening. After cutting the vulva, the lamb’s entire head was able to come out but I still couldn’t get the lamb out. By now I had been working on the ewe for about 15 minutes,   DS1 was still lifting up on the rear rectal swelling trying to get the pressure off the birth canal.  After another 5 minutes of tugging on the lamb’s head, I had to cut the vulva a bit more. Then I felt around for the leg again since I couldn’t get the lamb to shift at all. Finally I found the right leg where it was trapped under the pubic bone on the bottom.  It took 15 minutes to finally work it out. Now I had one leg and the head outside the ewe. The pressure from the swollen rectal process was still too great to get the lamb out. The weight of the swollen rear end was not allowing the vaginal opening to expand normally as it would have without the rectal pressure. I still had to make a further cut in the vaginal opening to get more room. It took another 15 minutes pulling on the lamb’s head and leg before the lamb finally came out. When it suddenly came out, I fell over backwards and the lamb flew backwards over me and landed on the ground behind me. The lamb was *huge*! No wonder it couldn't come out on its own with the swollen tissue weighing down the birth opening. There was a large purple bruise on the side of its nose where it had been stuck on the upper pelvic bones, and another large purple bruise on the right leg where it had been stuck on the lower pelvic bones.  It was bruised from the constant pressure against the bony processes.

I expected it to be dead, but surprisingly it was trying to gasp for air. I swung it head down and rubbed it vigorously, but the gasping was not normal. It would gasp and shudder then stop. I kept rubbing and suddenly it would gasp and shudder again. After another 5 minutes of rubbing, the lamb stopped gasping. I tried breathing into its nose and mouth. I thought that might have worked but the lamb's nose had been trapped inside the ewe (as it kept being sucked back inside) without the umbilical cord for too long and had aspirated fluid. I checked the sex expecting an enormous ram lamb from the size but to my surprise it was a huge _ewe_ lamb. I don’t like singles since they are often larger and harder on the ewe.

The poor ewe kept licking her dead lamb laying on the floor of the jug. This ewe will never be bred again, and will be put down, so I decided to try milking her out. If possible, I hoped to get some colostrum to keep in the freezer for emergencies. I sent DS1 up to the house to get a canning jar so I could milk her out.  Then I had him hold her near her dead baby and I milked her as she continued licking it. She actually milked very easily and filled the half pint jar right away. I decided since she was milking easily that I would empty her out. If she continued to let me milk her over the next few days, I thought I might be able to milk enough to save in the freezer for emergencies. I can use dry formula but like to cut it half and half with regular ewe or goat milk.  

When the jar was full, I went up to the house and got another half pint canning jar. I filled half of that jar and then told DS1 to turn her around so I could reach the other side. As he turned her, I saw something white and slimy hanging out. I took a closer look and - *WHOA!*   A second lamb head was coming out!!! 

I told DS1 that this lamb would probably be dead too.  It had been a while since the birth of the dead lamb. We had spent time trying to revive the first lamb then I had milked some colostrum, gone up to the house for a second jar, etc.  DS1 held the ewe and I checked to see if I could get the lamb out. Again, the legs were not in position, but this lamb was about ¾ the size of the first one, and having cut the vulva there was more room.  I was able to pull it out.  SURPRISE!!  It hit the ground wriggling and I quickly cleaned its face. Mama stepped right in and started licking baby number 2. This baby was very lively and vigorous since her cord was intact. It was another ewe lamb!  DS1 said that I better not milk out any more colostrum!!!  Actually, since this twin  is much smaller than the first lamb, there was plenty of colostrum left for her.

  
You can see from the amount of merconium that both these lambs were in distress for a long time before being born.  The only reason the second one survived is because her cord and placenta were still functioning.  The first one would have survived if I could have gotten her out before she aspirated fluid after her sac ruptured.   I am so glad I decided to milk this ewe since that lamb would probably have been trapped and would have died if I had not been crawling around in the muck under that ewe's udder!  Oh yes!  And I have 3/4 of a pint of sheep colostrum in the freezer too!   It was a good result, better than I had feared.

I am not sure if this ewe lamb will be a butcher lamb or not. It is possible she will go to slaughter since we don't like to keep any offspring from prolapsing animals. At least this mama has a nice little ewe lamb to take care of now. I really felt bad for her trying to lick her baby back to life.  The ewe had probably been in labor for several hours before DH found her. In the normal course of things, without the rectal prolapse, that ewe would have produced her lambs without any fuss around dawn.  It is such a shame too that this ewe had twin ewe lambs on her first freshening and can't be bred again.

This afternoon I went down to check on mama and baby and another ewe looked to be lambing. Some straining, getting up and down. Put fresh straw in the jug and had DS1 come down to herd her off the field, into the barn from which we can easily put her in the jug. Love DH’s barn gate that shuts off the barn opening. Instead of several people having to block off the barn when trying to move sheep we can just shut the gate and they are contained inside the barn alleyway. So easy to handle sheep that way. The sheep don’t freak out, no shouting by family members when someone lets a sheep through the blockade, just quiet moving of the sheep the way it is supposed to be.

Having put the ewe inside the jug it looked like she was bleeding from her vagina. AAARGH! More complications? DS1 caught her and held her while I gloved up and checked her. She was tight so not lambing, and the “blood” was actually liquid diarrhea. We had stopped giving them grain for a couple weeks hoping for easier lambings with lower birth weights. Apparently, DH had given them grain the past 2 days. Hopefully stopping the grain again will stop the diarrhea.  I will drench her with Pepto Bismol or an anti-diahrreal tonight.  She has a nice full udder so she is not too far from lambing and can stay in the jug.

Tomorrow we will weigh, band, and vaccinate the month old lamb who is still in the barn.  Then he and mom can join her sisters on the field.  That will free up the 3rd jug for another ewe to lamb.


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## Mike CHS

That is a great save but I would have lost them not knowing how to deal with that.


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## Baymule

Wow, what a day. Sorry about the lamb that you lost, it sure wasn't for lack of trying. Cutting the vulva, could you provide a detailed account of how you did that? I hope I never have to, but I don't think I could do that at this time. Perhaps with a more detailed explanation I could cowgirl up and git 'er done. I've never had to pull a lamb, but with all the lamb pulling descriptions here, I am sure I could do that. I've involved in calf pulling before, but that took a come along. 

As far as being a little graphic, let 'er rip. Farming and raising animals is graphic, it ain't all ponies and rainbows. I admire you for pulling out all the stops to save the lamb, even if she didn't make it. But then you got the surprise of another lamb. Like you, I wouldn't keep the ewe or her lamb. It is sad when a ewe loses her lamb. Prolapse is something that no one wants their ewes to go through, no sense in breeding it into your flock.


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## Ridgetop

More bad news chez Ridgetop.

Had to euthanize the ewe that had diahrrea and looked like she was trying to go into labor yesterday. The lamb was too big and her pelvis was too small. After working on her this morning for an hour without being able to do more than get 3 fingers inside her, I called the vet out to see what we could do. She was trying to pass what looked like dead placenta and was unable to deliver. I tried to maneuver the lamb around to pull it out, but it felt like a spinal presentation. I couldn’t feel anything except a large bony blockage across the pelvis. I did feel something sharp next to it. I could not push it back inside to turn the lamb either because she was so small. Gas escaped out of her vagina as well - not a good sign.

Dr. Robertson and Dr. Wanner both arrived with their tech to try to get her lamb out. Dr. Wanner likes sheep and decided to come along when she heard Dr. Dave was on his way to our place. Dr. Robertson gave the ewe some Oxytocin to see if she would dilate but she was too far past that and didn’t even try to push. By the appearance of the placental material, the lamb was obviously dead, but we went ahead and sedated her hoping she would relax enough to be able to reposition the lamb and pull it out. We hoped to save the ewe. Dr. Wanner tried to get her hand inside to reposition the lamb but couldn’t even get inside enough to identify what part was blocking her tiny pelvis. While she was on her knees trying to reposition the lamb, the ewe was bleeding intermittently from her rectum. Both vets thought that the pressure of trying to give birth through that tiny pelvis might have broken lamb bones and caused a rupture or piercing of her internal parts. The ewe was just too small to give birth. At that point I told Dr. Dave to put her down since she was suffering. After she was dead, I rolled her over and could feel at least 2 large lambs inside her. They were sloshing around in fluid. I was surprised they felt so large since the sire has a history of producing small birthweight lambs.

At any rate, it was a very difficult morning. I hate outcomes like this. I also try to be very businesslike and unemotional with bad news since my vets both feel bad when they can’t save my animals. Holding in the emotion is hard on me too. It is mornings like this that moving into a condo looks good.

However, the ewe that I had to take a scalpel to the other day is doing well with her lamb. I had Dr. Robertson suture up the cuts I had made. He did a “purse string” suture so she would not prolapse vaginally. She is on pain meds and antibiotics, and will stay on them for the next month, but is eating well and nursing her lamb. Both vets were amazed that she was doing so well, and we discussed when we would put her down. She will never recover from the prolapse. She will be euthanized once her lamb is able to be weaned. It is the most humane thing to do for her.

DS1 and I discussed tail docking with both vets and the relationship to the prolapse and they agreed that the prolapsed ewe was probably docked too short which might have contributed to it. They agreed that the length DS1 uses when docking is safe. DS1 docks beyond the tail web and leaves several inches of tail.

On a happier note, DD1’s two younger children are spending the week with us since their father is back east on a business trip and DD1 leaves for work too early to get them to school. They are thrilled at this “sleepover”.


*


Baymule said:



			Cutting the vulva, could you provide a detailed account of how you did that? I hope I never have to, but I don't think I could do that at this time.
		
Click to expand...

*
It was definitely not fun.  Over the years I have lost a few animals that I could have saved by having the right equipment and being willing to take those steps.  Each time I second guess myself along the way.  Each time I try to remember afterward what I should have done to save the animal.  In this case, the lamb was going to die and I was afraid I would lose the ewe too.  Losing the ewe was less of a worry because she must be euthanized after weaning the lamb anyway but she was in a lot of pain.  And if I could save the lamb it was worth a try.  

The reason I decided to try cutting the muscle tissue was because we had a dairy doe years ago that had scar tissue in her vulva from a previous kidding before we bought her.  When she tried to kid the scar tissue would not soften and allow the vagina to efface.  I could feel the muscle band blocking the birth.  That time the kid died and I took the doe to the vet hospital where the vet cut the scar tissue and delivered the dead kid.  If I had done that during her labor I could have saved the kid.  The doe never bred again due to interior scarring.  When I felt a similar muscle band keeping this lamb from being able to come out, I decided to try cutting it to save the lamb.  It worked.

When I was trying to pull the lamb I could feel the muscle band that was not allowing the lamb to come out.   It was also not allowing my hand to be able to reach in and pull on the lamb.  That band of tissue was what I cut with the scalpel.  I wouldn't have done it if there was any other way.  This ewe was already scheduled to be euthanized.  She would not be bred again after my surgery.  Also, she was in a lot of pain trying to lamb and would have died if I had not done this.  The enormous swelling of her rectal processes due to the prolapse were putting too much pressure on her  birth canal.  I think that without the rectal swelling bearing down on the vulva this ewe would have been able to deliver the lamb with my help, even though it was so big.  Cutting her vulva enabled me to get my hand in to move the baby around.  Moving the lamb around might not have been necessary if the rectal swelling had not been so intense.  Because of the crazy swelling the lamb's face was pushed up over the hip bones into the swollen tissue and trapped while its front legs were folded under the lower pelvic bones of the ewe.  

Adrenaline keeps you going during emergencies.  Afterwards you sort of collapse and shake.


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## Ridgetop

More graphic pictures here . . . . 

I mentioned a suture type called "purse string".  This is a method of sewing up the vulva to prevent a vaginal prolapse.  The stitches are run around the vaginal/vulvular opening and gathered up so it is like a drawstring purse. This type of suturing is used to keep a vaginal prolapse from happening.  This is also used to prevent premature birth when the vaginal muscle is compromised and a premature delivery would happen.  When labor and delivery starts the stitches are cut and pulled out allowing the vagina to open for the birth.  

Again pretty graphic.

 This looks much worse than it actually is due to the excessively swollen tissue.  You can see  the drawstring effect of the sutures holding the opening together.  My vet used this type of stitching because of the several cuts in the vulva.  He also wanted it to be open for drainage from the birth.  Many years ago, when we stitched up another ewe with a vaginal prolapse we used an X stitch across the vulva after replacing the vagina.  At that time that ewe did not have any cuts or tears and had no need to drain.

FYI:  You can use large curved carpet needles and dental floss for this if you don't have surgical needles and surgical thread.  After every problem occurring at our place we buy the equipment we will need if it occurs again. In fact, the vet used my large curved surgical needle since he didn't have one with him.  LOL  Store the surgical needles in alcohol in a jar.  They won't rust and will be sterile when you need them.  A surgical scissors that is used to remove stitches is a good thing to keep in your medical cabinet too.  (I keep one in our human medical box as well.)  I keep disposal scalpels in my medical cabinet.  They are useful for abscesses, cutting away dead tissue, etc. Giant 60 cc syringes (no needle) can be used to drench small ruminants if you don't have a drench gun.  I have one but apparently I need a new one since the metal applicator broke off in the ewe's mouth!  It was old and the plastic part got brittle.  All these things are handy to keep on hand for emergencies.  It is too late to order those emergency supplies from Jeffers during the emergency!  LOL  Naturally I keep 3cc syringes with a 3/4" #20 needle for sub Q vaccinations.  Larger #18 needles are necessary for administering thick meds like Penicillin.  Also those needles should be about 1 1/2" for intra muscular injections in adult animals.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Adrenaline keeps you going during emergencies. Afterwards you sort of collapse and shake.


I bet and then that night you sleep the sleep of the dead because you are SPENT!


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## Baymule

You are tougher than I am. When we had to have my favorite ewe put down, I was bawling my heart out. I'm pretty tough most of the time, but when I lose it, I'm a goner. 

I am really sorry about losing the ewe and her lambs. It is a bitter pill to swallow when no matter how hard you try, it just isn't good enough. You did your best, the vets tried, but it was not to be. 

The purse string suture is interesting. I have never dealt with such a thing, probably would blow it if I did. If an animal is dying or going to die, then take the chance, do something desperate, you might save her. You saved the prolapse ewe and one lamb. You already knew the ewe would be put down, but you saved a lamb out of a bad experience. The ewe won't recover, but at least she is raising her lamb. I'd say you did  good job of it.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> I bet and then that night you sleep the sleep of the dead because you are SPENT!


Actually I often have nightmares reliving it and not being successful at saving anything.  Possibly from holding in the feelings at the time.  Takes at least a couple weeks to get over it.  At least DS1 called for dead animal pickup who came and took her away promptly.  

Thank you all for your support and kindness.

Yes, Bay, we have one ewe lamb out of her.  Both ewes - the one that died and the one that will be put down were 2 of my new Utah ewes from the same sire.  I may decide not to dock this lamb, keep her, and see what happens.  I have one more ewe out of a different top sire from that flock and hope for a better outcome.  She is actually the best ewe of the 3 so hopefully will lamb successfully.  She looks like she is carrying twins so maybe one will be a nice ewe lamb.  The 4th ewe from that flock is out of similar lines to the maternal lines on those 2 ewes.  She was bred before I bought her and delivered a single ram lamb.  He is really nice, but I don't need any more rams so won't be keeping him.  However, that ewe is nice and healthy and can be bred again to one of my rams.  I will have to go back and look over the ewe crop and decide which of the ewe lambs I will keep to replace these 2 ewes.  I was planning to sell most of them but now will need to keep a couple.  I will look at conformation and bloodlines to decide.   They ewe lambs on the ground now are all out of 3 different sires so they will be a nice mix.  Just will be needing more handling to make sure of sire selection for their lambs.  Our ewe lambs are docked properly leaving about 2" of tail so less likely to have any prolapse problem.  

I am hoping for a successful lambing for the last 3 ewes.


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## Bruce

So are we!!! You've had too many problems already. Time for the final 3 to be easy.


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## Ridgetop

Is anything ever easy with livestock?  

It s always the unexpected!  LOL


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## Ridgetop

So the prolapsing ewe is doing well, but after yesterday I decided not to put off calling around to get some fresh goat milk to put in the freezer in case of any bummer lambs.  I already have a little colostrum but wanted some fresh goat milk too.  SHOCK!  The woman I thought was a fixture in dairy goats has sold up and EVEN BIGGER SHOCK!   has moved out of state.   I didn't realize it had been such a long time since we talked!   We were not in the same county and only saw each other at Fairs so I suppose it is not surprising that we lost touch.

I just sent an email to another friend that is still a 4-H leader with a large club a little further away to see if she has any dairy goat project members with does in milk.  Hopefully I can find someone close, otherwise I must drive about 3 hours away to DS2's good friend (former 4-Hers together) who has a goat dairy somewhere in Riverside.  (When I say close, I actually mean about an hour away!  LOL)  I will either freeze the milk, or can it.  Canning it is easier on freezer space, and means I don't have to thaw anything in an emergency.  I will also see if I can buy any goat colostrum too to put in the freezer. Goat is close enough to sheep colostrum, and fresh is better than manufactured.  I can use the recipe from BYH for lamb formula but really prefer to use at least part real goat milk.  

I think DS2 has a class this weekend and it is fairly close to Leanne's area.  Maybe he can drive over and pick up some goat milk for me after class.  I will send an ice chest and several bottles with him if he is agreeable and she has milk for sale.  

Planning for future emergencies helps.


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## Bruce

Maybe you should just bring home a doe in milk so you have a ready supply


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## Baymule

You have a rough couple of days. Sometimes it all hits you at once. But the pendulum swings and things are looking up.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Maybe you should just bring home a doe in milk so you have a ready supply



The problem with bringing home a doe in milk is that I would have to milk her every 12 hours.  I am trying to avoid that by buying the milk from 4-H kids that have to milk to keep their does with full udders for shows.  If I have to milk anything, I might as well try to milk a couple of my own ewes.  Several of the ones with 3 month old lambs are still nursing so I could bring them in and milking them once a day, turning them out to be nursed by the lambs the rest of the time.   I also have a ewe that has a month old lamb that I could try that with too.  I really don't want to bring in another mouth to feed, and then there is the whole having to find a buck to use on the doe for next year.

Right now I am worrying about the prolapsing ewe and whether she will make it long enough to wean her lamb.  DS1 doesn't think she is going to make it much longer - her prolapse gets worse then improves a little.  I would rather put that lamb on a bottle and not have to leave this ewe like this.  If I have to put her down sooner, I will need to put the lamb on a bottle anyway.  I think it might be more humane to do that now.  I was hoping that the ewe that died would be able to adopt the prolapsed ewe's lamb.  Even if her lambs died, I could graft this lamb onto her by covering it with the afterbirth from her lambs.  She would probably take it if I did that.

My 4-H leader friend has put the word out to her goat leaders and project kids to I hope to get some responses from them soon.  Otherwise, I will try milking the prolapsing ewe out several times to get enough to start the lamb on a bottle with a lamb formula.  I need to cut the formula with her mother's milk so she will take it more easily.  I also use Karo syrup to sweeten the first bottle and smear it on the nipple to get the lamb to take the bottle.  The sooner I get the lamb on a bottle, the easier it will be to do. 

I think I will try milking her this evening when we feed and before I give the ewe her antibiotic shot.  I will also bring in the other ewe with the month old lamb and see if I can milk her as well.  I may have to pull her lamb off to let her udder fill up so she will let me milk her.  If she is uncomfortable, I can milk one side while the lamb nurses on the other side. 

Lots of tricks to try.  I wish I didn't _have_ to try them though.  Maybe one of the last 3 ewes will lamb tonight or tomorrow and I can graft this little lamb onto her with her lambs.


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## Baymule

I wish you didn't have to try lots of tricks as far as milking out ewes, on a quest for goat milk, to save your baby lamb. I wish you didn't have a severely prolapsed ewe and I wish she wasn't going downhill. But that is what you have to deal with and you are watching them closely. You know what's coming and I know you won't let the ewe suffer.


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## Ridgetop

Thanks Bay.  Just consider if this was my complete livelihood - the loss of 2 ewes and 3 lambs would be a big loss in my family's income.  I am lucky that I am not dependent on this.  Also, I understand why a rancher would just let the sheep die in the field, or put a bullet in their heads, rather than sending for the vet for an expensive euthanasia if their livelihood depended on these sheep.  In addition to the monetary loss of 2 breeding ewes and 3 cash crop lambs, you would also be out the cost of a farm call and euthanasia.  If you were living on the edge of making it or not, that additional cost would be considerable.   

I always say a prayer for the ranchers and farmers who can so easily lose their life work with setbacks like this.   I think of Farmerjan and the trouble she and her son went through with all the rain when they had trouble getting the hay in before it lost all nutrient and $$$ value. God bless our farmers and ranchers.

I tried to milk the ewe this evening and nothing.  Her udder was not very full though so probably not interested in letting down.  If necessary I can remove the lamb for half a day and then try milking her tomorrow when she is bagged full.  I hate to stress her that much though.   I was able to order a 25 lb. bag of Manna Pro lamb replacement through Chewy with free delivery.  It should arrive in a day or 2.  Also DS2 is calling his friend with the goat dairy to see if we can order some goat milk if she has any available.  He is also checking if she will sell me some colostrum for emergencies.   He will pick it up Saturday pm if she has any to spare for us.   

I am second guessing myself again and I think I should have put down the ewe in labor right away and just tried to take the lambs.   Without any formula for them though, I didn't want to try that.  My fault, I might have been able to save them at least.  Of course, if I had done that, I would be second guessing myself now thinking I should have had the vet try to save the ewe.  Oh well, once I have the formula and some goat milk, I will feel more secure.  I will need to add full cream to the goat milk though since sheep milk has much more fat in it.  Lamb replacer has 30% fat and kid replacer only has 20% fat.  At least the grandkids will enjoy giving a bottle to the lamb.  And it is a ewe.


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## purplequeenvt

Ridgetop said:


> Thanks Bay.  Just consider if this was my complete livelihood - the loss of 2 ewes and 3 lambs would be a big loss in my family's income.  I am lucky that I am not dependent on this.  Also, I understand why a rancher would just let the sheep die in the field, or put a bullet in their heads, rather than sending for the vet for an expensive euthanasia if their livelihood depended on these sheep.  In addition to the monetary loss of 2 breeding ewes and 3 cash crop lambs, you would also be out the cost of a farm call and euthanasia.  If you were living on the edge of making it or not, that additional cost would be considerable.
> 
> I always say a prayer for the ranchers and farmers who can so easily lose their life work with setbacks like this.   I think of Farmerjan and the trouble she and her son went through with all the rain when they had trouble getting the hay in before it lost all nutrient and $$$ value. God bless our farmers and ranchers.
> 
> I tried to milk the ewe this evening and nothing.  Her udder was not very full though so probably not interested in letting down.  If necessary I can remove the lamb for half a day and then try milking her tomorrow when she is bagged full.  I hate to stress her that much though.   I was able to order a 25 lb. bag of Manna Pro lamb replacement through Chewy with free delivery.  It should arrive in a day or 2.  Also DS2 is calling his friend with the goat dairy to see if we can order some goat milk if she has any available.  He is also checking if she will sell me some colostrum for emergencies.   He will pick it up Saturday pm if she has any to spare for us.
> 
> I am second guessing myself again and I think I should have put down the ewe in labor right away and just tried to take the lambs.   Without any formula for them though, I didn't want to try that.  My fault, I might have been able to save them at least.  Of course, if I had done that, I would be second guessing myself now thinking I should have had the vet try to save the ewe.  Oh well, once I have the formula and some goat milk, I will feel more secure.  I will need to add full cream to the goat milk though since sheep milk has much more fat in it.  Lamb replacer has 30% fat and kid replacer only has 20% fat.  At least the grandkids will enjoy giving a bottle to the lamb.  And it is a ewe.



We've had to do a number of "terminal c-sections" over the years. A bullet to the head and then quickly cut the lambs out. We've saved most of the lambs born this way.


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## Ridgetop

purplequeenvt said:


> We've had to do a number of "terminal c-sections" over the years. A bullet to the head and then quickly cut the lambs out. We've saved most of the lambs born this way.



Thanks,  Purplequeenvt - The fact that you are able to save the lambs means a lot and gives me courage to just do it next time.  I always think that if I kill the ewe first the lambs will die before I can get them out.  Hopefully I won't have to do it for the rest of this season.

It is what I _should_ have done to start with when I couldn't get my hand in to pull the lambs on the second ewe.  I probably could have saved the first lamb if I had done that on the first ewe too.  I would have had 4 bummer lambs to raise but they could have cuddled up and been raised together which would have been healthier for them than raising one alone.  Now that I have lamb colostrum in the freezer and a supply of lamb formula, as well as goat colostrum and milk, I will be less reluctant to take that step.  

Every year another castastrophe, but at least I learn from them.  Having learned, I try to avoid the same mistakes and salvage what I can.  The lamb formula arrived yesterday and  I have transferred it into airtight (?) plastic jars to store it.  Transferring the powder made me a little hungry since it smelled like a vanilla milkshake!  LOL I am going to separate the lamb from the ewe today by outing a panel between them in the same pen.  That way the ewe and lamb can still see each other but she won't be able to nurse the lamb.  I hate doing that but the lamb won't take the bottle unless it is very hungry since she has been nursing mom for a week.  Then I will milk out the ewe so I can blend some of her milk with the formula to convince the lamb that the bottle is as tasty as mom.  I hate doing this but I can hate keeping that poor ewe alive anymore.  I am sure she is in pain in spite of the pain killers the vet has her on.

I am ordering vaccines, wormers, and antibiotics as well as other vet supplies today.   Hope it cheers me up.  Got news this week than 2 friends had passed away, and my dear friend who is y "adopted mom" has to go in for a biopsy.  Her cancer may be back.  It has been a bad week.   

I am supposed to go to a dinner/dance tonight at a country club with DH, DS2 and future DIL2.  Lucky I have my cruise clothes for this formal shindig!  LOL   Hopefully a night of drinking and dancing will take my mind off everything.   SIL is out of town again next week so grandkids will be coming back to stay for most of the week.


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## Baymule

I thought, given the circumstances, that you were outstanding. As you said, we learn and get better at this. I hope you had fun at the dance and took your mind off things for a bit.


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## Ridgetop

The dance was lots of fun, but more bad stuff happen the following week.  I will post soon, but trying to hold it together right now.  

Also doing TAXES!     DS gets testy this time of year -  So much work, but he is good at them, and I have all the information.   This year we might  look at claiming the sheep as a business.  All losses now due to purchase of new stocks and equipment, but will have some income this year, as well as show new ewe lambs as assets.  DH is considering whether he wants to do it.


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## Mike CHS

We have a CPA that we use for taxes since it got to be over our heads figuring depreciation on quite a few things plus all the other dozens of things that she knows the rules for.  We do give her an itemized list with all purchases and totals as well as mileage for everything and her fee is under $200.


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## Ridgetop

We use a CPA too, but I have to total all the receipts for each deduction, and put everything together for DH.  I keep all the receipts for that he is not a paperwork guy.  He fills everything out on the forms, then we take everything to the CPA and she finalizes the taxes.  We have to file 2 returns, federal and state and not everything is the same deductions on both.  DH used to do the taxes completely until we sold our apartment and moved our investment money to NNNs in Texas.  Now we pay to make sure they are done properly.  If the IRS audits us or anything, she s also a tax lawyer and will do battle for us!  LOL  She took over completely last year when our longtime friend and CPA/lawyer retired.  I bribed him with the promise of a lamb this year to come back for another year just to do us and he said he would meet with us.  Sadly, he passed away unexpectedly in February.  A big shock and sadness for us.   Have known him for 30 years.  He also used to do all the buying at the Youth Auction for the Enrolled Agents.  They are a group of CPA/Tax Attorneys who always used to buy animals from all the Kids at the Fair.  Most of the meat was donated to shelters.  It makes tax time extra sad.

Anyway, I also have to prepare annual financial reports for our NNN mortgage holders.  They also require copies of our tax return, etc.  What a hassle.

This year I want to do a farm tax return.  I am actively selling all the lambs I produce, and would like to recoup some of the expenses from this year.  I think you can show a loss for several years, by which time I hope to be in Texas and showing at least a break even between any hay production as well as the sheep.  DH keeps wanting to breed rabbits again and that was really a money maker for us.  I still have the cages and equipment for a small rabbitry setup (about 20 holes) even though I sold most of the cages off when we went from a 100 hole barn to out children taking over the barn space for raising their dairy goats and sheep.  Now the whole barn is sheep, but there is another open shed that we can use for rabbits.  The roof needs to be extended about 8-10'. and more steps poured since the ground has eroded below the steps we poured 20 years ago.   There is another area that we can also put posts into the ground and put a metal roof up against the long side of the tool/work shop that is on the level of the regular barn that would be easier access for DH with his bad knees.  It would be cheap to build.  Texas may be another year or 2 into the future than we planned due to some sad things going here.  😢 More about that later. Had to call Bay to cheer up. Probably depressed her, sorry Bay. 

Anyway, love all you guys.  I am so glad that Farmerjan is recovering, and B&B sounds like she is on the mend too. Maybe in another 20 years we can all retire to the same nursing home.  We can have wheelchair races!  LOL


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## Baymule

You did not depress me, glad I could cheer you up. I love you! The herd is here for you, we all will cheer you up.


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## Ridgetop

I have been putting this terrible news off for several days now. My dear friend, who has “adopted” me as her daughter, has had terrible news from her doctor. She is the friend we cruise with. On our cruise, just as we arrived in Hawaii, she noticed that the lymph glands in her neck above her collar bone had suddenly swelled up. As soon as we returned home she saw her doctor who scheduled an ultrasound. The glands have continued to swell. After the ultrasound her doctor scheduled a needle biopsy. Today she told me that the biopsy showed her cancer has returned. She will be having more tests to find out what type and where it has settled. She just had a lot of tests and a clean bill of health several months ago but had been feeling poorly during the cruise and since. We have been worried about her for some time since she has continually been losing weight for the past 6 years. She also has had terrible stomach and colon problems but all the tests over the past several years have been coming back negative until now. Her doctor told her that at her age (89 in May) chemo would kill her so that only leaves radiation. Her daughter died years ago from pancreatic cancer, she herself had breast cancer, and many members of her family have died of cancer. We are very worried about the prognosis.  I will find out more Friday.  At any rate, I can't consider moving until I know what is happening with her.  We will continue getting the property ready for eventual sale though.  

DH told me that as soon as we finish with our taxes he wants us to drive up to Washington state.  I vetoed that plan due to the Covid 18. DH insisted that we would be safe traveling up there. I just rolled my eyes at him and told him I wasn't going anywhere for a while. My brothers and sister live in King County - about to be quarantined within their county! LOL When he heard that on the news he still didn't think it would matter but when I pointed out that King County was where they all live he decided we should wait to go to Washington for a few months.   No need to take a long road trip right now anyway.  The weather in Washington is cold and wet.  Why bother driving up there in bad weather, staying in motel rooms and eating food prepared by strangers with this virus floating around.  We are old so prime candidates for contagion although we don't have any underlying problems.  Still why take chances if there is no need?  

Bubba will be 4 years old in 9 days and seems to have finally realized how to act around newborn lambs. One ewe that didn’t look quite ready was left in the field pen with the ewe who has a month old lamb. One lamb was curled up quietly in the barn while the mama ewe was at the bottom of the pen 200 feet down, with the other mama and the month old lamb. DS1 climbed down to see if there was a second lamb – the only reason for her to abandon her newborn - and there was. Bubba somehow had gotten into the pen with them as well. DS1 was carrying the lamb and yelling at Bubba who was snapping at the lamb while DS! Tried to carry it up the hill. I started down the hill to help him but DS1 yelled at me to stay where I was because he didn’t want me to “fall down”. Impertinent boy!

Bubba knocked DS1 off balance causing him to almost fall. He dropped/set down the lamb. Mama rushed over to her baby and Bubba rushed over to both of them. DS1 started to yell at Bubba thinking he was going to get rough with the lamb and ewe. SURPRISE!!! Instead of trying to steal her lamb and drive off mama, Bubba assumed the correct guardian dog position in front of the ewe. With about 5 feet between them, he sat down in front of her watching as she cleaned her lamb and coaxed it to nurse.  I told DS1 not to grab Bubba but to just watch him for a while to see f he behaved himself. Bubba got up and took one step toward the lamb and the ewe swung her head toward Bubba. Bubba backed up and sat back down again. He didn’t move again until DS1 picked up the lamb and carried it up the hill. Bubba resumed his snapping trying to get the lamb from DS1. Once back in the barn with the lamb in the ground Bubba again backed off and just watched the ewe and lamb. Rika was in the barn eating the placenta and although Bubba passed right by her, he didn’t argue over the tasty tidbit.

It was a EUREKA MOMENT! My baby boy has grown up to be a wonderful guardian. Apparently, Bubba has very definite ideas of WHERE his sheep should be and where they should stay put. When they escape from the field and wander in across the driveway, he tries to put them back. He actually gets in our way as we struggle to do the same which is very annoying. When turning the sheep out on the field for the first time after they have been penned in a different area for several months, Bubba gets upset and tries to drive them back to the other area. After about a week in the new area he calms down but them gets upset if they are driven anywhere else. He is apparently COPD.

Another good thing about this whole scenario is knowing that all the dogs can get into that small pen leading from the barn even when they are locked out of the barn! That small pen is where we like to put mamas with tiny lambs since it has enough barn space to shelter them all in heavy rain. However, it lays alongside the property line and the neighbors do not have it fenced. Predators might be able to get under or over our property line fence since it is open beyond that. Knowing that all the LGDs can access the pen from the rest of the field is very reassuring.

The last 3 ewes all lambed this morning.  4 ram lambs.  1 sets of twins and 2 singles we thought.  Well, last night another surprise. 14 hours after giving birth easily and successfully to a nice large ram lamb, my last Axtell ewe delivered a second ram lamb! Sadly, this one was delivered rear feet first and although the sac opened on his rear feet, his head stayed encased in the sac.  He was dead when we found him. I am not sure if the ewe, as a first-time mama, did not realize she was delivering another lamb and so did not try to take care of him, or if he was born dead. There was no orange discoloration as usually occurs when the lamb in distress. This lamb was probably born from the other horn as we had experienced years ago with a large Suffolk ewe. That ewe had a gigantic ewe lamb around 5 pm and twin ram lambs at 7 am the next morning!  Luckily the boys were in the barn doing the milking and saw her delivering.  They got me and we made sure she took care of the lambs.  That Suffolk had numerous lambs before so was experienced.  she raised all 3 lambs easily.  I had checked that Suffolk inside after lambing the ewe lamb and she had no lambs left in her, so I knew for sure that she had emptied that uterine horn. The other lambs were in the other horn! I did not go into this ewe after she had the ram lamb in the morning - he was dry and fed already and she had passed the afterbirth. But since the other lamb was born 14 hours later, I am pretty sure that this is what happened this time as well.  Always surprises!

At any rate, we have finished lambing for this year. I will have to take a good look at the ewe lambs and their pedigrees to decide which ones I will keep as replacements this year.  I will probably keep them all.   I need to replace the 2 Axtell ewes – one of the replacements will be the surviving ewe lamb from the prolapsed ewe. I have decided to take a chance on her since I want that bloodline and she is all I have from 2 ewes with the same lines.  She is really bouncy and vigorous.  My granddaughter has named her Snowflake.  We docked her today, but left on about 2-3" of tail.  The best Axtell ewe is the one that had the 2 ram lambs 14 hours apart.  I will not be keeping any ram lambs but breed her next season and hope she twins again.  That double horn pregnancy is a fluke so hopefully she will conceive in just one horn this time like normal.   I have 2 Moy sired ewe lambs and 2 Axtell sired ewe lambs born last fall, this ewe lamb out of the prolapse Axtell ewe is sired by Lewis. I will probably keep all of them. The West Coast Dorper show was moved to Reno, NV, and I don’t think we will be able to go. I will be looking at the on-line sale in May and then again next October to see if there is anything affordable that I like. In the meantime, I have 5 little ewe lambs to watch to see how good they are and how well they shed out.

All the lambs are nursing well which was to be expected since now I have received my order of 25 lbs. of powdered lamb formula, DS2 picked up 15 quarts of frozen goat milk, and 2 pints of goat colostrum from his old 4-H friend.  DS1 also found 2 quarts of goat milk at Target.  Apparently the grocery does not carry goat milk anymore!   Now that I have a good supply for any bummer lambs, I will not have any more emergencies!    That is the always the Ridgetop way.     LOL  I also finally located some more nipples to fit regular mouth canning jars. I already have nipples that fit on soda bottles and that I can fit to a lamb bucket, but I prefer using canning jars to feed new lambs and kids. The nipples are available from Caprine Supply and are the ones sold for the EZ Nurser bottle. They fit on the canning jar with a ring over them. I like them because you can rinse them out with cold water then sterilize them in the dishwasher.  Washing canning jars in the dishwasher is so much easier than trying to wash out soda bottles.  I use the half pints for colostrum and the first feedings, pints as they grown and finally quart jars.  I never feed more than a quart at a time and by the time they are several weeks old they are only getting 1 quart am and 1 quart pm. This encourages them to eat hay faster. With the canning jars you can also make a day’s supply of formula/milk, seal it, and store it in the jars in the fridge until time to feed each day.  Actually no need to heat to body temperature either, just take a little of the fridge chill off and feed.  DS2 hates the EZ Nurser nipples since when the lambs and kids get older, they can butt the nipple and push it into the jar spilling milk everywhere!

March 5, 2020
One of my good keeper lamb has some strange injuries. The inside of her rear legs are covered in punctures and scrapes, and she has 2 long shallow cuts on either side of her neck. I will post a picture. We think she must have become entangled in wire somehow but are upper flank, we are worried about some sort of sharp metal somewhere. It happened during the day or we might think that something had gotten inside the perimeter. With 3 large adult, 2 and ½, Anatolians in their prime we are leaning to the wire idea. We will have to check out the property. In the meantime, I washed out the punctures and cuts and have been giving her 2.5 ml penicillin each day. I will check the punctures to see if they are swelling and sowing any infection. If I see any, I will have to open them up, drain then if necessary, and use the dry mastitis tube antibiotic on them. Those tubes can get to the bottom of the punctures and are very useful in treating puncture wounds. I keep them for the dogs, but they will work on the sheep too. Unfortunately, the punctures had started to skin over when we saw the wounds. I think the daily penicillin injections will work.

On an amusing note (much needed at this point) our newborn lambs have learned how to get through the pen bars in the jugs. They have gone visiting each other to play together. At first DS1 replaced them in the correct jugs. Then he saw that they returned to their mothers for meals and naptime. This morning one of them had managed to get inside the large walk-in scale that was living in one of the jugs – unfortunately he couldn’t figure out how to exit it! He was returned to his jug. We will tag this weekend although all 5 of these little rams are destined for freezer camp. . However, I like to keep records and compare weight gain among my lambs so I can see which ewes produce the best. We are going to weigh all lambs this weekend and separate them the older ones. I want to grain them a little to finish them off before they go to the butcher. The small ones might go to a Halal butcher depending on what they are prepared to pay. The man said his customers want them at 40 lbs. because they are tender. My lambs weigh 40 lbs. by 2 months old so that would cut costs of raising by several months of feed. I could get the ewes back into production sooner which means I could more easily plan my breeding schedule.

March 10
The ewe lamb with the punctures is recovering with 2.5 ml penicillin every day.  Today one of the butcher wethers turned up with similar punctures to one of his back legs.  DS2 is wondering if Angel s trying to play with the lambs.  She is 16 months old and hasn't done this before.  We will have to keep an eye on her.  Tomorrow we will move that lamb into the barn with the ewe lamb and start him on a course of penicillin.  My 18 gauge needles arrived today - after DS1 picked some up from the feed store!  Oh, that Ridgetop luck!  Found another 2 lamb buyers today so that is nice.  The wife's father is Basque so she grew up eating and loving lamb.  She was thrilled to find out I raised them.  

Anyway, been raining hard here today which is good.  We need it.  The Field of Celibacy is completely cleaned out of any green stuff.  The rams have eaten every morsel.  It is just about time to separate the ewes out and move them into breeding flocks with the appropriate rams. 

The oven parts have finally come in to repair the oven.  It is only 4 years old and has taken a month to get the parts to repair it.  It is difficult to cook for 5 adults and a couple of occasional children using only my microwave and an Instapot.  We are getting a little tired of stews.  It reminds me of when we remov=deled the kitchen and had no stove at all for months.   The2 repairmen are coming tomorrow to pull the oven out of the cabinet, repair it, and reinstall it. Meatloaf and baked potatoes here we come!


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## High Desert Cowboy

I am sorry about the news for your friend.  That’s not news anyone ever wants to hear but hopefully it will be something that can be managed. my grandfather was diagnosed at 89 with prostate cancer and today’s he’s fit as a fiddle.  So there’s plenty of hope yet!
Everything else sounds pretty good beside the dead ram lamb, that’s one of those heart breaking things that happen.  I’m curious if it is the dog chewing on your sheep otherwise you might have a chupaovejas running around.


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## B&B Happy goats

Very sorry to read about your friend   , wishing you all stregnth to face the challenges  that lay ahead


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## thistlebloom

@Ridgetop


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## Ridgetop

I spoke to my friend tonight  after she met with her oncologist.  The cancer is definitely back but they are not sure where is has metastasized yet.  She is going in for a PET scan.  The doctor thinks it is in her upper body but not sure whether it is in her neck, jaw, lungs, etc.  More waiting to find out.

Yes, it is probably the young Anatolian bitig the lambs.  Angel is 16 months old and that is when the second phase of play begins with the dog trying to play with the lambs like she does with the older dogs.  Naturally the lambs just run and bleat instead of turning around and biting her back like another dog would.  My friend, Erick, who breeds Anatolians called me this morning on another matter and when I mentioned the wounds in the sheep, he immediately said it was probably Angel doing play behavior since this is the age when the second stage of that shows up.  DS1 and I are planning something to stop the dog being able to get at the lambs.  Angel can get through the bars of the large 7 bar corral or under them and get in with the lambs - she did it this evening after dark.  DS1 went out to see why one of the older ewes was bellowing, caught Angel in the corral, scolded her and brought her out.   She wasn't going after any lambs, so may have gone into the corral to see why the ewe was calling.  We removed her lamb today and put him in the barn and he is on antibiotics.  The ewe may have been calling for him and upset Angel who went to check it out.  

Tomorrow I am going to take plastic mesh horse fencing and zip tie lengths to the bottom of the 7 bar corral panels.  We are also going to separate the lambs from their mamas since the ewes are almost dry.  The lambs will stay in the larger corral and we will separate the ewes into the smaller corral.  They will only be in the corral at night  since they are turned out during the day.  Angel might find herself locked in the Field of Celibacy since the older rams will not tolerate any such play from her.  Angel is large, heavy, and strong, but the rams, while fairly gentle, won't put up with any puppy biting at them or trying to play with them.  In the meantime, we will go out with Angel and allow her in with the larger lambs while we watch her to discipline her if she tries to go after the sheep.   Eventually she will grow out of this phase.  We just have to teach her that it is a no-no and keep the lambs safe while she matures.   It seems to be the dogs that are most attached to the sheep that try to treat them like playmates.   Very annoying!

I will flush the ewes and in another month or so turn a ram in with them.  At that point the older wether lambs will have gone to slaughter.  The young ewe lambs that are not ready to be bred will go in with the nursing ewes and their lambs. 

The schools here are preparing to close for 2 weeks due to Corona virus.  Maybe I can get over to DD1's hose and we can finally hang up her pictures and get more stuff put away.  They moved into the house before Thanksgiving and have not finished unpacking!  DGS1 is in trouble again.  His punishment was to clean the entire house.  DD1 told him since he did not want to study to get a good career he should learn how to scrub the house so he could get a secure job as a janitor when he grows up.  We are now picking him up 2x a week from school to make sure he has supervised study time for homework.  I thought I was finished with this.  However he now has his grandfather, me, and his uncle chastising him when he stops working.  Horrible!

I was asked today if I was going to discontinue the bridge club due to the virus.  I said no, that I would wait until the senior center decides close to do that.  Seniors are more at risk, so I will keep the club open but will tell everyone that they can decide whether to come or to play at a friend's house.  It is only one day per week and most of them continue going to Costco, the grocery store, the hairdresser, etc.


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## Baymule

Angel. Maybe the wrong name? LOL Lets see..... what name comes to mind? Ha! How about Chewy? Stinker? Muncher? LOL LOL 

Big hugs for your friend. I truly hope she doesn’t suffer in misery. Knowing you, you will keep her cheered up as much as possible. Then you’ll call me for a Texas drawl fix. Haha.


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## Ridgetop

Angel may become known as the Dark Angel!  DS1 seems to think she mostly "plays" with the lambs when they are let out in the morning and again when they are brought in at night. 

DS1 went out and separated the lambs and their mamas this am.  He put the lambs in the smaller corral and the ewes out on the field.  Shortly afterward, we looked out and the lambs had crawled out from under the bottom rail of the corral and rejoined their mamas on the field!  We have a 50-100 foot roll of 48" woven wire that we have not used yet to make more pens.  DS1 is going to cut it in half and I will zip tie the 24" pieces on the bottom of the corral panels.  I suggested using the vinyl horse net but DS1 said that he doesn't want to use it since it is very flexible and Angel could push it up to get into the pen.  The woven wire is stiff and will be better.  However, it started pouring rain so we can't go out and install it.  I have to kneel to zip tie it on the panels and don't fancy kneeling in clay mud!   At least the rains have finally come. Weather report says they will continue for a week or more. So glad since our forage has not grown in well, and what there was has mostly been eaten. DS1 went down and opened the barn gate so the dogs can shelter from the rain if the deluge hits. Otherwise they don't seem to care. Angel was laying in the open dirt with the rain coming down around her this morning. However, we feel like better dog owners by letting them into the barn even if they don't want to take advantage of it! 

The prolapsing ewe is still hanging in there and seems to be doing well.   Her prolapse goes in and out seemingly at will!  I left a call for the vet but have not herd back and DS1 says that if she can continue to do well without obvious pain it will be better for the lamb.  He is right, but I hate seeing her like this.  I will be gad when we can wean the lamb - maybe even a little early.  I wonder how early I can wean her.  We can keep her in the barn longer and I will get some Calf Manna for her. 

The Los Angeles mayor has banned assemblies of more than 50 people for the duration of the Corona virus.  I don't know how that will work with churches and Costco.  Many nursing homes are banning visitors, and our Joslyn Senior Center where we play bridge has been directed by the city of Burbank to close indefinitely.  Since seniors are most affected by this virus, that is a good idea, but now I have to call 100 members to let them know not to show up tomorrow.  Many of the tables had backed out already - we were down to 11 tables from 20!  Even if the center had not decided to close, our Board has decided to hold the bridge club in hiatus for at least 3 weeks.

Lots of computer work to do so having tomorrow off from bridge will work for me.  If it dries out for a while, we can put up the wire.


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## Baymule

This is a good time to stay home and only go out if you have to. Bridge can wait. Besides it will give you a chance to fix the corral. LOL LOL

I know it must distress you, watching the prolapsed ewe. You care deeply for your animals and you don't like seeing her like this. Prayers for you, the ewe and her lamb. We know how this will play out, just not when.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> If the IRS audits us or anything, she s also a tax lawyer and will do battle for us!


The one time I used a CPA he screwed it up, I got audited. He would have gone if I paid him. I went alone.


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## Ridgetop

The only time we got audited was when we sold our house and bought this one.  We sold for more and had 2 years to do renovations to bring the  at least $1.00 more than the difference between the sales price and new purchase price.   We had to supply all our receipts which I did - photocopies of every receipt to make up a sheaf of papers about 2" thick!  During the audit DH had to refer the IRS rep to the page and portion of the tax code he had used.  She summoned her supervisor, they read it and then told DH "You're right.  Never mind." and dismissed the audit! Our taxes are a little more complicated now though.  

It has been raining here for the past week off and on  Heavy rain for 2 days, then intermittent showers, then another 2 days of heavy rain.  I am so happy about getting this rain since we really need it.  We are supposed to get more for the next week.  

Hopefully, the rain will bring up lots of forage for the new lambs.  I registered all 5 ewe lambs.  I will be keeping them for the next year to see how they develop.  Since I have lost 2 ewes this year, I might as well keep all 5 and breed them to see how they produce.  4 of them are fall lambs and can be bred in late spring while one of them is a spring lamb which won't be bred until next fall.  Since I have 3 different rams, breeding the ewes back will not be a problem and will give me a nice wide gene pool.  

My friend/mom has her surgical biopsy of the lymph nodes in her throat tomorrow, then the pet scan next Thursday. After the results come back they hope to know where the cancer has metastasized.  Then they will know what can be done about it.  

Since all people over 65 are confined to their homes by our governor, I think I will scrub down the kitchen cabinets, clean out some closets, and do all that stuff that I don't seem to have time to do normally.   Might as well be productive.  Actually, we are lucky that we can all correspond in the computer, and by phone, as well as get our news on the TV.  Think what it would be like if we could not get any news or see or talk to anyone during this epidemic!

Happy St. Paddy's Day.  Time to put the corned beef in the Instapot cooker.  Then add carrots and potatoes.  I like to fry my cabbage like DH's uncle taught me to do when we were visiting the farm in Kansas.  So much better than soggy cabbage!  Yummy!


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## Baymule

Have a fun staycation! No running to town for things, it's hunker down time. Hope you get more rain and the forage grows for the sheep.


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## Mike CHS

I always get a smile from your posts


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## Baymule

Thank you! I have inappropriate humor at times-don't ever take me along to pick out a casket at a funeral home-just a warning! I'll make a joke out of most anything, I have learned to watch my mouth over the years, but dear Lord, I just can't shut up. LOL LOL


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> I have inappropriate humor at times-don't ever take me along to pick out a casket at a funeral home-just a warning!



I should send you a review of a box for crematory ashes I read when we bought one for my aunt.  I think I still have a copy somewhere,  I put a copy in with her ashes since I figured she could enjoy a good laugh on her journey.  She had a wacky sense of humor like the rest of us.  One of the best funeral stories I know actually happened at my paternal grandmother's funeral,  She had about 30 grandchildren and great grandchildren present.  One little 4 year old boy wanted to know what was in the "box" (the coffin).  His mother reverently told him "It is Baba's body".  The little guy considered this gravely then asked 'Where is her head?"  Those of us cousins who heard it agreed that she would laughed and told everyone she knew about it that story.

 You can come with me any time to choose a coffin. I can't think of any time you would need a good laugh more.


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## frustratedearthmother

At my sisters funeral   my grand daughter asked why she was sleeping in that big drawer....lol.


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## Duckfarmerpa1

@Baymule ...your humor puts a smile on my face and a jiggle to my belly every time!!  I love inappropriate humor...when I understand it....


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## Ridgetop

I have been looking for the story I know I wrote a year or so ago about training our sheep.  I can't find it o I ill have to rewrite it which will take a while.  In the meantime, Josie the Mule has been standing at the gate into the yard weaving and swaying for about 30 minutes.  This is odd since it is not suppertime, and she has 6 acres to wander around on.  However, the mystery was just solved - DS1 got home and found the field sheep in the yard.  I could not see them from my office window, just poor Josie.  She was upset because her "herd" had managed to wriggle through the gate while she was stuck on the field.  As soon as they were sent back onto the field she was happy again!

DS1 went out to put up the wire around the corral panels.  The lambs had oozed under them easily when DS1 sorted them over a week ago.  Apparently they did not want to be separated from mama.  As soon as they were I the other corral, they simply came out under the bars.  We are outing up livestock woven wire around the corrals.  This will also prevent Angel fro getting in after any lambs to "play" with them.  

It was a nice sunny day and the mud had dried up a bit so he decided it was safe to start working outside.  I offered to help but he refused any assistance.  He is a good boy but annoys me sometime since he seems to feel that DH and I will collapse and fall down if we work with him.  I don't know what  makes him feel that we are that decrepit!  I stayed in and did a bunch of other work while he went out and started.  He had almost finished half of the first corral when the rain came down again.  He decided to stop and go get more wire since we didn't have enough to do the whole job.  When he got back he found the sheep in the yard!  

DD2 called from Big Bear to say that she had been laid off her restaurant hostess job because of the Corona virus. Doofus was also laid off his job as well.  I would tell her to come home asap but won't because I won't have Doofus here.  They will have to stay with his dad and step mom.  She wanted to come down next week and visit us but I had DH call her back and tell her not to.  Where is the point in a 14 day quarantine if people who have been interacting with thousands of strangers in their job come to visit and bring the germs.  I am worried about her since one of the determining weaknesses for severe Corona is people that have seizures can get a worse case.  DD2 has seizures.  They are controlled by medicine, but I don't want her to get anything.

DS3 called from Nipomo and said that San Luis Obispo county had put a Shelter At Home quarantine on everyone in his county.  He has to go to work though since electrical linemen are considered a necessary job attendance classification, like police, firemen, and health workers.  DS2 is also required to go to work - same classification - however in their jobs they are outside and usually don't work in tight confines.  DS2 is also working nights, less chance of people interaction.  

As soon as we can separate the sheep again, without them escaping, we will weigh and supplement.  Now I'm having DS1 supplement the ewes and lambs with grain.  They are not nursing lambs anymore and are dry so that will start flushing the ewes to ready them for breeding.  I just have to decide how I plan to separate them for breeding and to whom.  Which lucky fellow will it be?  I better start supplementing the rams a bit too and make sure to put out minerals for everyone.


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## Ridgetop

DH almost hysterical this am!  First DS2 came home at 7am and announced that Food 4 Less would not let him sho since they were reserving 7-8 am for seniors.  Apparently Costco is reserving 8-9 for seniors too.  DH woke DS1 up and told him he was going to the grocery store.  (Why?  We have enough of everything!  But DH is stir crazy and of course has not been able to play bridge for 2 weeks now.)  DS1 told him he could not leave the house since all seniors are under quarantine except for gas, groceries and doctors.  Then the newscasters announced that California was shutting down all businesses, roads, etc. for quarantine.  DH interrupted my sacred first cup of coffee in the am time with svreams about not being able to get hay!  I could hear him from the other room shouting how his sheep were all going to starve due to Governor Newsom.   

I had suggested getting hay last week but was told by DH that it was not a problem.  That I was succumbing to panic and there would always be hay. ( Of course, not at a good price but . . . . )  DH stormed into my room and glared at me, telling me that I was NOT to mention I told him we should get hay to him again and stomped from the room.   I was glad to see him leave since I needed to finish my coffee and pour a second cup.

There was more screaming and yelling from the other end of the house.  DH finally calmed down and called the feed store who assured him they had plenty of hay and would continue bringing it in.   Then he and DS1 has a loud argument about whether or not DH would get hay today.  More screaming and yelling.  I poured a third cup of coffee and shut the door.  I wonder when Stockholm syndrome is supposed to kick in?  I just saw him walk out to the hayshed to clean it before bringing in a load or having it delivered.  DS1 had told me he would do it but I told him to do the corral wire instead and have Dad do the hayshed since it would give DH something to do.

More bad news this am.  Another good friend has been in and out of hospital since February 4.  He injured his ankle and developed sepsis and cellulitis in his ankle.  He was put on an electric wound drain and antibiotics.  Then when he left the nursing home the doctor did not send him home with any antibiotics!  Or the nursing home forgot to give them the prescriptions.  Back to hospital for second round of wound draining antibiotics.  He is a diabetic and if the antibiotics don't clear it up he may lose his foot at the ankle.  His wife and the doctor did not tell him that, but it is probably in his mind.  He is home now in a wheel chair and this time the doctor put him on an antibiotic pic line.  Bad situation all around.  No visitors except their younger daughter.  The older daughter  lives in San Francisco and arranged for prepared meals to be delivered to them.  Last  year both of them had heart surgery!  

Last night future DIL decided to cook.  She made pork curry.  Her curry is to die for!  She cooked the pork in the Instapot so it was tender then added the pork to the vegetables and served it with rice.    After dinner we decided to escape from non-stop news about Corona virus, and watched Down Periscope with Kelsey Grammer. So funny. After that we decided to watch another old submarine movie - Operation Petticoat with Cary Grant. Also funny. When Tony Curtis as the procurement officer steals the pig future DIL translated the Tagalog that the farmer was shouting! Wonderful evening, old funny movies and ice cream. DS2 missed out because he was working night shift. 😞


Checked ewes and new lambs - one trying to climb on mama.  They need to be turned into larger pen so they can run and play.  Only one that can't go out with others will be prolapse ewe and her lamb.  Need to keep her close so she can continue getting pain meds.  She is holding her own and eating well so as long as we can let her nurse her lamb the better.  
Angel has also found a comfy place in the barn to sleep near the lambs!  Silly girl.
Rain is still coming and going.  Got lots late last night or early this am - after midnight anyway.  Definitely will be plenty  of forage eventually.  I wonder if I should order some  temporary netting to make sure the sheep eat the right spots first.  200 feet from the house and barn.  Otherwise we will have to cut this year.  We will just leave it cut and they will eat it.  Or we can rake it into piles after it dries and store the piles in a round bale holder of wire inside a corral to keep it for dry forage.  Lots of work, but better than letting it go to waste or having to haul it to the dump.  We can hitch the trailer and load it in the trailer then move it to the wired corral to store it.  I would try to make sileage, but don't know how and am afraid it would poison the stock if not made right.  Oh well, maybe with this virus they will extend the fire clearance regulations an extra month or so.  That way the sheep would clear most of it off.  

Still can't find my story about "training" the sheep so will have to rewrite it.


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## Ridgetop

Found the piece on training our pasture raised Dorsets to come into the barn at night.  It was in the draft of the book I started writing about Harika, our LGD.   I will post it tomorrow.  I have to pull it out and cut and paste it over.

We weighted the little lambs and vaccinated yesterday.  Nice rate of gain.  The surprise was the 8 week old single ram lamb who weighed in at 66.3 lbs!!!  I was stunned! 

I just reread this and some of the descriptions of my doctoring are sort of yucky!  I am too tired to go back over it and clean it up though so if you can't handle reading about pus and oozing sores you might want to skip this post. Our family is so used to this sort of talk that we even discuss it at dinner.  Not everyone has a strong stomach.  On the other hand they can whimper like babies at a splinter and the sight of me with the tweezers.  The ewe lamb that Angel "played" with was still limping in the jug after a week of antibiotics. DS1 flipped her and held her so I could take a look. I felt the scabbed over areas. The scabs were crusty and not healthy feeling so I peeled off one of the crusted scabs. Lots of pus underneath. I went up and got my medical supplies to clean all the scabby areas out, including a mastitis tube to put antibiotic inside the wounds. One hole had a thick bunch of wool and matted pus inside it festering away that I pulled out.  I cleaned all the areas on her rear legs.   Apparently, in spite of the weeks worth of penicillin I gave her the punctures had healed on the outside and festered  inside the holes causing cellulitis. Today I went down with DS1 and again pulled off the crusted scabs.  I used Iodophor II in a solution and a syringe with a mastitis tip to flush out all the holes.   Got more pus flushed out, and opened up the holes so they could continue to drain.  Then flushed again with mastitis meds, and gave a shot of penicillin.  Then we decided to look at the wether lamb.  DS1 flipped him and he looked at first like he had healed but when I found a couple of crusty scabs and pulled them off he had the same problem going on.  Puncture wounds are the worst in animals or humans.  They scab over and look healed on the top but underneath they fester until they build up a major infection.   I flushed his punctures out with the Iodophor solution, filled them with Tomorrow, and then went back up and got him a shot of penicillin too.  When I was giving him the shot, I remembered why I don't like tails - he was wagging his tail and slapping me with it!  OUCH.  DS1 and I will keep doing this wound cleaning every day until they heal up.  DS1 is also putting them on a lower dose of the same pain meds that the prolapse ewe is on.  This wether will be going into our freezer since I anticipate a lot of carcass waste with all the injection sites and lower leg infections which will leave scarring in the meat.  The ewe lamb should heal up ok and it won't affect her since she will be a breeding ewe.  Doing all this medical stuff makes me wish we ad the squeeze in a covered area so I could have used it for these two lambs.  It would have been so much easier on DS1's back.

I had a 32 year old mare that fell through a fence and down a cliff and got a little scrape.  I put antibiotic on t after hosing her off.  Several days later it developed into a severe case of cellulitis. She was so sick she could hardly walk so we rushed her out to the horse hospital.  She was there on an IV for a week, then they sent her home with some antibiotics and instructions to swash the wound with a hose.  She got worse again and I called a new vet.  He was an old guy that had gone to vet school after 20 years as a farrier.  He was a terrific vet and I learned a lot from him.  He had me mix up an iodine solution and use a Water Pic to flush out the  6"deep puncture wound several times a day.  Then he had me scrape the skin under the puncture wound with a table knife so the skin was raw and bled a bit.  Once that happened I had to slather Vaseline all over the raw skin.  He said that the drainage from the puncture was infecting the top layer of skin as it drained down the leg.  she had lost all the hair on her leg where the drainage had dripped.  He said fresh blood was what made a healthy scab.  Otherwise the skin would fester and get an infection in another spot.  There was a lot more that he taught me as we worked together on this mare.  It took at least 2 months but she healed.  It was a much deeper puncture.   I learned a lot from this vet and made sure to keep that old Water Pic for any future wound care.

About 5 years later, my DIL (then still in high school) kept her horse at our house.  One day he got a small cut on his leg.  She had the vet out and he said it was minor.  He told her to wash it off with the hose and it would heal.  I kept asking her how he was doing and she said he seemed to be healing but after 2 weeks the horse still had a large oozing scab.  She was afraid to touch it.  (inexperienced and not sure what to do)  Finally, I tied the horse up and inspected the scab.  It was crusty and oozy like Dazzle's had been, so I peeled the scab off and sure enough it had some puss and serum under the scab.  I flushed it with iodine.  When my DIL came over that afternoon I showed her the wound and explained that we needed to keep flushing it with iodine to stop the infection.  The scab was crusted pus not a true scab.  Once the "scab" was removed, and after several days of iodine flush, the leg healed without any problem. 

I recognized the same type of oozy, crusty scabs on these lambs with wool trapped in the scab.  I am glad I remembered how to treat those wounds.  Probably a type of staph.  If they don't start to heal cleanly in another 2 days I will have the vet out to look at them and give me a different antibiotic.  At the same time I will have that prolapse ewe euthanized.  DS1 and I hate to see her the way she is.  Her lamb is only 4 weeks old and not gaining as well as I would like but she is eating hay.  I can try to give her a bottle, but I am sure she won't take it.  On the other hand, maybe I can give her some calf manna pellets if we have to euthanize her mama.  In the past 2 weeks she has only put on 7.5 lbs.  She is very healthy and lively though so maybe she is just going to be a small ewe.  She was small at birth and her larger sister that died was about half again her size.  Maybe her mama is not making as much milk due to her physical condition.  DS1 and I just hope we can keep her mama going long enough for this lamb to get a little more size.  The ewe doesn't seem to be in distress and is eating like a horse instead of a sheep.  She is on pain meds to keep her comfortable. 

The rain continues to come and go. Everything is suddenly green. DH is going to get hay tomorrow. He plans to get there around 7 m and wait for them to open. He went on Saturday but when he arrived at 10 am the 2 semi loads that came in were already sold out! Apparently there was a line of trucks and trailers waiting when the hay guy opened! This is a hay seller only, no other feed. DH is not going to take any chances tomorrow. The feed store is charging $3.50 per bale more than our hay guy.  The feed store has plenty of hay but when you are buying 50 bales that difference in price adds up.  Hopefully if the rains stay we will have plenty of forage again this year.  DH doesn't want to do our sheep as a business yet.  I am going to add up our expenses and see if the value of the lambs we produced even out.  I will also allocate what it would cost to clear the field this year as income.  I have received inquiries from 2 people wanting to know if I have purebred breeding stock for sale and prices.  I could sell 2 ewe lambs but I was planning on keeping them all after losing 2 of my breeding ewes.   I only have 1 ewe lamb in my surviving spring lamb crop while I have 5 ram lambs.  I don't suppose they will respond anyway.  I get emails occasionally but I think people are just pricing.  I do have buyers for the wethers for locker lambs.  I just need to  call and find out if my butcher will be open or is closed due to the quarantine.


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## Ridgetop

So for those who have just tuned in - and those restricted to their home by this virus quarantine who need cheering up - I am starting from the day our new Dorsets came home in 2010. As most of you know, we had already had several small flocks of breeding sheep when the sheep were in 4-H between 1988 through 2004. They we had a hiatus of several years during which time we only had horses, Josie the Mule, and our dogs. That was the time period during which we attempted to clear our fields via ourselves and our children, large checks to brush clearance firms when the children left for college, our horses, and again large checks to brush clearing firms. Although 2 of the boys had returned fro college, they were working full time and did not have the time to devote to brush clearance to the degree we needed. Finally, we decided to go back into sheep to avoid the large outlay of cash to brush clearing firms. Now we just have large outlays of cash for sheep equipment, etc. 

I will just start by saying it took me about 6 months to find Dorset breeders (other than show stock breeders) willing to sell a few ewe  lambs and a ram lamb.  They offered to haul the sheep down from northern California to us for gas money since they would be on their way to a herding trial.  Naturally we jumped at this offer . . . .

The day in May arrived when we were to receive our small flock of weed whackers. Our sons were home for this event.  Excitement ran high as we crowded around the truck to help put the new sheep in the barn.  They would stay in the barn pen for several weeks. Confining new animals in their stalls teaches them that the barn is where the yummy grain is fed. It would take another several weeks of intensive herding to teach them to enter the barn at night from the pasture.  We were experienced livestock handlers  We did not anticipate much trouble.  

The 4 lambs were in a large wire cage structure inside the pickup bed with a camper shell. We admired them and discussed how to get them out, down the narrow stairs and into our lower level barn. Unlike Eileen and Jim, we did not own any herding dogs. Unlike our 4-H sheep, these were not halter broken or tame. We looked at the sheep, they looked at us. Finally it was decided to line the men up at the back of the pickup so they could grab the lambs as they came out one by one. The cage was opened and the men braced for the onslaught of wild lambs. The lambs crowded into the front of the truck bed and looked at us. A bucket of grain was produced and shaken to encourage the lambs to get out and get the goodies. There were no takers. This was somewhat anticlimactic.

Since all 3 of the 6’ 200lb+ men declined to climb into the camper shell to wrestle the lambs out of their cage, we changed tactics. Eileen and I both refused the tentative suggestion from our men that one of us climb in and get the progressively wilder lambs. According to Ridgetop’ custom, we all turned to look at the youngest child present. DD2, age 15, was sent to chase the recalcitrant animals out.  As DD2 climbed into the cramped camper shell the sheep milled around restlessly. She got to the front of the pickup bed and opened the cage gate. Nothing happened. The sheep jostled each other, apparently oblivious to the offer of freedom through the open gate. As everyone gave DD2 contradictory instructions on how to chivvy them out, one of them accidentally got through the open cage gate. Slamming the gate on the others, DD2 adroitly pushed the confused lamb out the back into the arms of one of the waiting men. 2 more lambs followed this procedure. One by one 3 sheep were carefully led, herded, and wrestled from the back of the pickup cage into the barn. The last eweling would not approach the opening of the truck carrier. As DD2 maneuvered around to chase her out to the waiting arms of the men, the lamb realized she was ALONE with this small human. Like a bullet, the small eweling launched herself dead center into the chest of my brawny son, laying him out on the driveway with a hoof print on his forehead. She raced for open ground – through a gap in the fence, and onto the 5 acre field where the horses and mule watched in shocked surprise. Like a comedy movie 7 people stood frozen before running after her onto the field. Dogs were barking, horses galloping and the mule, who dislikes dogs, couldn’t decide whether to go after the dogs she knew or the white fuzzy thing she wasn’t sure about!

Towards the steep sided gully the fugitive headed. Once down its steep sides with their chest high scrub brush loaded with thorns, she could easily find hiding spots. She would be about as approachable as Brer Rabbit in his briar patch. Amid cries of “_Don’t let her reach the gully!_” we raced after. Sprinting heroically, my track star son headed her off. She turned toward the front of the acreage. Pursued by a screaming mob (picture the townsfolk chasing Frankenstein but minus their pitchforks and torches!) the terrified lamb circled the 5 acre field several times with us in pursuit. Beginning to tire, the lamb slowed toward the front of the field to take stock and look for a way to escape. Meanwhile, having successfully charged and driven off the house dogs from her personal space (all 5 acres) Josie the Mule came galloping past us toward the lamb. Unaware of her danger, the lamb paused to look at a fellow quadruped. This was her undoing. Josie thundered up with teeth bared and neck outstretched. Suddenly realizing that this was not a friendly welcome to the pasture the ewe tried to bolt towards us. Josie overtook the lamb and lashed at her with a hoof, catching her in the head, and knocking her off her feet. This was horrifying. We were afraid the lamb might have been killed. Running to the lamb’s aid we shooed Josie away to inspect our newly purchased eweling, now possibly just lamb chops. Apparently, people are right when they say sheep are so dumb they have solid skull between their ears. The lamb, wobbly and slightly woozy, staggered uncertainly to its feet. She was captured and carried triumphantly to the pen by three panting men.

Still gasping, we staggered to the patio to recover our strength. Refreshments were consumed, injuries bandaged, stories of memorable livestock escapes told, and the type of lifelong friendship forged when people have been through a hellish experience and all survived. Our new friends finally departed for their dog herding trials with another crazy livestock story under their belts.

Sooooo . . . The new lambs are in the barn, being fed delicious alfalfa and grain twice a day. This is our clever plan to train them to return to the barn every evening after grazing on our hillside. They would learn quickly. Such is the stuff that dreams (and nightmares) are made of . . . .

 Every day we fed our new jewels their alfalfa and grain. We admired their sturdy forms, length of body and delicious looking legs and loins.  We dreamed of little lambs gamboling across our field.  We could practically taste the juicy roasts and chops.  However, in order to bring the sheep into the barn at night they HAD TO BE TRAINED! By only feeding them in the barn we rationalized this would be an easy job. All our other animals loved being in the barn where the yummy hay and grain were fed. We had to *chase* them onto the hillside field to graze during times of heavy growth. They would congregate outside the gate, crying mournfully at their expulsion. We decided the optimum amount of training time in the barn for our new darlings would be a month. A month of happy alfalfa and grain feeding, and they would realize where the good stuff came from. Four weeks to acclimatize and recognize that we were the purveyors of such delights. Oh Ridgetop! so experienced and yet so foolish . . . . 

The day came for the next step in their training. Uncertain about our small force's ability to corral them on the 5 acre field, and worried that Josie the Mule aka Sheep Killer might decide to have another go at them we decided to turn them into the small 100' x 110' pen below the barn. The barn didn’t open directly into this field, we had to drive the four sheep out of their stall, through the barn, make a right turn and go down 12 steps to the pasture gate.  It sounds easy and with trained sheep it would have been. However, these were field sheep and they did not know us. But they were used to being herded by dogs though, so we felt we could herd them just as easily. We were not novices in the area of livestock containment or movement. Granted our other livestock had been halter broken and raised by our children as quasi pets. No problem, we put up barriers like we had often done when herding the children’s pigs through the scale. With our barriers in place, we opened the gate and tried to turn them into the lower field. 

The first problem arose when the sheep refused to leave the pen. Despite the alfalfa, grain, and soft words of love we had lavished on them for a month, they didn’t trust us. The pasture entryway is narrow, with a long staircase down past the old milk shed from the 10’ x 10’ flat space which is all we have outside the barn The entrance to the barn is the right. Across from the barn entrance is the workshop and a small sloping area that is fenced off. Just past the workshop on the left is the ramp leading up to the driveway and gate to the large field. Straight up from the barn at the base of the ramp are the stairs to the driveway. They are narrow. This staircase and entryway were fine for the dairy goats who came when we called their names, knew the milking routine, and wanted to come into the barn to be with us. It was fine for the 4-H flock that had been hand raised and halter broken by children. It is very crowded and difficult to work in with sheep that are not friendly or tame.

Spreading out around the path to the pasture, blocking all possible escape except to the lower stairs to the pasture, we opened the gate. Tensing in anticipation of the rush for freedom we expected, we waited. And waited. Instead of calmly sauntering out and down the steps to freedom, looks of suspicion greeted us as they crowded into the farthest corner away from the open gate. They knew this pen and liked it. They weren’t sure they liked _us_. Here they would stay.

Sighing in defeat, I entered the pen and moved around behind them to push them on their way. Instead of running out through the open gate, they ran in circles around the pen trapping me in the center of their frantic rush. As I tried to break their endless circle and aim them for the opening, one accidentally exited the pen. The others didn’t even notice. The sole escapee, realizing she was ALONE, doubled back and tried desperately to rejoin her friends inside the pen. Moving swiftly to intercept, 2 people did a fancy dance step around each other and the ewe. They managed to keep her from reentering the pen but also blocked the gate for the other sheep to exit. Finally, turning the escapee down into the field they realized the annoyed calls to “MOVE OUT OF THE WAY” were directed at themselves. Positioning DD2 on the lower slope to block the single eweling’s reentry, we all resumed our positions. I again tried to move the now tired sheep out through the gate. One by one they found the exit and trotted down the steps to the pasture.  Within 10 minutes they were happily investigating our small pasture and nibbling the waist high brush.  Congratulating ourselves on our sheep expertise, we adjourned to the house until late afternoon. We knew that all we would have to do was open the gate, shake a bucket of grain and they would come running into the pen. They hadn’t wanted to leave it so we _knew_ they would want to return to it.


For 20 years we had kept our livestock with Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dogs. All 5 Pyrenees had been roamers.  Impossible to keep within our fenced acres, they kept the entire neighborhood safe by driving all predators away from everyone’s property within several miles.  Pyrenees can climb a 6' chain link fence using their extra toes.  I have seen a 120 lb. Pyreees bitch squeeze through a stock panel with one wire missing like a cat.  We decided not to get any more Pyrs.  Although we loved their gentle nature, the neighborhood had changed. There were fewer livestock people and more traffic.  Roaming dogs do not make for good neighbors.

With no guardian to patrol at night we needed to bring the sheep in every evening.  No problem! The sheep had spent the past two weeks eating grain and hay inside the barn. They would recognize where the good stuff came from and come in for their evening feeding, right? Wrong! Blithely we went down the stairs to the barn, then more stairs to the milking shed. The small pasture gate is at the corner of the milking shed. Remember I said our land was steep? In the 40’ feet to the pasture gate the ground drops more than 12’.   The barn is 4’ below the level of the driveway. The milk shed is 8’ below the level of the barn. Once you reach the pasture gate, there is a drop of almost 2’ more into the pasture itself. There is about a 10’ slightly sloping swath below the milking shed with another 12’ x 12’ pole barn attached to the side of the milking shed. The walls of all these structures are actually retaining walls. Once in the pasture the ground drops steeply to another fence 100’ down. On the other side of the fence it drops precipitously into the gully. The grade varies from 40 to 60 degrees until you reach the bottom. The other side can’t be climbed by humans without ropes and tackle. Only sheep, goats, dogs and predators venture there. Luckily, we had been smart enough to turn the sheep into the upper small pasture for their first foray into our property. In the barn, with much noise and rattling of grain buckets we filled feeders and replenished clean water. Confidently we went to the pasture gate and opened it.

Nothing met us on the other side. The sheep were huddled together in a lower corner. They were grazing, oblivious to our calls and shaking of grain buckets. With sinking hearts we realized that they would now need to be trained to come *in *from the pasture when called. We discussed animatedly (a Ridgetop’ euphemism for heated argument) which of us would have to scramble down and herd them up.  DH was out, aside from his bad knee, he felt all animals loved him and would approach too close to the animals. Many was the time he had scattered a herd just as they approached the loading area. For the same reason he was not allowed to man the pen gate. One position was assigned. DH was placed slightly above the aisle that would allow them access to the driveway and parts west. Again, in time honored Ridgetop fashion, the position of chaser was assigned to the youngest family member. DD2 was instructed to go below the sheep and slowly move them up hill. In the barn the stall gate was left open for the sheep to enter. The 2 flanking positions were taken up by DS1 and DS2 while I moved below to ensure that no one broke back from DD2. She was to keep the sheep moving upwards – if a sheep broke away I would send it back to the flock.

This was a maneuver we had practiced many times in over 20 years of livestock keeping with our 4-H children. On a ranch populated by children and their animals, nothing stays where it should! Unfortunately, everyone except 15 year old DD2 was grown now. Whereas in the past I had been the leader calling directions to my trusty herders, all of a sudden we had too many chiefs! DH around the corner at the top of the stairs couldn’t see the action. He came down to the pasture gate to watch and began to call out conflicting orders. All of us yelled back that he was to return to his assigned position. As DD2 began to move the sheep up they broke towards DS2.   DS1 yelled needless instructions to him which he ignored as he headed them back into line. The sheep next broke towards DS1.   Now DS2 was yelling instructions at DS1, which he ignored in his turn. The sheep, disturbed by the shouting decided to turn around and run past DD2.  I managed to turn the flock back before falling and sliding down the hillside.  Both boys turned to look as I floundered in the bushes. The sheep, seizing their opportunity, split right *and* left past them and circled below DD2, avoiding me where I was struggling to my feet. After more “animated discussion”, we regrouped and approached the sheep again. This time when the boys took up their flanking positions, DD2 and I moved in unison to herd the sheep upward. As the sheep approached their position, DS2 and DS1 widened their circle to let the sheep pass them. We had forgotten DH who had again left his post to watch the amusing little scene below. Pushing the sheep slowly towards the gate we looked up to see him blocking it. Once again the sheep scattered and ran. All of us joined in a scathing denouncement of our husband and father’s performance in the matter of sheep herding. Defending himself weakly, Marv retreated to his position where, unseen, he continued to call out instructions. Finally, we managed to get the sheep into their stall in the barn. Probably they were tired and just gave up.

This scenario was repeated every morning and evening for the next week. After the first few days, turning the sheep into the pasture could be accomplished by one person and our barriers. Bringing them in was another story. It was all hands mutinously on deck for the debacle. Gradually it got better, until one day the miracle happened. The sheep met us at the gate waiting to go into the barn for their grain feed. When we opened the gate they crowded past us to get to their stall, knocking painfully into us. We learned to step aside when opening the gate. The next step would be the large pasture, but since they now knew they would get grain at night in the barn it was a simpler procedure. Josie learned to accept the sheep as livestock, not dogs. She and the ram began a strange but beautiful friendship.

Life fell into a pattern. In the morning we would feed the horses and mule. We would then let out the sheep, which would run onto the large field and graze all day. At night they would stand at the pasture gate waiting impatiently to be let into their stalls for their ration of rolled corn. The brush began to thin and the sheep grew fat. After one or two painful incidents we remembered to step aside as they rushed through the gate.


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## thistlebloom

That's a great story Ridgetop, I thouroghly enjoyed the read. You definitely have a flair for descriptive story telling. Your place is so up and down! No wonder you named it Ridgetop, although Cliffside would be fitting too, lol.


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## Ridgetop

thistlebloom said:


> No wonder you named it Ridgetop, although Cliffside would be fitting too, lol.



Yes, when we moved here I was afraid my littlest ones, ages 2 and 4, would tumble off the side of the hill!  I actually wanted DH to put a fence around the flat space of the property.  That would only have been about 600 sf!  30' x 100' of driveway and about  30' x 100' space that is now out front patio and "mini yard" overlooking the valley.  Everything else was steep until we dozed in a pad for the Doughboy pool.  There was a flat space adjacent to and 4' lower than the driveway where we built our barn.

As the quarantine grows more boring here are some pictures of our place so everyone can be properly grateful _they_ knew what they were doing when the purchased their nice flat ranches! When we bought our experience was limited to rabbits and chickens, so we were just impressed with the views.  I didn't occur to us that climbing up and down these hills could be a problem.  We were so young and naive.  Next time though . . . .

Here is what we worked with for 30 years -
1.  
  Looking down the first set of stairs from the driveway.  Solid white wall on right is barn.  Right next to milk crates visible on upper left is the workshop.  Bubba is on top step to give you an idea of how narrow the stairs are.

2.   Bottom of 4' of steps going down from driveway.  From here you can see down past barn and milk shed on right, and through pasture gate.  However, the land is so steep if you want to check the sheep in that pen you have to go down all those stairs and peer over the gate.  Even then you might have to walk down into the pen to see the bottom of the pasture!
3.    Flat area at bottom of driveway stairs.  This area is only about 12' x 14' maybe.  Picture taken from bbottom of ramp (behind me) to driveway built for horses.  Sheep don't have any trouble with the stairs.  You can see opening into the barn with the wire gate.  Building below the barn is the old block wall milking shed.  It is 10' x 20'.  Bubba is on left and Angel is giving herself a scratch in the middle of this picture.  You can just see the step into the workshop at the bottom left of the photo.
4.    Another steep, narrow set of stairs down to milk shed door on right and pasture gate.  At the bottom of these stairs is a small landing then another 2' drop into the lower pasture.  The retaining wall to the left fences in a tiny sloping dirt area off the back of the workshop.
5.  Semi flat or light sloping are about 12' wide at the bottom of the staircase in #4 above.  The rest of the property disappears into the gully far, far below,  You can see the lengthwise dividing fence,  This fence was only partially standing at the time of the above story and there was another fence to the left of this picture.  We later removed the left fence  and repaired the one seen in the right upper side of this photo.  We can't decide whether or not to replace the one on the left which would give us another long narrow small pen.
6.    You can see how the "slight slope" rapidly becomes a treacherous fall into the gully!  the tiny white dots in the corner of the fence below the toad are Bubba and Rika keeping an eye on  the rider.
7.   10' x 10' Shelter below milk shed showing window into milk shed.
8.    First step up from the small pasture gate.  Building on left is milk shed, wall on left is retaining wall holding up hill.
9.    Stairs from doorway up to milk shed up to barn landing, and then stairs to driveway.

You can all pat yourselves on the back for not having to work on this terrain  We used to drag all our hay down the stairs into the milk shed to store it.  Grain was bought in bulk and shoveled in to 50 gallon metal cans 9rats chew through plastic storage cans in about a week).  These 50 gallon barrels of grain were wheeled down in to the barn on a dolly.  While we could feed the first group of goats through the windows of the hayshed we soon had too many to keep in that small area.  Then we had to drag those flakes of hay all the way up the stairs to feed 5 horses, 100 goats, and 20 sheep.  Twice a day.   The steepness of the terrain is why we never raised steers.  Only replacement heifers and calves.  of course there is some advantage to this property - due to the lack of level land all our animal barns for lambing and kidding are only about 30' from the house!  

When we clean pens in the barn we have to do it by hand - no tractors can fit in there, we shovel everything into wheelbarrows and carts and drag it up the ramp, onto the field and dump it in a compost pile.  Sometimes just dump it over the cliff into the gully.  Now of course we use the large green trash containers provided by the city. The city charges us $5.00 for every 30 gallons of green waste and the containers are 60 gallons and 90 gallons.  sp each barrel costs us $10 to 15.00 monthly.  Trash containers are $10.00 for each 30 lbs. of capacity and the barrels hold 60 gallons, so $20.00 per month.   Horse manure containers cost $10.00 for every 30 gallons.  The containers hold 60 gallons so think $20 per barrel per month again.  One barrel holds the waste from one horse for one week.  We had 5 of these barrels and I finally was able to convince DH to return them since we have a ginormous gully that we can fill.  Duh!  We do need the green barrels since we have clippings, brush, etc. that needs to be dumped in them.  At the moment our blue recycle barrels are free.  That is good since they are 90 gallon barrels.  All our paper, cardboard, cans, bottles, plastic, etc. go in them.  DS1 recycles the aluminum and plastic drink bottles for cash. 

We use the milk shed for storage now, and tore several tons of hay on one side of the barn and the other hay in a shed on the field where is it easier to feed the mule, the rams, and the field sheep.  The barn hay is reserved for lambing ewes in jugs, and ewes with young lambs in the creep pen.  During the summer when we can get hay cheap and have no lambing ewes in the jugs we can also store hay in the main barn.  We still have to carry it down the 4' staircase and stack it.
How we dream of moving to lovely flat east Texas.    With plenty of water for irrigation of our fields.  And of course our own hay fields!

Any time you want to complain about having to haul your hay or grain to a barn, look back at these pix and have a good laugh at Ridgetop!  We are obviously insane not to have given up on animal keeping years ago!   And when you consider that we have actually enjoyed doing all this, remember that this was our first "ranch". We were too dumb to know it could be easier. Apparently we are still too dumb to give it up!


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## thistlebloom

You guys must have some massive calf muscles!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Here is what we worked with for 30 years


Now why would anyone want to give up free "stairmaster" right at home? 
 I'd never make it there.


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## Baymule

I'm looking at your pictures thinking, "Gee, that place shore ain't wheelchair friendly!" In Texas, that gully would be dammed up and made into a pond. But if you did that, you would have a very interesting empty hole. Dusty perhaps, but interesting--maybe to a sand lizard. 

I had a good chuckle over your Dorset herding experience. Sheep are smart enough to never do what you want them to do. But once they realize what the feed can means, they would do back flips to stick their heads in the feed can and rip it from your hands. I have a wether that climbs up my back while I am fumbling with the elaborate, perfectly functional zip tie loop that secures the top of the pipe that makes up the end of my wire crappy gate. With his help, it takes both hands to close the gate, so I clamp the coffee can between my knees, while the others dig at the back of my knees to get the feed.


----------



## Ridgetop

I bought the animal cookies Mike recommended.  I have tried to feed them to my ewes and lambs.  they look at me like I am trying to poison them.   I tried to put a piece in Snowflake's mouth.  She refused to take it.  I finally dropped it on top of her grain!  Eureka!  She nibbled it up!   

Then she spit it out!   However, they were not wasted - DH found them and the giant jar magically emptied to half full.


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## thistlebloom

Maybe you can train _him!  😄 _


----------



## Mike CHS

That's funny.  Mine were slow to take them and a few still won't but they originally got curious by watching the dogs get theirs.


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## Ridgetop

Since March 8 . . . . 

I have been too depressed to post here. After the lambing problems, loss of one ewe and her lambs, and euthanizing Snowflake’s mama more bad stuff happened. Bad news from my sister who is not working in Washington state, her husband is in continuing poor health. Then FDIL’s grandfather died of the virus this week. His sister (great-auntie) tested positive for the virus as did one of FDIL’s sisters. The whole family live together but luckily FDIL tested negative. She lives here but had been there for a visit before Grandfather got sick. Then we got very bad news about out dear friends – Yes, their cancer is back in advanced stages. Everyone is bored at being home because of the virus. People are starting to snap at each other and we can’t even work outside to get away from each other due to the continuing rain over the past several weeks. The weather report occasionally mentions sun or dry and cloudy but as all weather reports they LIE!

Still the forage is coming up well which will mean another year of limited hay feeding. Hopefully hay will be cheap again this summer and we can stock up.  For those of you not accustomed to California prices, “cheap” alfalfa means about $12.00 a bale instead of $16.00-$18.00 per bale. However, alfalfa is a high protein feed, so not as much grain ration is necessary.  In fact, our Dorpers do very well on just alfalfa and a small nighttime feed of barleycorn.

On April 9 we finally put down our poor prolapsed ewe. DS1 had increased the dose of painkiller she was getting from the vet and for a week or so she seemed to perk up. April 8, she did not seem to respond to the pain killer doses and looked worse so DS1 immediately told me that we needed to get Dr Dave out. I called him and left a message. He came out the next day and put her down gently. First something to relax her and then the final dose. It was very quick. We left her in the pen with her lamb, Snowflake, while waiting for dead animal pick up. It was a more natural separation that way. I am so glad that it is over because even though we knew it was better for the lamb, we hated to see her like she was. Over the last week the rectal prolapse which had been retracting and reappearing just remained out. The purse string repair of the vaginal prolapse had been giving way for a couple of weeks and had finally let go resulting in a partial vaginal prolapse. She was getting worse. Snowflake is just 6 weeks old, but able to be weaned. She was not gaining much weight in the past couple of weeks which told us that her mother was probably not producing as much milk as she should have been. I am glad it is over. I ordered some lamb grower ration for her to mix with her small amount of barleycorn. It will have extra minerals and vitamins to take the place of mama’s milk.

Snowflake needs a bath since she is covered with blood and dirt residue from mama’s prolapse. She is very tame and I am going to keep her in the jug for a while. She is too small to turn in with the other lambs and their mothers without a mother for protection. I’ll take out some dividers so she has a little extra room in the jug. She is very bouncy. DS1 says she probably has a drug habit from the painkiller he was giving her mother. I am going to halter break her so she can be a Judas ewe if we need a leader to go somewhere. She belongs to Elizabeth so having her be tame is a good thing. Of course, the grandkids have “owned” other lambs before – when they want to know which one is theirs, I just point at the flock and say, “She’s over there”. Since all our sheep are white, it works. LOL

We were able to finish emptying the rented Connex during a lull between storms. The desk got into the house through window which DS1 and DS2 removed. Ds1’s old desk replaced the table I was using. That table was moved into the spare room and I set it up as a desk for FDIL who is working from home, it will also be useful as sewing table, and craft or game table for the grandkids eventually. DS1 got some shelves for his room over the desk (the desk he had which I now have had a built-in hutch with shelves). I hung a lamp on the wall over the table desk in the spare room and we are now all set.

I found a small oak cabinet designed to go over the toilet when emptying the storage unit. I had purchased it several years ago to use in one renovating one of the apartments. I did not need it after all but kept it for possible future use. We have a plain mirror over the sink instead of a medicine cabinet in our master bath. I did finally install a medicine chest behind the door for meds but it is not enough. The minimal storage in our bathroom results in DH leaving all his stuff on the counter. I hate cluttered counters and have decided to hang this cabinet behind the door in the bathroom below the medicine cabinet which I recessed into the wall. I can’t inset the OTT cabinet into the wall since it is too deep (7”) but there *is* enough room behind the door to hang on the wall. It will need a finished top since it is designed to be hung on the wall over a toilet. Since the top portion would not be seen, it is not finished. I have a piece of stained and finished oak shelving in the shed that will match so once the rain stops for a bit I will cut it to fit. I don’t know if having this cabinet will help DH put away his stuff, but at least he can’t say he ha no where to put anything. LOL

DH and I are considering doing more fencing on our property while the ground is soft. We would like to have another 1 or 2 sheep pastures so we can confine groups of sheep where we need the grass cut. DS1 checked with the fire department to see if we are going to have to cut everything by the end of April and they have extended the date to June 1. With all the rain still coming it will be difficult if not impossible to cut this wet forage. In addition, they probably can’t spare the fire fighters to do the patrols to do brush inspection. I think our date will actually be July 1 since different areas have deadlines a month apart due to when they feel the worst fire danger occurs. Antelope Valley, which is a high desert area, actually has a deadline 1 month before the San Fernando Valley, so if they are extending the first deadline to June 1 ours might be July 1. Maybe. That gives our ewes enough time to clear more of the forage off.

We need to bring in a couple of loads of gravel and sand to dump in front of the barn where it is getting very muddy. Gravel and sand will give us better footing there. We also need to put some of the gravel and sand in front of the main pasture gate for the same reason. The third part of the load needs to be put inside the sheep tipi shelter since it has become a water filled pit with all this rain. The ewes have dug it shallow when they go in it to sleep or rest in the shade. No the poor ewes go in and stand round looking sad in the downpour because they can’t lay down in 4” of water and mud! At least when they are out on the field they can shelter under bushes and trees. There is a 12 x 12 3 sided shed below the old milkshed and it can be accessed off the field but when we put them up at night, they don’t have access to it. We need to put up more fencing on the old fence posts along there and use that as another night pen with a shelter for ewes and lambs, or older weaned lambs. We also need to fence down the hill in back to fence in some of the pasture we need to cut during fire season That way we can confine the sheep in that area and have them completely clean up the area. So much work on that steep slope! UGH! If we were on the flat, we could use the tractor to bang metal fence posts into the wet ground. When the ground is dry, it is like concrete but now it would be fairly simple. Maybe DH and I could try it with a post setter and single jack while it is wet.

After seeing what happened to Fluffyflock’s sheep shelter and Mike’s and Bay’s suggestions of stock panel hoop shelters, I am thinking about trying them. We have two 20’ Connex containers on the field with 20’ separation between them. We want to roof over this open span to make either a hay shed, or sheep shelters. Corrugated roofing would work there. DH originally wanted to store his hay inside one of the boxes but it might be better to build a roof between the Connex boxes and store the hay in between them. We could put up a stock panel hoop shelter behind the second box with a fence around it to keep Josie the Mule away from the delights of yanking off the tarps. The Connex box would help protect the hoop shelter from the strong winds we get up here. Not sure what would work. We need to buy more stock panels. We have cut ours in different sizes to make pens. I will check with Tractor Supply – there is one about 50 miles away. I want to try the hoop shelters but DH and DS1 both insist tha th tarps will shred from the wind.  DS1 says he has an idea about shelters he will work out. Hopefully before our poor ewes drown.    

Wethers are on schedule to go to the butcher next week. The ewelings weigh enough to go in with the selected rams at 7 months old. We will weigh again this weekend. Weighed April 11 and smallest wether is 90 lbs at 5 months old. Others right at 100 lbs. Need to arrange a butchering date with my guy. Once they each 100 lbs. their rate of gain slows considerably and it is not economical to keep them. This year they reached these weights without any creep feeding at all. I did order some grain for the new lambs, in particular Snowflake, since she was only 6 weeks old when her mama went down. I will see if I can push them a bit and get them to the butcher earlier. Although with all the forage they might not need to be pushed. 

April 10 was DH’s birthday and DD1 brought the grandkids over to see their grandfather. They stood on the porch. sang Happy Birthday to him, and blew us kisses. Then they left their birthday cards on the porch. Granddaughter ran down to the barn to visit Snowflake.

We have n=been ur new big walk in scale on all the lambs lately and we love it!  We run all the ewes and lambs into the barn from the field.  Then shut the barn gate.  The scale is in a jug so we run in a couple of lambs and shove them one at a time into the scale.  Write down th weight and tag numbers, then get another one or two.  Finally we run all those sheep back out onto the field.  Then instead of chasing the babies into the creep and catching them, we just run all their mamas into the barn.  The mamas eat off the haystack, while the lambs are easier to catch since they can't scurry down the hill away from us.  They get weighed and returned to the creep to scream for mama while we complete the weighing.  Finally the ewes are sent back into the main pen to join their screaming lambs.  And a nice time is had by all.  I LOVE our scale!  

On April 11 the largest ewe lamb weighed 113 lbs. at 6 ½ months old. Smallest ewe lamb 90 lbs. at 5 ½ months old. Ewe lambs will go in with ram at 7 months old – they will be large enough too. I will just leave them with rams until bred since some lambs don’t come in and breed right away. I do think the largest ewe lamb has already been in season though. My fall lambing ewes have dried up and are cycling. This weekend we are going to weigh the ewes to check condition and weight, drench for worms, trim hooves, vaccinate again, and start flushing if necessary. The fall lambing ewes averaged 153.2 lbs. on January 11. They have put on weight after weaning so hopefully they won’t need much flushing. I hope to get the ram harnessed up and in with the chosen ones in 2 weeks.  

This plan means that this weekend DS1 and DS2 will finally assemble the squeeze and place it in the chute pen so I can use it to trim hooves.  I can't wait to use it!  DS1 is also planning a way to rig a shade for me for this summer - I whined just like my grandchildren and it worked.  LOL  Otherwise we can just use a pop up picnic canopy.  I used to have some metal barbell weights that I threaded hay ropes through to weigh down tarps over hay stacks.  I wil locate them and they will work for the canopy. 

Breeding is approaching . . . .   I think I will put 3 of the 5 ewes due to be bred with Axtel next week. The 2 nice younger ewe lambs are by him, but I lost 2 of the 4 Axtel breeding ewes I bought. Those Axtel ewes have month old lambs on them and won’t be breedable until late summer or fall. All four ewelings will go to Lewis. . The 2 ewes who produced Axtell lambs will go with Moy.  Once the spring lambs are weaned, those ewes will be sorted into two groups as well to join either Axtel or Moy.  All the spring lambs are out of Lewis, but I only got one ewe lamb. Lewis is an excellent ram and his only ewe lamb is Snowflake, the pretty little orphan. She is looking better and better every day.  Finally, after all the ewes are marked and another 6 weeks have passed since the final markings, I will pull those rams out, combine all the ewes, and choose one ram as a clean-up ram. Breeding is getting so complicated! Oh, for the days when I had only 1 ram and no choices!   LOL I just need more fenced pastures so I can separate my sheep into breeding flocks.

My favorite on-line sale is approaching again on May 15/16. I am not sure if I will have enough money to buy anything this year. Our tenant in Yelm is self employed and has notified the management company that he will have trouble making his rent due to the Covid. He has been a good tenant and I don’t have a mortgage on the place so I can afford to let the rent go for a couple months. He is trying to scrape up partial payments and will make it up later. However, that income was my “fun money” – “fun money” means cruise and sheep buying money so I might not be able to swing purchasing any new ewes this year. On the other hand, we won’t be cruising. Not only will the Covid curtail lots of operations, but our dear friends and traveling bridge companions are each battling a return of their respective cancers.

If everyone is in the same boat, some good stuff might go cheap at the sale though . . . .   

And little Snowflake needs a companion since she can’t be bred for many months . . . .  

Maybe a nice spring ewe lamb will go cheap . . . .   

I do need some more chute gates and panels and the pick up point for the lamb and panels is the same . . . .    Road trip! 

DH1 has found the ACBL bridge at home website so we have been playing on line. He has also been filling the raised planters with dirt and composted horse manure. He was going to do this last month, so I could plant roses. Now it I too late to order the bare root roses so we will try to get some tomatoes and squash planted I think I will also order some nitrogen fixing inoculant from Burpee so I can plant Italian pole beans. It is too bad that my tomatoes did not do well last year since now would have been a great time to get them out of the freezer and can them. Maybe I will have DS1 pick up 15 lbs. of Granny Smith apples and make applesauce. Or not . . . .

Somehow I pulled a muscle in my back under the shoulder blade doing NOTHING!   It hurt to breathe, cough, or sneeze since it expanded my rib cage and pulled the muscle. Several days on ibruprofen and a heating pad and I thought it was fine BUT I reinjured it doing NOTHING again!  So I haven't been able to hang the cabinet in the bathroom, or do anything since I couldn't move or even breathe deeply.   

So much rambling on about nothing – this Covid virus has a lot to answer for!


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## SA Farm

@Ridgetop, you are an excellent story teller! You totally got me hooked on your adventures (and misadventures 😉😆). It’s been a pleasure to read, though I’m sorry for the recent losses and troubles you’ve been dealing with 😕


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## Ridgetop

Thank you.  My attitude is you have to approach everything as an exciting and humorous adventure.   We certainly seem to have more than our share of those!  I should post the adventure of our honeymoon some day.  Crazy taste of everything to come over our 49 years together!  LOL!


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## Ridgetop

DS1 going to Lowes for a metal trash can to store feed.  I need to give him a list of vegetables to look for.


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## thistlebloom

So sorry for the recent troubles and depressing events you have been going through. I think even without those types of events life feels pretty unsettling right now for all of us. 

Pulled muscles are frustrating. They take so long to heal and reinjure so readily.  

I looked at that Gallagher Smart fence you posted about on another thread. Looks like a pretty slick way to make temporary paddocks. I have no advice for you, but I do use a Gallagher charger as a deer repellent fence at a job and it's been very trouble free and dependable, if that helps at all.


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## Ridgetop

What size charger do you use?


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## Baymule

So sorry for all your woes, particularly your FDIL’s grandfather. I have been deeply saddened for not just him, but all who have died from Covid without the comfort of family with them. How terrible for all. 

Holding one of our granddaughters, watching morning cartoons. Nothing like Tweety Bird to go with coffee!


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## thistlebloom

Ridgetop said:


> What size charger do you use?



I'll have to get back to you on that. I'll be at that job again on Monday. I don't remember off the top of my head. I know it's not a super powerful one, it uses 6 D cell batteries and they last about 3 or 4 months. But my husband can attest to the kick, he was helping me set it up last fall and didn't know I had turned it on. I didn't know he was still messing around with it... hahaha. 
 I have also found some pretty deep deer tracks where they have started climbing through and got bit. Changed their minds really fast looks like .

I enclose an area about 125'x50', but it's rated for more than that.


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## Ridgetop

I have an old solar charger that has a broken wire.  I have 3 electricians in my family but do you think they would repair it for me?       Time to find my old book "Electricity for Dummies".

The Gallagher guy said for sheep I would need the expensive S100.  Since DS1 "hates electric fencing" and DH is not in favor, I am not sure if we should even bother.  Over the past 2 weeks we have discussed this in typical Ridgetop fashion.

MONDAY, 2 weeks ago, rain has been pouring steadily for 3 weeks.
DH: “We have to weed whack soon. It needs to be done by May 1.”
ME: “That is why we have the sheep.”
DH: “They are not eating in the right area.”
ME: “We should fence off that 200’ x 200’ section of steep area that needs to be cleared. Then we could confine the sheep in it until it was eaten down.”
DH: “I’ll think about it. But it needs to be cleared.”
ME: “You need to check to see if they moved the deadline due to the rain and/or virus?”
DH; “They won’t do that.”
ME: “If we put up a fence we wouldn’t have to do any weed whacking at all and we would have another enclosure for the sheep.”
DH: “That’s a lot of work.”
ME: “We can hire day laborers to put in the posts.”
DS1: “We are in quarantine.”
ME: “Afterwards then.”
DH: “I’ll think about it but we’ll have to cut the field.”

WEDNESDAY, 2 weeks ago, still raining.
DH: “We have to weed whack soon. It needs to be done by May 1.”
ME: “It’s still raining and you can’t cut during the rain. Did you check with the fire regulations to see if they will extend the deadline?”
DH: “They won’t do that.”
ME: “They might – no one can cut in this downpour and it has been raining like this for weeks.”

THURSDAY, 2 weeks ago, still raining.
DH: “We have to weed whack soon. It needs to be done by May 1.”
Me: “It’s still raining and you can’t cut during the rain. Did you check with the fire regulations to see if they will extend the deadline?”
DH: “They won’t do that.”
DS1: “I checked on line, the deadline was moved back a month TO June 1.”
ME: “Good, that gives us some time to put up a fence.
DH: SILENCE
DS1: SILENCE
ME: “We can get day laborers to dig the fence post holes and put in the posts.”
DH: “It’s raining.”
ME: ”Then you can’t weed whack.”
DH: “Stupid sheep!” Yelling out the window: “Eat over there you idiots!”

SATURDAY, 2 weeks ago, intermittently raining.
DH: “We have to weed whack soon. It needs to be done by May 1.”
ME: “No, the deadline was extended. DS1 called, remember.”
DS1: “I checked on line, the deadline was moved back a month to June 1. The deadline for Antelope Valley is              April 1. Since ours is a month after them, ours might move to July 1.”
DH: “We still need to cut. I’ll go do it. Those sheep are not eating on this side of the field at all.”
DS1: “You can’t do it Dad, you’ll fall down the hill. I’ll do it.”
ME: “If we fenced the area that needs to be cut no one would have to do it.”
DS1: If we fence it the dogs will have a harder time to get around the property to protect the sheep.”
ME: “That’s why they have legs.”
DH: “Eventually the sheep will eat everything.”
ME: “But not in time for the deadline. We need to fence that 200’ x 200’ so you don’t have to cut.”
DH: “I’ll think about it.”
ME: “Think faster.”
DH: SILENCE
DS1: SILENCE

SUNDAY, 1 week ago, raining stopped but heavily clouded, another storm predicted.
DH: “We still need to cut. I’ll go do it. Those sheep are not eating on this side of the field at all. What’s wrong with        them?!"
DS1: “You can’t do it, Dad, you’ll fall down the hill. I’ll do it.”
ME: “I was thinking about temporary electric netting fence to keep the sheep where we want them.”
DH: “How much would it cost?”
DS1: “No! I hate electric fencing.”
ME:  "Why?"
DS1: "Because I just do."
ME: “It would be temporary, and we could take it down after they ate everything.”
DH: “We had that stuff before and it didn’t work.”
DS1: “I hate electric fencing.”
ME: “That was 30 years ago and it has improved. Besides I don’t think we installed it right.”
DH: “Our ground is too hard for the step in posts.”
ME: “They have a new kind of netting that has drive in posts.”
DS1: “I hate electric fencing.”
DH: “The charger battery used to go dead and the horses got out.”
ME: ‘That was the battery charger without the solar panel. We need the solar charger.”
DH: “How much?”
DS1: “I hate electric fencing.”
ME: “I’ll check on it.”
DS1: “AARGH!”
DH: “I’ll have to cut soon.”
DS1” “No, Dad, I will. You’ll fall down the hill.”

TUESDAY, one week ago, intermittent rain.
ME: “I found several types of electric netting that looks promising. However, our ground gets so dry that the info  
      says we may have to get a type called Pos-Neg because the ground rods won’t work in very dry soil.”
DH: “That’s right.” (He was a lineman.)
ME: “But I can’t get the Pos-Neg in the type that would work better for us with the drive in posts.”
DH: “How much?”
ME: “That depends on which fencing we get and on whether I have to buy another solar charger. We have the old plug in charger in the shed, but no power source where we want the fence. We also have the solar charger we used for DS3’s heifers but the last heifer broke one of the wires. We need to repair it.”
DH: “I thought it was trashed.”
ME: “No, it’s on shelf in the shed. I can get it out and we can look at it and fix it.”
DH: “I can’t fix it. And the solar panels go bad after a while.”
ME: “You worked on 35,000 volts for 30 years and you can’t replace a wire on a little solar charger?”
DS1: “Fix what?”
ME: “The old solar charger. It has a broken wire. _You_ can fix it probably. You and DS2 installed our solar lighting in the shed.”
DS1: “Why?”
ME: “For the temporary electric fencing.”
DS1: “I hate electric fencing. We’re not getting any.”
ME: “I’ll fix it myself! I can probably look up how on line.”
DS1: “WE’RE STILL NOT PUTTING UP ANY ELECTRIC FENCING!”
DH: “I’ll have to cut the hill soon.”
DS1” “No, I will. You’ll fall down the hill.”

WEDNESDAY, last week, another downpour
ME: “There is a problem with the electric netting. You have to weed whack the fence line where you want to install
      it since the grass and brush will make it ground out.”
DH: “That is not a problem, but I’m afraid that lightweight stuff will blow down.”
ME: We can use drive in posts at the corners and guy it to them.”
DS1: “We’re still not putting up any electric fencing! I hate it.”
DH: “I suppose we could go along the electric netting and put in metal posts to support the fence. We can tie the fence to the posts.”
DS1: *“WE’RE NOT PUTTING UP ANY ELECTRIC FENCING!”*
ME: “You can’t use metal posts and tie the electric fence to them. It will ground out.”
DH: “Oh, yeah. Well, we can put in wooden posts then.”
ME: “if we put in wood posts we might as well put up woven wire instead of electric netting – it will be cheaper
      than buying electric netting!”
DS1: “But then you have a permanent pen.”
ME: That’s good because we will have an additional breeding pen for the sheep. If not for breeding we can use it 
     to separate young ewe lambs.”
DH: “Why can’t they stay with the flock?”
ME: “Because we don’t want young ewe lambs to be with the breeding ram and ewes when they are too young.”
DH: “Oh yeah.”
ME: “What about putting up woven wire on the old metal posts where we pulled down the old chain link fence? That would give us a small pen with a 12’ x 12’ shelter already in it. The sheep don’t use it when they’re in the big field.”
DS1: “Some of those posts are bent and not usable.”
ME: “We could replace those posts with wood ones. We’ve got lots of old cross arms.”
DH: “It would still be a permanent pen.”
ME: “That’s what I want.”
DH: SILENCE
DS1: SILENCE

TUESDAY, last week, supposed to be sunny but starts raining unexpectedly
ME: “DH, look at this other type of temporary electric fence! It is 4 reels of wire attached to a holder on wheels, and the posts are also mounted in the reel holder. You just roll it out and unhook the post, then stick them in the ground. This fence doesn’t need to do any ground clearance before putting it out because the bottom wire has 6-7” clearance. It would go down our hills because it is just the 4 parallel wires and it all reels up with a crank and stores on the reel holder when you want to take down the fence. It even comes with guy strings for the corner posts. And it is a lot cheaper than the netting!”
DH: “How much?”
ME: “It depends on whether we buy a new charger.”
 DS1: “NO ELECTRIC FENCING!”



Luckily it has been raining pretty steadily for over a month now while we are in quarantine so we have not lost any actual work time on the fence.  Or no fence. . . . .   


DS1 and DS2 brought the squeeze over this am and set it up in the pen at the end of the chute.  I will post pix later.  Tonight we weigh all the sheep except the rams.  Once that is done 7041 who has been getting penicillin for 5 days ((with all the rain she developed some raspy breathing and I suspected pneumonia developing)s being treated for dog bites courtesy of Angel will go back to the field.  More on that later.


----------



## Bruce

Dare I ask why DS1 has such sway in your fence decision?


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## thistlebloom

Ridgetop said:


> DH: “Stupid sheep!” Yelling out the window: “Eat over there you idiots!”




😂🤣


----------



## Baymule

Oh Mary! I read this out loud to BJ  until we both had tears rolling down our cheeks. I could barely get the words out, I was laughing so hard!


----------



## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Dare I ask why DS1 has such sway in your fence decision?



Because DS1 does all the fence installation and building for us.       He won't let us do it ourselves because he doesn't want us to fall down the gullies.     DH and I are not quite sure electric portable fencing would work on our steep ridge and gully though either.  It's a big investment for something that might not work and can't be returned.  On the other hand, if the field were nice and flat, with lovely soil and grass like in the installation videos, I would have already ordered and installed the fencing myself.  

DS1 stacks the hay, totes the feed sacks, flips the sheep for me.  Once I was perfectly able to do it by myself but 30 years takes a toll on a person.  DH and I have worn out our bodies building and renovating and small scale livestock raising on this steep ridgetop.  Everything we use must be carried up and down.  Since we rely on DS1 to help us, he has a say in certain things.  If we hire laborers, then we just go ahead and take care of it.  If it is on the steep part of the hills though DS1 still does the supervising.   If I really insisted both DH and DS1 would let me do it.  But if it fails  . . . . is it any wonder that nice flat Texas looks awfully good to us? In addition to Bay and BJ being there of course! 

However, I might just sneak down the hill and check out those metal fence posts and see how many of them are actually in unuseable condition.  If we can use most of them then it would be worthwhile to hire laborers to replace the ruined posts and we could put up new woven wire to make a small pen.  We don't have to go all the way to the bottom of the original pen.  I can certainly still wire fencing to a post!  LOL


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## Ridgetop

So wonderful news on my ewes that I was preparing to flush! There is no need for that since they have all gained their weights back. From an average weight of 153.2 lbs. at 1-2 months into their lactations, they have rebounded after weaning to an average weight of 187 lbs. which is well within range for their ages. Their body condition scores are in the 3. To 35 range as well. Yay! Instead of having to wit to flush the ewe for 2 weeks, soon as I trim feet and worm, the lucky gentlemen will get a pedicure, wormed, and harnessed for a date with the ladies. Several of them were in season today. I wish I could have had them out with the ram before this but the weather conspired against me. My oldest ewes just turned 3 and both lambed twice in 10 months.

Anyway, it was so easy using the walk-in scale today. First DS1 opened the gate to the field and the ewes immediately ran down inti the barn. Shutting the barn gate, they proceeded to send a couple sheep at a time into the smaller pen with the scale. DS2 had the weekend off so he came down and helped us weigh. I was shoved into a corner with my clipboard as DS1 and DS2 ran the adult ewes and lambs through the scale. They used the scale gates to guide the sheep into going through the scale. So smooth. Once the field sheep were all weighed, we turned them out of the barn where they all milled around on the driveway while we weighed the lambs that had recovered from Angel. Then those lambs joined their moms on the driveway. Next DS1 went down the back hill and drove the ewes with smaller lambs into the barn. Ds2 went down to help him since the ewes were a bit spooked by the commotion in the barn. Next time, we will do them first, then let in the ones from the field. Again, they weighed them all. We decided to send the young ewe with her 3 month old lamb onto the large field too. Her lamb weighed 85 lbs. today! However, I just realized that I should have given him his 2nd CDT before turning him out. It is due next week so when we sort all the sheep through the sorting gate tomorrow, I will vaccinate him then. I don’t want to try to catch him on the field or in the big pen just for that.



Tomorrow I will try out my squeeze for the first time! DS1 said he doesn’t think I will be able to rotate it with 204 lb. #7088 in it though. We’ll see. There is room for me to sit in a chair as I trim hooves though. Luxury!

I’m going to get the breeding harness ready tonight and check for cold weather crayons. She Who is Nameless apparently got hold of one of the Matingmark harnesses and chewed up one strap. Luckily, I was able to repair by stitching a patch of webbing onto it. It should work just fine. I need another pen badly right now since I want to use 2 different rams this year. I need to figure out how I can divide up the flock. I might take a chance on putting one of the rams in with the moms with 2 month old lambs since they won’t be fertile yet. I can put one of the rams in the small field pen, by himself, but the Field of Celibacy which would normally be good pasture has been eaten to nothing by the boys and needs time to come back. Will give it some thought while trimming hooves tomorrow. I need to check my wormer and make sure I have enough to drench 5 ewes.


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## Baymule

That is a nice scale! I like it!


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## thistlebloom

Pretty slick setup. Don't you love having the right equipment to make a job go smoothly?


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## Ridgetop

Today we trimmed hooves using the squeeze!        The squeeze worked great. However, a design flaw in the chute system made itself known. DS1 used the corral sides of the two field pens as 30’ sides of the chute. This was a great idea since otherwise we would have to buy twelve 5’ chute sections – expensive. Also, since the chute leads through the sorting box it makes it easy to sort the sheep into either of the two pens on either side. I happily told DS1 that I could probably do all this by myself.

As I positioned myself next to the squeeze and prepared to open the drop gate for the first ewe it suddenly became apparent that I might have a problem. The operating handle to the bifold gate leading to the chute is not reachable from the squeeze pen. I would have to exit the squeeze pen – walk around the outside of the dog kennel and the sheep pen, enter the sheep pen from the gate next to the chute, walk over to the squeeze chute, and open the gate. Then I would have to push a sheep into that compartment, opening and closing the gate behind it. I would then have to retrace the path all the way around the large field pen, dog kennel, through the squeeze pen to the squeeze. Once there I would have to push/pull the sheep up the ramp into the squeeze and lock her in. Now in theory I should be able to open the bifold gate and let another sheep into the waiting area. However, I couldn’t reach the bifold gate handle!          The layout of the pens is below.



 I tried to make this bigger but I only uploaded in this size. I guess you will have to use a magnifiying glass to decipher it. However, take it from me, it is a long way round.

Too much time would have been wasted in running back and forth between the pens. Before anyone wonders why I couldn’t simply climb through the corral pipe panels – it is because these are 7 bar panels designed for a rodeo roping arena. The horizontal bars are much closer together than normal corral panels. The solution to the problem - DH will buy another of the 10’ welded wire pipe panels with walk through gates. This is the same gate panel we installed in the barn doorway to close the barn off when needed. We will remove one of the 10’ corral panels in the chute pen and replace it with one of these gates. Now the squeeze operator will be able to step straight from the chute pen into the sheep pen to open and close the gates. Problem solved once the gate is purchased and installed.

DH was preparing to pull out some weeds that the sheep apparently do not eat. These weeds also produce tiny burrs that when dry attach to everything from dogs, to sheep, to human clothing. They are nasty things that must be detached from socks and shoes by hand. He kindly left his weed eradication to assist with the squeeze. Trying to tip over and return to upright a 200 lb. ewe isn’t easy. My sweet DH said he would do this for me. My Hero!   After a few slight problems – almost catching a ewe’s neck in the gate portion, which would have strangled her, we got into the rhythm. We did have to remind each other to replace the floor of the squeeze before pulling the sheep upright, but no sheep _completely_ fell out of the squeeze so we feel it was a success. As each sheep was released from the squeeze it stayed happily in the squeeze pen eating the weeds at the fence.
  This ewe is not dead, just making a play for sympathy! 

For some reason the rest of my pix refuse to load so I will post this now and try to post the rest later.


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## Baymule

You got a new toy! and what a nice new toy! Love the ewe trying to elicit sympathy, did it work?


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## Ridgetop

Another design flaw was discovered in the squeeze or perhaps should be more correctly attributed to operator error. Instead of laying quietly after being pushed up a ramp, squished, and flipped over, apparently sheep on their sides are not happy and struggle. I had done over half the sheep and was working on the extra long hooves of a large ewe. As a couple of the sheep in the squeeze pen blundered past, upsetting my chair which held the wormer and drench gun, I straightened up momentarily distracted. With a supreme effort the large ewe kicked out with both rear legs catching me dead center on the hip and sending me flying over 4’!
 Me on the ground. Taking a nap between sheep? No!    Had to lay there for a moment to assess my condition.  Family too busy laughing at funniest home video material to come to my aid.  DH did ask if I was ok.   I decided that all body parts were intact and he helped me up.  We finished the sheep.  Bruises tonight!  LOL  There had been a broken sapling sticking out of the spot where my feet ended up.  DS1 removed it when he set up the squeeze.  Otherwise I might have been eviscerated on the sharp, broken branch sticking out of it when I was sent flying!  I didn't fall on the sharp hoof shears either so I got off easy.
 Two of the ewes had feet like this.  The others were all pretty good and didn't need much cutting. Picture on right is trimmed hooves. I didn't lose my knack. I would say it was just like riding a bicycle, but I was thrown off one of those too!  

We trimmed hooves on 10 sheep and drenched them all. It took a minimal amount of time. We had gotten into a routine DS1 was scrubbing water barrels and would move 3 sheep into the gated sections of the chute. One in the squeeze, one on the ramp, and one in the small holding area in front of the drop gate. All the other sheep were in the chute. After we had moved all 3 through, DS1 would have another 3 ready to go. I was not able to sit down to trim, but I was able to stand without bending upside down to trim. Some expert sheepmen can trim hooves by flipping a sheep onto its butt and then trimming its hooves. Even in my prime I would not have wanted to try that. I need both hands to hold the hoof and use the trimmer. Kudos to them but I love my squeeze and tilt table!   

After finishing the hooves, we let the sheep out on the hill and they immediately began grazing. I love seeing white sheep on bright green pastures. Unfortunately they were grazing on the far side of the property instead of the 200 feet next to the barn and house where we need them to eat.  
   DH tried to get them to move closer.  

*This quarantine needs to stop soon!!!* Instead of liquor stores being considered necessary, what about hair and nail salons! Those services are more important than liquor and lottery tickets which can be bought at the grocery store anyway. I have very few vices, I don’t drink, smoke, or go out much BUT I really need to get my hair cut and my nails done. I have acrylics on my nails and after a month they were turning into talons! Think of the foot long nails of the old emperors of China! I finally decided that I had to cut the ends off and file them down. Acrylics are very hard though, which keeps them from breaking off with everything I do, so I got out my Dremel tool. *Drastic times call for drastic measures. *I managed to shorten them, but a lot of the acrylic cracked off and now I have a bunch of lumpy nails! At least with this quarantine no one can see them. They were getting so long that they were in the way, made clicking noises when I put my fingers together, were uncomfortable, and I couldn’t pick anything up! And I was making a lot of typing mistakes! LOL I may have a go at my hair next. DH’s hair is getting so long that I may have to use our Granddaughter’s hair bands to keep it out of his eyes! So far, he has resisted all my offers to cut it for him. I don’t know why he is worried about that. I used to cut our boys’ hair until they were in college. I don’t think I still have the hair clippers but the goat clippers will do just fine. Drastic times . . . .


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## Mike CHS

We had all of those same issues when we used our tilt table that we wound up selling.  I ;ike our chairs and the sheep like it also.


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## thistlebloom

I'm glad you weren't hurt when that ewe kicked you!


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## Baymule

Got your temporary electric fence up yet?   You know, for that 200' that the sheep need to graze on.....

Who knew sheep could kick like a mule? Itty-bitty cutsie sheep that pack a whallop like a car collision! glad that you weren't hurt, but if I had been there, I would have been laughing too.


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## Bruce

Sounds like Angel isn't living up to her name  Hopefully she will grow out of this stage. 
Seeing that picture of the sheep down the hill - have you ever mentioned that you live on a STEEP hillside?  I think I'd need a safety rope to even think of going down there.

Regarding your nails (as opposed to those of the sheep) - I have ZERO knowledge in this area: how does one get acrylic nails off every "x" weeks to get new ones put on? And could you do that?


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> Sounds like Angel isn't living up to her name  Hopefully she will grow out of this stage.
> Seeing that picture of the sheep down the hill - have you ever mentioned that you live on a STEEP hillside?  I think I'd need a safety rope to even think of going down there.
> 
> Regarding your nails (as opposed to those of the sheep) - I have ZERO knowledge in this area: how does one get acrylic nails off every "x" weeks to get new ones put on? And could you do that?


I don't wear them, have no experience, but I believe that they are filled in as they grow out. My nails are short, blunt and mostly broken off. I keep a diamond nail file handy to file them smooth, but that's about all they get. They are currently clean at the moment. But I'm fixin' to go outside......


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## Bruce

So they are "patched" like drywall back to the cuticle then sanded and painted?


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> So they are "patched" like drywall back to the cuticle then sanded and painted?


Absolutely right.  They are extremely hard and I try to get them "filled" every 2-3 weeks.  Since they don't wear down or break off, my nail lady cuts and grinds them to a manageable length.  I have them shortened more before lambing in case I have to pull lambs.  I used to bite my nails and cuticles terribly and now I don't.  I never had nice nails when I was younger, they would break sometimes below the quick so now I have the acrylics put on and they are stronger. They are a luxury for me, but because I play bridge so often everyone sees my hands and nails so I enjoy having pretty hands.  As I have gotten older, heavier, and wrinklier, at least my nails look good!  Besides my nail lady and her business partner whose station is next to her are a *hoot*! We have a lot of fun being politically incorrect and I miss them.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> Who knew sheep could kick like a mule? Itty-bitty cutsie sheep that pack a whallop like a car collision! glad that you weren't hurt, but if I had been there, I would have been laughing too.


I would expect no less from my good friend!  In fact I was laughing too!     I actually had to tell DH how to turn on my camera to take the picture!  I told him I had to post it as a warning about the tilt tabIe! 

I used to take photos of every aspect of livestock the kids did in 4-H for their record books.  Now when I make everyone pause during some chore for a photo, they ask if it is for MY record book!  LOL

I do have bruising on my knee, and hip, but feel surprisingly fit.  I expected to be a wreck.  Maybe I am not as old as I was thinking.  In fact, I think I will go check out those metal fence posts down the hill today!  We have some woven wire left to start the fencing project.  I have given up on the electric fencing for now.  I do need an additional permanent pen.  DH actually said the other day that we would get some laborers up after the quarantine and put in some more fencing.  If we can use the pipe posts though, that would give me an additional pen with a shelter in it.  The shelter is currently where the rabbit cages are stacked though so I will have to remove them as well.



Mike CHS said:


> We had all of those same issues when we used our tilt table that we wound up selling. I ;ike our chairs and the sheep like it also.



What "chairs"?  Even with the gate problems which we have now solved (once the new gate is installed) we liked using it.  It beats catching each sheep and manhandling it onto a stanchion where I have to bend upside down trimming feet.  They don't struggle any less and can get more kicking leverage when standing,  My back can't take the ending over anymore.   They were also easier to drench while in the squeeze instead of having DS1 catch ad restrain each one.  Once all the sheep were in the chute they stood quiet which is not what happens when we have to catch each one separately even in a small catch pen.  Our dairy goats loved the stanchion because they would get grain or rabbit pellet and stood still for trimming, but even our tame 4-H sheep were hard to do.

Told the men last night over dinner that we would get the rams up today for trimming and to put Lewis in with the ewes.  They are starting to cycle and I want fall lambs.  I may hold back the 2 smaller October lambs for summer breeding.  They are 95 lbs. at 6 months, no creep.  Or not.

Little Snowflake is small, only the size of the lambs born 2 weeks later.  Her poor mama was probably not milking much at the end and Snowflake is only 7 weeks old now.  We let the ewes wean their lambs naturally so they are not stressed from pulling them off their mamas.  She is gaining at half the rate of the young lambs with their mamas.  She is extremely healthy and vigorous though.  I did order some special lamb ration for lambs under 50 lbs.  Currently we are cutting it with the barleycorn to avoid any tummy upsets but in a couple days I will start giving her that instead of the barley corn to help her catch up.  After moving all the other sheep back to the field flock that were convalescing in the jugs, poor Snowflake is lonely and has been crying.  Last night she was hoarse, this am no sound. It's possible that she is just voiceless now,  That happened to a buck one year when all the doe went to a weekend show  When we came back he was still calling in his pen but no sounds were coming from his mouth!   He had screamed himself voiceless!   LOL


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I used to bite my nails and cuticles terribly and now I don't.


Good thing given your description of the hardness of the acrylics, you would be toothless!



Ridgetop said:


> I do have bruising on my knee, and hip, but feel surprisingly fit. I expected to be a wreck. Maybe I am not as old as I was thinking.


Maybe since you weren't up against anything solid the 4' flight backward lessened the severity of the kick?


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Maybe since you weren't up against anything solid the 4' flight backward lessened the severity of the kick?



Probably since the bruised knee is what hit the ground first.

It is starting  to rain again!  Our entire property is green with nice juicy mustard, dandelion and itchy weed.  Our itch weed here is a smaller and less painful cousin to the large nettles in other places.  It does cause a rash but smaller and it goes away with vinegar or soap and water.  The sheep don't like grazing on the itchy weed, but after it is dry it seems to become more palatable to them.  If only our pasture was divided into several pastures, I could rotate the sheep and they could graze everything through out the year.   

I just went down the hill - took my crook to help me - and counted at least 60' of good posts before the first bent one.  That would give me a 30' x 60' pen for smallWe can straighten or replace it and continue down the hill another 8' but if the next post also is bent or needs replacing we may decide to just cut straight across the slope at a 45 degree angle and attach into the existing pasture fence on the other side.  The fence posts originally continued down the hill 100' making a narrow triangle of pasture at the bottom.  It was so steep down there that the fence eroded out at that point.  I think I favor cutting across the slope where it becomes almost perpendicular to end the pen instead of continuing to the unusable tip of the triangle.  When we have to go down and bring any sheep up from that pen, we no longer have small children who thought it was fun to run up and down steep slopes chasing sheep.  Oh for the joys and energy of childhood!  And their youthful bodies!

DH first said he wanted to finish the retaining wall near the tool shed to make another pen.    I hope I persuaded him it only needed to be a couple blocks high to stop the erosion near the tool shed leaving it low enough for the dogs and sheep to jump over it.  He built a retaining wall there 25 years ago halfway across.  It is 6' or 7' high from the bottom side of it and the top is filled in to make it slightly level with the upper barn.  It was not carried any farther across the bottom of the area for some reason.  If he does that the upper "pen" will only be about 15' x 20' - not nearly large enough.  When we used it as a livestock pen, it was for dairy goat kids that were being bottle fed, not lambs with nursing ewes.  The tool shed was not there, instead we had an  8' x 12' moveable construction shed we had gotten from some friends with a construction company.  They were replacing their old sheds with modulars and we were thrilled to get 3 of these, delivered, for $50 each.  They were used for chicken coops, calf sheds, kid sheds, and the last one is still in use (with repairs) as our hay shed.  We were able to move them around by placing poles under them and rolling them.  The kid yard then was about three times as large.  DH loves retaining walls, I love going to the dump for instant removal of junk.  We each consider the other to have peculiar obsessions. To each his own.

We need to move to a flat property!  Fencing would be so easy then!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Our itch weed here is a smaller and less painful cousin to the large nettles in other places.


Lucky you! We have the larger Stinging Nettle. The first time I touched it was accidental, didn't even know what it was. Brushed a finger over it while walking. Took nearly 24 hours before it felt normal again. I'll have to remember the vinegar fix. Theoretically the antidote to a plant grows nearby and burdock is the presumed antidote to stinging nettle. Crush a leaf and rub the juice on the area the nettle hit. I've done it but of course there is no way to know if the stinging would be worse if I hadn't. But burdock is its own PITA, those burrs attach to almost everything fabric or animal fiber. The alpacas found a lot that I didn't know about. I suspect it will be a lifelong task to pull them out before they can set seed. 



Ridgetop said:


> We need to move to a flat property! Fencing would be so easy then!


Unless you have ledge and rocks like I do! Make sure you find a place that doesn't have beach sand for "soil" like @Baymule and @B&B Happy goats and doesn't have rocks and ledge like @Mike CHS and me.


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## SA Farm

We had the stinging nettles when I was a kid and we got stung a lot. Best remedy we ever found was smearing clay mud on it. Cooled it immediately to help the itch and when the clay dried it would pull the nettles out.


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## Baymule

We have Texas Bull Nettle. Evil stuff. There are less of them on our property than when we moved here. But we still have some. I hate them.


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## Ridgetop

Yesterday we brought out the rams for trimming. DS1 and DS2 set up our movable 5’ metal panels to make a chute from the ram pen to the permanent chute. It worked well and they were able to drive them into the funnel as they moved toward the screaming ewe pen. It was surprisingly easy to run them through the chute into the load up for the squeeze! 
The first boy in the tilt table was Axtell. He lay quietly as I tried to cut his hooves with my new heavy duty trimmer. No luck! I couldn’t cut through the hoof. DS2 was operating the tilt table so he took the clipper and started on the back hooves. Even he was having a heavy go of it. Strange, since the ewes hooves were easy and we have had a lot of rain. I took the trimmer I had used yesterday and tried it on the front hooves. Cut like butter. DS2 switched to a lighter weight clipper and no problem. We decided we didn’t like that heavy duty clipper that I bought specifically for the rams’ hooves. We worked tandem, me on the front and him on the back. Then he rasped them smooth. After we trimmed Axtell’s hooves, DS2 swung him upright for his CDT. Yes, we shut the bottom! Out of the squeeze and into a halter and easily led back to the Field of Celibacy. He is not being used on ewes this time. 

The next boy into the squeeze was Lewis. He acted the same. quietly laying as DS2 and I cut hooves in tandem, swung him upright and gave him his CDT. Then since Lewis is the one being used on the ewes now (Yes, I finally made up my mind which ram to use) DS1 decided to put him into his harness while he was in the squeeze stating they would then flip him again and snap I the crayon.  I thought that since Lewis is fairly docile we could have done this more easily by putting on his halter and then doing it out of the squeeze, but boys will be boys. As DS1 and DS2 released the squeeze to allow them room to bring the straps up between the ram and the bars, poor Lewis kept losing his footing. He is a big boy, and the squeeze is narrow. DS1 triumphantly removed the spring loaded bars from the side and handed them to me to hold. Then he and DS2 tried to dress Lewis in his “courtin’ clothes”.

As poor Lewis scrambled to keep his footing, DS1 made a strategic error. Struggling in the confines of the squeeze to reach the far strap DS1 reached under Lewis just as the ram lost his footing and went down trapping DS1's arm under him. Yelling in pain DS1 attempted to lift the 230 lb. ram off his arm with his other hand.     Between us DS2 and I managed to lift Lewis enough so DS1 could drag his arm from underneath the struggling ram. As DS1 cursed and massaged his injured arm, screams of pain suddenly emanated from DS2.  In his attempt to keep his balance poor Lewis had fallen against the other side of the squeeze this time crushing DS2’s arm. DS1 and I pulled Lewis upright to free DS2. More cursing and waving of arms followed.    I suggested that they halter and remove Lewis from the squeeze to finish putting on his harness and crayon. However, the light of battle was in their eyes and they ignored me. This time they were able to snap on the harness without any further injuries. As DS2 tightened the squeeze again and tilted Lewis over DS1 triumphantly snapped in the crayon. Success! The squeeze was opened, and Lewis hesitantly came out to freedom. We did not halter him, instead he was turned out onto the Field of Love. He ambled over to the corral where the ladies were standing watching the proceedings to tell them of his brave sufferings.

The next ram was Moy, our gentle boy who likes to come up for petting.   We have had him since he was a 3 months old ram lamb. My grandson tamed him as a lamb by sitting in his stall and petting him for hours. He is a very sweet, docile boy. Moy was persuaded into the squeeze and as the jaws closed on him suddenly went berserk!  As he was tilted over the entire contraption shook from the power of his struggles! He tried to throw himself from side to side, only succeeding in hitting his head on the bars.    Kicking wildly, he refused to calm down. DS2 finally grabbed a hoof and started trimming. He had to pause frequently when the kicks and struggles got too strong even for him. DS1 was at Moy’s head trying to calm him and hold him still. Moy, like a child in a tantrum, continued to beat his head on the bars and kick. I grabbed my clipper and started trimming too. This needed to be done fast. Luckily his feet were in excellent condition and only needed a little trimming. We quickly stood him upright and I gave him his CDT. DS1 put on the halter and Moy leaped out of the squeeze. As Moy wobbled off to his pen, DS1 and DS2 joked that he probably had a concussion. Noting that Moy’s head was bleeding slightly, DS1 decided that next time he goes to Lowes he will pick up some foam pipe insulation tubes to fit around the bars to prevent injuries in future.

With the 2 rams not needed for breeding now back their pen, I went around to let the ewes out to see their gentleman caller.     No ram standing lovesick by his ladies’ door!  Instead Lewis was back at the old pen gabbing with his buddies!!!   No doubt bragging about the delights in store for him.

I told DS1, DS2, and DH that I should have put him in with the ewes for the rest of the day before letting him out on the field tomorrow. However, we figured when the girls all go into their pen tonight for their grain feed, Lewis will go with them.  Nope, DS1 had to chase him in.

I liked Lewis’ lamb so well that I decided to use him this year on these ewes. He is 4 years old so might as well use him and use the younger rams later. I also want to let their ewe lambs grow out a bit to see how they develop, and which sire’s get I like better. At this point Moy’s lambs seem to grow faster, but 3 of his lambs are out of second season lambing ewes which makes a big difference. Next year’s lamb crop will be the big tell.

DH went down, looked at the posts, and said he thinks he will be able to use most of the metal posts for another fence, but needs to cut back a couple of trees that have come up next to them. After moving the rams around DS1 came in and said that he will need to get another roll of woven wire to put up the lower fence so they have both apparently decided independently to put up the fence on the old posts. Yay! I need another pen.

So this morning we were awakened early by the phone.  I got to it in time to hear DS1 tell his brother that he would come get him.  Turned out that DS2, who has been working 24 hour shifts, had fallen asleep and crashed his little Focus into one of the ginormous pepper trees lining the narrow road!     DS1 and I went down to the road below our private road and saw his car completely totaled, gas leaking from it, and the fire department there.  Even the driver's side rear window was broken.  Luckily there are a lot of speed bumps, and tree roots on that narrow road so no one goes fast.   DS2 was standing outside the car with the firemen checking him over.  DS1 and I unloaded all the tools etc. from his car.  The fire department said he was not badly injured and an ambulance would take longer than driving him there ourselves.  DS2 was clutching his lower chest and stomach, obviously in a lot of pain.  His wrist was also super painful and there were some cuts on his face from the deployment of the air bag.   DS2 first said he was ok and didn't want to go to the hospital but mommy insisted.  DS1 said he would drive DS2 to the hospital.  By now the police had arrived and the FD had left.  While the police officer and Carl completed the accident report, I called up to the house and told DH and FDIL that we needed the insurance cards from DS2's desk so DS1 could take him to the hospital.  The police officer said he would complete his other reports while DH called the insurance to arrange for a tow truck since the car was blocking the road.   DS1 decided he would drive us up to the house, collect FDIL and the insurance card and drive DS2 to the hospital.  By now DS2 was in so much pain that he thought a hospital visit was a good idea.  

DS1 dropped me off and drove them to the hospital.  
DH called for a tow truck and drove down to wait for them.  
I went out to feed.  No ewes were marked yet.

Luckily the wrist was sprained and he was just heavily bruised.  DS2 was told to stay home from work for 2 days.  On the way home DS1 told him since he had a couple days off, he could help put up the new fencing.    
DS2 said   .  

All is well that ends well.   We are just grateful it did not happen on the freeway home, or that he did not hit anything or anyone else.


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## Ridgetop

I guess I was more rattled than I thought about DS2.  Forgot to post the pix from yesterday.  Here they are.  So much fun to be working with my boys again.

  DS2 trimming rear feet with heavy duty shears.  The shears cost a lot, but I wanted a good heavy duty hoof trimmer for the rams.   We have decided it is worthless.  The light weight ones are better.
 Putting on the marking harness.
  The fatal moment as DS1 reaches under Lewis for the strap . . . .
  After the injuries, the final adjustments before Lewis is liberated to seek feminine company.  DS1 on the left, DS2 on the right.  Both experienced sheep handlers.  
  Lewis on the far side of the ewe pen - "Helloooo Ladies!"
 Chilling with the boys "It's a hard job, but somebody's got to do it."


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## thistlebloom

Glad your son wasn't injured seriously. Sorry his car was totaled though.
My Kid#1 fell asleep and drove off the road after working night shift. Fortunately he ran his truck over a small pine tree on our property and it woke him up. I always worried about him doing that on the 2 lane highway.


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## farmerjan

So thankful for you and your son.  I have done it, my son has done it, and it was serious injuries for me in 1989.  Son's were not as bad but he has totaled several vehicles that way.  Can't work all those hours and not expect it to happen sooner or later.  Luckily for us, and for your son, we are all alive to tell of it and basically still able to function.


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## Ridgetop

Absolutely grateful to God for all of us that have survived accidents.  DH has been telling him he needs to get more sleep instead of coming home and playing video games, reading and watching TV.  Here is the car after DS2 woke up!
 And here is the tree! Poor thing!

Like you all said, he was lucky it happened here instead of on the freeway.  He travels 50 miles to work and his hours constantly change.  That night he had worked a 2 24 hour shifts, 4 night shifts, 2 day shifts, several back to back.  He worked Friday night until 7 am., had Saturday and Sunday off, and back to work Monday at 5 am for another 24 hour shift.  Since he is in the apprentice program for another year and a half, the terms of apprenticeship prevent him from refusing shifts or dragging up and going to another company. 

DS2 is the son who was in Afghanistan and stepped on a mine on his birthday.   The detonator went off but the mine didn't or he would have been dead.  I think he was born to hang, as the old saying goes.  God bless him.  He is the one getting married in October.


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## Baymule

My son fell asleep, rolled his truck and broke his neck. He crawled away from the wreckage, covered in blood, then walked 3 miles to a friends house because he couldn't find his cell phone. 

Any wreck that you survive is a good day (or night).


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## farmerjan

My son also rolled his truck, crawled out and all he could think about was he needed to get home.  Walked about 2-3 miles home, and I heard him as he called for me out on the lawn..... night I never want to relive.  Has had several   accidents since and has been very lucky.  Me too, although the one I had, in 1989, from falling asleep, put me in the hosp with a C-2 fracture (broken neck)  fractured skull, other injuries, and hosp for nearly 4 weeks and out of work for 6 months.  So yes, any accident that you have "walked away from", is something to be very thankful for.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> On the way home DS1 told him since he had a couple days off, he could help put up the new fencing.


Loads of sympathy there!  

Your DS2's work shifts are ridiculous and I would consider them cruel and unusual punishment. That should be illegal. Pretty much guarantees someone will fall asleep at inopportune times. I'm glad he was not hurt too badly but he best watch for other injuries that weren't apparent at the ER. And yes, glad he didn't have the accident elsewhere in conditions that might have injured or killed others.


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## thistlebloom

My #2 brother was in a terrible accident when he fell asleep and hit a tree. He was on his way home late, on a narrow dark road, driving a small car to save money on gas because work was scarece and his truck was a gas hog. Two truckers coming down the two lane highway saw flames from his car and dragged him out or he would have died. He was a big guy, and they had to really work to get his legs out of the narrow drivers seat. He was unconscious for 3 or 4 days and broke both ankles, knees, arms, ribs, and collar bone.
Took a year to recover enough to go back to work, but his body was never the same.
We lost him a year ago to a stroke.


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## Ridgetop

So glad that everyone survived although badly hurt.  Surviving is usually preferable.  People walking miles for help after an accident from shock certainly happens.  It could have had bad consequences with that broken neck though.   DS2 is sore, but luckily ok.  Going back to work tomorrow.

He was not driving fast and said he woke up when he hit the tree.

For some reason we are having Santa Ana winds right now.  Weather is very hot.  Not good since it will  dry out the forage and cause a bad fire season.  Sheep are eating steadily, but we will probably have to cut.  I don't think we will get any more rain.  Severe change in weather can cause summer pneumonia so will have to watch sheep.  0439 already marked by Lewis.  She still has her 85 lb. January on her and I didn't expect her to breed just yet.  I have decided to pull the 2 smaller ewe lambs from the Field of Love and wait a couple months to breed them.  They are a little on the light side yet. 

Spending the day working on my sheep records.  Transferring breeding and lambing info, weights, medical, maintenance records onto individual forms.  Lots of repetition in records, but it will make record keeping easier.  Also got a new lamb customer yesterday.  Taking the 3 wethers to the butcher tomorrow.  Have to go sew some stupid masks.


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## thistlebloom

You have my sympathy on the Santa Ana winds. I sure don't miss those. I hope you don't have a bad fire season. Don't miss those either.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> and said he woke up when he hit the tree.


I suggest he get a different style of alarm clock  Amazing he went back to work today. I think a few more days of rest would be good.


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## Ridgetop

DS2 decided he would go back on Monday since no weekend jobs scheduled.  His wrist was sprained so glad he is taking extra time.  Line work is heavy work.  No use messing up his wrist and having to be off work longer.


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## Ridgetop

*SURPRISE!                                                    *

This am DH got up early and on the way through to the bathroom looked out the window into the sheep pen. He called me to the window (dressing area and bathroom windows give a good view of the sheep pen. So does the bedroom window but you have to climb onto the bed to look out.  ).   Anyway, he claimed to see 2 little white spots on the ground inside the shelter which he thought might be lambs. Although I used my binoculars (they live on the bathroom windowsill for spotting lambs born in the night fold) to try to see the spots, no go. The fence was in the way, or I may not have had my eyes open yet since I had been asleep when he called me to have a look.   😞  zzzzzzz.  We both got dressed and went out to the fold where there were indeed 2 newborn lambs. They were small, haven’t weighed them yet, but smaller than the huge lambs my ewes have been producing. Thus, my discussion with Mike CHS about light feeding during the last month of pregnancy.

A flurry of activity ensued with DS1 coming out to assist in removing the ewe and lambs down to the open jug in the barn. Bubba, until now, quietly observing became very protective. Josie the Mule, around whom all 3 dogs give a wide berth, was standing at the corral side curiously watching. Bubba went after her barking and growling and driving her back. JTM was shocked but obediently backed away.

Lewis needed a new crayon so he went in the sorting box. Bubba went in the adjacent pen to avoid tripping over him on the way to the barn. Then DH and I each carrying a lamb proceeded slowly to the barn followed by mama. Unfortunately, DH walked a bit faster and she got confused since there was only my lamb being held in front of her. She ran back to scour the night fold for the forgotten lamb. Reappearing with the other lamb quieted her and she proceeded into the jug where she immediately calmed down with her lambs.       After feeding and watering the ewe, DS1 and I went back to replace Lewis' crayon with another color . He has already marked 4 or 5 of the ewes and one shocked wether. However, 2 of the marking are very faint. I wrote them down with a question mark to indicate uncertainty since he might just be affectionate. We replaced the mild weather crayon with a hot weather crayon since our temps soared into the high 90’s after turning him out last week. When that happens the mild weather crayons don’t last. The blue mild crayon was nearly worn off. We replaced it with a green hot temp crayon. Since 2 of the ewes he marked were the 6 and 7 month old ewe lambs, they might not take the first time.

The 2 delightful little surprise lambs are twin ewes. Naturally I want to keep them to further my breeding flock, especially since their mother GLD7041 is one of my favorite and best ewes. Keeping good records with a marking harness is essential, but we could not remember her being exposed to a ram after her lambing in September.  Now what?  Who was the father?  One of the September born ram lambs?  The would have been 2 months old, technically able.    This was not a good thing.  I could keep them and breed them to a registered ram and register their progeny as half bloods, but I paid good money for registered sheep.  Registering them like that would set me bak 3 years.  Sending 2 ewe lambs our of one of my best ewes for meat was an unpleasant thought.

*Just as essential as a ram marking harness are good written records.* I jot everything down on my calendar and keep my old calendars each year in a file. I have found that thinking you can rely on your memory is a hideous trap into the mire of confusion and despair!      Consequently, I have kept all my livestock notes on calendars for any years. The earliest calendars I have are in the appropriate 4-H boxes belonging to my children along with their record books.

This obsession with keeping written records of livestock doings has proven to be fortuitous. _The 2 new lambs are twin ewes. _Who is the sire? I have 3 rams. Did one escape? We couldn’t remember turning 7041 out with a ram in November. Lewis was the clean up ram we used on everyone 2 months after removing the other rams from their ewes. Lewis’ lambs arrived between February and March. We had pulled him out of the flock and he had been with his buddies on the Field of Celibacy for months. Could these lambs have been sired by one of 7041’s 2 month old ram lambs? 😢  That would be bad.

Going back through my calendars, I found the note where we had castrated the early ram lambs at 6 weeks.    I also found a notation that GLD8040 had been marked the end of November by Lewis. This proved that Lewis was still in with the entire flock until December. We did not remove him until the September and October ewe lambs were 3 months old (to avoid unfortunate pregnancies in too young ewe lambs!). *RELIEF! *I also found the notation where we replaced the fencing for the pen that is attached to the creep pen. That would account for me thinking that those ewes had been in a separate pen. At that time there was only the field, since the fence dividing the pens was down.  Lewis was turned in as a clean up ram with the entire flock.  We figured with 1 and 2 month old lambs on them the ewes would not breed right away.  Wrong!  Apparently after covering all the open ewes he had a last fling with 7041.

Mystery solved! The newborns can now be registered! They are not fatherless waifs, but the daughters of my beautiful Lewis, that sly dog!       Just yesterday I had noticed GLD7041’s huge girth, and wondered at her improbable rotundity. Was she distended with a huge worm infestation?  I was planning to reworm her 2 months after Lewis finishes covering the ewes. I did not think she had worms since she had gained 27 lbs. in 3 months, and her body condition score was 3.0. Anything is possible with livestock though, so I ordered some Ivermectrin, planning a second round of worming about 2-3 months into their gestations. Now I need to do it asap since lambing usually causes an explosion of worms in the gut.

DS1 said that Lewis must think himself quite a stud! He only had to glance at GLD7041 and she gave birth a week later!

Now we just have to watch the other ewes in case they cycled with 2-3 month old lambs at side. Only GLD7088 and 7041 had 3 month old lambs, the others had lambs around 2 months old.  GLD7088 gained 49 lbs. Lewis marked her on April 25.  I will keep an eye on her and on GLD8040 who was marked the end of last December, as well as on April 27.

Dorpers are incredibly fertile.  7041 last lambed September 16. That was just 7 ½ months ago. She had twin rams then and has now produced twin ewe lambs. Her first lambing was a single ewe lamb. She turned 3 January 17, 2020. Her first lamb was produced in November 2018. She was 10 ½ months old. In the past 2 ½ years she has produced 5 lambs. Apparently she has decided to practice accelerated lambing on her own!  

This summer my 12 year old grandson wants to learn how to use his microscope identifying worm eggs. Thanks to Bay we can have family bonding over worm eggs. We are both excited. However, when I suggested a Science Fair project he might like to use his experience categorizing worm eggs and write an accompanying paper on the life cycle of worms and the financial damage they can cause to livestock raisers, he declined. He stated his next science project would probably be on some form of robotics or computer aspects. Disappointing.

  Here are the newest girls.  Healthy and happy with their suddenly slimmer mama.


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## Ridgetop

I have been having trouble writing in the reply box.  I tend to write long book length postings which might be the problem since after about 3 paragraphs the machine slows down, sometimes stopping altogether.  I have solved that problem by typing everything in my word files, then cutting and pasting.  I type 100 wpm and it interrupts my train of thought when it slows down to 5 wpm pacing the word on the screen!  LOL


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## SA Farm

Ridgetop said:


> He has already marked 4 or 5 of the ewes and one shocked wether.


 Sorry, but that made me literally laugh out loud - poor shocked wether 😂


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Yesterday I stumbled across a YouTube channel I had not seen before and I immediately thought of you.  IIRC, you and your husband are planning to move to Texas sometime next year.  If so, then this YouTube channel is for you, as it will help you understand and maybe even speak like the other women in Texas and elsewhere in the South.  The name of the channel is "Southern Women Channel"  Here is a link to their latest video:





Also, while I was there visiting the channel, I ran across a video that I think you, Miss @B&B Happy goats, would appreciate:





Senile Texas Aggie


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## Baymule

Congrats on the lambs, further congratulations on figuring out the baby daddy. Yep, those ewes will breed with practically newborns at their side. I have one poor ewe that I have allowed that to happen not once, but twice! Shame on me, shame on her for being a wanton hussy. She bred back at SIX WEEKS postpartum. Not this time! She is under forced time off!


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## farmerjan

Thank you @Senile_Texas_Aggie  for a barrel of laughs...... never saw those videos before but sure got a kick out of them.


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## Bruce

So Bay, do those women talk proper Texan?


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## Baymule

Sure!


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## Ridgetop

Senile Texas Aggie:  Great videos.  I plan on watching them over and over.  Make me lonesome for Bay!


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## Ridgetop

Got the update on my dear friend.  The results of her tests have come in and she is Stage 4 cancer.  The first chemo they tried had terrible effects on her.  The oncologist said they will put her on another course of chemo that has had good results.  If she can tolerate it, she might have 2  years.  If not . . . .  She had some good news though.  Her grandson and his wife told her that they are expecting their second child around November 1.  She will get to see her (it is a girl).  I wish her granddaughter would move ahead with getting married.  She has been living with and engaged to a young man for several years now.  I now Lois would love to see her granddaughter married.  Since Mandy is in her mid 30's she should also consider having a baby if she ever plans to do so.  Time is fleeting.

On to better news.  DS1 and DH are working on a garden area.  With luck the garden beds will be finished before the end of summer!   Actually, DH is moving dirt into the raised circular planter at the end of the "grass". This planter was made of stacking block - retaining wall block - some years ago. We lined the bottom with wire to prevent gophers and it was used first for DH's artichoke plants, then rosemary bushes. Last fall we raised the wall around it 16" and DH lined the walls with tar paper to prevent the earth from washing out through the blocks. We don't want that nasty dirt on our new artificial grass!     Now he is filling it with good dirt and aged horse manure. I plan to plant roses in it and was able to find 2 rose bushes in pots since it is too late in the season to plant bare root. DH wants me to plant veggies in it. I might but next winter roses will go in. I might go to the other Lowes to see if I can find any more. These are Tropicana which are a very pretty pinky orange with a lovely scent. I want roses there because they will be visible from the patio and yard.

The new garden is under construction by DH and DS1 where the old tree came down on the barn and driveway side of the house. DS1 went out and got the 2” x 12”s and more wore to line them with against gophers. He is busily digging out the area and transferring it to the front planting beds. Then he will build the 2” x 12” raised beds and line them with wire. We will fill them with some of the dirt, add manure, and planter mix. That will become my regular garden and also do away with the large expanse of dog hole filled dirt that has been there for years! I told DH that I would line the walkways between the planter beds with the scraps of artificial grass left from our “lawn”.

Before anyone wonders why we are doing all this if we are moving – I have just 2 words -  "*CURB APPEAL"*. Of course, we don’t have any curbs, and our house has not much appeal since it looks like a shoebox*, *but since these ugly areas are seen from every angle in the house, and as soon as you step outside, we hope to make it look nice enough to sell when the time comes. The view is lovely, but with these few improvements, we can enjoy the property as well until we can move. And hopefully, no one will come in to offer a tear down price. We will also do some more inside. I still have not gotten my new countertops in the kitchen because the virus hit just as we planned to do them. They will happen.

Since we will be here for another 2 years possibly (I can’t leave my “mother while she is so sick) we will do some extra fencing for more pastures for the sheep and continue to build our flock. In the meantime, we are coming to Texas in November and will be looking around for a smaller ranch. We decided that with our ages continuing to advance no matter what we do, we will look for a place of around 20 acres. It needs to be planted in coastal hay, AG designation, have a good well, a decent house, and outbuildings. We will rent the house out, keeping the larger outbuildings for our use when we start moving. We will arrange to rent the hayfields to a producer, and that way the fields will be kept in good order. Also, the farm will retain its AG designation for taxes. DH feels comfortable that we can move more easily that way, before we sell our place here. We might even sell or rent our CA house to DS2 and his new wife.

The bright green fields here are already turning brown with the heat wave we have been having. Temp have been in the high 90’s, staying in the 80’s at night . Yesterday it was cloudy and only in the 80’s with a light breeze so it felt cooler.  The end of May we will have to cut brush.  The sheep have been grazing but there id too much here for them to consume without being fenced onto the exact area.  DS1 will cut it and leave it lay.  The sheep will finish it all off since they like the cut, dried brush as much as the green stuff.  In fact, while they don't like to graze on the itch weed while it is green, they like it once it is dried out.  

Weighting lambs again this weekend.   Oh yes, the newborns weighed 7.7 and 8.1 lbs. respectively.  After I weighed them and was replacing the 2nd one in the pen, I realized I had no way to tell them apart.    I had to get the spray marking paint and put a dot of orange on one of them.  Then weigh that one again.  Sigh . . . .


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## CntryBoy777

I understand "curb appeal"....we are spending our available "labor" to improve the propefty....because anything inside will take $$ and labor....and right now, we just have the labor portion available....


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## Ridgetop

I agree with that!  Luckily with the quarantine DH has reached the saturation point of virus news   🤪  and has decided that he needs to work outside.  The fact that the torrential rain has stopped might also have something to do with it.

For a while he kept asking me if I planned to plant a garden.  First I said "no" since we planned to be gone most of the summer again.  He really wanted tomatoes in, but if we are not here, why bother?  Now with the quarantine, our trip has been put off until November.  Pressure has been brought and I agreed I would put in a garden - once he had finished the front planter and built the raised beds where the tree came out.  We finally had the stump (leaning at a drunken angle) removed last year.  While it was a conversation starter, it did nothing for the looks of the property.  Last year we had it ground out.  We considered installing artificial grass there too, but I didn't want to spend $5000 extra on a spot between the barn, driveway, and sheep field.  The area remained a barren expanse of dirt, littered with trophies found in the gully by the dogs.  Eventually, we began to dump stuff there - unused feeders, buckets, etc. recycleable metal, that would be put away "later".  I am guilty of this also.  Mea culpa. What a mess for almost 3 years!   

The garden is now going ahead full speed. DH filled the planters in front with the 50/50 dirt DS1 dug out of the tree spot. That area had been raised from driveway level by the addition of RR ties on 2 sides and a single course block planter wall on the 2 sides edging the patio and walkway. They are about to build the first 2 raised beds. 


These will be 20’ long and 3’ wide. They will be 12” high and lined with hardware cloth against gophers.    but more boards can be added later to raise them to 24”. 24” will be more convenient for root veggies, and will keep the dogs from jumping in and out without requiring fencing. Maybe. I might surround the entire plot with the 3’ high ornamental wrought iron garden fencing I used to protect my patio flower beds.   These no longer have flowers because of the drought 2 years ago. One has a fountain surrounded by river rocks which I installed over weed cloth. Attractive, and low upkeep.   It still has the fencing around it though, so that can come down and be used for the new garden. The dogs might decide to leap over the fencing, and I will then have to reevaluate. There are multiple possibilities including putting up construction wire (for stabilizing concrete) as 5’ high fencing on t-stakes. This could then be utilized for climbing veggies. Or just putting up netting around the boxes on stakes. I will figure it out.

Now that I consider it, since these boxes will have wire over the bottoms, I think I *will* ask for a couple of 24” high beds. If they want to be creative DH and DS1 can even add a 2” x 8” board horizontally as a seat on the sides.  Planting in the 12" beds will be okay for pole beans, and other tall vegetables.  Root vegetables need taller ones so I don't have to bend as low, or kneel down.  This may seem lazy, but since DH can't bend over *OR* kneel down with his bad knees, he won't be able to help plant, weed, or pick the low planters. With the higher planter beds, he might be able to plant or pick. This will take strain off our backs as well.    We will use the old sand from the children's sand box to loose the soil in the beet bed.  Then we can dispose of the sand box too.  (I wonder if DD1 would like it for her children to get some ducks?  Ducks are good in a mature garden since they dispose of slugs and snails.  I will check.  She wanted chickens but if they get out in her lovely garden, they will pick it to bits.)

Today is May Day. I need 😳 now. DH asked yesterday if we should buy more sheep for our flock. ???? He wants to expand. Having all White Dorper can be a plus, for instance, I can give every ewe lamb to my DGD since when they are grown and she asks which one is hers, I point and tell her “there she is”. It also makes it hard for DH to count how many sheep we actually have. He has not quite mastered reading the ear tags, since each sheep carries 2 tags, 1 in each ear, its flock number and scrapie number.  DS1 and I refer to each by name using their flock numbers, or breeder's name for the rams. We can also identify several of them even from a distance through head and face shape or body type. When DH comes in and tells me that #___ has been marked, he will use whichever number he can read.  The numbers are often not clear.  I have occasionally counted more marked sheep on my chart than were on the field. DH is so cute, and truly loves all his sheepies. I just write the # down, thank him profusely, and quietly recheck the numbers later.  

Having DH, who loves and supports me in all I do, including this livestock raising is God’s great gift. I am a lucky woman to have this wonderful husband and great father to our children. I am glad that they appreciate him.  🥰Remind me that I still need to tell you the story of our honeymoon. Remember the tale of Devil Pig who almost put us off raising hogs forever? Our honeymoon story, when related to others, causes women to shudder, and strong men to marvel at DH’s power to mesmerize me! All I can say is that it is true love, and the power to laugha lot at ourselves.   

Yesterday I counted our flock. We have 3 rams, plenty for the number of ewes we have. It is good to have several since that way we can keep ewe lambs from each and have 2 rams to breed those ewe lambs to. We have 2 fall ewe lambs not due to be bred yet, and 3 spring ewe lambs. That gives us 8. Next the ewes with lambs on them in the barn – 4. Bringing the total to 12. On the field with happy Lewis are 4 ewes and 2 early fall ewe lambs. So another 6 makes 18. Oh, yes, one ewe in the barn, isolated with an abscess. She has been marked but might be pregnant since she was exposed to Lewis last November/December while nursing twins. She looks pretty wide, but all my Dorpers have lovely deep bodies and massive rumens. If my count is correct, that brings us to a total of 19 sheep. *WOW!*

And they still haven’t grazed off the 200’ x 200’ fire clearance!

How did we reach that total, you say? Go out in your field and start counting! LOL Sheep and goats are just like Lays potato chips – You can’t have just one! However, I do feel the need to point out that 5 of them are too young to breed yet, and the others are young ewes, some nursing their first lambs and all but 2 of the others breeding for the second time.  And we are building a well bred flock to the point we can start culling for those attributes we want - clean shed being one. 

So now that we have acquired all this lovely special sheep equipment, we have to get plenty of use from it. At first DS1 and DH thought it would make more work putting the sheep through the sorter and chute. Now DS1 has done it by himself several times, and we all can see how useful and effort saving it is.  *BUT *that means that we must have enough sheep numbers *to continue to need* it. Since DH wants me to order a few more feeders, gates, and solid chute panels, we will have to acquire even more sheep to warrant that outlay. This is a vicious circle, but it will lead to our relocation to a farm in Texas, so it is all good. We expect to start our move to Texas in about 2 years.  By then we will have started our culling program and will have a good flock nucleus to transport.  Sadly, I base this time estimate on “Mom’s” expected time left. The thought of our move is the only thing that makes her condition bearable.  I hope that doesn't sound harsh or callous.  She and I have actually been expecting this diagnosis for about a year now.

I have to call Perkins now to see if I can still plant bare root roses this late in the season. I hope so, since I am looking forward to seeing them bloom and smelling them all summer from my patio. Since we are under house arrest, we might as well enjoy aspects of it.  Did so and will order now.

Soon we will sneak out and visit our grandchildren regardless of the quarantine. They have been cooped up as long as we have so should be safe. I call our doctor to find out about the antibody test to see if we can take it.  We have to download several apps to have a video conference with the doctor!    I explained that we were *OLD* (she looked up our charts to make sure) and I told her we could not use APPS!    I asked if the doctor could call us.  She will check with him and let me know.   APPS are a tool of the devil to defeat those of us in the prime of our lives!  

DSIL has opened their pool and the grandchildren are swimming in it now. They will have at least 6 months use of it since the schools will not open again until August. Lois is checking with her oncologist to see if we can play bridge outside on her patio. We can wear masks if necessary. DH gave me an “outside play magnetic bridge” set for Christmas. The dummy can’t blow away so we can play outside.      😷


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## Ridgetop

Reaction to culture results on sheep abscess!   

Dr. Rene just texted me the results of the culture.  It is Actinobacillus!     YeeHaw!   Still contagious, but not a culling problem unless she has recurrences.  

Actinobacillus is the causative infection in Cruels.  Treated by flushing abscess with iodine, and using LA 200.  Dr. Rene has ordered me some LA 200.   FYI LA200 is also better for pneumonia than Penicillin.   Keeping an eye on the ewe for her other hard lumps on jaw and face.  The one along her jaw seems to have lessened after draining the abcess which was in a completely different area.  The other one is still a large hard ball.  You can barely see them in this phots.  
 Does she look pregnant? She was in with Lewis at the same time as 7041 (in the next pen with her surprise twins). My ewes all have big rumens though. Lewis didn't mark either her or 7041 yet, although in the past 2 weeks he seemed to get everyone else. Changed the crayon to green but no one has marked since. Oh well, no problem if she lambs. Just messes up my breeding schedule a little. She lambed split twins with no trouble in October so no worries. I have stopped flushing her with grain just in case.


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## thistlebloom

I loved your description of your husband. I think it is so wonderful to hear of couples who love each other so deeply after being married for a long time.  
I have one of those too. We've been married for42 years and we are best friends. 



Ridgetop said:


> I explained that we were *OLD* (she looked up our charts to make sure) and I told her we could not use APPS!  I asked if the doctor could call us. She will check with him and let me know. APPS are a tool of the devil to defeat those of us in the prime of our lives!



So funny! 😄


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## Ridgetop

thistlebloom said:


> I loved your description of your husband. I think it is so wonderful to hear of couples who love each other so deeply after being married for a long time.
> I have one of those too. We've been married for42 years and we are best friends.



    We are lucky!  God is good to us.


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## Ridgetop

*And the flock grows again.*

GLD7088 produced split twins this morning at the crack of dawn. Well, I found them at 5:30 am when I got up to go you know where and heard the ewe talking to them. You can’t mistake the first soft calls a mother makes to her newborns. Totally unlike the raucous screams and bellows she will make later when summoning them or complaining at being separated from them.

Out I traipsed, commando, to iodine umbilicals. Like a good shepherd, only taking time to start the coffee maker. Before rushing to the aid of my flock. GLD7088 did not need my help, but since I was up – if you can call staggering around half blind just as the sun rose being “up”, I went out to iodine cords and check the newborns. A large hairy girl and a smaller wooly boy alive and healthy, attempting to suckle and annoyed that I grabbed them, turned them upside down and sloshed iodine over the still wet portions of cord.

I praised 7088, took a quick look at the rest and noted that 8111 was newly marked in green, and returned to the house to contemplate where to house them. And put on underwear, I was beginning to chafe.   😣

So, the scale is occupying 2 of the jugs.  Without the center separation panels it makes a great area to corral and hold the lambs as we weigh.  8040 is occupying one and 7041 and her twins the other. This morning I will gladden the hearts of my men, all of whom have their own project in the works, by having them move the scale and rearrange the barn. Again. Some women rearrange furniture, I rearrange my barn. Sue me.

By moving the accumulation of “stuff” that is occupying the front left corner of the barn we will clear up enough area to place the scale. There will be enough room to put up temp panels around it for another enclosure when we weigh. There is plenty of room once I haul out and dispose of, or store, the “stuff”. This stuff is not garbage. There are several 4’ hanging grain feeders, a metal footlocker belonging to DS1 that he has said he needs to move (for the past 5 years), a stack of empty 5 gallon water buckets, a pair of folding sawhorses ???, my kidding box, and a couple other small livestock items. Once I clear this area, we (they) can move the scale over into that space and it will become the permanent weighing area.

Before that all day project takes place, I will turn out 8040 onto the field. She is not contagious – no abcesses ready to drain, and the infectious agent is Actinobacillus.   Actinobacillus is the organism living naturally on a sheep’s skin and in its oral and nasal areas. No way to eradicate that, so out on the field with the flock she goes. Clean out both jugs and bring in new mommy 7088 and her lambs. Then put the divider panels back into the double jug to separate the scale pen into two 5 x 10’ jugs. Job done. Almost.

Why do I need more jugs NOW you ask? Because GLD 8040 look heavily pregnant. Looking back over my old records – ALWAYS KEEP YOUR OLD CALENDARS! – I worked out that she lambed 17 days after 7088. That would put her lambing date around May 20. She looks about that large, and that would be the last lambing window for a breeding with Lewis who is the Daddy of these lambs. So, in another 2 week at the latest, I will need another jug.  Oh yes, and 8111 marked last night.

The ewes have proven more prolific than I expected.    Talking blithely about lambing 3 times in 2 years sounds good, but until you experience it you don’t realize how much work wave after wave of lambing, switching pens, adjusting creeps, and weighing all these lamb can be. *I LOVE IT!    😍   *This is hard work, but *not really *_*work*_ if you understand what I mean.  Of course you do, you wouldn't be BYH members otherwise.  

Master Stud Lewis has just notified me he wants a raise. He feels since he only has to be introduced to the Pen of Bliss and immediately ewes start lambing, he should have a higher salary, a better job title, and possibly a bonus per ewe. He already gets room and board, medical and vacation time. We are in discussions right now. He is threatening to unionize.

We are now up to 21 sheep of all ages. No need to buy any spring lambs to keep Snowflake company! After the losses of last year my girls are trying to make it up to me.


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## Ridgetop

🤬
  This is the new pen layout in the barn with a narrow central aisle between the jug gates which face each other.   Much more efficient although the alleyway is tight.  The jugs are large 5'w x 10'l.  I need to order more panels and had a bright idea.  I will order 6 7' panels and 1 5' panel with a gate.  By making the jugs 5' x 7', I can move then closer, widen the alley way by a foot, and add a 5th jug at the end with the gate facing into the centerof the barn.  The 5th jug would be 5' x 10'.  I am currently using 12  5' panels for the sides of the jugs.  By rearranging the 2 10' panels onto the outside ends  of the jug arrangement, I can put 5 jugs in the space I currently have 4.  This came to me while I was cleaning the barn.
   This is a photo from the driveway looking down into the barn about 5' below the driveway level.  7088 and her twins born this am are in the bottom of the picture which is the jug nearest to the driveway side.  I still have to weigh these little guys and I am watching mama since I did not find any afterbirth.  I think I will give her a little selenium and E paste just in case.   Anyway, above her is the scale which I keep covered.  I just moved it over and divided the jug.  I decided to keep 8040 in the barn with her large cue ball size lump and giant belly.  Oddly the sausage shaped swelling n her jawbone has diminished.  Beyond the scale is the entry into the barn and the junk pile.  It is somewhat hidden by the green waste barrel.  I have now cleaned it all out except for DS1's heavy footlocker which he told me now to move.  He will move it for me.  The last thing there is a pallet on which the foot locker is sitting. I'll remove the side panels from the jug, and have my sons move the scale into that spot.  I should have done this a long time ago.

Back to the barn - my break is over!  My boss is a   slave driver!


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## Baymule

I am not a furniture rearranged either. Instead I move chicken coops around, drag cow panels from place to place, set up pens, take down pens and visualize better pens. I share your affliction.


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## thistlebloom

Some of my best ideas have come to me while pushing a wheelbarrow of manure. Something that sparks creativity in a barn!


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## Ridgetop

Happy Mother’s Day!

Last week, May 4, *AT THE CRACK OF DAWN,* I was awakened by a sheep bellowing loudly. I went outside to see what was the matter. O439 was screaming on the field. There was not another sheep in sight. She had been abandoned by the flock and had lost her lamb. Her fickle wether, weighing close to 100 lbs., had disappeared with the big kids and old man Lewis. I looked everywhere but no sign of the ewes. Of course, the growth is now higher than their heads and only the movement of the yellow mustard flowers signal their presence. Think Jurassic Park II as the raptors approached. But none of the mustard was waving. No raptors and no sheep. I hiked to the front of the property with 0439 trustfully following me. No sheep. We walked back and I went a little way into the gully. No sheep. By now I was a little tired of this trek, although 0439 having attracted human assistance was blessedly silent. I retreated to the driveway. O439, surrounded by the faithful dogs, stood at the gate deeply saddened that I had left her. I went down into the barn to take a look around – had they managed to sneak through somewhere and into the barn? No. When I came up out of the barn, I realized 0439 had completely stopped her bawling. For a split second I wondered if the dogs had killed her to spare our eardrums, or perhaps I had been struck deaf. All of a sudden, I noticed 0439 hightailing it across the field. Coming to meet her was the rest of the flock. Stupid sheep!

By now I was awake so might as well start the day before the heat hit. First, I refilled my coffee. A sudden tornado could hit the house and I would get coffee before seeking shelter in the basement.   LOL Then I went back to the barn and filled water buckets in the jugs.  Now that the sheep were blessedly quiet, I disassembled the jug holding the scale. In other words, I pulled the 3 connector pins and moved the panels to one side. Next, I walked the scale across the center aisle and placed it in the newly cleared space. Once this was finished, I reassembled the jug. Then I checked 7088. She had been acting a bit lethargic since lambing. She hadn’t passed the placenta yet. I did not see one in the night fold when we moved her. I put a halter on her, tied her and with gloved fingers checked her vulva. All closed. She could have post-partum depression. As we moved her into the barn her September born daughter tried to follow her. She may be shocked to find that having shed one lamb, she now has 2 more to feed. She is a good mother, but it may be a toss up as to whether to call a vet or counselor.

As I admired my newly rearranged barn and the scale placing, I suddenly realized I had placed the scale box with the scale reader attachment facing the side wall of the barn.   This meant that no one could see the scale face, and you would have to crawl back under the old milking shed eave to attach the electronic scale to the scale box receptor cords. OOPS! Yup. 180 degrees spin. By now I was tired, and my knee was hurting. I went back upstairs to the house for more coffee. While I was there, I crossed several items off my list. 

I love lists. As I have said previously, I add jobs that I have done to my list just for the pleasure of crossing them off and feeling virtuous. I have 19 chores on the list currently, down from 31. Actually, I am back up to 21 since I realized I did not have “plant veggies and roses” on the list. It counts as 2 chores since they are in 2 different beds.  I am back down to 3 now but have more to add on.  I love lists.

Next I hung the cabinet in my bathroom behind the door. Then I measured and cut the narrow oak shelf to fit that I found in the shed. It is not deep enough but I also found a piece of finished oak that I ripped the required 3/8” strip from. I glued this to the rear of the shelf to make it the right depth. Since this cabinet and top sit behind the bathroom door I am trying to decide if I need to cut and apply a piece of oak molding on it to cover the joint. Here is my dilemma. Few people will notice it. However, every time I use the receptacle in the smallest room, I will see the cabinet and KNOW that the seam is there. I have 2 choices for peace of mind. Cover the seam with a piece of molding, or leave the door open every time I use the receptacle. No one can see in at that angle, but I WILL STILL KNOW IT IS THERE! I have no choice, the molding must be applied.  

Before anyone wonders why I did not buy a wide enough board to fit the top of the 6 1/2” cabinet, let me reassure you. I did not buy _any_ board. This board was left from a previous project. From the size of it, 6 1/8” x 32”, I think it was probably an oak shelf I cut to go over a toilet at one time. I would not go out and buy a piece of oak for this new job. I had another oak shelf that I could have cut down too, but this one was ALMOST the right size and in better condition than the 11” deep board which was actually a shelf out of a bookcase we are still using. Oh yes, and the molding is a leftover piece of stained and finished oak base shoe that I used to cover the wall gaps when mounting kitchen cabinets in the apartments. I admit it, I keep stuff like this because eventually I need it for projects. I like to blame it on DH, but he is not entirely responsible. Except for the hundreds of sockets I cleaned and sorted in the tool shed. He WAS responsible for those. This is why all our storage areas are full of STUFF! On the other hand, I did not need to buy any cute fabric to make my masks – I had a box of quilt pieces. Since the fabric stores have not had such a run on their contents since the first pedal sewing machine was available in the Sears wish book, I have fabric for masks. Also, elastic and interfacing but we will not go there.

But I wander. Back to the chores I needed to finish. The cabinet top was clamped and the glue was drying. I found the right size cabinet shelf supports in the tool shed for the interior of the cabinet. (The originals had gone missing somewhere in the past 5 years.) Always keep different size cabinet shelf supports because no 2 manufacturers use the same size or type. I have 5 containers of shelf supports in assorted diameters. In emergencies I also have small L brackets that I can install. Again, I digress. This quarantine is affecting my mind. Now I could clean out the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and put some of that stuff in the new cabinet on the wall behind the door. I already emptied and cleaned out the bathroom drawers. I KNOW *I* DID NOT DECIDE TO KEEP ALL THAT JUNK! Someone has been breaking into my house and cluttering up my bathroom drawers with 20 bars of hotel room soap still in their original wrapping, the tiny ones only good for one wash. Also, lots of motel room shampoo and lotion. I don’t remember staying at that many motels in my entire life! I emptied all the shampoo into one container and then realized that those 15 little bottles could have been donated to the homeless shelter. Oops. I did fish the 20 bars of hotel soap back out of the trash can and put them into a plastic bag. Some day I will take them to the food bank. In the meantime – you guessed it - I will have to find a place to store them!

The cabinet top has been stained and varnished and the seam is not even visible so no need for the molding.  The corner shelf unit has been repaired, stained, varnished and hung.  Everything that was sitting artistically on a mirror tray on the counter has now been moved onto those shelves.  Clear counters at last!   
Now I have finished more items on my list. Ironing – check, sewing mask – check, planting 2 rosebushes – check, ordering my roses from Jackson & Perkins – check, check, check, check . . . . So many jobs to cross off!

A heat spell hit a few days ago and the newborns in the barn were panting and looked half dead. I found the old box fan in the shed. I did mention I keep lots of stuff for emergencies like this. The amazing thing is that I remember where I store all of these items and can put my hands on them in a matter of minutes. OK OK sometimes it is hours, the important thing is that I find them when I need them.

The fan has been running for several days and the lambs are looking better. The temperatures are dropping to a more comfortable range now. Hopefully we will have cooler weather for a few days.

DH and I had gone to DS3’s house to pick up his big dump trailer. DS1 called and said he had gone down to find AAC. She refused to come up to the night fold with the rest of the flock. She apparently lambed unexpectedly on the path below the fencing. The lamb was dead and AAC refused to leave the spot.    The lamb was on its back down hill a bit from the path.  The lamb might have fallen off the path and not been able to struggle upright.  I had a ewe years ago cast herself lambing and lost one of her lambs that way.  DS1 searched but could find no other lamb and the placenta was there on top of the dead lamb.  AAC must have rebred at 2 months post partum. While I am thrilled that my Dorpers are doing what they are supposed to do with regard to accelerated lambing it would be nice if Lewis would not mark them when they are practically due!  It completely confuses me!  While DS1 was disposing of the dead lamb (dead several hours since it was cold when he found it around 7 pm.) 8040 came to console AAC. Now he had 2 ewes refusing to leave the gully, it was dark and he had already fallen on the steep slope several times so he left them there with the gates open so they could get into the barn and yard. When I got home, I went with him to see if I could spot them. Nothing, and it was silent. Rika was missing however, while both Bubba and Angel were on guard at the top of the field. We opened the windows on that side of the house so we could hear any disruption in the night, then went to bed. If any coyotes came in with the 3 Anatolians guarding the flock, they were welcome to try. I figured that 8040 was drawn to the sound of AAC calling for her lamb since she was so close to lambing herself. DS1 and I agreed that the tricky ewe planned to lamb in the gully to annoy us.

This morning AAC was back up outside the night fold baaing, having given up on her dead lamb during the night. 8040 had not accompanied her so I knew that she must have lambed and be hiding out. Rika was still missing and the other 2 were still in their sphinx poses at the top of the gully. After much discussion about which of us would search the gully for the missing ewe and lamb, DH called DD1 and she came over with her 3 children who were thrilled to scramble into the gully and go lamb hunting. DGS1 found the little ram lamb and brought him up, followed by mom. They are safely in the jug now. He weighed in at 9.4 lbs.  While the grandkids were lamb hunting in the gully, DS2 called.  She was happy to hear that the torch of "Lamb Seeker in the Gully" had been passed on to her nephews and niece. This evening AAC was wearing a red mark! Lewis is certainly enthusiastic.  Poor Lewis!  Instead of being given a nice flock of open ewes with whom to disport himself apparently we gave him a flock of almost due to lamb ewes. Poor boy is frustrated!    His crayon was changed 2 nights ago so if no one else marks, we will pull him out and wait another month before putting a different ram in with the next batch of ewes who currently have 2 month old lambs. Also, the 7 month old fall lambs can go out to be bred with the other ram too.  The new moms and their lambs will move into the creep pen and a fine time will be had by all.

Tomorrow morning we weigh.  I weighed the newborns in the sling scale this am.  I will see if I can lure the others into the main barn and then run them through the scale.  I need to have weights on them.  The one with the infected eye (he ran something into it) has healed and is over the infection  Now there is a 7-10 day withdrawal from the penicillin.  I think.  I will check tomorrow.

Next week is the annual on-line Dorper sale. There are some lovely 2 year old ewes in it that have been bred to good rams. I have several marked to watch and bid on. Why? Because I can.  And want to.  And with my new niche customers, I have written out a business plan that I think will make my sheep pay for themselves, and show a bit of profit. Although the buyer wants 5 40 lb. lambs a week, he will take whatever I can produce. I certainly cannot (and will not) run enough ewes to produce that many lambs per week, but I might be able to produce about 5 a month and that will still make a profit. Making a profit on our livestock only happened when we raised rabbits semi- commercially. Our barn was originally a 100 cage rabbit barn and we bred New Zealand White rabbits for both the meat market and as quality breeding stock. Then our children forced us into smaller and smaller quarters with their 4-H projects. The final straw came when a dog attack killed all DH’s champions and destroyed 10 years of breeding. DH was one of the top breeders of New Zealand Whites in southern California at the time and was considering getting his judging license. DH really never recovered from that devastating loss. That is when we got our first livestock guardian dog. DH would still like to go back into rabbits, and I still have cages, watering system, etc. stored in the milk shed. He just needs to decide where to put his new rabbitry.

We have now planted the one new raised bed that DS1 and DS2 built.  We need more planter beds but DH and DS1 are busy cutting the fire clearance before June 1.  They are now talking fencing. DS1 came and asked if I realized that we had several hundred feet of horse corrals.  I acknowledged that I knew this.  He then told me that we could put them up for fences and he would string woven wire on them to hold in the sheep.   GO FOR IT! Fencing - when it is their idea they jump on it. 

I have some ideas about raised planter beds that DS1, DS2, and DH do not have to make.  When DH and I went to Nipomo yesterday DS3 showed us his hydroponic gardens that he made, along with an interesting concept of container gardening in plastic tubs. Apparently he has been watching U tube videos put out by one person. This concept is to take a large plastic bin, drill a couple drain holes 5” up from the bottom in the sides. Then you take 6” PVC pipe and drill a bunch of holes in it. You place these 6” diameter pipes on their sides in the bottom of the bin and cover them with weed cloth. This makes a “reservoir” that will hold water underneath the soil. You take a 1” diameter PVC pipe and cut it to extend above the top of the bin. This is the pipe you will water through. Fill the bin with planting soil and plant your plants. Now fill the bottom of the bin where the 6” pipes are with water. The level of the water will fill to 5” then seep out the holes in the side of the bin. That is how you know the water level is correct. You never water from the top, always filling the water reservoir in the bottom through the standpipe. The water wicks up through the soil and waters the roots of the plant. His plants were beautiful and lush. DS3 gave me a length of 6” diameter pipe to try it with. We have lots of plastic tubs where the lids have broken. They also used a couple of large metal sheep water troughs. I got very excited and tried to trade them for my large horse depth water troughs. When they said they had drilled seep holes in them so I withdrew my offer, We have about 6 of the large (100 gallon?) metal horse troughs we can use as raised garden containers ourselves. I don’t know why I never thought of it with them just sitting on the field!  They are deep enough that we won't have to drill drain holes in them but DH reminded me that there is a drain in them already.  We can just unscrew the plug.  that way we don't have to ruin the troughs. 

 DS1 had also built a 40' x 40' pole barn for his equipment.  He offered us some power poles to make a roof between our Connex containers but we wouldn't be able to lift them into place.  DS3 used his tractor.  When we are ready we might be able to rent some sort of machine. 

Anyway, we are getting a lot done finally so this quarantine is starting to work for us. I'm waiting to see what our antibody test tells us next week. I am really ready for this quarantine garbage to be finished. I feel like our liberal California politicians are just hiding us hostage now.   Even though the majority of people here are liberal dems, they are starting to demonstrate in Sacramento for the quarantines to be lifted and jobs opened up again.  Keeping these quarantines in place may very well turn people against the liberals.  I can only hope.

Lots more yard work to do tomorrow.  I need to buy some planter mix to mix with my dirt to make the planters.  I ever knew I had so many muscles and that they could all ache at once.  And I used to work like this day in and day out when I was younger.  What happened?  When  did old age sneak up on me?


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## thistlebloom

I love your stories, so nice to have a chuckle with my morning coffee  😄.

I'm a list person too, but it never occurred to me to add chores already finished so I could cross them off. That's brilliant! 
My usual method is to compose a detailed list of chores that would realistically take a month to finish, then fold it neatly and put it in a back pocket with a pencil for crossing off as I go. When the day is over throw the dirty jeans in the laundry and wash the list. It comes out of the dryer a compressed wad. Then I have to try to remember what I needed to get done.


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## Ridgetop

thistlebloom said:


> My usual method is to compose a detailed list of chores that would realistically take a month to finish, then fold it neatly and put it in a back pocket with a pencil for crossing off as I go. When the day is over throw the dirty jeans in the laundry and wash the list. It comes out of the dryer a compressed wad.


I like that!  Sounds like all the chores are done if the list is a crumpled wad!


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## Ridgetop

Alas! More tragedy from Ridgetop!
Last week I planted 2 rose bushes in my new rose garden. It is raised block with wire lining so will be safe. The field fence is 5’ tall, and the bushes are over 3’ from it. Safe enough you would think, since these bushes are not super tall – perhaps 3’ in height. Yesterday DD1 came over to spend some time with me. She left her 3 children home with their father in honor of Mother’s Day. We sat out on the patio admiring the new garden area and imagining the view with many colorful and fragrant rose bushes blooming. So beautiful. The Tropicana roses I had planted had flowers on them and were very pretty, giving us a preview of what it will look like when all the bushes arrive from Jackson & Perkins and bloom. It was a lovely day the temps had dropped to the high 70’s and a light breeze was blowing. Bliss.   


This morning DS1 took me out to look at the area where he and DH have decided to fence the front of the property to provide a large separate pasture for the sheep. By keeping this area fenced off, the sheep will have graze into the winter. It is far enough from the house that we don’t have to clear it. DS1 had just brought over some large concrete blocks for me to use as retaining blocks to hold in soil. He brought me down past the rose garden to point out the area where they would put in the gates and fencing.

*SHOCK!* Where were the flowers? Where was the *BUSH?!         😥*
     At least 2/3 of the entire bush was missing! One of the few remaining branches was broken. It looked like a very bad pruning job.  DD1 and I had watched Ol’ Yeller together on Mother’s Day. (Her children (my grandchildren) refuse point blank to watch it with her because they know it is sad so we had a little movie fest.)  My first thought was racoons running amuck and attacking my rosebush. Then I regained my senses and realized who the culprit must be. Apparently, a 5’ fence with a 3’ distance from the fence to the planter bed is not enough for Josie the Mule.
After laughing uproariously DH said he had promised to put up another fence and walked out to see what could be done. He decided to add a couple more 10’ corral panels to the squeeze working area, running the corral panels 8-10’ out from the 5’ tall fence that is there now. It will go past the end of the raised bed and hopefully will keep her away from the rose garden. An hour later he and DS1 had finished it! 🥰Thank goodness because my order of expensive rose is due this week from J & P!  
 Extra corral protecting my roses on outside of existing fence!    At the same time DH and DS1 installed our new gates between the squeeze working area and the night fold, as well removing a 10' section of corral on the ram pen and putting in a gate fro the pen to the field. This will make it extremely easy to access the ram pen. Before, DS1 had to take his tools ad unclamp the entire panel to get the rams in or out.  So much easier.  DH loves these gate panels.  I love convenient access.

I have finished edging the planter bed where FDIL planted rosemary and lavender. Both like dry areas and heat. Having a rosemary bush just outside the back door is a plus since I use it fresh in lots of lamb dishes. 
I am almost finished with edging my "Buddha garden". This is a Buddha statue with a serene face and apparently from his pre-belly days since he is slim and trim. It is a very relaxing garden statue. In the back of the bed I put the stuffed iguana on a log. I think I picked up that piece somewhere for the children when they were small. Now it has been relegated to the shrubbery. Where it belongs until that last journey to the dump. He is looking a little worse for wear, his skin is slitting in one spot, but way back in the shrubbery it is not noticeable. Lest you think I should dispose of it now, it will take up a lot of space in the trash can so it is better hidden in the shrubbery.  Nothing grows in the Buddha garden except 2 or 3 large shrubs.  I don't bother trying to grow anything else there, and keep it covered with mulch since the dogs dig beds under the shrubs.

The next area I will tackle is the fenced in rock garden where the fountain lives. The fencing can come down – the dogs will not bother going in there since there is no nice cool dirt to dig a bed in, just rocks. I am considering removing the river rocks and small boulders and replacing them with leftover scraps of the artificial turf. The weed cloth is already in place so it shouldn’t be too difficult since it is a small area. The bright green “grass” will set off the fountain nicely.

After that I will try to make the garden planters DS3 showed me. The 6” pipe he gave me is so heavy I couldn’t get it out of the truck. DS1 had to get it out for me. I have enough pipe to make 2 planters in my deep storage containers. They will be super heavy between the pipes, water, and soil, so I think I will use leach line on the next ones. DS1 asked why DS3 bought such heavy pipe. I told him that DS3 didn’t *BUY* it. He got it from the scrap pile at work. He *is* a true Ridgetop son. DS1 agreed that was a good reason.  The pipes are so heavy and thick that DS1 offered to cut them for me tomorrow.  Then I have to drill holes in them and assemble the planters.  I ed anymore raised beds with 2 x 12's since I was planning to use my horse troughs.  DH suggested that if I group the horse troughs in a square pattern we might be able to get a stand of corn going.  It is late in the season, but we can try.

Sweet DS1 just told me that he moved more dirt for me so I can finish edging the last planting bed.  I have a yellow lantana to plant there - bright and pretty if the dogs leave it alone!  LOL


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## thistlebloom

Why is it late in the season for corn? You have a long growing season, I mean, even *I* can get a crop of corn in! Does it get too hot? Sorry, for being dense...

That Josie! I'd like a picture of that rose eating mule. 😄


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## Ridgetop

We don't have normal seasons here in the Los Angeles area.  We often have no spring, jumping from almost freezing temps to 90-100 degrees for a week to a month  in the winter.

August is when we used to go to the beach camping with the children and the garden died out about then. Now we go to Texas for a month so I automatically think of planting early or it all goes to waste. Since we won’t be going anywhere until November you are right there is probably still time for a late corn crop.  The main thing about the timing of my planting is habit. Since we warm up early here we like to plant early.  This year we had heavy rains until late in the season so planting was delayed.

It is already hot.  I like to get my garden planted by early March but actually can grow stuff all year.  We have already had 2 weeks of 100 degree weather.  It is cooling off a bit now, but high 70's.  We usually have a period of cooler weather in May - called "June gloom" when we have some overcast and often very cool days.  From August to September the weather stays at least 100 degrees or so, and dry.  The tomatoes have to be shaded or they burn.  Flowers  stop blooming because of the heat, and the yellow crookneck squash stops producing.  Nothing short of an atomic blast can stop zucchini,  but it often slows down flower production. 

On the other hand,  we can plant winter crops in September and October since it is still warm enough to start them.  Cool weather is fine for peas and brassicas.  Lettuce can only be planted in winter since the summers are too hot and they bolt or don't produce.  Beets and carrots grow year round, but there is not enough heat for summer squash, beans, and peppers during the winter.

At my other house we had beautiful bottom land in the valley with rich black loam and I fed my family year round from our huge garden and many fruit trees.  I canned all summer.  I even had a small business making jams and specialty pickles that I sold at boutiques.  Now of course, you can't do that.  Even school bake sales have been restricted.  The rabbits produced great fertilizer to top dress the trees and turn into the soil.  Here we have a PH of 9.  I have to improve the soil constantly.  Years of rabbit and horse manure, planter mix, etc. and only a few areas are fertile enough to grow.  Another reason to just do all container or raised bed gardening.

You are right though, I probably could plant corn for a late crop.


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## thistlebloom

Wow, pH of 9. Now that's alkaline! 
I was Idaho born, but grew up in San Diego's East County. DH and I moved to Alpine after we married and lived there until we finally escaped back here. Family roots here go back 5 gen on dad's side and 3 on mom's. 
But back to the desert, I can totally sympathize with the growing restrictions of the weather. I well remember the SoCal year I planted in late March-ish, and as soon as the vegetables were up we had scorching Santa Ana weather, a week later we got snow. Hot weather swings in January are very tiresome also.
I have a very short growing window here, but much prefer the almost predictable 4 seasons.


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## Ridgetop

Growing seasons vary so much across our great country.  You need at least a year to acclimatize to them and even then crazy things can happen.  

We got a lot accomplished today.  Grandsons came over to do some of the light work that I hard on our knees like going up and down the hill picking up rubbish - bit of branches, wood, hay ropes (how did they end up halfway downhill from the shed?) etc.  Paid with a couple of dollars and an ice cream cone.  10 year old grandson said he didn;t expect money, just wanted the ice cream cone!  LOL And he is the best worker of them!  We have to stay on top of the 12 year old all the tine, but at least  I did not have to climb the hill.  Not only is my knee getting worse (replacement eventually) but my balance is off and I am getting dizzy spells.  I think it is the same problem I had once before.  bits of ear wax that get loose and float around  My doctor did a quick twist of my head and fixed it 5 years ago.  Might have to go back for another fix.  LOL  Any using grandsons kept me from falling down the hill.  LOL If I do fall I can't tell anyone or they will get on my case.  I don't know why they think I am decrepit!  Both DH and DS1 yelled at me for doing  little dirt shoveling today!  For some reason standing on my feet all day washing laundry, cooking, and ironing are ok.  Working in the garden is health threatening!  

This afternoon a buyer came for one of the smaller lambs.  Sold one of the twins so that should help the ewe dry up a bit.  According to him, the 50+ lb. size is what they have been buying.  I think they are getting rangy skinny animals, instead of my prime meaty Dorper lambs.  They took him away in the trunk so DS2 hog tied him.  When they closed the trunk the lamb was pounding on the trunk lid.  DS1 said he hoped they didn't get stopped by the police since it sounded like a mafia kidnapping!  LOL

The lambs and their mamas go out on the field the end of May.  The lambs will go to the auction a week later.  They will be 3 months old on June 3.  I am pulling Lewis off the ewes the end of the week.  That gives them 2 weeks before I send in Moy to cover anyone who is still open, as well as those 3 ewes and the 2 October ewe lambs.  In another 3 months 7041, 7088, and 8040 will go out with Axtell to be bred.  The 4 spring ewe lambs will be held back until they are 7 months old - December.  Little Snowflake is still 10 lbs. smaller than the lambs that are a month younger than her.  She had a rough start with her mama not milking as much as she should have.  Hopefully she will catch up.  If necessary I will hold her back to be bred until she is about 1 year old.


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## Baymule

I can sympathize with you on the knee. I am headed for knee replacement someday in the next year. I just have to plan around the garden, canning, pig raising, chicken raising and slaughtering and the ewes lambing. After listing all that, I really don't know when the heck I will have time for surgery, much less recovery and therapy. LOL LOL LOL Don't want to be in a danged hospital right now anyway...…..


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## Ridgetop

WE ARE TOO BUSY TO SPARE THE TIME TO GET OURSELVES FIXED!


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## Bruce

You are right Bay, you are so busy you'll exempt every day of the year let alone a couple of months. BUT, your DH had some replacements and somehow y'all carried on. Make the time


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> You are right Bay, you are so busy you'll exempt every day of the year let alone a couple of months. BUT, your DH had some replacements and somehow y'all carried on. Make the time



Sure, DH had multiple surgeries, then the following therapy. BUT he is not the "animal person" I am. He helps me sometimes, but mainly, the animals are my thing.  So I have to clear the schedule, make sure that I have everything "done" so that he can take over my chores. Then of course, I won't stay down for long, so I need to make everything more easily accessible and easier to feed the critters. Other things can be put off while I recouperate, but caring for animals is an ongoing thing. 



Ridgetop said:


> WE ARE TOO BUSY TO SPARE THE TIME TO GET OURSELVES FIXED!


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## farmerjan

You have to sit and make a timeline and who is doing what, what you are raising when, who gets butchered when, just like I did and then you figure what can be slid around to give you a window.  Believe me, you can figure it out.  Raise an extra batch of chickens ahead of time, get the pigs sooner then get them processed sooner, ;  my problem was the putting mine off for a month due to my son's unfortunate accident, but I am going to be on the tractor soon.  I have not been able to help with the calving so much this spring like I planned. But things will work out.  The alternative is worse.... if you do some damage and CANNOT use it, and it happens at an inopportune time, you will hate it, and all the animals will suffer due to the abrupt change.  So seriously look at the "scheduling" of what you are doing and see if you can "TWEAK" it a little.  Knees are usually a max of 3 months "off work" like my girlfriend at the P.O...... you will be faster because you are active anyway.  A friend who boards horses had one of her boarders have to have her knee done and she was back riding in 6 WEEKS.  Total replacement.  Make sure you have a quad sparing type so they don't cut the muscles or ligaments;  they stretch them and move them aside and put the joint in from the side direction from what I have been told.  I am going to look into that when the  ankle deal is done.
I probably would have been out of the boot a couple weeks ago if the virus "shutdown" hadn't happened and I had had my normal appt in April with the anticipated x-rays and PT.  So I am going to push it with the PT as much as they think safe.  It has been 3 months & 1 week since the replacement surgery.... (Feb 6th).  And do all the walking that I can now to strengthen everything.


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## Ridgetop

ve been having trouble with the BYH website freezing on me while I am writing so I have resorted to typing everything in word and then cutting and pasting. Even then it freezes when I try to do the imogees. Maybe it‘s trying to tell me not to be so wordy. At any rate, I have started dating my writings, since I don’t always have time to go on BYH. Once on I like to try to find everyone’s journals and catch up. If I am really busy, I take a break and write on my Word document while my joints stop aching, or alternatively, freeze up! I hate old age, but since I can’t grow younger, the alternative is sooo unpleasant!!!   

BYH May 11, 2020

Such a lovely cool day today. Got to work cleaning out branches, trash, and recyclables for the Blue Bin. Starting on the front patio overlooking the city view and the rose garden, will be moving around the side of the house to the driveway and barn side. LOTS of trash there – scrap metal for the metal yard, large stuff for the dump etc. Some of this was piled there waiting to be loaded into the dump trailer for a dump run when DS3 showed up to get his trailer back! DH has the tree trimmers trimming all the dead wood and pulling it up from the gully and off the field. They will load it in the trailer and DH will dump it saving a couple hundred dollars over what the trimming service will charge to dump. Then we can fill the trailer with another load of garbage. Until Wednesday’s load goes to the dump, we are forbidden by DH to put anything in the trailer. He is afraid that it will be too full and the trimmers will not be able to load it completely with the branches and tree trunks. We would have to put them in ourselves, as well as load the garbage. Good thinking on DH’s part.     I am making a great pile of junk that needs to be tossed in the trailer on Thursday.

We are thinking of getting our own dump trailer. DS3’s is 16-18’ but we could get by with a 12-14’ dump trailer. DS3 suggested that if we needed the bigger trailer we could switch o he would use our small one while we used his big one. I am not sure if we would bother to drive the 6 hour round trip to pick up and drop off the trailers though. Of course, that is almost the only time we see the grandkids so maybe . . . .

Anyway, I ordered the new Shaul’s panels and gate to convert my barn jugs from 4 to 5. Also ordered a hanging feeder for the rams. This one will have the wider 4” between bars. The poor boys’ giant heads don’t fit in the 3” spacing we have now. This means they always look like they have a case of facial mange.   😷   They also squeeze between the 2-sided feeder and the fence to get choice bits and knock the feeder over. DS1 likes it by the fence because we can just feed over the fence that way. Of course, now that we have a gate into the Field of Celibacy, that might not be such a problem. However, the 4’ hanging feeder with wider spacing will work better, and free up the 5’ 2-sided feeder for another pen of ewes. Since I was going to have to order another feeder for the ewes anyway, this makes more sense. I like the big metal field feeders with the grain pan underneath. They have drain holes in them, and hay mangers above. For outside use the metal stands up longer, and can be repainted if needed.

We weighed the lambs yesterday. The lambs are 10 weeks old. They may already be too large for the specialty buyer, but I need him to send his slaughterman out to judge their sizes. It is possible that the lamb breed they are buying are lighter whereas my lambs weigh heavier earlier. He needs to send his man out to look at the size rather than the weight. The 2 single lambs are 67 and 60 lbs., while the twin lambs – no surprise there – are 57 and 51.

The Axtel sired fall ewe lambs are just reaching 100 lbs. at 7 months old and need to go out to be bred. The Moy sired fall ewe lambs were over 100 lbs. at 6 months. Lewis’ lambs gain fast too. The Axtell lambs seem to put on weight at a slower rate so maybe the Axtell ram should sire the lambs that the buyer wants at 40 lbs. They will be about 2 weeks to a month older when they reach that weight, and the ewes can wean more easily at that age. Pulling my faster growing lambs at 6 weeks will put my ewes in danger of developing mastitis.   Instead I can sell the Axtell sired lambs to the Halal buyer and the faster growing lambs elsewhere – either privately or at auction. Still figuring everything out, but the auction barns said that lamb prices have been rising for the past 2 years. Ethnic buyers more prevalent here now? Used to be that the Hispanic buyers would buy one for a BBQ, so my best sale dates were bringing the kids in for auction just before Palm Sunday when the Hispanics would buy them, take them home and the kids would play with them until they were slaughtered on Good Friday. Also used to take late kids in just before May 5 for Cinco. Now auction buyers seem to be buying several at a time. Possibly for the ethnic market butchers? I plan to take these lamb to the auction barn in another couple of weeks to see what they will bring at around 70 lbs. According to the barn office they should bring anywhere between $125 and 175. I will be happy with anything approaching $2.00 per lb. It will cut the feed bill allowing my ewes to go out again with a ram to breed. The new lambs and their mothers will then move into that barn pen with access to the creep. I am trying to work out a schedule for breeding, lambing, and selling the lambs. I did that with the rabbitry and it worked well. The sheep are larger and therefore take more effort than 100 rabbit does in cages, but it is the same idea.

I weighed the tiny lambs the day before yesterday, and they are growing well. The single ram lamb weighed 9.4, probably because he was a single and she is a larger ewe. She had twins last October. The week-old lambs have put on an average of 6 lbs. each. Doing very well, and the ewes are holding condition with just hay and 1 cup barleycorn daily to help with milk production. They probably don’t need the barleycorn and I will not feed it if the lambs are destined for early sale at 40 lbs. Less milk to dry up and less chance for mastitis. I will have to get a prescription for Tomorrow from my vet so I can order the tubes. No longer available in California like anything else that you need for livestock! I will have to treat the does whose lambs have been pulled early each time. I am _not_ looking forward to using these tubes on my ewes though! The dairy does hated it and _they_ were accustomed to having their udders and teats handled. Trying to insert a tube inside one of these ewe’s little teats and squirting medication into her udder will not be an experience either of us will enjoy!!!   

Last night I finished making more masks. These are pleated. I‘ll give them to DD1 and her children. Gave the cute western style print ones I made to DDIL and grandsons. She recognized the print from the curtains I made for her kitchen at her old house. She was thrilled since she really loved that fabric with little saddles, horseshoes, and cacti.

Another item crossed off my list!

May 13, 2020

Sold the 57 lb. lamb last night. Have to call the Halal market today and if he doesn’t send his man out to judge the size, we will castrate and turn out onto the field for another couple weeks of growth on forage before taking them to auction.

*THE ROSES ARRIVED LAST EVENING!!!*

Put them on the patio in the shade until this am when I filled a couple of containers with water to cover the roots and am now soaking them. The instructions say to soak the roots in water for 24 to 48 hours before planting. The roses all have little growth buds on them already! I will have to get out my chart and decide which ones to plant next to each other for the prettiest display. DH reminded me to be sure and plant them close to the fence so Josie the Mule won’t have to reach as far. HA HA

The tree trimmers are here today. The dog are all locked up but DH ran out and turned out the sheep before I could stop him. Since the sheep won’t savage the tree trimmers, and since all that activity on the hillsides will keep the coyotes away, I suppose it will be fine. I probably rely on my dogs too much, having sheep out without canine protection seems risky.

Angel comes in season again the end of this month. Back to the kennel for her again. She can’t be fixed now for another year since Erick feels that the Anatolian Association will allow her sire (the son of a Turkish import) so be registered, thus allowing Angel to be registered. There was political hanky-panky going on for about 2 years, but now they have allowed other dogs out of that sire to be registered so Erick feels that Babar will be registered too. In the event that we _can_ register Angel, we will breed her to Bubba in fall or winter of 2021. She will be 3 years old then. Both Erick and Debra (Angel’s breeder are excited about that mating.) I told Erick that I enjoy raising puppies, but when they turn 12-14 weeks I am loading them up and taking them to him. He is happy about that prospect. DH wants to keep a pup since Rika will be 9, Bubba will be 6, and Angel 3. Erick will sell the puppies for me since that is the part of puppy raising I hate. Trying to decide who is worthy of one of *OUR *wonderful puppies is very difficult since naturally few people come up to my standards! LOL There are a few of you BYHers of course, but strangers? That is in the future, we have to get through a few more seasons first and registration.  I can't wait till I can spay her!

Yesterday we got a lot done with the help of the grandsons. The next job is to continue picking up bits and pieces of scrap wood, branches, and trash that seem to breed in our yard and pasture. The same gremlins that used to live I our house and breed garbage under my children’s beds must have migrated outdoors. There are a couple of them still inside, but I have been working on eradicating them. The return of “NOBODY” has also occurred This NOBODY who used to get my children in trouble is now finding sneaky ways to torture DH and DS1. I wonder if the gopher traps would work on "NOBODY"? They never worked on our gophers!

While we were in Nipomo DS3 took his rifle after the ground squirrels that seem to be invading his property.  He has a lot of fun from his back patio!  A couple years go he used to have a resident badger that hunted them and ate them but it has disappeared. Now he runs in and gets his light rifle and blasts them. I suggested that he skin and clean them and DDIL could cook him up a mess of squirrels. However, he said by the time he drilled them there wasn’t enough left. Just as well since DDIL was making faces at me. LOL The old timers used a head shot, leaving the bodies intact for eating. I forgot to suggest that to him. My bad.

DS1 brought all the horse troughs over yesterday to see if they would work for raised beds. No sense in paying good money for 2 x 12s and building planters when we have giant horse troughs. I did not realize how many we had!!! DH reminded me that we used to keep 5 horses and a boarder or 2. We had 3 of the old style metal tanks 2’w x4’l x 2’h, and 7 of the Rubbermaid type tanks, 3’w x 4 ½’l x 2’h. Two of the large Rubbermaid tanks are in use on the field, which leaves me with 8 tanks. Two others of the Rubbermaid tanks have a small split at the top edge – I thought they were supposed to be indestructible which proves that anything can break. (Consider the Titanic!)

Anyway, the metal troughs are starting to rust so they, and the 2 Rubbermaid troughs that are splitting, can be drilled for the special growing beds with the water wicking technology - Leach pipes wrapped in weed cloth and placed at the bottom with dirt over them and a water fill stand pipe – did I describe this before? I need to find the U tube video of this method. If that method doesn’t work, the drilled holes will work as drainage holes in them. I am so glad I remembered them before buying the materials for another raised bed. I am not sure I want to drill holes in those other 3 Rubbermaid water troughs though. I might just use them as raised beds without drainage holes and try not to over water.

DS1 picked up a large desk blotter style calendar for me yesterday. I plan to use it with different color dots (which I forgot to have him get for me) to alert me to crayon change dates, ram removal dates, new ram coming in dates, weaning & auction removal dates, etc. Between my regular calendar, special sheep calendar, weight chart, and this calendar I may be getting too much duplicate record keeping. As time goes by I will refine it. I also have to figure out my feed bill from last year and my projected bill for this year per ewe to wee if I can produce enough lambs for enough money to break even or make a profit, however, small. Obviously no one is getting a wage out of this!

Good news! The buyer who bought the lamb last night is coming back for another one on Friday. Apparently, it passed the taste test of the discriminating lamb BBQers. They all agreed it was the best they ever tasted. Hovik is coming back tomorrow for its brother. LOL I have told DS1 we will cut the ewes feed off now to dry them off pronto since I don’t want any problems. The lambs will be fed in the creep. The ewes are going out on the field this weekend after Lewis returns to his buddies. On the field all they have is forage which seems to keep them in good body score condition.  In 2 weeks, we will put Moy out with the ewes. This weekend when we move those ewes and the 2 ram lambs out on the field, the new mamas will move over to the larger lamb pen with the creep. The babies need more room now.

I will plant my roses tomorrow or Friday. They have to soak for 24-48 hours. I have made some progress in cleaning off the driveway patio. There is stuff there from our last trip and from when we sold our Lance camper! OMG! That was last year! How humiliating!


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## Baymule

That sounds great on the lamb sales to the Halal buyer. I have often wondered how that works. Obviously Halal slaughter is not USDA, so I wonder how they work around that. For small sales and buyers, custom slaughter works, but in bigger lots, it is hard to slip it under the rug. Do the customers buy the live lamb, then it is Halal slaughtered?


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## Ridgetop

The butcher shop buys the lambs live.  I think that is how they get around it.  The slaughterman (Halal) picks up the live lambs from the seller and apparently does his thing.  I really don't know otherwise.  If the butcher has clients that order lambs ahead of time, he can sell them and have the slaughterman kill them as a "favor" to the buyer.  That is how we used to work our private rabbit sales.  It is also how a lot of the small specialty shops work too.  The animals are kept on premises live and then sold to the customer.  They are then slaughtered for the "new" owner.   That avoids the need for a USDA license.  It is also possible that the Halal guy has a_ special _license because of religious reasons.  I just like having a market.  Tomorrow my Armenian buyer returns for another lamb.  Maybe he will decide to take them all!  At this rate there are only 2 left to castrate for auction.  I do have the 2 ram lambs that are a few days old and 1 week old.  The ewes on the field are all bred except the one that lost her lamb.  She will get bred in the next go round or 2.


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## Ridgetop

*             DISASTER!                TRAGEDY!                    WOE!                    DEVASTATION! 

 I HAVE LOST MY CLIPBOARD! IT HAS ALL THE WEIGHTS FOR THE PAST YEAR’S LAMBS! *

After fruitlessly searching everywhere, I relisted all the weights off the calendars and notes where I LUCKILY had just transferred them. This proves what I have always said – keep good records. And now I add - keep them in 2 places!   

The last time I had my clipboard was on Tuesday when Hovik and his brother-in-law came over to buy the first lamb. I had it in the barn, placing it in a hang over bucket on the outside of an empty pen while going over the lambs. I remember taking it from the barn when we went up to load the lamb. I had to go back down to the barn for some hay rope to tie its legs together before putting it in his car. His brother-in-law feared it would escape when they stopped and tried to unload it! Probably would have. I remember placing the clipboard on top of the scale while I pulled the hay ropes out of the barrel. Then I remember holding it while DS2 tied up #54. The brother in law handed me my cash and I went inside. I collapsed on the sofa for a few minutes. I remember putting the clipboard on the ironing board (I was still in the middle of sewing masks) and then it is a blank. FDIL remembers it sitting on the ironing board that evening. I used the ironing board the next day while finishing the masks. I transferred it to the table *which just goes to show that you should immediately put everything back in its proper place!     *I have searched the house, I have searched the barn, I have searched the yard and field in case Angel found it and chewed on it.   *NOTHING!*   Thus, my deep depression, feelings of tragedy and rejection (by my clipboard). DH attempted to assist me in my search, but when questioned admitted he would not recognize it if he found it. DH was a broken reed for me to lean on, but sympathetic.     

Luckily, I have several other clipboards, and plenty of blank weight sheets. I had to reconstruct the weight charts for the fall lambs, and the spring lambs. I had the birth weights of the new lambs on the calendar. I found the scrap of paper where I had jotted down the second week weights of those newborns. I remembered the weights of the 5 March lambs since we had been discussing them on Tuesday. BUT WHERE COULD MY CLIPBOARD HAVE GONE? I HAVE BEEN USING THE SAME CLIPBOARD WEIGHING LAMBS FOR 5 YEARS! Eventually it might turn up. But all my weight records were on it. At a glance I could tell when lamb was born its parents its weight on any given week. I am bereft. But life goes on . . . .

I planted all the roses yesterday, using the chart of their sizes and colors to arrange them to the best advantage in the beds. They will look beautiful once they start to bloom, with the view of the mountains behind them. 

Tomorrow DS1 and I will make our first “sub irrigated” planter. We have to make 8 of them, and this morning I wandered out with my coffee to decide where to place the water troughs that will be the planters. They will fit end to end in rows, 3, 3,and 2. Then we will have to figure out how to put in DH’s corn plot. He keeps going on about it and I have decided that he should be the one to take charge of it. Taking charge means that he will have to get the plot ready, plant it and water it. He was shocked when I told him that would be his chore. He insisted that he does a lot of “gardening”. My idea of gardening is to spade up the soil, add amendments, plant the seeds or seedlings, water them, pick the produce and at the end of growing season remove the dead plants ready for the next year. His idea of gardening, which he assures me he helps with, is to suggest vegetables for *me* to plant. He will then travel to the store to purchase the soil amendments on my list, hopefully getting the amount I tell him, but often only getting the few bags he thinks are necessary. For some reason, this man, a math and accounting major in college, cannot seem to look at a large bed or planter and figure out the necessary cubic feet of soil and amendments needed to fill it! Darling DH. I still love him.      

Friday evening Hovik and his brother-in- law came back for #55. That is the one they originally wanted. They said they wanted a 40 b. lamb but 55 weighed 51 lb. #54 was 6 lbs. heavier but they decided they would take him instead. Same price. Friday, they decided they would take the larger #53 who weighed 67 lbs. last week. By now he is around 70 lbs., ready for auction, and will bring around $180. I told them he would be $175 since he was so much larger. They decided to take 55 who has gained another pound or 2. Apparently their friend had given them $150 for the lamb and they weren’t sure he would go the extra $25. We tied up 55, and again placed him in the trunk. This time the brother-in-law had brought an even smaller Mercedes. Once #55 was loaded and the trunk was closed, the car started bobbing up and down as #55 tried to escape. Hopefully, he won’t get pulled over by the law with #55 banging away in the trunk. I can just imagine him stopped at a red light with a police car behind him and #55 starts his escape attempts! They would have the BIL up against the car while they opened the trunk to free the supposed kidnap victim! LOL   

This lamb, named Cocoa, will be as tasty as the last lamb, named Charlie. The 8 year old daughter was with them both times, and her father told her that Charlie was living on a nice farm with friends. Cocoa was to be company for him. (BBQ camp!) I told Hovik and the BIL that my children used to ask WHO we were eating not what! Farm kids.

After they left, DS1 and I vaccinated the 5 new lambs, docked the 3 ewe lambs, and then proceeded to drain a couple of abscesses. Actinobacillus again. The first was the giant cue ball sized lump on 8040. Dr. Rene drained the first smaller abscess that had ripened above this one and had it cultured. It came back Actinobacillus so we knew that this was another of the same. After Dr. Rene drained that first one, the sausage shaped swelling on 8040’s muzzle above her jaw had disappeared. However, the smaller round one on the bottom of her jaw had increased in size. It had been hard as a rock, but finally it ripened and was ready to lance. I used one of my disposable scalpels to make a quick incision and drained it.   Yuck!     Then I used a 12cc syringe (minus the needle) to flush out the cavity with iodine solution several times. This helps any remaining pus to rinse out. Finally, I sprayed it with Alushield. Disgusting but necessary.

We decided to move 8040 and her lamb into another pen. DS1 moved the lamb first, then chased a thoroughly unsettled 8040 in after him. She was not happy with the change. We still needed to give the lamb his CDT so DS1 picked him up for the vaccination. As I was pulling up a fold of skin in his groin for the subQ shot, 8040 decided to leave.  She barrelled through the gate into my bad knee!   There was a hideous crunching sound, incredible pain, and I was unable to stand on the leg.   🤪   This was not helped by the fact that I was holding a syringe full of CDT vaccine with an uncovered needle in the air and trying to avoid sticking either DS1 or myself with it. I couldn’t grab hold of DS1 for support, the gate handle had slammed into my arm leaving an already purpling bruise, and strange language was issuing from my mouth!   I was either talking in tongues or, unknown to me, I had picked up some rather nasty words from my sons and DH.      After clinging to the rail for a few minutes, I was surprised to find that I could stand on my bad knee again. We finished the vaccination and decided if 8040 felt so strongly about her old pen she could stay in it. DS1 moved her water and feed buckets back and we put the lamb with her. My knee was feeling better now, no pain – DS1 said 8040 probably caused intensive nerve damage so I couldn’t feel anything. Thank you, son.

Next job was castrating 53 and 57. They weigh 70 and 65 lbs. respectively. I disposed of the paper towels from 8040’s job while DS1 got his elastrator loaded. He flipped the first one and I held him by the forelegs while DS1 attempted to band him. 53 had *large* ones which were a struggle to fit through the band. DS1 got it done quickly though. However, 57 apparently did not want to be a wether. Although his testicles were _much_ smaller, he had mastered the art of retracting them at will.  As DS1 wrestled with the little buggers, I could feel my knee wanting to give way. Finally, the deed was done and I was able to grab the railings for support.

The next abscess was on Axtell out in the smaller field pen. This abscess was the same size, same location, same type of exudate as 8040. (Exudate sounds better than put, doesn’t it?) This time it did not go so well!

The rams were in the small pen where DS1 had put them after the tree trimmers left the gate open on Wednesday, and they escaped from their field. Luckily, the ewes are already bred. DS1 tried to put Axtell into the sorting chute to load him in the squeeze. Axtell did not want to go in the chute.   Finally, DS1 got him in but he was backwards. He needed to face the other way to enter the squeeze.  As DS1 tried to turn him around, he accidently touched the abscess which burst onto his fingers!    *BLECH!*  🤮 Some bad language followed from DS1 who was now wearing nasty pus on his fingers.  🤬  I gave DS1 several paper towels to clean it off, then doused his fingers with iodine. I was wearing gloves but DS1 was not since he figured we would have the ram in the squeeze. Since the abscess was now open, we didn’t dare move Axtell out of the sorting box. I grabbed my meds, paper towels, etc., and went into the large pen to work on him in the sorting box. I finished emptying the abscess, then flushed it with iodine and sprayed the Alushield on it. As I went back through the field gate onto the driveway my knee tried to fold the wrong way. OUCH!

Strangely for the rest of the evening although it was painful it seemed as though the knee cap was in the correct spot and I could bend it better. I wonder if the crunching noise was arthritis deposits breaking away. The doctor had told me that my knee cap had moved to the right of the joint and that was why I had trouble bending the knee or going up and down stairs. This morning my knee is less swollen than before 8040 performed her chiropractic move on it. Most surprising of all is the fact that the knee cap seems to be in the correct location and I don’t have any more pain! I wonder how long it will last.

FRIDAY AND YESTERDAY THE ON-LINE DORPER SALE WAS GOING ON! I thought it went through Sunday, but luckily realized that it only went through 5 pm Saturday. There are lots of bids on some of the bred ewes that Paul Lewis is selling. He is cutting back his 700 head herd because his son who was a full-time partner has now started working for the irrigation district. Paul encouraged him to do that since there are good benefits and medical. Now Paul has been cutting back. He sold 200 head of the commercial flock already and another 50 of the ewes he planned to keep. I bid on a couple but so did lots of other people who want his genetics. His flock is the only one on the west coast that is on Lambplan with EBV’s. His sheep are in great demand. I was lucky to get one and had to pay a little more than I wanted. Several of the sheep he is selling have already lambed, so you get the lamb at side as well. I set my alarm set for 4pm on Saturday to check the bids. The prices went wild towards the end of the sale. I was very annoyed since I had owned one ewe for almost 2 days up until 4:30 Saturday – half an hour before bidding closed when she doubled in price! *GRRRRR!   😤   *I also noted a young yearling Lewis ram with fantastic EBVs and bloodlines that had not received any bids. ??? My hand reached for my cursor and as I argued with myself, I bid on him. I could afford him, it was the only bid, and if I got him, he would be a terrific addition to my flock. Of course, I would have to hide him from DH . . . . All of a sudden the board went crazy with on-line bidding bells ringing all over the place. My lovely young ram jumped to over $1000 in about 10 minutes! The sale was ending and people that hadn’t gotten what they wanted at a cheap price were now burning up the board trying to finalize their purchases. Bing! Bing! Bing! In the last few minutes of the sale, everything about doubled in price as purchasers realized these ere the last of the White Dorpers. There is another on-line Patton-Lewis auction in October. I might get something then that will be in budget. Buying early in the sale is when the prices are best since there are still more to come and bidders stick to their max bids.

There were also several Patton ewes in the sale that I bid on. Again, checking the bids during the day to see whether my bid held or if I needed to count my cash and go higher. OUCH! LOL Most of my flock is Patton x Lewis with a few other good lines as well. They are all good bloodlines, fast growing and meat makers. I love my sheep.

I finished the sale spending a bit more than I wanted to, but buying the 2 exposed Patton ewes I particularly wanted, and the Lewis ewe with a ewe lamb at side.     Hopefully, the Patton exposed ewes are bred.     I will wait a couple weeks after I get the home, then put them out with my other ewes with the Moy ram. If they did not take, they will be covered by him. I will be sad because really wanted lambs out of the Patton ram, but at least they will be settled, and I will have lambs out of them.

With the ewes and older lambs turned out onto the field, we will let the lamb/creep pasture dry out a bit. clean it completely out and lime it to disinfect it. Then the ewes with new lambs (under a month old) will be turned in there so the lambs can access the creep for hay. The new Lewis ewe (Louisa?) wand her ewe lamb will go in with those 3 ewes to assimilate with the flock. The 2 Patton ewes (hopefully pregnant) will go on the field with the other bred ewes and Moy as a clean-up ram.

Now it’s time to go make the sub-irrigated planters with DS1. He is planning them out for me. DS1 went out on Friday to find the flex irrigation lines. These are flexible accordian 4” pipes with drain holes in them that are used as leach lines in reverse. They supposedly collect the water from the soil and direct it *away* from a location to drain it. As opposed to standard leach lines that take the liquid out and disperse it into the soil. He was finally able to find them at Home Depot in Burbank, but only in short lengths. No one else had them. Lowes carries them on-line, but only deliverable to stores on the east coast! We can order them from Home Depot in 50’ and 100’ lengths or buy them in 25’ lengths. The 50’ lengths are only a couple dollars more than the 25’ lengths. And buying 2 50’ lengths is considerably cheaper than buying 1 100’ length! Go figure.  😦  DS1 wants to do 1 planter first and see how much flex drain it takes, how much weed cloth it takes, and how it works. Then he will order the rest of the flex drain to be delivered to Home Depot, get the weed cloth we need (e already have a small roll here), and the 1” or 2” PVC pipes to cut for the filler stand pipes. Hopefully this will work very well, and be a good use for the 8 extra horse troughs we already have and no longer need. We only have 1 mule now, and she has a large trough on the field. We can’t use them for the sheep because when the water level drops by about 8-10” the sheep can’t reach the water to drink anyway.

FDIL has been amusing herself by starting seeds in egg cartons. They are already sprouting and need to be transplanted in another week or 2. It will take 2 weeks to get the flex pipe for the trough planters so we need to hurry!


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## Ridgetop

Another lengthy posting coming up. BTW, if anyone suspects where my clipboard might be, please respond. I have looked in the freezers just in case I was holding it and set it down when getting out meat for dinner, looked in the laundry, both clean and dirty (ICK), and behind, under and in the bed. I now have a new clipboard with the current weights copied onto a weight chart so am set for now. I am considering tying some sort of huge multicolor pompom onto it like you do with suitcases to identify your own. However, Angel might think it was some sort of new toy just for her and try to take it. Losing it once in 5 years is probably not such a bad record.

Yesterday the entire family worked hard outside. DS2 and DH did more brush cutting. DS1, FDIL, and I worked on the new planter troughs. We completed one but DS1 agreed that the drain hole at the bottom of the trough was a little too low, He had attached an elbow to the drain hole DH had fixed the trough drains with PVC fittings to be able to fill them through the drains. 

Years ago DH had designed a system of PVC pipes running from the water line to the corrals. Each water trough was connected to the water line through the drain hole which DH had retrofitted with PVC attachments. You just turned on the water at the main and the troughs would fill. There were some hiccups, but mostly the system worked. The drawback was that DH omitted to install the pipes in a trench and just laid them along the top of the ground. He felt that they would be “just fine” since when he installed them the horses were in their corrals watching him curiously. We turned our horses out every day though, first because the exercise was good for them, and second, because that way we had less poop to pick up in the stalls. This meant that we often found broken water feed pipes due to the horses who broke them as they ambled around on the field. We would discover these broken pipes when turning on the water and a plume of water would geyser up from an unexpected area. Much shouting would erupt at that moment. If you were lucky you were not standing in the path of the flood. If you _were _standing in the geyser’s path more shouting and some bad words would echo loudly around the field. The horses found this very amusing. 

Another drawback, more serious than replacing a break with a union (we kept lots of spare parts for this chore), was when they had to be emptied and disconnected to be cleaned. This chore took one full day and 2 people to accomplish.  DH thought he solved this by buying quantities of goldfish to keep in the troughs to eat the algae. We have a large colony of egrets in the Tujunga Wash though, so you can guess what happened.     At first, DH just thought the pretty white birds were enjoying a drink. He would admire them while drinking his coffee, calling family members to come see the pretty wildlife.  When he discovered to his horror that the birds were EATING his golden trough cleaners, his attitude changed. We were often treated to the sight of a screaming wild man in his underwear running across the field early in the morning to scare the birds away. He considered covering the tanks with wire but this would defeat the purpose of the horses being able to drink from them. Finally, he gave up on egret patrol. Eventually, as attrition claimed our horses, we simply turned them out on the field and only used the 7 pipe corrals occasionally when we had workmen up to work on the field. Once the pipe corrals were dismantled and half of them given to DS3 for his horses, the troughs were stored. Now we are down to darling Josie the Mule who does not need 7 horse troughs of her very own. And 20 sheep who can’t reach the water once the tanks are about 1/3 down. The young lambs can’t reach the top of the horse troughs at all.

So, back to DS1 and his decision to utilize the drain holes and PVC attachments to provide the necessary 5” high water level spillway. By using the existing drain holes and installing an elbow he felt able to provide the required drainage without having to drill any holes into the troughs, thus preserving their utility in case we decided to sell them or use them for their original purpose.  He had purchased enough materials to do 1 trough to see how it would work. We installed the accordion pipe with the holes in it, using a 25’ piece for each black Tuff Stuff 3’ x4’ trough. I found 3 rolls of weed cloth in the garden shed so we would not have to buy any. Then I found a piece of 2” PVC and also a length of 1.5” PVC for the fill pipes. We put the perforated (drain?) pipe in the bottom and covered it with the weed cloth. Then we removed the weed cloth remembering that we had to zip tie a piece of the weed cloth over the ends. This was our first one, so we were allowed some errors. Next DS1 cut a hole in the pipe and weed cloth for the 2” fill pipe. He cut the pipe at an angle so it could fill better and not clog. Now that the pipe was in, we filled the bottom of the trough with water to see if it worked and how high it would get before spilling out the elbow. Oops!  DS1 discovered that the elbow did empty too low and the water level did not stay at the required height. No problem. DS1 said he would fit a 4” long piece of ½ “ PVC in the elbow to raise the drainage level several inches. Now we were ready for the soil. DS1 shoveled dirt and planter mix into the wheelbarrow and mixed it together. The he finished filling the trough.  About this time, we realized that this tub had a split in the side that extended 6” down the side. With the weight of the dirt it was widening.   Oops again!  As I complained about the false advertising of the Tuff Stuff company on it’s “unbreakable” products, DS1 said he would buy some Flex Tape to repair the split. We left the dirt level low until we could do that. Then we filled the trough with water to moisten the soil we had put in it and admired our first completed “sub-irrigated garden trough”.  It still needed to be planted but we were very close.  The wet soil had to dry just a bit first.

DS1 went back to the hardware stores (he had to get different things at each) and we continued our cleanup of the back patio. When DS1 finally returned hours later, he was exhausted from the wait at each store. Other people that are confined to their homes are apparently doing lots of repairs and gardening like we are. There were long lines at all the stores. I suggested he not go to the hardware stores on a weekend again. He reminded me that it no longer mattered which day of the week we went since no one was at work anymore. Instead they were all apparently at the hardware stores. He and I repaired the trough, and also patched another one with a small crack. I checked the soil in the planter but it was still too wet to plant so we decided to call it a night. Everyone was exhausted from a long day in the heat. DS1 and I agreed that we could finish the second trough tomorrow. He would also order the other flexible perforated pipe which should arrive in a week or so.

Today it is *RAINING!* So much for finishing another trough or planting. However, the rain should bring up more green forage for the sheep who are now out on the field. It will also bring up more green forage that will need to be cut again if the sheep don’t eat the new growth before the deadline of June 1.

Because it is raining, and southern Californians are known to melt in wet weather – this is a *scientific fact* - I am taking care of computer business and correspondence.     I did tempt fate and go outside to take a few pictures for business reasons, and then tempted fate further by remaining out to photograph my beautiful rams and ewes. They are wearing their working clothes, partially shed out and therefore looking pretty scraggly. One could be forgiven for thinking they were suffering from some terrible skin disease – Ovine leprosy? The basic conformation is there though, and I have been admiring them.

This morning DS1 pulled Lewis out of the ewe pen and returned him to the Brotherhood. In 2 weeks we will move Lewis and Axtel to the Field of Celibacy and turn Moy, wearing a fresh harness and jaunty orange crayon, in with the ewes. Anyone that is not bred yet will be covered by Moy. He will also be a clean up ram for the 2 ewes that were exposed to the Patton ram when I bought them at the sale yesterday. You never know who actually settled, and better to make sure of bred ewes than open ewes. Moyboy is a very good ram and will fit with their bloodlines well. There are also the ewes with 2-3 month old lambs that have now been turned into the larger flock. Those ewes will be breeding in a couple of weeks. Their lambs will be going to auction in a week or so. The larger one that was destined for the church auction this month will be going into our freezer.  

Today or tomorrow I will go down and clean out the creep. *Inside *– no danger of melting. DS1 says he will clean the ewe pen since he likes to dig it out a bit every few months. It gets pretty wet, while the creep stays mostly dry and just needs raking out. Then we will apply some lime to the ewe pen to sanitize it. I also have to clean the 4 jugs. Little Snowflake, daughter of the prolapsed ewe, is still too small for her age. I think her mother may not have made enough milk for her toward the end. Next time I will just pull any lambs like that and bottle feed. I have the colostrum, formula, goat milk, and new nipples fitting the quart canning jars now so am set for emergencies. In Ridgetop tradition this means there will be no future emergencies requiring bottle feeding.   

She is smaller than the lambs that are a month younger. I hope she will catch up in size.  I did buy a bag of expensive grower ration for small lambs to use for her.  She is very happy when it is poured into her feeder until she puts her head down and discovers that it is not barleycorn!  Then she gives me a reproachful look and turns away.  I am trying blending it with the barleycorn in an attempt to get her to eat some.  You do know though that lambs and other livestock have the ability to use their lips to sift through and spit out the feed that they don't want.  I don't know if my sly plan will actually work.    I do plan to hold her back for breeding until she is a year old. She is a very pretty lamb with excellent bloodlines, and she can stay in the creep pen with the other May born ewe lambs for another several months. Those 5 spring lambs can grow up together and hopefully Snowflake will catch up to them in size. By keeping her in the creep pen with the new lambs and ewes she will get extra feed and some grain, unless she spits it out.

I ordered the Shaul’s panels and hang on feeder and we will pick them up when we pick up the sheep. Orland, where we pick up the sheep, is a 6 hour drive _one way_. Shaul’s is another hour north of Orland. We must do everything in one day. It will be a *very *_*long*_ day. We would usually drive up, pick up the equipment, stay over in a motel, then do the sheep pick-ups in the am before driving back. With the Covid close-down no motels are open. We have agreed to bring back a couple of sheep for another buyer in Indio. He will have to come to our place to pick his sheep up since Indio is another 2-3 hours southeast of us. We will keep them in the trailer with water and hay and he can get them the following day. Paul Lewis has to get vet checks and blood work on the rams to cross the state line before he brings his animals down from Oregon. It will take another week or so for him to do that. Wes also has some sheep going up that way. Once they work out their schedules, we will drive north to get everything. I am already tired thinking about it, but DH is chomping at the bit for another road trip. This morning while it rained steadily outside, he told me to hurry and load whatever I wanted to get rid of into the dump trailer because he had to get it back to DS3?!    DS1 and I decided that he just wanted to leave the house again. There are times when “Yes, Dear” is a perfectly appropriate response. The tone can vary.  

We can finished one garden troughs! If it dries out. DS1 said that he has reconsidered filling the planter mixture with water after building the troughs since apparently it really retains the water so well. And now it is raining. We might have to remove half the muddy soil and mix it with dry soil to fill the next planter trough. Then we can add dry planter soil to the first trough. Remember I said it is our first try – errors are common and in Ridgetop tradition are expected.

Once we get the new panels home, we will reconfigure the barn jugs _again_ to shorten the four 5’ x 10’ jugs to 5’ x 7’ jugs. That will free up 6’ of space for another 5’ x 10’ jug along the rear ends of 2 of the 5’ x 7’ jugs. The alleyway will be a foot wider so easier to get cleaning barrels through. The 5’ x 10’ jug will have the grafting panel installed between it and the rear end of one of the 5’ x 7’ jugs. That will give 2 jugs access to a head catch for either grafting lambs, assisting new ewes that don’t want to nurse (uncommon but happens occasionally), or doctoring a ewe. With limited barn space I have to make every inch count. The larger 5’ x 10’ pen will also be useful for holding orphan or weanling lambs, sick animals, 2 adult animals together temporarily, etc. I am excited about the new barn layout. With more ewes lambing and more lambing times throughout the year, I will get a lot of use out of these jugs as the ewes cycle through them.

I just counted our flock again and I think we now have 3 rams, 9 ewes, 8 ewe lambs, and that doesn’t include the new ewes (hopefully 2 of who are pregnant) and one ewe with a ewe lamb at side. Since I am currently keeping all my ewe lambs this brings my breeding flock to 3 rams, 12 mature ewes, 4 ewe lambs of breeding age and size, and 5 spring lambs. Next year I will have 21 breeding ewes! I hope to have 3 lambing every month since I am trying an accelerated program of each ewe lambing every 8-10 months. 

I need a large chart for this since I am getting confused over which ewes will be bred at any one time. Maybe 2 large charts since I will be in real trouble if I lose the only one!

*HAS ANYONE SEEN MY CLIPBOARD?        *


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## Baymule

I hope your clipboard turns up, which it probably will when you have moved on and totally forgot about it.  

You getting slammed by 8040 May have been just what you needed to get your knee back in alignment. Who needs an orthopedic surgeon? Last time I got slammed to the ground by two large dogs, in the back of my bad knee, I think they knocked it forward. I can no longer stand straight on it. It curiously is ahead and forward of the right knee. Maybe they need to stop sneaking up behind me and mount a frontal attack? Hmmm.... From behind, I do a face plant, eat dirt, writhe about screaming in acute pain. A frontal assault could skip the face plant and eating dirt. It’s sounding better and better. I think I’ll have a talk with the dogs and Sheep about knocking me down, bending my knee backwards and slamming it back in place. This, and other reasons is why I always have my cell phone on me, so I can call BJ or 911 for help. So far, the BJ Hotline has worked splendidly and I have not had to call 911. The BJ Hotline even comes with Kawasaki mule transport to the front door. Not too shabby. Now where did I put those crutches?


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> A frontal assault could skip the face plant and eating dirt. It’s sounding better and better.


Skip those and get a concussion instead, not sure which is better/worse.


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## Ridgetop

Yes my knee cap has remained in its proper place!  The knee occasionally has a tendency to want to bend in an inappropriate way (inside out) but otherwise seems ok.  I am going downstairs on it and it is bending correctly. 

The rain has stopped so hopefully we can do more work in the garden,  DS1 says when he gets back from his errands that he will make 2 more of the trough planters.  I will try to take pix of how he does it so you can see the idea.  Since the rain has softened the ground I am going to use the square point shovel to scrape the path.  It was covered in nice well tamped DG several years ago but has since gotten covered by a layer of dirt from the dogs making themselves beds in the surrounding areas.  I need to remove that dirt layer and that will help it to stay relatively weedless.

Once the next 2 troughs are done I will plant the other tomatoes, zucchini, cukes, and peppers.  Then we will have the three metal 2' x 4' troughs and the remaining 2 Tuff Stuff 3' x 4 ones to fish.  DS1 reminded me that we need more planter mix so will pick up some while running errands. v I have to decide what to do about the fountain area on the other side of the house.  I planned to take a scrap of the artificial turf (faux grass to us H&G channel watchers) that was left and lay it on top of the existing weed cloth.  The replace the fountain, and the large ornamental rocks around the edges.  The buckets of river rocks that I bought and filled it with when I made it, will be relocated to other areas.  The problem with the river rocks there is that the gardener blows off the patio and blows it into the planters.  The river rocks were covered with a layer of decaying leaves.  Great mulch, but no rocks to be seen until FDIL removed them.  I told her that there was weed cloth under them but I don't think she believed that there was either weed cloth or decorative river rocks in that planter until she removed a large muck bucket !   She suggested just replacing the rocks and adding lots of flowers, but I think a bright spot of grass with the pots of flowers on it would look prettier and draw attention to the fountain.  Right now the entire area is simply gray brown from the decaying leaves with an occasional gray brown boulder to break the monotony.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule:  I don't recommend another dog adjustment.  It might be your hip that is out of adjustment, and you sure don't need a concussion!  It is comforting to know that BJ and the Mule are close to help pick you up and bring you back to the house.  
Last time I fell down no one could hear my cries for help and I had to drag myself upright by holding onto Bubba who slow walked me to the door!  No use taking my cell either - DH can hear it ring!  LOL  Sweet Bubba!  He walks slowly and carefully next to me when I go up or down the stairs to the barn.  

OH NO!  DS1 just called!  Home Depo is OUT OF OUR PERFORATED PIPE!  Everyone must have seen the same DIY U Tube video!  We will have to order it and wait to do the last 5 when it comes in.  I suggested that we use standard PVC leach pipe.  Larger holes, 4" pipe, sturdier to weight of dirt.  He is considering but isn't sure he can fit it in the car.  It depends if the leach line is 8' long or 10' long.  Oh well. 

CURSE YOU COVID 19!  NOT ONLY ARE WE IN QUARANTINE     BUT YOU ARE FOILING MY PLANS FOR HOME IMPROVEMENT AND GARDENING!


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## Baymule

Sitting around the house bored to death, just trying to break up the monotony with a little home improvement and they are out of what you need. The audacity! Horrors!!


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## Ridgetop

Thank you, Bay, for your compassion for an old lady!



 Our empty horse trough ready to be turned into raised garden planters.



thistlebloom said:


> Why is it late in the season for corn? You have a long growing season, I mean, even *I* can get a crop of corn in! Does it get too hot? Sorry, for being dense...


 Josie the Mule - showing no shame for eating those roses. The only thing I can say is that since the others are bare root roses just not sprouting, she pruned the bigger ones to match! She is so sweet, hard to believe that she could pull a dirty trick like that.  That is a mule for you!
Here is a picture of what happens when you wait too long to plant in our southern California springs to plant. 
 The sad droopy things on the left are cucumbers. The sad wilty things on the right are jalapeno peppers.
The tub in the foreground has zuchini.  Again slightly sad but not as droopy. The happy vigorous plants in the wooden raised bed behind the tub are tomatoes on the left and crookneck on the right.  they were planted a month earlier, when the weather was cooler. 
 The net curtains are how I protect my tomatoes in August from sun scald.  I put them up now to try to shade the peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini to help them grow.  The tub to the far right has additional Better Boy tomatoes DS1 happened to find for me.  I already have Big Boy, Beefsteak, and Early Girl growing.  However, while they should be much larger had I planted them earlier in the season they are doing ok and since we will be here through August and September, hopefully we will have tomatoes later into the season.  I only planted 6 zucchini in 2 hills, but lots of crookneck since that is our favorite. 

FDIL has lots of things started from seeds coming along to be transplanted in June when the rest of our perforated pipe arrives and we finish the last 5 troughs.  Oh yes, all the Lowes stores were out of the 3 c.f. cheap planter mix we use, but it will be in on May 26 in time for the Memorial Day sales.  We need another 8 bags for our troughs even though we are using 2 bags to the rest dirt from the yard.  The dirt in the yard is 50/50 mix that DH brought in in a truckload some years ago.  It is decent dirt compared to our shale filled clay up here.


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## thistlebloom

Awww! Thanks for the Josie picture! I love mulies . And sorrel mules are the best.

If you have a pile of aged manure you can use that for the bottom third to half of your containers. I do it all the time in vegetable containers. I have a stack of muck buckets with drilled holes left over from my kids garden classes. I put potatoes in them lately because my soil has scab, but it's pretty spendy to fill them with purchased soil. I can handle half filled with expensive soil.


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## Ridgetop

BYH May 28, 2020

Got up yesterday morning to some sad news. My sister’s husband passed away. It was sudden but not unexpected on our part. He had diabetes and an extremely bad heart condition.  Last month my sister told DH that he needed some sort of surgery, but the doctors refused to perform it because his condition was so poor he would not survive. His death was NOT related to Covid. She doesn’t know when she will be able to have the funeral or memorial service. They live just outside Seattle.  Since Washington state is still shut down we can't even go up for several months.  

Next problem was late notice of payment on our TX rental. Taken care of now but apparently our manager has a new office person who did not make the payment because he thought it was on auto pay. Kris had told the previous girl to put it on auto pay, but instead she kept making the payment manually. Up to this month we had a perfect payment record. I called the mortgage holder and explained and had them put a note in the file as to the reason for the late payment. Then also told Kris we would put it on auto pay, but he had already instructed his girl to do so.

So much drama before 9:00 am!

Next, we drove up to Nipomo to return the dump trailer. 400 miles round trip. We stopped for diesel in Buellton, having been assured by DS3 that it was the cheapest place to buy it. $3.13 gallon. On the way home in Oxnard we saw it for $2.89! Oh well. The gas station had food for sale but would not allow anyone to use the restrooms! The attendant informed me that all restrooms were closed per Governor Newsom. However, I had DH pull over to the Taco Bell on the way back onto the freeway. Their bathroom was open. Thank heavens! since I had coffee that morning. I bought the large pack of tacos – nothing like traditional Mexican food! LOL

As we pulled in to DS3’s place, the grandsons, 8 and 5, came running out to greet us. Bringing them each a box of Mike and Ike’s candies really gets a big welcome! LOL DS3 was home early from work so we enjoyed a nice visit and admired his new tractor. It’s name is Kyoti Big Digger. I told yu that our family names its vehicles. Our big blue tractor, which he had appropriated, had finally gone to spare part heaven. However, like I told him - he got a lot of use out of it for the price he paid! We had given it to him when he moved up there since he had to run water and electric for his stalls, put in fencing, build 2 barns, etc. He has done a lot to the place in less than 3 years! Our hilltop is too small for that size tractor but DS3 really used it.

We had loaded 2 of our wrought iron patio chairs that had broken welds and taken them up to him to mend with his welder. I thought he would have to keep them for a while, but he has his welder set up in his garage and did them then and there. Fast service! I took them a couple of lamb chops to try and some lamb stew meat. DDIL has never cooked lamb and was not sure if she liked it, so wanted to try it before deciding to get a whole one.

While DS3 and DH bonded over the many perfections of his new orange Kyoti tractor, the grandsons brought their pet bantam roosters up to show me. I think she said they are Suramas (sp?). They are very tame and the boys spend a lot of time playing with them. They plan to do poultry showmanship with the birds next year, assuming the fairs open up again. DDIL said she had managed to get the fertile eggs just before the state shut down all poultry movement and sales due to the Newcastle Disease quarantine. She said that if there are no new outbreaks in the next few months that the state will lift the ban on poultry movement and sales. She also said that the Tri State Fair in Paso Robles was putting off cancelling their late August fair. The Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Orange County and Los Angeles County Fairs had already announced their cancellation. A lot of 4-H and FFA kids have bought their market animals since you have to own the animal for a certain period of time prior to the fair. Sheep, goats and hogs must be purchased a minimum of 60 days prior while steers must be owned 180 days prior. Then the animals have to be DNA tagged at that time period before the Fair– the child and animal have to go to the fairgrounds on a specific date with their paperwork.  Hair with follicles is removed from the animal and attached to the entry paperwork. This is so no one can slip in a ringer. Since beef has to be owned for a minimum of 6 months before check-in all the beef kids had already bought their steers for the summer fairs before the quarantine hit. DDIL said she is seeing a lot of ads now advertising hogs and steers that can’t be sold at the cancelled fairs (Santa Maria is in June). The kids and their families are trying to sell them privately hoping to recoup at least a partial amount of their investment. So sad for these kids. They are learning a hard lesson about real life farming and ranching and its risks. In their cases they only have *one* animal for which they have to find an alternative market.  Think of the dairies that are dumping their milk because they can't get it to the creamery.  Crops are rotting because they can't be trucked to market or the processor.  With all the restaurants closed farmers have lost their customers.  Think about the rancher who loses his herd to disease or to regulations preventing him from selling. Right now meat prices are rising, but why? Is it because of a lack of processors due to Covid? Or are people worried there will not be any meat soon? Who knows? All I know is that the rancher probably will not see much of the price rise in _his_ pocket. If these kids are lucky, they will break even on their private sales. If not, they will lose money. 
Join the exciting world of ranching, kids!   

A number of years ago there was a ban on hogs due to some disease and a lot of kids that had their hogs in certain counties had to put them down. No Jackpot shows were allowed throughout the state. Hogs could not be moved across county lines which meant you had to buy your hog in your own county (not so easy for some kids). Counties without the disease held terminal only fairs. No hogs could be purchased and taken home live from the fair – they all had to go to the processor. If the disease was found in the county prior to fair time, all hogs would be destroyed. We were holding our breath till fair time!

Hurrah! The remaining swelling from the abscesses on 8040 and Axtell have completely disappeared!    You can’t even tell that anything was there! I am so grateful to my vet who said let’s just culture the pus first before we pay to blood test the entire flock. If you lance and drain any abscess look for sticky green pus the consistency of thick cake batter. That is Actinobacillus. If you lance and cannot drain an abscess, but have to express a thick white cheesy looking pus that is the consistency of bread dough, that might be Caseous and you should definitely have it cultured. Actually, for peace of mind have the sticky green stuff cultured too. You will feel much better to have a definite diagnosis. The Actinobacillus abscesses are scary since they can get *huge*. The abscess on Axtell was larger than a tangerine and hard as a rock until it ripened. Poor 8040 had a smaller one first about the size of a golf ball. That is the one we drained and cultured.  The other swelling was along her upper jaw and muzzle and was like a large bratwurst. That one gradually went away after we lanced the first abscess. The third swelling was another lump larger than a golf ball that was also hard like the bratwurst. It grew as the bratwurst shaped swelling slowly diminished. When we finally lanced it, it was the size of a cue ball! Now you can barely see a scar and her face is nice and flat again. Good old 8040, the knee fixer.

Our garden is growing very well in the wooden raised bed that DS1 and DS2 built. However, our sub-irrigation troughs are not doing so well. I checked with DS3 and DDIL who told me that we needed to have enough dirt around the perforated pipes to allow the water to wick up into the soil. I think we put too much pipe. The soil is sitting on top of the weed cloth and unable to wick up any moisture. DS1 and I are going to replant those troughs, taking out some of the pipe to allow dirt to settle around the remaining pipe. Nothing like doing the job twice! In addition to our 5 remaining troughs, we have 6 horse feeders we will use. 3 of them are heavy metal barrels that have a hole cut out of them and rolled metal to keep the edges from being sharp. They have horse shoes welded on the ends to hang from pipe corral. Since the opening to plant through is not huge – about 18” x18” on a 36” barrel, we will use them for tomatoes or squash. The other 3 feeders are the same style – but made out of PVC food grade barrels. I made them and drilled holes in them to wire them to the corrals. These 6 will do well for container planting, although they may be slightly shallow. However, they will be perfect for beets, carrots and other shallow root veggies. I don’t need them since I have 3 other excellent horse fence feeders that are almost new condition, and only Josie the Mule to use them.

These 6 barrel feeders will have to be set in a “cradle” of some sort to stop them from rolling over. We have made and used “cradles” to hold the PVC barrel feeders for other livestock before. Once everything is filled and planted our gardening chores will be much easier! I will use the left over scraps of artificial grass as paths between the various planters to keep weeds down. No waste around here. I wonder if we could raise the cradles up to a taller height so we don’t have to stoop as far over the planters?

June 2, 2020

Today DH and I took the 3 wethers to the auction sales. Prices there have been very good, so we decided to give it a try. If I can truck a load of 3-5 lambs to the auction every month or so it will be easier and not any farther than selling privately and carting the lambs to the butcher.  Which reminds  me that my neighbor has not paid me for the lamb yet  He buys from us frequently so I think he has not gotten the check her because of the Covid quarantine.  I will drop him an email since the lambs are ready to be picked up from Kent.  I weighed the lambs before taking them to the auction to get an idea of how they will sell at their weights.  That will help me decide the most profitable size to sell.

CART157 is the January lamb – 4.5 months old and a whopping 118 lbs. on pasture alone. We have stopped giving any grain at all.

CART153 is barely 3 months old, dob March 2 – weighing in at 90.4 lbs.

CART156 will be 3 months old on the day of the sale, tomorrow, dob 3/3. He is the puny one at only 77 lbs. He had some sort of injury to his eye and developed an infection and was on penicillin for a week. His eye was nearly blind for a while and he didn’t look like he was finding the hay bucket. He had totally recovered, but I think it set him back. Still, 77 lbs. at barely 3 months old is not bad.

It will be interesting to see what prices they bring. If I can sell them at 3 months, it will be healthier for my ewes than early removal of 50 lb. lambs for the halal market. Although $150 is a nice price for that small a lamb. We will have to see. Next lambs for market are the month old rams in the creep pen. Then several ewes to lamb in September, then periodically through December. Then we start all over again in the spring. By spacing out the lambing, I will have lambs available throughout the year and don’t overcrowd my jugs or creep pen. Also, I avoid dumping too many lambs into the market at one time and lessening the price.

I considered putting a 6 month old ewe lamb into the auction since they are getting good prices for ewes. However, Orange 6 is cycling now, ready to breed, and DH did not want to sell any ewe lambs since we are "building the flock". I am not sure what number he wants to build up to since he doesn’t know exactly how many we have currently.      He keeps asking me if I know how many we have and seems shocked that I can count them off and identify them by number easily.  We have 3 rams, 14 ewes (counting the fall lambs) and 5 late spring ewe lambs.  I think I will ask Wes if I can put a ewe lamb or 2 in the on-line sale next year. If I can, those lambs would be 4-6 months old, but would be registered and sold as breeding ewes. A much better price and something to consider.

DS1 and I have redone 2 of the garden troughs. We had zip tied pieces of weed cloth over the drain hole and over the ends of the pipes thinking to prevent soil from clogging them. DS1 said that was a mistake. The weed cloth over the drain hole would nit let the water drain our and the level was so high that the tub was soggy instead of moist. The amount of tubes in the bottom did not allow the water to wick up since it could not reach the soil unless watered from on top which is what that system is supposed to avoid. He poked a hole in the weed cloth and water gushed out until the level was correct. We wre either drowning or drying our plants! Anyway I am waiting for the second trough to dry out a bit more than I can transplant the tomatoes into it and we can empty the next trough to redo the pipes. We are setting up new troughs with pipes, then shoveling all the dirt mix from the first ones into the replacements. Once we have replanted the plants from the first try we will be able to transplant all the seedlings that FDIL has started. DH’s corn is already several inches high so we will transplant them into the wide troughs and plant the pole beans around them. The beans can climb the corn stalks instead of a trellis.

Four of my 9 roses ordered from Jackson & Perkins are dead. I have not been able to get hold of them about replacements due to the Covid. However, they are guaranteed to be replaced if they die so I need to get in a call and find out how to get the replacements. I am considering having them shipped later in the year after the heat of the summer is over since planting bare root roses in full summer is probably not the best way to do The other 5 roses are doing well.

This morning we had a disaster! The water line in the barn malfunctioned – the shut off blew and the barn flooded! DS1 was out late checking the sheep and it was fine then. DH said that the main valve was turned on slightly. DS1 had fitted a second valve with a second shut off on to the end of the hose attached to the main valve so that we could turn it on and off when watering the buckets in the jugs instead of running water all over the barn. That part had blown completely off the attachment! Hopefully it will dry out before we pick up the new ewes this weekend. I think there are probably rat holes and tunnels under the dirt floor of the barn too. When I went to see what had happened, I went down a foot or so in the floor! Luckily, I was wearing my rubber muck boots, but I think I probably sank into a rat tunnel due to the flooding. DS1 laid down scraps of plywood over the floor so we could load the wethers. I think we will have to get a couple scoops of gravel and sand for the barn. The central passage is about 4”-6” lower than the stalls and was completely flooded like a lake. Luckily, the hay we just brought in yesterday was untouched. We stack it on pallets and it stayed dry. Whew!

Kent said that our steer came in and has anther week to hang before it can be cut. The lambs are ready for pick up but he said to wait until we get everything at once. I better check to make sure the freezers are empty for the meat. DS2 and FDIL have a tendency to fill them up with Drumstick ice cream cones!

The front patio is finally cleaned and planted. It looks very nice. DH and I are enjoying sitting out in the early morning with our coffee. The dogs join us. So nice to have breakfast with family! LOL The weather has cooled off again. We are having a lot of overcast weather which actually is nice since it does not get as hot. It is staying in the low 80’s. Nice breeze and very pleasant. June Gloom as we call it. The marine layer rolls in from the coast and gets trapped in our valley. The Chumash name for the San Fernando Valley was “Valley of the Smokes” because the marine layer would sit over the valley. No! *not* smog. We haven’t had much of that for the past 15 years now. And I remember the “Smog Alerts” when you were advised to stay inside during the heat of the afternoon. Wow! Just like the Covid quarantine! Except there was plenty of toilet paper.


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## Baymule

I am sorry about your sister's husband. I am even more sorry about the lock down and that you cannot go visit her. There is nothing like family when one has lost a spouse or loved one-and that is what she gets-nothing. 

You are doing great with your lambs. Perhaps on your next trip to Texas you could smuggle a little ram lamb for me?  I could breed him to some of my ewes, thus giving Ringo some "fresh blood" ewes to service. LOL LOL

I hope your container gardening does well for you. There is nothing like fresh vegetables. There are lots of new members on TEG, people who want to learn to garden or their parents/grandparents gardened and they need a memory refreshener. I think it is a good thing that more people are wanting to become a little less dependent upon the 3 days worth of food that grocery stores have. Our garden, so far is doing pretty good. I have my usual bodacious bounty of giant weeds, medium weeds and little weeds that remain flat and spread out like black plastic, suffocating everything they over run. On TEG a member posted about how wonderful lambs quarters are...….huh? I asked how to cook/prepare them since I have whalloping huge plants that are on a mission to take over the world. I pull them for the sheep, but heck, I might as well try them too. 

I had a good harvest of English peas and yesterday BJ pulled, trimmed and washed the last of the beets. I will can pickled beets this afternoon. We enjoyed broccoli and I put some in the freezer, I got a half a wash pan of onions, we had beet and broccoli greens salad with radishes. I have watermelon vines growing, Amish melon (cantaloupe) vines growing, the Blue Hubbard squash didn't make it, I replanted banana squash in it's place. My Painted Mountain corn is looking gorgeous, the zucchini is doing the sudden death thing from the stupid bugs, the long green beans from Thailand are growing well as is the Kentucky Wonder beans. Tomatoes are growing and I have green tomatoes, waiting impatiently for that first ripe one! I planted cucumber seed, not up yet and I'm cleaning up a weed infested patch so I can plant purple hull peas. I'm going to squeeze everything I can out of this garden this year!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> nothing like traditional Mexican food! LOL


Yep, Taco Bell is NOTHING like traditional Mexican food 

Sorry about your BIL, unexpected and not unexpected at the same time.  for your sister and family.


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## Ridgetop

BJ and beeets!  Yummy!  Your garden sounds like it is doing super this year! 

We love beets and plan to plant them in the shallow PVC barrel horse feeders.  Not the giant water troughs, these are 30 gallon drums that I cut into horse feeder.  Again, they are sitting out in the "equipment corral" with the other not being currently used equipment.  I have 3 PVC ones and 3 of the large metal barrel feeders.  I may not get to them and m ay offer them to my daughter in law.  Or they will be ok to use for individual rams when they are in solitary confinement, aka not currently being bred.

It turned very hot today, 90 by 9:00 am.  Big chnge from yesterday at high 70's!  Over 100 still at 6:45 pm as I write this.  I had hoped to get the other barrels done tonight since the shade is on that side in the late afternoon but maybe not.  DS1 is exhausted after spending 3 hours in the heat going from store to store to find Root Beer.  He found the Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, and Cherry Coke, all at different stores, but no Dr. Pepper.  Apparently the looters took it all!  LOL 

I will be weighing my May lambs today.  Tomorrow I will call the auction yard to see what prices my 3 lambs brought today.  I hope the high temps did not stop bidders from coming out.  The auction yard said that the Covid hasn't stopped any business so I am hoping.  With no cars on the road the trip took us 2 hours round trip.  With traffic it usually takes an extra hour. 

On the way home from picking DH up from Galpin Ford where he was having the truck serviced, we stopped to see if we could get some planter mix at Lowes.  There were no prices posted anywhere and there was only Miracle Gro (high priced one) available.  We flagged down an employee and asked about the prices and the other brands and he said that as soon as they come they are sold out so they d=took all the prices down.  I asked if that was so they could raise them each time and he laughed and said probably.  We bought the Miracle Gro since I was finished trying to get the Kellogg's every few days.  I will probably save the difference in price on gas!

We will leave early Friday to drive up to northern /California to pick up or sheep equipment and ewes.  We will stay overnight at the Best Western in Willows since it is closest to Orland where we pick up the ewes.  DH wants to go to Lodi to look at trailers and price dump trailers.  It is on the way to Shaul's.  The trip is over 500 miles one way so I am glad that the motels are open again.  No hot breakfast though, only "grab and go".   

Gotta brave the heat and start the weighing!


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## Baymule

3 hours searching for root beer!     That's wanting root beer awfully bad! I think I would have just got a box of tea bags!  Add sugar and ice for some sweet tea!  hahaha!!!

Isn't it too hot to plant beets there? Potting soil, can't you make your own with all the sheep manure you have? 

Have fun going to get your sheep equipment and your ewes!


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## Ridgetop

DS1 did this for himself, DS2, and FDIL.  I drink coffee, ice tea, and water!  I would not have spent my time doing that. I _have_ been known to visit several stores looking for certain flavors of _hard_ soda!  Priorities!    LOL  If I can't find it I try to order it at BevMo.

Beets will grow here just fine.  I have to add sand to my soil though since the clay is too hard, and adding extra compost makes them hairy!   Carrots are the same.  They do grow better in the winter, but I will plant them in a slightly shady spot and they should do well.  I am looking now for more Citronella plants.  They grow well in the shade and are supposed to keep flies and mosquitoes at bay.  I have one that I bought a month or so ago.  There were lots of them then but now all gone.     

Weighed the lambs and they are gaining very well.  Even little Snowflake, daughter of Prolapse, who was very small due to her mother probably not producing enough milk is putting on weight at .75 lb. ADG!  Have I mentioned I love y scale.  We even weighed the dogs!  Bubba 157 lb.  His diet is working!  Rika at 104.5 lbs., and Angel at 18 months a long legged rangy 100 lbs.  She will eventually fill out but is taller than Rika already.


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## Ridgetop

Left Friday morning at 7:00 am on a drizzly day that continued with fog and haze until halfway up the big valley – San Joaquin. DS1 checked in with us later said it had rained lightly during the morning after we left, probably not enough to help the pasture. San Joaquin Valley is the farm central of California and feeds a lot of the country. The lower half grows field crops, vineyards, alfalfa, gradually changing over to nut trees, more vineyards, field crops, cotton, then finally mostly nut orchards (almond, pistachio and walnut) and RICE! Paddies everywhere and emerald green this time of the year. Beautiful drive up and back – just under 1,000 miles round trip. Once we hit the middle of the SJV, the weather turned into lovely blue skies, soft white clouds, and a strong wind! However, no masks to be seen except when going into stores and restaurants some masks there but more than half of the people were not wearing any. Through the middle of the SJV the I-5 parallels the California aqueduct. On the west side the hills were golden with no crops, but occasionally a dead orchard of young trees. On the east side, no hills, and the canals are available for irrigation, plenty of crops in the fields. DH wondered why the young orchards were dead and I reminded him that these looked to be young trees, not bearing yet. The farmer that planted them probably lost a lot of his water allotment a couple of years ago and had to sacrifice a new orchard planting to divert water to one that was producing. Seeing the dead trees and a couple dead vineyards broke my heart. So sad. 

Anyway, we stopped at a trailer place in Lodi for DH to look at and price dump trailers. Not worth the effort since they were sold out of almost everything. DH wanted a slightly smaller trailer than the 14’ box DS3 has. The 12’ dump trailer did not come in a gooseneck which is what DH wants since our dump has a really limited turn around area. DS3’s 14’ is a gooseneck and barely makes it around the turn. DH said he could probably take the 12’ BP with 3’ sides but I vetoed it. If he wants a gooseneck he needs to look for a gooseneck. The owner said that she would be getting in a different manufacturer in a few months that she thought had slightly shorter dump trailers in gooseneck and they were slightly better made than the ones we were looking at. I told DH we should wait until they have a better selection (and we have cash since I only want to pay cash not do payments). We are just fine with borrowing DS3’s trailer when necessary for now. On the way back we discussed it and DH said that he did not need the 4’ high side walls since DS3 told him that when he hauls dirt or rock he can’t fill the trailer above 2’ anyway. DH decided he could get one with 2’ sides and it would be cheaper. Then he could made side walls for it out of 2x4”s and plywood when we needed to dump brush like we did on our old pick up. Problem solved.  Just need t save up the money for it.  

Next, we headed up to pick up the sheep equipment we had ordered. We had to drop the trailer to load it all in the truck bed. Then since we were planning to spend the night in a motel, I had brought the chains I use to chain the trailer gates shut when making a 2 day run with livestock. We chained the panels and feeders together, and then chained the whole shebang to the inside truck rail. On to Willows where we planned to spend the night before picking up the ewes in the morning.  Right on schedule.

Checked into the motel around 7:30 pm and decided to order a delivery pizza for dinner. We were not terribly hungry. Round Table Pizza charged $30.00 for a 14” delivery pizza!   Next time I will pack some microwave meals in our cooler since almost all motels have microwaves now. DH fell asleep watching TV after we showered. After 12 hours driving it felt so good to stretch out flat! Next morning no nice hot Best Western breakfast due to the quarantine. Just “Go Bags” with a cup of yogurt and a tiny muffin. However, at least we were able to get a good nights sleep instead of trying to travel back at 9:00 pm.

Next morning we headed up to Orland to pick up the ewes only half an hour away. The ewe lamb is huge at around 3 and a half weeks! I will weigh her tomorrow. Her mother is also very large, but needs some groceries. She has had a rough week transporting from Oregon to northern California then transporting again to southern California. She is putting everything into feeding her huge lamb and is showing the strain a bit. I will also worm her. The 2 bred ewes that I bought with her are definitely looking bred. They were with that ram from April 1 through May 25, so are due any time after the beginning of September. I will turn them in with the ewes being exposed to the other 2 rams as a backup in case they are not settled.

Easy loading, and on the road again by 8:30 am. It took us 8 hours to drive back today, and we did not stop to do more than gas the truck once and get burgers to eat in the truck while driving. OK, Ok, DH _did _stop so I could have 2 potty breaks, but it was _not_ my fault. I was trying to stay hydrated with water since I wasn’t drinking coffee. If I had been drinking my normal coffee allotment it would have been 4 potty breaks! LOL

Once arrived home, we unloaded the ewes and put them in the barn.

. . . . . . .

Oh, you want to know about _that_ episode?

Arriving home DH pulled the truck and trailer into the yard and stopped outside the barn door. This is the only place to stop since the barn is right next to the driveway. I took my purse, the coffee thermos, travel mugs, and overnight bag into the house. DH having driven for 18 hours in 2 days, brought the cooler out of the back, unloaded the paperwork on the sheep, and a couple other travel items, then disappeared into the house to put stuff away. I went down into the barn and removed the dividers in one set of jugs so we now had a pen 10’ x 10’. Put in hay and water. Set up one of the 5’ x 10’ jugs for the ewe with her lamb, put in water.  DS1 set up the 2 panels I had removed on the driveway to block the sheep off. Supposedly this was to make sure they would run down the stairs into the barn like good little sheep. Wrong. I tried to suggest that he not swing the entire rear gate open since it would block the stairway entrance to the barn where he wanted to send the sheep, and instead open the slide gate for them. Too late. DS1 saying he had everything under control climbed into the trailer to chivvy them out. And another Ridgetop adventure began. . . .

Leaping like Nureyev en jete, several ewes exploded from the trailer. The little lamb followed and got run over by a larger ewe. Gamely, she recovered and raced after her mother who was leading the gang in a frantic circle around the driveway. Assuming that DS1 had confined the dogs prior to this, I was surprised to see Bubba and Angel suddenly appear and pursue the mini flock. As they all disappeared with DS1 around the corner of the barn, I heard much bad language issue from the mouth of my eldest son. He was apparently blaming the dogs for scattering the sheep. Much bleating ensued. I called vainly to DS1 that 2 were pregnant and to be careful with them. More cursing ensued. I went into the house to get the leashes to confine Bubba and Angel, who had now been joined by Rika. I also asked DH to join us to help with this. Perhaps a mistake, since now there was another voice calling loud instructions to the dogs. The dogs continued to ignore the men, the sheep continued to circle the yard, and I was able to put the leashes on Bubba and Angel. Once leashed they stopped their investigation of the newcomers. DS1 loaded them into the stock trailer, and DH nimbly opened the back door for Rika and commanded her in. Obligingly, she walked inside then turned around shocked as he slammed the door on her.

By now the sheep were huddled at the front of the truck between the bumper and the drive-through gate to the field. This was not all bad since it is also the head of the horse ramp down into the barn. I slowly started to ease toward the sheep hoping to get them onto the ramp. I tried to check the gates to see if they were properly chained shut since DH1 had been going in and out with the wheelbarrow earlier working on the garden troughs. The walk-through gate was chained shut, but the drive-through gate has to be chained at the very bottom as well as the top, or the sheep can push it slightly open and wriggle through the gap. It wasn't.  The first ewe succeeded in squeezing through, then a second, and finally all of them were streaming across the field. The lamb, I was interested to note, was keeping up quite handily with the flock.

More cursing ensued from several mouths. 3 of these ewes were field sheep fresh from mountain pastures, not tame, docile, trained sheep. While I kept screaming “Don’t upset them, 2 of them are pregnant!” the 5 ewes and lamb disappeared past the ram pen, and ran down to the other ewes in the front pasture. We could no longer see them so were not sure exactly where they were. DS1 opened the field drive-through gate and had DH pull the truck through onto the field out of the way. He left the gate open to drive the sheep back into the yard. 

They were newcomers. They had not discovered yet the interesting ways they could outwit and outflank us. That would come, but for now we might have a chance.

Josie the Mule now discovered that there were some *NEW AND DIFFERENT *sheep invading her private space. While she no longer wanted to *kill* the new sheep (we think) she took off after them and the chase was on. Suddenly appearing from the lower front pasture 5 ewes and 1 lamb streamed up in front of a very excited mule. Commanding Josie the Mule to “*QUIT!” *interspersed with animadversions on her parentage, DH and DS1 ran in pursuit. Their 2 legs were unable to catch up with the galloping sheep and mule. I went to the hay barn and put a flake in Josie the Mule’s feeder in the vain hope that she would break off the chase and decide to eat her supper. No luck. I stumbled back inside to get her halter. Sweet JoJo was easy to catch, and I could tie her up while we dealt with the devious sheep. God laughs!

As the sheep circled back around followed by Josie, I made the mistake of calling her name and holding up the halter. OOPS! Rolling her eyes at me like a petulant teenager, she veered behind the truck. Quickly I cut across the front of the truck and cut her off. My disobedient mule was refusing to be caught! As she tried to gallop past me in pursuit of the sheep I yelled and swung the lead rope threateningly. I was tired and not in the mood for any tantrums by anyone. Pouting, Josie the Mule backed off and I heard DS1 telling his dad to open the lower gate and he would try to run the sheep up from below the barn. Keeping one eye on Josie T. M. I ran quickly to shut the open field gates. OK, OK, I limped as fast as I could while watching JTM with the magical eyes in the back of my head (left over from having 5 children). As I struggled to fasten the gate, I noticed the lower chain lying in the field where it had fallen off the gate. AAAAARGH!!! Retrieving the chain, I got it around the bottom of the gate just as the sheep burst up from the lower field and came up into the barn area. DH was strategically positioned at the top of the stairs. I was able to step into the ramp just as the ewes turned up it with an eye to leaping over the short wall back onto the field. (Some layers of bricks have fallen off over the years – I think I better fix that tomorrow with a piece of stock panel.)

Thwarted, the ewes turned back down the ramp and trotted into the barn. DS1 shut the gate, locking them into the main barn. Now we had to get them into the pen. Not so hard. HOWEVER, I wanted the ewe with the lamb in a separate pen. _Why do I always have to make this difficult?_  By now the 2 dogs were howling in the stock trailer and being answered by Rika in the house.  They knew they were missing the fun.

DS1 easily cut her out of the group but the lamb did not follow. All the other ewes did however. Now we had a roadblock. 4 ewes trying to go through a narrow gate at the same time with 1 large ewe trying to turn around in another narrow gateway, DS1 was trapped in the middle. Finally, with a super-human effort he pushed the 4 ewes back into their pen. As he did so he lost his grip on mama. She twisted away and dashed back into the pen too. 

Second try, DS1 snatched up the little lamb and tossed her into the waiting jug. As he turned back into the large pen to shoo mama into the pen after her lamb, the lamb ran back out through the gate that was open waiting the advent of mama.     

Third try, DS1 informed mama that he was through playing nice, grabbed mama around the head and walked her into the other jug. I slammed the gate. Mama objected to being separated from her lamb and started banging against the panels. Before she got too upset DS1 had caught the lamb and put it inside with her. 

Finally, we all stood around gasping for breath. DH walked out to release Bubba and Angel. DS1 walked out with him to feed the rams. I fed the sheep in the barn. One of the pregnant ewes and a fall lamb started nibbling the alfalfa in their pen. Mama and her lamb stared at me inimically. I hoped she would tame down.  Hmmmm.


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## Bruce

Quite the rodeo!

I'm really surprised those fields are being shifted into nut trees given the amount of water they need and the ever increasing droughts in CA.



Ridgetop said:


> since our dump has a really limited turn around area.


Since you plan to move to TX relatively soon, why would you buy a trailer that is specific for that dump?? I could see maybe getting a used one if it happened to become available but who knows what you will need in TX.



Ridgetop said:


> Round Table Pizza charged $30.00 for a 14” delivery pizza!


OK that is beyond ridiculous. And I suppose the driver gets a tip as well?


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## Baymule

Y'all never do things the easy way do you? 

Now take yourself out to the barn and terrify those new sheep by taking pictures!


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Since you plan to move to TX relatively soon, why would you buy a trailer that is specific for that dump?? I could see maybe getting a used one if it happened to become available but who knows what you will need in TX.



Actually *I* do not want an expensive dump trailer when we can drive 3 hours to visit our grandchildren, borrow our son's dump trailer and use it for the occasional (annual) clean up we need!  For some reason DH has decided _*he*_ needs a smaller dump trailer in order to tow it to DS3's house and leave it there for DS3 to use when we borrow DS3's larger dump trailer for a week or two.  
 I think something is wrong with that idea - feel free to comment!



Baymule said:


> Y'all never do things the easy way do you?



It is the Ridgetop way,  Grasshopper.


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## thistlebloom

Sometimes men's minds are mysteriously inscrutable. 
If you could choreograph that whole "incident" I think you may be able to market it as a fitness regimin. 😄


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## Ridgetop




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## Ridgetop

Yesterday the check came from the auction. $160 per head. Same buyer bought all 3. After 10% commission and $1/hd yardage my total was $429.00 for the 3 lambs. I think this was a good result, and I will be taking my other ram lambs down to Euclid again. Since they all sold for the same amount, I will take them in around 75 lbd. At $160/hd at 77 lbs. the smaller of the 3 came in around $2/lb. The arger they are the less I got per lb. so smaller it is which I like better since my cost going into feeding them is less and I can get the ewes back to the rams sooner. I will try to sell them at 50 lbs. for $150/hd first to the Halal and Armenian buyers since that is even better rice per lb. Otherwise, another month on grass or alfalfa will bring them to 70 lbs. and no worries about mastitis for the ewes with super early weaning. I will take them to the auction for a quick sale at 70 lbs. I think we can make enough to pay for the hay this winter.

Hay prices are down to $12.00 per bale (cheap for here), so we want to start bringing in our winter alfalfa now. We have removed out most of the equipment that was stored between the two Connexes. That space is surrounded by horse corral making a space of 20’ x 12’ or more so we can store quite a lot of hay in there. I will attach wire around the bottom to keep out rabbits, and vinyl horse netting over the corral panels to keep Josie the Mule honest. We can either tarp over the top of the bales, or get a metal carport to protect it instead of putting up a permanent roof. I would prefer a roof, but time and cost are a consideration as always.

The garden is coming along We picked the first summer squash today. DS1 dug out a huge amount of massive tree roots left from the downed tree. It was over 50 years old. I thought when we had the stump ground up that the roots were removed but apparently grinding the stump does not include digging out all the enormous tap root and its tributaries. DH, DS1 and DS2 cut the pieces up and filled our green barrels for the trash pickup tomorrow.

The new ewes still jump like marionettes when I enter the barn. The old ewes also jump, but for joy that I am coming to feed them. I need to turn the new ewes out with the field ewes so they can acclimate and learn their way into the fold and barns. The ewe with the lamb will go into the creep pen, after I worm her and feed her some extra groceries. I think I bought a bag of special ewe conditioner feed so she can have that for a couple weeks to build her up. If the lamb was not enormous and fat I might think she did not get enough to eat. But there are 2 fall Lewis ewe lambs that I am keeping for the other buyer till he gets here to pick up next week. They look fine. I think it is just the lambing, nursing, and the stress that has dropped her weight. She is a big rangy ewe. That is not the style I normally buy since I prefer smaller size ewes, but I wanted the bloodlines she brings, along with her lamb whose lines are even better due to her sire. The breeders, Paul and Kathy Lewis, are the only west coast breeders that are on Lambplan. Lambplan printouts show the projected muscle depth, weaning weights, post weaning weights, “shear force” (which is not for fleece I found out but for tenderness of the meat LOL) etc., production vaues which the ewe or ram will throw. 50% of those traits from each parent’s printout will come through on the lamb. That is how you figure out what you want to buy depending on do you want larger or smaller birth weight lambs, larger or smaller weaning weight lambs, more muscle, better milking, more survivability, etc. The results are all scientifically calculated by keeping *extreme* records doing ultrasound muscle depth testing and submitting the information to the main site in Australia. That site then does all the calculations for you and sends you the results. Those printouts can tell you the qualities the individual sheep should produce in their lambs. Oh yes, there is also a parasite resistance section and wool quality section for the wool breeds. Complicated. I have a headache from thinking about it and have probably explained it wrong.

The ewe I bought is top ten % for quite a few things – I don’t remember what exactly, but she was one of their keeper ewes that they decided to sell. They decided to cut back by about one third since their son is no longer working full time with them on their combination sheep/beef ranch. This ewe looks very scraggy right now since she is shedding her wool completely at the moment, and they had a late cold spring with snow this year. Large chunks of wool are just dropping off her body! You wanted pix – I will go down and get some.


   Lewis fall lamb, my 2 new Patton bred ewes one facing the camera the other facing away, and hidden behind is  the other Lewis Fall lamb.  You can see that she still carries her wool.
 Here is a good broadside shot of the Patton ewe showing her extreme length and thickness. Hopefully thickness also due to pregnancy. 

The pen with the 4 ewes holds two fall ewe lambs bred by Lewis, and two 2 year old bred ewes bred by Wes Patton. Wes shears his for the sales, which I like since I can see body structure more easily. You can see th darker strip along the topline. That is where Wes sheared of the toupee on the ewes. They will shed well. One of the younger ewes has shed out completely while the other one is still dropping wool. Paul doesn’t shear for the sales since his sheep are guaranteed to have complete shedding. Paul’s sheep sell high based on their Lambplan production evaluations. He never hoof trims his sheep either and their feet are always good. I do trim but only once or twice a year. Running on our hard stony ground wears off the hooves almost perfectly and only a couple of my ewes need any more attention.

The two larger ewes are the two year old bred ewes I bought from Wes. They are half sisters to one of my other ewes that I really love, and are bred to the son of an imported Fullblood ram. One of them is also related on her mother’s side to another of my favorite ewes. I really love Wes Patton’s White Dorpers. They are a nice size, friendly, docile, easy to handle, good mothers and producers, as well as easy keepers. What’s not to like?!

The other two ewes in the pen are Fall lambs. One of them is still shedding her winter wool, while the other one has completely shed out. The funny thing is that I had actually bid on those two ewe lambs before I concentrated all my $$ on the ones I finally bought. LOL They are really good lambs with excellent parental evaluation scores.

The last ewe with her lamb is really looking bad with her dreadlocks hanging down! LOL She is big, and her lamb will be big too. The lamb, as you can see, is *huge* for a 3 week old lamb. Yes she is really only 3 weeks old!  I have not weighed her yet, but expect her to top the 5 week olds in the creep pen. I was going to hold these two in the jug for a couple weeks to make sure the lamb would be large enough not to get hurt by the older lambs in the creep but she is more likely to hurt them! As soon as I worm her mama and get a few extra groceries into mom, they can join the other ewes with young lambs.

FDIL just came in and reported a dog attack on my rose bed.  It is fenced so how did the culprit jump in?  Are there any LGD breeds that will protect garden premises from digging dog attacks????     I thought gophers were my only enemies!

Snowflake says "HI!"


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## Mike CHS

Most of ours are pretty much done shedding but one of my older ewes (Notag) was following me around in the field this morning.  I wasn't paying much attention but every time I stopped to look around checking body condition, Notag was there.  I had a "duh" moment when I took a closer look at her and she had an area about 12 x12 inches of hair just ready to come off.  It was only attached in one spot and she was appreciative enough that I got a good rubbing by her head on my leg.


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## Baymule

Those are some very nice ewes and lambs. The wool that doesn't shed drives me nuts. Since I have several ewes from that lousy Dorper ram from a few years back, they sport "woolies". Yuck.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I think something is wrong with that idea - feel free to comment!


OK!
There is nothing wrong with that idea IF you were going to stay in the area for a reasonably longer period. What's he going to do with the small trailer in TX (everything is bigger in TX   ) if you have the space and need for a larger one? I bet you get a lot of depreciation on a dump trailer after it leaves the lot.


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## Ridgetop

Thank you.  I do love my sweet White Dorpers.  Stay away from the Black headed Dorpers!  Jane Patton says they don't have very good natures.  Of course these girls won't look like this next year, they will be ragged and scraggy like the rest of the girls.  I don't mind a toupee on top for sunburn protection, but once I get a certain number with the other traits I want, I will start culling for shedding.  Right now I am working on productivity, growth, meat, hooves, parasites (although in this arid desert climate I have a lot less trouble with worms due to the dryness.)



Bruce said:


> OK!
> There is nothing wrong with that idea IF you were going to stay in the area for a reasonably longer period. What's he going to do with the small trailer in TX (everything is bigger in TX   ) if you have the space and need for a larger one? I bet you get a lot of depreciation on a dump trailer after it leaves the lot.



Exactly!    BUT, I don't see the need for one here at all when we can _*borrow*_ our son's dump trailer.  After all we have loaned a lot of equipment out to our children over the years.  It's time for payback!  LOL  We only need it a couple times during the year at most, so why pay licensing and registration?  Last couple payments on our 5th wheel coming up and DH figures he can use that payment money to buy the trailer.  WRONG! 

Let's put it in the bank and save it up.  We still need our new kitchen solid surface countertops.  With several of us cooking now, those old tile tops are taking a beating.  They needed to be replaced a couple of years ago but I put it off.  I am such a cheapskate when it comes to spending money!  

Except for buying sheep . . . .  

*What's wrong with me?  I need an intervention!!!      *


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## Baymule

*INTERVENTION FOR RIDGETOP!!!*
SIRENS AND FLASHING LIGHTS, EMERGENCY VEHICLES ARRIVE...……..AND THEY ARE...…..

*PULLING A STOCK TRAILER FULL OF SHEEP!!!! BWA-HA-HA-HA!!*


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## Ridgetop

*Bring wine - interventions are thirsty work!*


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> *Bring wine - interventions are thirsty work!*



Want me to swing by Miranda Lambert's place and get some more of that Amaretto Champange? That stuff was darn good! By the way, did you ever drink the wine you bought there?


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## Ridgetop

YES!  Excellent stuff, just the thing for interventions.  LOL


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## Ridgetop

June 8
This morning DS1 and I separated the ewes into 2 flocks, harnessed MoyBoy and Axtell with their crayons, and turned them into separate fields pens. Hopefully, by tomorrow there will be some markings on some bums. In 2 weeks I ill know if several that were marked by Lewis are actually settled. In another week, we will turn the 2 new bred ewes in with the rams just in case. One apiece.

It was blowing all night last night and I kept waking up to the sound of stuff being blown around or across the driveway or patio. Other than separating the sheep, we decided not to work in the garden – too much dust would be blown around. Also, can’t work on DGD’s canopy bed. Too windy to sand or paint it, and too windy to made the bed rails with the power tools – sawdust. Also. Can’t work on painting the new shelves for the utility shelves. They are pressboard and have sagged over the years because they are PRESSBOARD! DS2 cut a sheet of ¾” plywood we had in the barn from roofing the barn last year into replacement shelves. I want to paint them since it will make them easier to clean – too windy to paint.

Since we decided not to work outside, DH is playing bridge online and am working in the office. I worked in my sheep index cards. These are 4”x6” cards that have all the information about the sheep – ear tag #, registration #, DOB, twin single, triplet, etc., and their pedigree. On the back of the card I enter each lambing – sire, number, sex, etc. I started this since I now have a lot of ewes to sort out for breeding to 3 rams. I need to keep track of who is closely related, daughters, etc., so as to breed properly. I also keep track of weight gains in the lambs until they go to market. This helps me decide which ewes and rams produce faster or slower growing lambs.

The ewes in the barn are getting calmer when I go in the barn to feed. The Patton ewes are pretty docile and should adjust easily, but the Lewis ewes have had less human time so are still sort of nervous. They are not mine and will be leaving in a day or so, so that is not my problem. However, putting the Lewis ewe and her lamb in with my older ewes that are pretty tame, not to mention darling Snowflake, will help her clam down. I don’t expect her to ever be ass gentle as my Patton ewes or the ones we bred, but as long as she is calmer that helps.

The wind is really bad, and it is a cold wind too. It is blowing from the northwest. Later when we feed, DS1 and I will weigh the new lamb, and worm her mother. DS1 brought in the bag of ewe builder I had bought and stored in the Connex. That should help her. I will also give some to the 3 ewes with lambs on them since they lambed 8 months after their last lambs. That will help them retain condition. I also need to put it on my calendar to have Dr. Rene order some Bo-Se for them for the month before they lamb.

While I am confined inside, I think I will start painting the fake wood carving of roses and swags I bought to apply to DGD’s canopy bed headboard. DGD is 6 going on 7, lost her first tooth, and is a girly girl. *Except* when she rides her bike and climbs trees with her brothers. She has no fear and has gotten more stitches than either of her brothers combined! This is her First Communion year and she will be covered in scars. DS1 told her mother that they will have to raid the college fund for plastic surgery to repair her. LOL Her birthday is in July, and we hope to have the bed finished for her so her mom and I can do her room all princessy. She wants rainbows on the walls so we will have to order wall decals. In the old days for my children I had to make stencils and transfer everything in paint. Now easy stencils. DS1 had a full wall stencil of a mesa, with a lone Indian rider outlined against the sunset. A border of horseshoes and brands ran around the top of the room. He loved that stencil until it got too dirty and wore off a bit. I can’t believe that I was able to do it. I had to use graph paper to enlarge it from a small drawing I found somewhere. This will be much easier.

This year for Christmas we will buy several Ikea shelving units 15” deep x 36” x 72”. Those will be DGD’s Barbie dollhouse. I used to make Barbie doll furniture (one of the small boutique businesses I had). DD1 has multiple bedroom sets, living room sets, accessories, etc. One year when visiting my mother in Washington, we found handmade Barbie furniture out of real oak in a specialty doll store. It was beautiful and DD1 got a beautiful dining room set and bedroom set for Christmas that year. She also got Barbie horses and had a stable. My mother loved dolls and miniatures ad would save, buy, and made items for the Barbie house too. There is enough furniture for a 10 room mansion. As well as the patio set, the stable and garage. Remember Ken? His fuzzy hair rubbed off and he went bald. Realistic I suppose, but not for my Barbies. My Barbies had GI Joes! Real men with muscles, tattoos, and weapons to protect the home. LOL Anyway, this Christmas DD1, FDIL, and possibly DD2 if she is living closer, and I will set up the dollhouse with wallpapered walls (scrapbooking paper), carpeted floors (carpet samples), hardwood floors and vinyl floors, etc. You can turn a lot of stuff into and make a lot of miniature furniture with imagination. That is my favorite part. When I was a child, I usually just arranged and rearranged the furniture and accessories while Barbie and her husband were “at work”. You could say that I was Barbie’s interior decorator. LOL

It will be a fun time with my daughters and daughters-in-law.


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## thistlebloom

So I see you're using your granddaughter as an excuse to build a doll house, haha! 😄


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## Baymule

I am smiling at your description of your girlie girl grand daughter. I was never a girlie girl, I'm sure that comes as no surprise! LOL I loved Roy Rogers and had a stick horse named Trigger. Best of all, the little girl across the street was a tomboy too and we played dolls-our way. We'd ride our stick horses, our dolls were always the bad guys. They were bank robbers, stagecoach robbers or horse thieves. We always caught the bad guys, shooting them with our cap pistols and hanging them from the trees. I made a Jim Dandy hang mans noose. Where I acquired that skill, at such a young age, I have no idea. My dear, I sound like such a twisted child!     

If little girls acted like that these days, their mothers would have them in therapy, the school wouldn't let them attend classes and it would go on their permanent record to hound them all the days of their lives, probably keeping them out of college and never having a good job.


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## Ridgetop

thistlebloom said:


> So I see you're using your granddaughter as an excuse to build a doll house, haha! 😄


I plead guilty.  When DD1 asked  me to play dolls with her, I just rearranged the furniture in the dollhouse, cleaned the Barbie horse barn, built new pastures, and wondered where I could buy Barbie size farm animals!  LOL

I was also a tomboy.  Lest you think my granddaughter is a prissy girlie type other than liking unicorns, fairies and rainbows - when DD1 tried to get her to play with her baby dolls and care for them properly instead of dragging them around by a leg, DGD handed the doll to her mom and said, "Here you take care of her, I don't know how!"  LOL  
Apparently she will need to hire a nanny!  She does karate with her brothers and is more interested in the farm animals and playing outside on the trampoline, swimming, and ding soccer.  DD1 waited so long to have a girl to dress up and do girlie things with and instead she has a little tomboy in girlie clothes!


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## Ridgetop

More interminable ramblings . . . .

Saturday at 6:00 am Salvador's friend, Ernan, came by to pick up the 2 ewe lambs we had brought down for Salvadore. A few days had stretched into a week while he made arrangements to get them from our place. The dogs woke DH up as my phone rang announcing his arrival. I expected his friend to have some sort of truck with a cage, but he showed up in a newer passenger van! These are range sheep and wild as sin! Very spooky - although they have stopped trying to leap out of their pen when I enter the barn to feed – they run to a far corner rolling their eyes! First DH shook his head at the vehicle and told Ernan that he wasn't sure it was a good way to transport them. Then I went out and saw that there was not even a wire divider between the driver's seat and the cargo portion. Ernan was busily putting down the seats and laying out tarps to protect the area. I also shook my head and said it might not be a good idea. By now Errnan was probably wondering what his buddy had told him about these sheep. He said that Salvatore had said that they were just lambs. I told him that these were not little BBQ size lambs but large 9-10 months old ewe lambs weighing over 100 lb. I think he was expecting little baby lambs. While he finished laying the tarps in his vehicle, I called Salvador and told him that his friend was transporting the sheep tied up in his passenger van. Salvador said it was the only way he could think to get them. OK, not my sheep. I retrieved the health papers and the receipt for Ernan to sign that he picked up the lambs (alive) for his friend. While DS1 put up Rika and Angel, DH took Bubba inside the house and started the coffee. After he pulled into the driveway, I brought Errnan out a cup of coffee and filled his thermos with hot water. He said he was from Argentina and drank mate – a form of herbal tea. I had heard of this tea but never seen it so he showed the bag to me. Apparently, he orders it from Amazon. He said Argentines drink it all day long instead of coffee or tea. He said when they are hungry and don’t have anything to eat, they drink mate and they don’t need to eat! (I considered a diet of mate for a few minutes – need to read up on it first.) DS1 said that Ernan said he had driven over at midnight but the lights were off and the dogs were very agitated so he came back this am. ??? Who shows up to pick up livestock at midnight without calling first?

We all trooped into the barn where Ernan stared at the sheep as they bounded around the pen like ping pong balls. DS1 calmly said “Well, let’s get them” and entered the pen followed by Ernan. I handed DS1 a 5’ portable panel and he trapped them in a corner. Then the rodeo began.

Ernan did not seem anxious to grab either of the ewes that were struggling to escape from DS1’s impromptu squeeze and they both managed to wriggle free from the corner. By now DH had come down into the barn. Wisely, he and I both stayed on the outside of the 10 x 10 pen as the ewes rocketed around and bounced off the side panels. One ewe hit the panels right where I was standing. Since these were the lightweight Sydell panels, they immediately folded at the pin and caught me in the stomach. Ooof! Luckily, the ewe did not think to leap higher or she could have easily cleared the fence. DH stationed himself at the barn gate so he could ward off any sheep that decided to leap over. If they got out of the barn they would be loose on the field! Now DS1 had managed to corral the 2 ewes in another corner next to the walkway. I ran to grab one by the head as he fought to hold them in. Leaning over the pen fence, she kept avoiding my grasp. Luckily, I keep a sheep halter in the barn and grabbed it. Sliding it onto one ewe I quickly tied her to the side panel while Ernan tried to maintain his grip on the other ewe. Setting the panel aside DS1 hurried to help him but she slid through Ernan’s fingers like an eel and was loose in the pen. Turning his attention to the one I had hold of with the halter, DS1 said “Let’s take care of this one, then we can catch the other”. Grabbing a fistful of hay ropes, Ernan began to tie the ewe’s hind legs together as DS1 held her down. Thrashing around and kicking she kept managing to get herself loose. Finally, DS1 grabbed her and flipped her, holding her on her butt by the front legs. Much bad Spanish epithets were coming from Ernan and although I understood much of it, I pretended not to. I did, however, agree with what he was calling her!

Meanwhile, my two new bred ewes were staring shocked at the rodeo taking place across the aisle. The other ewes in the creep pen and their lambs were demanding to be fed. A lot of noise echoed around the barn. While DS1 and Ernan struggled to tie ewe #1, I fed the other ewes. Immediately silence filled the barn, only broken by occasional mutters from Ernan in Spanish. Again, I agreed with what he was saying about the ewe. Finally, we had the ewe’s front and back legs tied and could concentrate on the other one.

This second ewe was the wildest of the two. She managed to get out of the pen as Ernan opened the gate to get more hay ropes. Luckily, she was still confined in the barn. DH started to move forward to help catch her but remembered to stay back guarding the short wall that would be her way to freedom. DS1 and I moved her back into the alleyway and she ran back into the pen. Once again, the rodeo began until they had her flipped on her back and being tied. Those ewes kicked so much that they were almost impossible to keep the ropes on their legs as they were being tied. As Ernan finished tying the rear legs of #2, #1 with front legs tied together and rear legs tied together, surprised us all by managing to get to her feet and proceeded to leapfrog around the pen! Amazing! DS1 and Ernan almost lost their grip on #2, but luckily #1 fell over. I threw a towel over her eyes. It works for frightened horses, maybe it would calm the ewe down. It actually seemed to work since she lay still. After tying the front and rear legs and watching the other ewe still able to hip hop around the pen, the men decided to run a rope from the front legs to the rear legs on both ewes so they would not be able to scramble up. We were all worried about what would happen if they managed to get loose in the van while Ernan was driving to Indio on the freeway. Indio is at least 2 hours by freeway!

Finally, with both ewes tied, DS1 and Ernan each took a pair of legs and carried them up to the driveway to load into the van. They looked like hunters carrying their kill into camp. I felt like I should fetch them a pole on which to suspend the sheep. Once on the driveway the sheep continued to buck around. I got a roll of duct tape and fastened the rag over the first sheep’s eyes, leaving it off her nose and mouth. She immediately lay still. The men laid her in the back of the van and loaded the other ewe in with her. With the first one laying immobile, the second stopped struggling. We wished Ernan a safe trip as he drove away, released the dogs, and staggered inside to have our first cup of coffee. I heard later that they arrived safe.

With those ewes gone, the 2 new bred ewes will go out on the field, each in with a different cleanup ram. I need to take down the jug panels, clean the barn, and lime it. Then we can set up the new barn arrangement with the panels. We have enough of our 10’ field panels to put up another 20 x 50 pen next to the others. Then we need 2 more od Dh’s favorite 10‘ gates so we can open each of those 2 pens into the holding pen that is connected to the chute. It only takes money and time! Guess which one we have! Won’t happen for another couple months.

No lime to be had at either Lowe’s or Home Depot, but Tractor Supply had it even cheaper at $3.48 for 50 lbs. DS1 drove out to return the 3 bags of lime I had and pick up the other lime. Since we will be cleaning out and sanitizing the creep pen in another month when the ewes and their lambs go out with the rams I have chosen for them he got 5 bags. TSC said they carry it all the time which is good to know since Lowes and Home Depot are completely out of it. When he came back DS1 said they had a type of lime called AG lime which was even cheaper and designed to be spread over fields. DS1 said it is good to break down heavy clay soil so maybe spreading it over our property would help grass and better forage grow in the rainy season instead of bitter nettle and mustard.

The crazy ewe with the lamb, has calmed down somewhat since moving her in with the other ewes with lambs. They rush to see us since we are bringing their food. She has starting coming in with them and crowding the feeder when I break up the hay flakes into it. I am giving all those ewes a small amount of grain - 1 cup each of barleycorn and ewe builder ration mixed together. Since these 3 ewes lambed 8 months apart, while the new ewe looked a bit thin, I am building them up a bit before breeding them again in another month or 2. I also want to have Dr. Rene order out some Bo-Se and vaccinate the ewes before breeding. I won’t Bo-Se any pregnant ones until about a month before lambing since it can cause problems mid pregnancy with growing fetuses. I will have to arrange for her to either come out several times or have her order me the Bo-Se if she will.

I can’t get any bags of loose salt at TSC! Apparently, they don’t carry it. I need it to blend with my 10 lb. bag of free choice sheep minerals which I bought some months ago. They need to be mixed with 50 lbs. of loose salt before being given to the sheep. I am not sure what to do about that. Maybe my feed store can order it for me. Otherwise, I wonder if ordinary uniodized table salt would do. Or Kosher salt which is a coarser ground salt. I do put out mineral salt blocks. The tiny amount of copper they contain is not a problem for my Dorpers.

DS1 is also picking up some rabbit deterrent for my roses. Josie the Mule is no longer able to get to them but the ones that were sprouting are now completely denuded of leaves. Possibly/probably rabbits? DS1 questioned that it was rabbits, but the sheep are not sneaking out of their pens to nibble the rose leaves off, and Josie TM is not jumping the fence to do it either. And FDIL said that something has been nibbling at the squash – the veggies, not the leaves. DS1 said he has seen rabbits in the garden area around thes quash and tomatoes. If the deterrent doesn’t work, I will have to order an electric garden fence and charger. Aaargh! They used to have a rabbit and deer deterrent that was made with mountain lion urine. It worked like a charm but was removed from the market due to animal rights activists claims that it was “cruel to frighten the rabbits”! A more permanent way to get rid of them is to shoot them, but apparently PETA didn’t even consider that anyone could be _that_ mean.

We are inundated with the furry things. This morning looking out of the bedroom window DH said, “Oh look at the cute baby bunny!” They are not cute when eating my roses and veggies! If worst comes to worst, I will get out the pellet gun and sit up at night to take some shots at them. If you go into the barn at night, they are hopping all over the floor eating the hay. Not the hay on the ground under the feeders, but the good hay in the stacked bales! DH and DS1 are angry because the rabbits go into the hayshed on the field and eat the hay too. Since they are eating at the bottom of the stack, they end up chewing into the bales and causing them to collapse. May have to get some of the electric garden fence just to protect the hay supply from the rabbits. The dogs don’t bother killing them, they just ignore them! Gaaah! The last time they were this bad, my sweet little mother was staying with us. She was a gardening devotee. Seeing the “cute” bunnies descending on her plants in the evening she commissioned DS2 and DS3, then 10 and 11 to hide out with their pellet guns and “take them out”. She paid them $.25 per rabbit they killed. They would have done it for the sheer joy of being allowed to use their pellet guns wantonly. Bringing in 3-4 carcasses each evening, that sweet little old lady gloated “You won’t get any of my plants anymore! Hee hee ho ho!” She happily paid her blood money to my children.

We did see a kingsnake going into the barn the other day and got very excited. It was about 2-3’ long so we hope it takes up residence and begins to get rid of the rabbits and the rats. Yes, we have barn rats again. Our feral cat population has disappeared so at night when looking into the barn you can see those guys running across the barn floor too. Lately they have been outnumbered by the rabbits though. I am tempted to buy some more kingsnakes and release them into the barn and the gopher holes on the front hill. I actually have a Gopher Getter and the strychnine pellets to load it with, but don’t dare use it because of the dogs. I don’t want one of them finding and eating a strychnine killed rodent.

Speaking of dogs, we had Bubba collected Tuesday. It was not a success. The technician got very little ejaculate from him, and what she got was “abnormal”. Since he is 4 years old and has never been used, she said it is possible that he is just shooting out old dud semen and needs to be collected again. We go back in 2 weeks for another try. If the semen is still abnormal, then we will have to get together with Erick to decide what to do. He gets semen from Bubba as part of the purchase contract, but if the semen is not usable, he has already said we should neuter him. We will give it another couple attempts before making that decision. It will be a shame if he can’t be collected since his genetics are so good. Erick particularly wanted to breed him back into his dogs to retrieve some of the “sharpness” that is being lost in current day Anatolians. There is no denying that Bubba is a “sharp” Anatolian with strangers. LOL On the other hand, having him fixed means that we don’t have to worry too much about Angel coming into season. Right now, we are keeping a sharp eye on Angel. She came in at 12 months old and that was over 6 months ago. She hasn’t come back in season yet. If she is like her mother though, she may not have regular seasons! Aaaagh! Her mother came in at 12 months then did not come in for another 15 months, then came in 9 months later, etc. It is hard enough keeping males and females that are not neutered without having their cycles be all over the calendar!

June 15, 2020

Today is the day that the nail and hair salons are due to open!!!    

I need to call and get an appointment asap. Long ago I promised my grandmother that I “wouldn’t let myself go” and she is probably rolling in her grave! It won’t matter that it wasn’t my fault, that woman didn’t accept excuses. If I can’t get an appointment, I may be driven to attack my head with the scissors myself. DS2 used to be the best fitter of dairy goats, maybe he can shear it for me. He did his own 2 weeks ago. Both DS1 and DH managed to find an open barber so there is hope.

This morning DH and I turned the new ewes out with the larger flock of sheep. I decided not to bother separating them since it would cause unnecessary stress for them (and work for us). I set up the Sydell panels into a chute – those panels are very light and easy to move, unlike the heavier and sturdier Shaul’s panels that I use for the jugs. Moving the sheep was easy-peasy! They went right up the ramp, out the gate into the chute and into the small sorting pen. Closed the access gate and opened the gate into the pen where the other sheep were waiting to welcome them. Done deal! Those ewes are so calm, they act like they have been here since birth! I love Wes Patton’s sheep – they have such calm temperaments! I love working with the right equipment even more! After moving the sheep into the larger pen with the flock, we took down the chute panels and DH then stacked the panels _inside_ the dog kennel. Don’t ask – maybe so the panels would not escape? Or maybe so he can argue withDS1 about why he put them there when DS1 needs to put the dogs inside the kennel quickly? “Who knows what lurks in the minds of men?” That is a mangled quote from a book although I don’t recall which one.

The Joslyn Senior Center is having a meeting of all the different groups the end of June. Burbank is hoping to open the center in July. I don’t know how many of the bridge people are going to want to come back to play bridge wearing masks and gloves. Or even come back at all after all the hype about the dangers. It will be difficult if not impossible to lay bridge wearing gloves and masks. I am sure they will insist on gloves since everyone handles the cards during play. I really don’t want to play masked and gloved either. So uncomfortable and we will be dropping our cards all over the place! So ready for this to end and people just get back to life! The Club was just getting ready for elections when we went into quarantine and I need to arrange those so I can step down from my position as president. I am not accepting _any_ Board position next year so it would be freedom! We’ll have to see what their ideas are on opening the center again.

There was a cooling trend hitting us with the temps dropping from the high 90’s to the 80’s with a pleasant breeze out of the west. The hot winds come out of the east – the desert, while the cooler breezes come from the west – the ocean. I hope we can finish the planting troughs. We seem to have hit a stopping point for a week or two and need to get back to finishing it up so I can lay the artificial turf around the troughs and finish the garden area. The dogs want to dig in the dirt around the troughs causing us to fall into unexpected holes as we try to take care of our gardens. They also kick it up onto the patio with their digging and it makes a big mess. One nice thing about the “grass” on the main patio side of the house is that it keeps the dirt and dust down.

FDIL put down the rabbit repellent. I don’t think the repellent is really going to work too well. It is also for dogs and cats but says it is more effective “when used as part of a behavior retraining program”.  I don't know how I am supposed to train wild rabbits!  Actually, thinking about the “faux grass”, I just had a great idea! Instead of real roses and flowers I can go to Michael’s and get a bunch of “faux” plants and flowers. I can stick them in the garden and not have to worry about any rabbits or bugs gobbling my plants. I will cut down the watering and gardening chores too. I will only have to wash the plants off occasionally and replace them when they get faded. I am going to give this a lot of thought! It will also cut down on my Prozac prescription not having to worry about the flowers getting chewed. I’ll also save a lot at the garden store too what with soil amendments, plants, replacement plants, etc. One more thing to try before going into Plan B – Faux Garden – earwig poison. It is possible that the earwigs are eating my plants. When they are bad, they are voracious and will strip a plant in one night. I think I have some in the shed, otherwise back to Lowes.

*The nail salon is open and I have just made appointments for a fill and pedicure for me and a pedicure for DH.* What a relief to know I don’t have to get the Dremel out again! *Have an appointment to get a hair cut as well* and perhaps a “treatment” for my hair. Occasional “treatment are necessary to keep my natural platinum blonde locks at their best. Unkind persons in my family have been known to refer to my hair as “white”. That is a gross lie! It s p;atinum blonde, and is my own color! After all I  paid for it!  LOL To be able to return to the salon, see my friends, and be pampered is the best part of the end to quarantine! I can’t wait.

I painted the rose “carving” that will go on DGD’s canopy bed headboard. DH was sanding the head and foot boards so I could repaint the bed for her. The side rails unaccountably disappeared during the 30 years they have been in storage – possibly given to someone else thinking they were part of another bed frame. At any rate, this was DD1’s canopy bed when she was DGD’s age, which we have saved for DGD. She is going on for 7 and still using the youth bed and crib size mattress. Luckily, she is very petite. Or maybe just stunted by now from not having a large enough bed to be able to grow normally. DS1 ordered the metal parts for new side rails, bought the boards, and will make them, along with the support boards for the box spring. Once everything is painted, we will take it over and assemble it in her room. I had the original eyelet canopy and dust ruffle stored away in a cedar chest, so DD1 just needs to wash them ready for the bed. The appliqued yellow gingham quilt I made for DD1 to match the wallpaper in her room at the old house is also at DD1s house if she wants to use it. Otherwise, she can order a new one. DGD’s 7th birthday in in July, so we will get it done in time and decorate the room as her birthday present. I need to ask DD1 if we need to paint her room as well. Also need to look on- line about the wall decals – rainbows, etc.

Just got a text saying the DGD wants her room painted pink with a sunset over the bed and stuff on the walls?! What stuff? Rainbows, fairies and unicorns. OK. FDIL went on line and we fond some decals and also several wallpaper borders of unicorns, etc. I will order the border. DD1 does not like wallpaper (I love it since it transforms a room instantly) but the border will be ok. Those decals don’t always stay on the walls, and too many can look tacky. Painting DGD’s room is in my future. Think we can wash the trim and woodwork and just do the walls. I am thinking a pale pink for 3 walls and a deeper pink behind the canopy bed. The yellow gingham quilt won’t work now though. I do have a hand pieced quilt that is about 200 years old she can have, or will order something new. Probably will get a new one so it can be washed and dragged onto the floor, etc.

Only 1 hour and 45 minutes until my hair appointment.  I can't wait to look human again!  Is this the sort of mind games the psychiatrists do to prisoners - strip them of all vestiges of humanity?  Totally remove their self respect?  Is our government involved in some sort of mind control experiment?  I really need to get to the salon.  I'm losing it!


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## B&B Happy goats

Omg, I can't  read your journal without laughing...........poor EMAN


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## Baymule

I sold 3 lambs on Craigslist one time. After waiting ALL DAY for the guy to show up for his 9:00 appointment, he drove up in a brand new van. He stuffed them in the van and drove off. I bet it no longer had that new car smell! 

I am glad you can now get haircuts and tend to personal things that make one feel better about one’s appearance. LOL LOL My hair is white, you’ve seen it. I kept it colored red for many years because I didn’t want to be white headed at 34 years old. I finally grew tired of the white skunk stripe and the frantic efforts to cover it up, and let it grow out. What a horrible process! I wanted to shave my head! My beautician finally agreed to a very short haircut that still had red tips, a major improvement. So I know your pain and anxiety over a messy head of hair. Glad you can now feel beautiful again, but you are ALWAYS beautiful!


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## Ridgetop

Those of us with Livestock Guardians occasionally wonder if they are working. We hear them barking throughout the day and night, but are they _actually_ scaring off predators or just enjoying friendly conversations with neighborhood dogs? Sometimes we are lucky enough to have a sighting of a predator or stray dog being warned off. Neighbors might tell us that they have seen the dogs going after predators. We have had both experiences, but our normal view of our Livestock Guardians during the day is finding them peacefully snoring somewhere on the property. So, we occasionally second guess ourselves, wondering if we are paying a small fortune for dog food and vet care that might not be necessary. Well, it depends on why you have an LGD in the first place. 

We have suffered large losses without LGDs. We added a second Anatolian. Then during the aftermath of the Creek fires 2 years ago, the predator load increased about 5 times normal due to immigrating packs of coyotes. Even 2 Anatolians were not enough. We lost 2 lambs that summer. We added another Anatolian and hopefully we are well guarded now. Rika turned 8 years old May 12. Eventually we will have to add another Anatolian to take up more of the work as she ages. She won’t slack off due to age, so I won’t take a chance that the dogs will be overwhelmed and possibly lose her.  The majority of LGD owners know that their dogs are working due to one simple thing. They have had no livestock losses. Most of them have had losses in the past and that is the reason they have invested in Livestock Guardian dogs. In the two years between losing our last Pyrenees and getting Harika we lost $8,000.00 in sheep. Ask me if I think LGDs are valuable.

The other day, as I walked out with DH to feed, Angel came flying past with a dirty piece of rug. She tried to entice Bubba to play with her and he chased her around a bit. Walking over to see if this was some household item I needed to rescue, I was surprised to find it was a dead coyote carcass. It was not fresh, but not more than 2 months old either. Obviously, the dogs are working well! LOL

  Yesterday she had transferred it to the "grass".  This morning there is only the tail out there.  Angel is hard on her toys.  LOL

The new ewes were moved out onto the field and have assimilated into the flock as if born there. The new schitzy ewe with the lamb has calmed down surrounded by friendly ewes. She comes up to the feeder when she sees me and battles for position with the rest. Her lamb comes into the creep along with the others and waits while I fill their feeder with hay. I really like her lamb. She will add a lot to my flock genetics. Snowflake no longer fits in the creep, but is growing well. She comes up to be petted. I will keep her with the younger lambs for a while longer.

 I set up the new jugs and limed everything. With the right lime - thanks to Misfitmorgan!  Four 5' x 7' jugs and one 5' x 10' pen at the end behind the grafting panel.  I put the grafting panel between 2 pens so I will have double use of it if necessary.  Naturally now that everything is in place it will be years before I need it again.  LOL  The barn is now ready for September lambing.  6 ewes due to lamb then.  Then another group between October and December. The ewes that just went in with Moyboy have not marked at all.  I knew several of the ewes were in season 2 days before we turned him in so he just missed catching them.  They should cycle again tomorrow or Monday.  We will have to change out his crayon today as well.  2 weeks of laying on it in the dirt and it will be so dirty it won't mark.  No need to change Axtell's yet since he only had one open ewe in with him and has marked her.  Maybe next week.  Axtell won't get any more ewes until the 4 in the creep go out with him.  Definitely new crayon then.  Poor Lewis is al alone his pen.  He gets to watch the girls go by each day.  Don't tell PETA - it would probably rank as torture with them!

This evening I will weigh the lambs again. They look like they are growing well. One of the ewe twins is a complete hair lamb, and very large. She is a keeper but I need to check her out though. One of the twins seemed to have a lump in their groin and I need to check it again.  In Ridgetop tradition, “Oddities We Have Seen”, we may have a hermaphrodite and the lump may be a displaced testicle.     Hopefully not, and I only will know by examining her vulva.  Even that may not show up until she is older. If she doesn’t breed by the time she is 12 months old, it is auction time regardless. We have had 2 hermaphrodites in 30 years, both Nubian goats, never any sheep. Very interesting though.

FDIL has been gardening like a whirlwind. I finally got another trough ready to plant. Last night DS1 uttered a loud exclamation while looking out the office window at the troughs. Angel was curled up in the newest filled planter. Luckily not planted yet. I will have to get out and make a wire cover for it to keep her out. Silly dog! She didn’t even fit completely inside! Bits were hanging over the edges!  

The weather has cooled off to the low 80's and high 70's.  So nice!  

DH and DS1 are going to the store to get steaks (requested by DH for his Father's Day BBQ tomorrow).  We have not yet gotten our steer back from the butcher.  DD2 and Doofus will becoming down for the day.  I may have to change Doofus' name if he continues his classes as a cable installer.  He is doing well, likes the work, and DD1 says they will be moving into an apartment soon.  That is if anyone moves out of one.  Tenants are  staying put due to the Covid thing since they didn't have to pay rent for 3 months.  California has a bill right now allowing tenants to take until 2034 to pay their back rent!   I don't know if that Bill would mean owners can't evict them for that long but it really is a stupid Bill and disastrous for landlords.  

The government in California hates us.    Gotta move out.


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## Baymule

Angel had a coyote frisbee!! What a great toy! LOL that is funny. Gotta love these dogs! Sheba is laying in front of my recliner. She pounds on the window or door when she wants in. What a spoiled brat. 

Y’all have a great Father’s Day and enjoy the BBQ.


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## Ridgetop

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY – INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Yesterday morning I went out to feed the ewes in the barn. DH had already fed the rams and turned out the ewes from the night fold. The ewes and MoyBoy were all crowed round the large gate to the driveway staring into the gully. Angel was also at the top of the gully with them. She was not acting playful as usual but was sitting in a watchful pose right next to the little flock and looking into the gully. Puzzled I looked in the gully but could not see anything. Looking over to Lewis’ pen, the ram was also staring towards the gully. Usually Rika is with the sheep, but she was nowhere to be seen. I went into the house, leaving Angel still sitting next to the sheep watching the gully. I asked f anyone had seen Rika that morning. Bubba was napping by the other door. DH thought he might have seen her before he let the sheep out of the night fold. No one had seen her since then. DS1 said that the dogs had been busy barking in the gully all night so something had them upset. Rika had not reappeared by the time DH and I left the house, but DH said the sheep had scattered into the gully and were at the bottom, grazing. Later I called home and Rika was back with the sheep as usual.

OK, LGD owners: Three guesses as to what was going on.

If you guessed that something in the gully worried Rika and she had parked the sheep at the top of the gully by the gate until she checked it out, give yourselves a Gold Star! She left Angel on duty watching the sheep while she went to make sure everything was ok. Bubba, having worked all night was off duty but could be summoned by one bark. Angel, at 18 months, as the younger and least experienced LGD was left to protect the sheep at the top of the gully. Once the danger was determined to be gone, the sheep were brought into the gully to graze.

If you doubt me, I have seen her do this before. What incredible dogs these are.

Have fun celebrating our independence - hope we have it forever!


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## Ridgetop

Well!  So much for Governor Gruesom Newsom and Mayor Garcetti (still need a good name for him-any suggestions?) and their proclamations forbidding _even family members to get together _to have 4th of July BBQs.  All public fireworks displays were cancelled SO . . . .
We went to DD1's house where my two sons threw their nephews and niece around in the pool and had a blast, ate hamburgers and drove home at dusk to feed.  Wow!  We were met at the gate by several very upset Anatolians!  Not only had DH not fastened the gate properly resulting in the field sheep being in the yard and barn having their very own 4th of July celebration on our hay stack, 

*but *there were also private illegal fireworks going off all over the Valley!  Gorgeous display but it sounded like we were under attack by an invading force!  Usually the Anatolians are used to gunshots since we can hear the reverberations from the local gun ranged of thunder and lightning.  For the past week M80s have been going off in the Valley at night which they don't lie but it simply causes them to bark and patrol more heavily.  These fireworks were close and noisy and never stopped!  Also there were close ones that flashed like lightning.  Rika was extremely upset and even came inside the house!  Bubba was also upset and very vigilant.  He was so on guard that if a stranger had appeared he might have bitten him!  We all congregated on the patio to watch the display which lasted over 2 hours.   Angel went into the barn with the sheep while DS1 put Bubba and Rika inside with a chew.  When DD1 and the grandchildren arrived to watch the fireworks, Bubba insisted on being outside with them.

The fireworks were beautiful and lasted forever.  Each time we thought they were over, another round began.  
Finally, around 11:00 pm the children lost interest and their mother took them home. I went in to bed and turned on the TV. The fireworks were still going on although they had died down and were more sporadic. Several were set off right below our neighbor’s house. Suddenly there was a lot of shouting from their house. They are ¼ mile away, but downhill and sound travels up here. I smelled a lot of smoke, so I got up and looked out all the windows. Nothing. With all the fireworks in the Valley we were starting to see haze from the fireworks anyway, so I assumed I was mistaken. Then DS1 came in and said that he had gone out to investigate and at our neighbors’ house the fireworks _their _neighbor had set off had started a fire right below their house! Lots of dry brush there and fire travels uphill! Lots of shouting at their stupid neighbor as they got out hoses and called the Fire Department. They put it out quickly but WOW! Fireworks are illegal here in the San Fernando Valley and have been for many years. Apparently due to the Covid quarantine which had been lifted then reapplied for this holiday weekend (all beaches and parks shut, not even family gatherings allowed, etc.) people decided to have their _*own*_ fireworks.  Best display we have seen in years.  The entire Valley floor was covered with them.  Lots of big ones too.  Don't know where they got them since those really big ones that go up far are restricted purchase even where fireworks are legal.  Beautiful end to a lovely day with family.

For some reason Governor Gruesome and Mayor Garcetti keep releasing us and re-restricting us every few days. No one can keep track of the current restrictions and frankly, most of us no longer care. We have been obedient for a long time, but now having seen the Mayors of many towns approving of protests of thousands of people who are not social distancing, while forbidding us to even attend church or go to a family member’s home, we are all sick of their restrictions!

Anyway, a lovely day ending with lots of excitement that ended well. Hoe everyone had a happy 4th!


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## CntryBoy777

If ya lookin' for a name, there is Fartcetti....a lot of hot air that leaves a "smell trail".....


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## Baymule

We played with granddaughters for our 4th and listened to neighbors blowing up up the world.


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## Ridgetop

Love it!  Mayor Fartcetti it is!


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## Baymule

We now have a governor mandate to wear masks in public places. It doesn’t bother us, we wear them when we go to town anyway.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

As much fun as name-calling can be, and sometimes deserved, it is not as helpful as other approaches.  After all, _anyone_ can indulge in name-calling, whether or not they know how to address the issue. So I am going to ask you to do something somewhat harder. How about I propose a hypothetical scenario to you and get your response? Suppose governor Newsome, the state legislature, and mayor Garcetti heard that you were the smartest person in California and that they would implement whatever policy you recommended.  (Please note that my calling you the smartest person in California is NOT a dig at your intelligence, so please don't take offense.)  What would you recommend to them?  Please answer with specifics, why you think that is the best approach, why you think other approaches are not as good, Having different advice for different parts of the state is perfectly fine.  Just be prepared to explain your reasoning.  Again, the only thing I ask is that you not do any name-calling.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

While I commend STA’s concerns about name calling, I would remind him of the proverb “Sticks and Stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you”. Calling our public officials names comes within the territory of public service.

If I were the smartest person in the world, maybe I would have a cure or vaccine for Covid, cancer and the common cold. I’m not and I don’t but then what is happening in this state is not controlling it either.  Here is my opinion for what it is worth.

I *would* recommend wearing masks and good hygiene, but if you want to take your chances, that is on you. If I want to cut my chances of catching it, I will restrict my public activities and wear a mask. Even the CDC contradicts itself on a regular basis. Medically recommended precautions change practically every week. No medical professionals are in complete agreement. Now they are squabbling over what treatments are effective – there is a reason doctors are said to be *practicing medicine*.

If I were to recommend anything, I would tell people not to react hysterically. Terror is more dangerous than the disease. I would advise that people use common sense. I would recommend people use masks if they choose, but not make it mandatory. Use of hand sanitizer is good but not 100% effective. The long term effects of this virus are unknown, it will be years before we find out what they are. If people have the ability to work from home, and employers can arrange it, I would suggest that but not require it. Before making blanket statements about the death rate I would look up the statistics on annual death rates for influenza and other diseases we see as a normal winter recurrence.

What I would *NOT *do is _close the entire state down, then reopen it, then close it down, then reopen it, then close it down,_ *changing the rules practically every week*. I certainly would *not* mandate which businesses could or could not stay open. I think that sensible people would not attend crowded venues or functions if they were afraid of contracting the disease. If masks really work, then sensible people will wear them in public places. *I don’t think walking through a deserted parking lot to the store before putting on your mask should merit a police citation and fine. *

When the mayor and governor close all businesses and churches but allow liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries to remain open as "necessary" businesses, normal people wonder about their hypocritical logic. People should be allowed to mourn their dead and bury them without being threatened with legal fines. When the governor and mayor allow and in fact, _*publicly approve* _massive numbers of people to emerge for protests - many of whom are not wearing masks and have come from out of state, we question their political agendas. When they come out and say that "no one contracted Covid from the protests" *before*_* the incubation period is over*_, we know that is a lie and not protecting the health of their constituents. It is simply political. When organized rioting, looting, and arson take place and the mayors and governor ignore the seriousness of these crimes, while restricting law abiding citizens to their homes due to “the Covid threat”, we begin to wonder how we are being protected. When our governing body in this state seeks to remove all means of self-protection from its citizens and then announces they plan to cut the police force significantly, people wonder about the willingness of their local governments to protect them.

Outlawing *family* gatherings (all members of which have been in quarantine for months) on 4th of July weekend was unnecessary. Closing the beaches for the 4th of July weekend due to the “threat of Covid”, then reopening the beaches the following weekend due to ”expected high temperatures of 100 degrees” (which we reached on 4th July as well) is ridiculous!

This sort of shilly-shallying is what has so angered the citizens of this state. Their constituents begin to wonder whether they are actually considering the welfare of their citizens, or simply their political agenda. This comes on top of a lot of other actions by both Newsom and Garcetti that has resulted in recall petitions for both Newson and Garcetti. Due to the mandated quarantine, they cannot be circulated. Pretty convenient to be able to keep people sequestered and frightened to avoid signatures on a recall petition.

The schools are discussing having half the children go to school on Monday/Wednesday and the other half on Tuesday/Thursday. The teachers must attend the entire week I order to tutor students o Friday that need the hep 9in other words all of them after only 2 days a week class time). They will have to produce the same results as they do now. Most working parents rely on their children being in school while they are working. What will they do with the children on the days they are not in school? Daycare? What about the risk of Covid there? My daughter is a schoolteacher. While her children are at home 3 days a week who will care for them? We normally care for them after school and on “pupil free” days. She says she can’t bring them to us after they have been exposed to other children. How can she go back to work? Her husband can work from home a couple days a week, but he can’t do his complicated computer work and watch 3 young children and oversee their at-home school work at the same time.

I am the president of the local senior center Bridge club. I discussed the situation in February with my Board and we voted to suspend play on the 1st of March. The senior center closed a week later. We have now decided to keep the suspension until January 1, 2021. Then we will revisit the decision. Many of our members are in frail health. Others don’t want to chance the disease and won’t come anyway. We can’t play cards at a “social” distance of 6’, in gloves, or wearing masks for 5 hours. Many of our members are deaf or hard of hearing, the muffled bidding from behind a mask would frustrate play. Not being able to serve snacks is a minor problem. This was a sensible precaution. Some of our members are getting together at private homes to play Bridge. This is their individual choice. Still others are playing on line.

We wear masks when going out in public. We are staying at home. We are taking the necessary precautions. Not because the governor or mayor have ordered us to do so, but because it’s the sensible thing to do. We are lucky, we are retired and don’t have to go out. What about those who must work for a living?

College students are now holding “Covid Parties” Everyone puts a sum of money into the pot. The first person to contract Covid wins! These students are apparently too stupid for college after all. Maybe they need to be removed from the gene pool.

*Sooner or later the country has to open back up and we human have to take our chances just as humans have done from the beginning of time with any new disease or infection. Americans have always valued individual freedom and choice*


----------



## farmerjan

Ridgetop said:


> While I commend STA’s concerns about name calling, I would remind him of the proverb “Sticks and Stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you”. Calling our public officials names comes within the territory of public service.
> 
> If I were the smartest person in the world, maybe I would have a cure or vaccine for Covid, cancer and the common cold. I’m not and I don’t but then what is happening in this state is not controlling it either.  Here is my opinion for what it is worth.
> 
> I *would* recommend wearing masks and good hygiene, but if you want to take your chances, that is on you. If I want to cut my chances of catching it, I will restrict my public activities and wear a mask. Even the CDC contradicts itself on a regular basis. Medically recommended precautions change practically every week. No medical professionals are in complete agreement. Now they are squabbling over what treatments are effective – there is a reason doctors are said to be *practicing medicine*.
> 
> If I were to recommend anything, I would tell people not to react hysterically. Terror is more dangerous than the disease. I would advise that people use common sense. I would recommend people use masks if they choose, but not make it mandatory. Use of hand sanitizer is good but not 100% effective. The long term effects of this virus are unknown, it will be years before we find out what they are. If people have the ability to work from home, and employers can arrange it, I would suggest that but not require it. Before making blanket statements about the death rate I would look up the statistics on annual death rates for influenza and other diseases we see as a normal winter recurrence.
> 
> What I would *NOT *do is _close the entire state down, then reopen it, then close it down, then reopen it, then close it down,_ *changing the rules practically every week*. I certainly would *not* mandate which businesses could or could not stay open. I think that sensible people would not attend crowded venues or functions if they were afraid of contracting the disease. If masks really work, then sensible people will wear them in public places. *I don’t think walking through a deserted parking lot to the store before putting on your mask should merit a police citation and fine. *
> 
> When the mayor and governor close all businesses and churches but allow liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries to remain open as "necessary" businesses, normal people wonder about their hypocritical logic. People should be allowed to mourn their dead and bury them without being threatened with legal fines. When the governor and mayor allow and in fact, _*publicly approve* _massive numbers of people to emerge for protests - many of whom are not wearing masks and have come from out of state, we question their political agendas. When they come out and say that "no one contracted Covid from the protests" *before*_* the incubation period is over*_, we know that is a lie and not protecting the health of their constituents. It is simply political. When organized rioting, looting, and arson take place and the mayors and governor ignore the seriousness of these crimes, while restricting law abiding citizens to their homes due to “the Covid threat”, we begin to wonder how we are being protected. When our governing body in this state seeks to remove all means of self-protection from its citizens and then announces they plan to cut the police force significantly, people wonder about the willingness of their local governments to protect them.
> 
> Outlawing *family* gatherings (all members of which have been in quarantine for months) on 4th of July weekend was unnecessary. Closing the beaches for the 4th of July weekend due to the “threat of Covid”, then reopening the beaches the following weekend due to ”expected high temperatures of 100 degrees” (which we reached on 4th July as well) is ridiculous!
> 
> This sort of shilly-shallying is what has so angered the citizens of this state. Their constituents begin to wonder whether they are actually considering the welfare of their citizens, or simply their political agenda. This comes on top of a lot of other actions by both Newsom and Garcetti that has resulted in recall petitions for both Newson and Garcetti. Due to the mandated quarantine, they cannot be circulated. Pretty convenient to be able to keep people sequestered and frightened to avoid signatures on a recall petition.
> 
> The schools are discussing having half the children go to school on Monday/Wednesday and the other half on Tuesday/Thursday. The teachers must attend the entire week I order to tutor students o Friday that need the hep 9in other words all of them after only 2 days a week class time). They will have to produce the same results as they do now. Most working parents rely on their children being in school while they are working. What will they do with the children on the days they are not in school? Daycare? What about the risk of Covid there? My daughter is a schoolteacher. While her children are at home 3 days a week who will care for them? We normally care for them after school and on “pupil free” days. She says she can’t bring them to us after they have been exposed to other children. How can she go back to work? Her husband can work from home a couple days a week, but he can’t do his complicated computer work and watch 3 young children and oversee their at-home school work at the same time.
> 
> I am the president of the local senior center Bridge club. I discussed the situation in February with my Board and we voted to suspend play on the 1st of March. The senior center closed a week later. We have now decided to keep the suspension until January 1, 2021. Then we will revisit the decision. Many of our members are in frail health. Others don’t want to chance the disease and won’t come anyway. We can’t play cards at a “social” distance of 6’, in gloves, or wearing masks for 5 hours. Many of our members are deaf or hard of hearing, the muffled bidding from behind a mask would frustrate play. Not being able to serve snacks is a minor problem. This was a sensible precaution. Some of our members are getting together at private homes to play Bridge. This is their individual choice. Still others are playing on line.
> 
> We wear masks when going out in public. We are staying at home. We are taking the necessary precautions. Not because the governor or mayor have ordered us to do so, but because it’s the sensible thing to do. We are lucky, we are retired and don’t have to go out. What about those who must work for a living?
> 
> College students are now holding “Covid Parties” Everyone puts a sum of money into the pot. The first person to contract Covid wins! These students are apparently too stupid for college after all. Maybe they need to be removed from the gene pool.
> 
> *Sooner or later the country has to open back up and we human have to take our chances just as humans have done from the beginning of time with any new disease or infection. Americans have always valued individual freedom and choice*


AMEN.


----------



## farmerjan

Our Va gov is doing the same back and forth BS.  I for one also believe that if you are in the susceptible groups, then you need to take precautions.  
I think that for the most part that it has been overhyped, overdone.  The numbers aren't adding up and the "new positive cases that are reported everyday are NOT ALL NEW.  I had to go to the bank today to get a  paper notarized.   The woman manager, did not wear a mask, did not require a mask and although I did not get close to another customer, whom I know, (and for public information is a black man who also was not wearing a mask).  After he left, I sat down in the same chair, leaned on the same desk, handed over the papers to the same lady who did not go running for sanitizer,  and signed the papers so she could notarize them.  She then told me that there was a woman she knows who tested positive 6 weeks ago.  She has since had 4 more tests.... all are STILL positive..... and each has been reported as a positive test so is a "NEW POSITIVE TEST"..... even though it is a retest again and again.    She said this person has never had a symptom yet.  
Don't tell me this is a one in a million oddity..... it is happening alot more often than they would ever let you know. 

I am with @Ridgetop ..... shutting down the country has accomplished little or nothing except to maybe "flatten the curve" but if we don't get some natural immunity we will never "get over this".  The curve....which was to decrease the number of severe cases INUNDATING  the emergency rooms;  has long since done that.  The ones showing "positive results"  now,  are mostly all younger and healthier and often showing few if any symptoms.  If they don't get so sick and die, then all that they have been exposed to will also develop a resistance.  The number of deaths is sad, but the PERCENTAGE of deaths is still dropping.

People with bad colds..... a corona virus ...... should not visit those who are at risk.  People with a flu bug should not visit those who are risk.  I mean , use your head for more than a hat rack.
COMMON SENSE as @Ridgetop  said.  The college kids are being stupid and dumb.... 99% will get it and nothing happens to them..... but they are also courting it which is not using any common sense.  If you are sick stay the he// home.  no more of this working through it.  But if you are feeling well, and functioning well, and are not in a critical age group or compromised situation, then get back to life.  

I wear a mask only to PT and to the dr appts.  as they require them.  

I think that this is simply being made into a bigger deal, than it should have been;  and is politically motivated to continue,  than it warrants.  But I am only a dumb farmer..... Y'all better hope that enough of us dumb farmers have some immunity in our systems.... some maybe from exposure to the vaccines that we use on our cattle, and the exposure we have to soooo many germs..... or all of you that seem to think that one day life will get back to normal..... there will be something "normal" to go back to.  And that in the meantime you have food to eat.  Believe me, we are to the point that us, that have, as far as food and such goes, will be taking care more of ourselves with the other craziness going on.  Like the gov'ts that aren't "following their own rules and protocols" for these protests that are so innocuous and peaceful; many that are somewhat self sufficient will become more so and the more lawless this all becomes, the less likely we will be to share with anyone we are not friends with or know well.  There will be more backlashes as it gets more out of hand if there is not some COMMON SENSE applied and soon.  Not just the virus, which I know is the focus of this topic.  The virus is just one part of a bigger whole that is showing the disaster this country is headed for.


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## farmerjan

Also, there is an article in USATODAY about how you should NOT use the corona cattle vaccine on humans......Zoetis (mfg co) has come out with a statement..... DUH PEOPLE.  It is not the EXACT same corona virus.... but it is in the same family but of a different lineage????  We have been using this for years and years..... why not test some of us farmers and see if we have some of the anti-bodies.....
Remember the milkmaids that were exposed to cow pox.... did not get small pox..... same basics but not exactly the same strain...... the first small pox vaccines were made of cow pox.  I have had cows with cow pox.... it is in the family of herpes viruses.... have no intention of getting the shingles vaccine either.  Challenging your immune system in a passive manner will make you more resistant to most everything that there is out there.  Not saying it is a cure all.... but we have got to stop this "hunkering down " and weakening our systems by limiting things we encounter on a daily basis.... 
Take care of the older, weaker, at risk groups.  

Some seemingly healthy people do get the flu and die too..... we just have to use some COMMON SENSE as to what is the smarter way to go and stop panicking....


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

farmerjan said:


> But I am only a dumb farmer.



You may be a farmer, Miss @farmerjan -- after all, it's in your user name -- but you are most definitely NOT dumb!  Neither are you, Miss @Ridgetop.  The reason that I asked you not to use name-calling is that ANYONE can indulge in name-calling, both those who are wise, as well as those who are dumb or foolish.  But when people use name-calling in lieu of reasoned arguments, I am left with the impression that they do not have a strong case for their point of view and that is all that is left for them to use.  Regarding the handling of COVID-19, it seems that this country has nothing to boast about when compared to how other countries handled it.  I am not naming names nor pointing fingers, just basing my opinion on the total number of cases and deaths.

I had asked you, Miss @Ridgetop, to avoid name-calling so that you would focus on what you would do if you were the governor, or could convince the governor to follow your advice.  You and Miss @farmerjan did that just fine.  But why I asked that you avoid name-calling, imagine that I were a liberal (horrors, I know) but was willing to listen to a conservative (glory!), knowing that I could very well be wrong in my current opinions and the conservative be right.  If I were presented with name-calling instead of reasoned arguments, I would probably conclude that the speaker *had no reasoned arguments*.  Or imagine that I was a conservative (glory!) but was willing to listen to a liberal (horrors, I know), knowing that I could very well be wrong in my current opinions and that the liberal be right.  If I were presented with name-calling instead of reasoned arguments,  I would probably conclude that the speaker *had no reasoned arguments*.  In other words, I would hope my interlocutor would treat me the same way they would themselves want to be treated, namely with respect.

Thank you again to both of you for your replies.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## farmerjan

@Senile_Texas_Aggie ;  I do get what you are saying about the name calling per se.... but let me tell you that from the bottom of my heart if I were confronted face to face with the NY gov't  IDIOTS, I would call them names you would not be able to print anywhere.  Sometimes "name calling" is the only way to relieve the frustrations.  And Ca gov't officials are just as bad as the NY dumb @#$#@.  They ought to be taken out and shot for some of what they did.... returning patients to nursing homes when the ship and the other place sat empty and could have contained the elderly and offered better care.... releasing inmates to run the streets, no where to go, all that instead of giving them masks and making them stay put..... but we have to "shelter inside?????? 
Don't get me started.  

I would have been alot less diplomatic than @Ridgetop  in my answer and alot tougher on some of this DISRESPECT of this country as a whole.  Don't preach to me about how these inmates don't deserve to be in there with others that tested positive.... but that they need to be out free and the ones that have paid their taxes and worked their life away to have a decent life, are subjected to being treated worse than those incarcerated.  None of this well, this might cause heart problems so we can't allow it to be used..... BS.  Pull a rabbit out of every hat and try it..... for the love of God, what did so many of them have to lose????? Oh yeah, their life..... which they lost anyway by not being allowed to have anyone with them to champion their case.....


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## Bruce

farmerjan said:


> But if you are feeling well, and functioning well, and are not in a critical age group or compromised situation, then get back to life.


And stay away from vulnerable people.


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## thistlebloom

And if you know your health is compromised and you are vulnerable then you should be responsible for taking precautions and staying away from others.


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## Ridgetop

Well, governor and  mayor have closed everything down *AGAIN*! Never know from moment to moment whether or not anything is going to be open! I think I will start stocking up on toilet paper just in case.  LOL


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## farmerjan

Walmart announced they will be REQUIRING masks starting monday.  Guess I will get a few things I was putting off as I will not be going in there after monday.  Got some things already stocked as normal for me but was hoping to not have to move  a ton of stuff extra.....oh well....


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## Baymule

Our Walmart has an employee standing outside to give you a mask if you don't have one. Next time we go, I think we'll get a free mask, save the ones we have for when they run out and no one has masks. If nothing else, they make Jim dandy dust masks for cleaning out the barn.


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## B&B Happy goats

Baymule said:


> Our Walmart has an employee standing outside to give you a mask if you don't have one. Next time we go, I think we'll get a free mask, save the ones we have for when they run out and no one has masks. If nothing else, they make Jim dandy dust masks for cleaning out the barn.


Lol, I took my neighbor yesterday for a covid test and they gave us each two packages of really nice face masks,(five per package) ten free masks and a free test....


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## chickens really

I hope you don't mind me asking you a goat question here instead of starting a new thread? You seem very informative about goats. 
Anyways to my question. Is there a reason for my wether Ozzy to always be hyper? Is it just his temperament or possibly an underlying problem? He is on high speed all the time. He is one years old and a ND/Fainting goat cross. I have tried searching for an answer but can't find anything.


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## Ridgetop

If he is a one year old wether, he is probably just playful.  We have only had standard dairy goats (about 100 at a time LOL) and about 15 breeding Boers, but never  Nigerian Dwarfs, Pygmies or Fainting Goats.  Do you have other goats in with him as playmates?  Stumps for him to jump on and off?  Some people use a long board set up like a teeter totter for their goats to play on.  Is he in a large field where  he can move around to forage or in a dry lot pen?

Our goats were either in milk, stud bucks, pregnant, or playful kids.  Our yearling does would play with each other but settled down once they were in milk.  Hard to be very playful with a giant milk bag between your rear legs.  LOL  Our stud bucks would often play with each other, butting and play fighting.  

Unless Ozzy is running into objects, hurting himself, or doing repetitive actions in a hyper manner, I would think he is just being playful.  Unlike milkers, bucks only have one object in life.  Since Ozzy does not have that purpose, he is probably just energetic and playful.  As he ages he will calm down more.  If he has a lot of room in which to wander and graze or forage, he will use up some of his energy moving around all day.  If he has buddies they will play together.

If he is excited when you enter his pen, that is another situation. He is happy that you are coming to play with him, feed him, pet him, or otherwise entertain him. If you notice, he will probably try to follow you out of the pen when you leave. This is because you have taken on the role of the herd queen.

By understanding the dynamics of goat herds, you can understand the behavior of your own goats.

In a goat herd the herd queen is the boss and leader. The younger goats follow her lead in all things. In a domestic herd, the dynamics change significantly. If you have dairy goats and bottle feed, you become the mother of all the kids since you are the one feeding them. Also, since you are milking the mature does, you assume the role of kid, relieving their engorged udder and taking their milk. You also assume the role of herd queen, dominant over all the goats since you determine where they will go, what they will eat, who gets bred, etc. As herd queen you are the top dog.

To your young wether you are his herd queen, you feed him therefore you have the role as his mother, you play with him and pet him, therefore you are his buddy. You are all things to your wether, and when you leave him behind in his pen his instinct tells him he has been abandoned. His instinct tells him that he needs to follow his herd queen and stay near her for safety and to find food. This is why he will try to follow you out of the pen. If he gets out of his pen he might follow you to the house calling pathetically. We have had milkers that got out follow us into the house through o pen doors! LOL

In wild goat herds (and domestic herds too) the dynamics of family structure are strong. The main leader is not the buck, but rather the herd queen. She is usually the oldest and most mature female. The other females are subordinate to her and are often her daughters, granddaughters or other female relatives. The herd queen leads the herd as they roam and forage. She eats certain bushes and the herd follows her lead. This is how they learn which bushes are ok and which are poisonous This knowledge is passed down through mother to daughter to granddaughter, etc. keeping the herd safe from eating anything poisonous. If you watch as a goat eats in nature, they do not eat from one bush completely, but browse a little here, a little there, as they wander. Thus, if any of them accidentally do ingest something poisonous it is not usually enough to kill them. This is in the *wild,* in captivity, if they are hungry, they will denude the shrubbery. This is why sometimes domestic goats are poisoned by certain shrubbery. In domestic herds the herd queen takes precedence to the milking stand, the feeder, and any position of authority she chooses. She sometimes will discipline herd members.

In a *wild* herd, bucks both old and young are followers of the herd on the outskirts. They breed once a year and at that time the older, stronger, more mature bucks drive off the young ones. The older and stronger bucks do the breeding resulting in more pregnancies and healthier larger kids. As old bucks age they give way to the younger bucks as those bucks become stronger and able to beat them for control of the females in the herd during rut. During the rest of the year, the young weaned bucks will form their own small herds on the outskirts of the main group. These youngsters play with each other and usually remain with the herd, but not quite a part of it, until they are mature enough to separate on their own during rutting season. In domestic herds the bucks determine a structure of their own with one buck often the leader. Domestic herds of breeding bucks kept together will often engage in sexual play with each other outside of the rutting season.

In a domestic situation we separate our bucks and does. However, if you ever see a herd with both sexes running together being threatened by coyotes or dogs, notice that the goats will not run except as a last resort. Unlike sheep, the goat herd stands its ground. The smallest kids are in the center of the circle with the outer kids and yearlings surrounding them. The older does then surround those younger animals. All of them face outward towards the threat. Any bucks with the herd then surround them, often charging at the dogs or coyotes to drive them off. This is why it is hard to teach goats to herd like sheep using herding dogs.

This does not mean that predators cannot decimate the goat herd. Most predators are able to kill goats, particularly in a domestic penned situation. Since most wild goat herds are quite small predators easily break down their defenses and scatter them at which point the fleeing goats are easy targets.

 This may be TMI, so back to your hyper young wether. He is probably just playful. He needs an outlet for his energy and playing with you is that outlet. In the wild, he would have multiple companions, be on the move foraging all the time, and evading predators. With you he is safe, his food is brought to him, and he just wants to play.  WITH YOU!  lol

My DS3 kept a wether that we called Goatzilla.  He was a standard Nubian and my son made a cart out of a skate board, a beach chair and electrical tape.  He would walk Goatzilla to the bottom of our 1/2 mile private road, harness him to the "skatechair" and get pulled up the steep hill.  Goatzilla would not actually drive in harness, but he would run home pulling DS3 on his homemade cart.  DS3 would do this over and over until Goatzilla got tired and stopped mid hill.  At that point DS3 would bring him home and put him away.  Goatzilla lived with our herd bucks and played with them - play fights, etc.  But he was always thrilled to be with DS3 who bottle raised him from a preemie.

I don't know if this s actually what you were asking, but maybe it will help understand the nature of goats.  They are wonderful animals.


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## chickens really

That was wonderful information! 
Thanks so much for your time. ❤️🐐


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## Ridgetop

I see I have not posted since July 9!
Well, DD2 and Doofus have now moved into their new apartment in Montrose. It is only 15-20 minutes from us, so she is thrilled that they are close enough to come to family gatherings. Doofus might be going back his real name soon. He is currently learning to be a cable installer (TV) and is making a decent wage. The seem to be happy and DH was very impressed that Doofus actually rented a U-Haul by himself, filled it with all their furniture from their storage unit in Bib Bear, brought it down and was unloading when DS1 showed up to help him. DD1, DH, and I went to help too.

First, I had taken DD2 to several thrift shops looking for a sofa. No sofas. She decided she would bite the bullet and spend her $450 furniture allowance on a new IKEA sofa. The sofa was $400. We sent to IKEA – a 1 ½ hour wait in line before we could get in the store!!! But the nice lady told us that we could come at 9am when there was early entry for seniors. DD2 and I visited several other stores doing errands for her move and I bought the paint and painting supplies for DGD1’s room.

The next day I got up and went to IKEA for the senior hours EARLY. I met DD2 there and we tried to get the sofa she wanted. They were out. We had them check when it would be in. No idea since the warehouse was out and there were no Ektorp sofas anywhere in the system. They were completely sold out and had no idea when they would have them again. The Ektorp is the one with the removable washable slipcovers. They had the slipcovers, but no frame anywhere in the state. DD2 bought a few things and I got 3 100% thin cotton dishtowels. These are excellent for drying good crystal and sterling silver.

When I got home, I told DH about our tiring and unproductive day. DH suggested we try the Salvation Army store I Van Nuys which handles a lot of big furniture. He was leaving for the bank and said he would run by and check. An hour later DH called and said there were a lot of sofas did I want to call DD2 and come over? I told hm to take pix of the sofas he thought matched what she wanted which was a light cream or gray 7-8’ sofa. DH, no slouch when it comes to his children, took pox of every sofa in the store. When he returned home I texted them to DD2. She called and said that she liked several and did we want to go over. I thought she was in Big Bear packing for the move on Wednesday, but she was at the apartment cleaning it. For some reason she felt she needed to completely clean the apartment which had just been refurbished and professionally cleaned. Overly excited about their first apartment! She was even going to mop the floors, but I told her not to do that until AFTER the move. She came and picked me up. DH took the truck and we went to the Salvation Army store. She chose a nice comfortable cream sofa in lovely condition with chenille type upholstery. It was $119.00 and DH produced a coupon for 25% off that he had gotten from the store previously. Total cost of the sofa with tax $95.00! She also got a pretty white shelf unit for DGD2’s room also 25% off since she got another coupon for buying sofa! This Salvation Army has reconditioned and sanitized mattress and box springs sets for sale. I checked the prices since DD2 and DSTBSIL wanted a king size. The Salvation Army store quoted a price of *$281.00 for the set!!! *DD2 was thrilled!  

We drove to their apartment meeting DD1 on the way with a bunch of DGD1's outgrown toys and clothes for DGD2. We loaded them into the car since DD1 had to park 2 blocks away – parking is terrible at their new place. DS1 and Doofus-soon-to-be-FSIL2 were unloading. DH jumped in to help while DD1, DD2, and I staggered up to the apartment with all the stuff we had. The apartment is on the 3rd floor but *luckily* there is an elevator.

*Unluckily,* the elevator is tiny and when I say tiny I mean *TINY!!! *The sofa would not fit in the elevator. DS1 scolded us for buying a couch over7’ long when he told us *distinctly *to get one only 6’ long. Too late and too bad.   Besides it wasn't only the length of the sofa that would not enter the elevator.  The sofa WAS TOO WiDE TO GO THROUGH THE DOOR.  DH had assured DD2 that if it wouldn’t fit in the elevator he could get it into her apartment. DH can do anything and we trust him implicitly. First, DS1 and DSTBSIL tried 3 different ways. DS1 proceeded to scold us severely for disobeying his instructions as to size, etc. Finally, DH said he could get it up from the outside with a hand line. He sent DD2 up to put a towel over the balcony so he knew which was her apartment. With a crowd of interested tenants gathering in the parking lot under DD2’s kitchen balcony DH ran a rope from the apartment 3 stories down to the truck bed where he was parked under her balcony.   Although there was no pulley on the roof that would ordinarily have been used to lift furniture into 3rd floor apartments from the outside, DH assured us he could make it work.  He quickly tied the sofa securely to the rope and DS1 and DSTBSIL pulled the sofa up to the balcony. There was only one bad moment when they were trying to maneuver it over the railing. DS1 called frantically for help from DD1 or myself. At the moment DD1 was wheeling the large shelf unit through the doorway to DG2’s bedroom on a dolly and I was trapped in the room. Finally, she managed to clear the doorway and I ran through to the kitchen where I helped to hold the sofa while they lifted it over the railing. The crowd below cheered. 

DSTBSIL left to return the U-Haul before being charged for another day. After bringing up the final items, DD1, DS1, DH and I all left DD2 and DSTBSIL to sort out and clear up their mess. Everything had been placed in the LR, except those items that had been brought during the previous days.

DD2 and DSTBSIL were thrilled with their new sofa *and *with the price. The next day they went back to Salvation Army to order the king mattress and box spring set. They also wanted to look at some chairs I thought would look nice with the sofa. DSTBSIL is tall and when he sat in then decided that they were not comfortable for him. They picked up a few items of glassware and had fun looking around. On the way home they rented a steamer and cleaned the new sofa and the 2 blue chairs that I had given her. They had been in storage for a while. They really need to be cleaned but the frames are carved and they are pretty chairs that DD2 loves. She can cover any stains with pillows or throws.

Saturday, I emptied the little bookcase that Daddy had made years ago for me. I was giving it to DD2 for DGD2’s books. DD2 couldn’t find some of her boxes and was not sure if they had been left in the storage unit at our house or were still in Big Bear. I was pretty sure nothing of hers was there but went out to look and found some other things to give her. DH vacuumed the rug we were giving her and we took the bookcase and painted footlocker of wooden blocks for DGD2 over. DD2 had the place looking very nice, everything arranged and even her large painting hung over the sofa. She and DSTBSIL had also found a little play kitchen for DGD2 on Craigslist with all the accessories and arranged DGD2’s room. It was really cute.

Today we are going back to the Salvation Army store with DD1 to look at a dresser for DGD1. Hopefully it will still be there since it was a very nice size and had flowers painted on the front of the drawers. If she gets it, she will give the small dresser that DGD1 is currently using to DD2 for DGD2. In our family, we pass furniture on from one generation to the next. We haven't bought anything new in years.  The old stuff made from real wood was quality, unlike the new pressboard stuff.  DGS1 and 2 have the maple bunk beds and dresser that my sister and I shared when we were children. Those were then passed on to my brothers who were quite a bit younger. Then my youngest brother took them for his daughter. DH and I picked them up on a trip to Seattle and brought them home. Several years later I refinished them for DD1’s 2 boys. In a few years, she will pass them to DS2 for his children. The set is solid maple, not pressboard, and is worth keeping and reusing for years to come. DD1 recently had the matching secretary desk refinished to match the set. I wanted to do it when I did the beds and dresser but she didn’t want it then. The boys’ room was too small. She had to pay someone to have it done last year because I just wasn’t up to refinishing it when she wanted it in the next house.

I am sanding down my 100 year old cedar lined chest that my grandmother won in a church raffle when they first moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1920. It was filled with hand embroidered dresser scarves and linens made by the ladies of the parish. I even have some of those fancy linens put away.

I considered refinishing it in a natural stain, but have decided to paint it. The wood is ok but nothing special so I will prime it and paint it white as originally planned for DGD1’s room. The legs are ornately carved but the molding trim on the front was damaged, so I removed it. I have some small carvings I will paint to match the one I did for the canopy bed. The trunk is huge. It will make a great toy box, or storage for blankets or off-season clothes.
Here is the headboard of the bed.  The carving is a little large but DGD1 likes it.  


I am in the process of having my kids go through my paintings and other items that I have stored in the Connexes to decide if they want anything. This is in preparation for eventually moving. I am also giving them some of my good crystal now too. Some of my very good antiques which are not to their taste will go to the consignment store in Palm Springs for sale.

My garden is not doing very well.    I planted too late for a lot of the vegetables to establish I also think that the raised planters we made from the water troughs get too hot in the summer. We will plant a winter garden in them. I will have DS1 and 2 make 2 more raised bed planters with wire bottoms on the ground. That planter is doing great with the tomatoes and crookneck. It needs to be raised another 12” to 24” high though to keep the rabbits and ground squirrels out of it.

Last weekend DS2 managed to shoot a rabbit in the barn. It was still squirming, but Bubba pounced on it to eat it. One down, 5,000 to go. Last night DH took the pellet gun out and sat in wait for rabbits. He shot at 2 ground squirrels and missed. I told him he needs to borrow the scope that DSL1 has and then needs to sight it in. They are becoming as great a problem as the rabbits.  
   RABBIT PREDATION!  SQUASH IS COMPLETELY GUTTED!!!  PESKY WABBITS!!!

DS2 and FDIL are down in Ramona, outside San Diego. He was transferred 2 weeks ago. They both went since she does not have to report into a classroom until August. They came home the first weekend but the second weekend they stayed down there. DS2 was able to rent a little guesthouse. They are enjoying their privacy. So are we – and I only have to cook for 3 people!!! If I don’t want to cook, too bad! Chicken pot pies! I am on vacation.

My roses are officially dead. I need to write to Jackson and Perkins and ask for replacements. I don’t want them until the fall though. I was also supposed to get a discount but never got it. Time to do battle with the forces of darkness aka big business. They are supposed to be a reputable company and this is the first time I have ordered from them so hopefully things will go well.

Yesterday we weighed the lambs. They are not growing as well during the summer as they do I the winter. I have orders for 2 more lamb but am taking these 2 to the auction. One is exceptionally long and I am tempted to keep him for our freezer but I want to get as much $$$ for hay as possible. Prices are down and it is time to stock up for the winter. We have a lot more mouths to feed this year since I kept all my ewe lambs which doubled the size of our flock. All the other ewes except 2 lambs are bred now and have lambing dates ranging from August through December. The 4 ewes in the barn will go out with the ram in August for January-February lambs. We want to clean out the creep pens asap. I will have to build a creep in the field fold pen this year. There will be too many ewes with nursing lambs to keep all of them in the creep pen once the lambs are about a month or so old.

We have been taking Bubba in for collection every 2 weeks and last week got a good report on his semen. He goes in tomorrow for collection again and this time we will have it put into straws and frozen. We have to bring him to Pasadena every 2 weeks for another month to get a good amount of straws. Bubba is a little shy about production. LOL I am just grateful that we were able to find a good AI vet in Pasadena instead of having to drive 3 hours to San Diego like we originally thought we would have to.

I thought Erick wanted his straws because of his sire, Asker, but Erick said he has enough dogs out of Asker now. Asker is Rika’s brother. Why Erick wants the semen from Bubba is for his mother’s genetics. Bubba’s mother is where Bubba’s more protective and aggressive Anatolian temperament comes from. Erick is worried that today’s Anatolians are becoming too docile and passive. They lack true Anatolian temperament. If we can get enough of Bubba’s straws, he will put out the word that they are available so we can sell some. That would be nice, but I am not holding my breath since we can’t show him anymore due to his blind eye. On the other hand, he is a magnificent looking dog with excellent conformation and large so putting him up for stud with the right bitch would be ok with us.

July 29, 2020

OMG! I am amazed that I have not posted anything here for a while. I must have been really busy. Anyway, I got the canopy bed finished and then went over to DD1’s and we painted the DGD1’s room a pretty shade of pink. Chose the lightest shade of pink. DD1 was afraid it would be too light, but I reassured her that it would dry darker. Then it went on very, very light, and dried splotchy as all paint does for the first 24 hours. 2 days later I went back, and we put the bed together and put on the canopy and dust ruffle. The dust ruffle seemed to have shrunk but probably needed to be ironed which DD1 wasn’t about to do so put it on anyway. DGD1 was very upset that the canopy did not have long curtains! I remembered that her mother was the same when I put up the bed for her the first time! I suppose I will have to make some long curtains for the bed now. How I spoil them!!!

I painted the trunk and ordered some wood carvings which I have painted to match the one on the headboard. I have to attach them on the trunk and it will be ready to be delivered. Then I still couldn’t find the round table that Daddy made for me years ago which I was going to give DGD1 for her bedside table. I was at my wit’s end when DH and I were driving over to DD1’s house and happened to see that a neighbor had put out 2 sets of old nightstands at the curb. He joked that they would do for DGD1 but I still had hopes of finding the table. Finally, after several days I took the car and drove down to see if the nightstands were still there. They were and in new condition inside although the finish was not good. Since I planned to sand and paint them white thought, I loaded them up and brought them home. They turned out very nice and with 3 drawers each will give DGD1 extra storage. 
 THERE ARE TWO OF THEM.  FINISHED TRUNK.  

DD1 found a small highboy at Salvation Army for DGD1 and really scored on a set of brand new chairs for her kitchen. She had been making do for years with mismatched chairs that I had used to stage the apartment units when we had them. The chairs were starting to fall apart. She said that she really wanted some chairs that were either all wood or had leatherette seat covers so they could be washed, We found a set of 5 that had somewhat high backs and were completely upholstered in dark brown leatherette. They were extremely comfortable and were priced at $25 each - they were NEW! The dresser was $145. We had 25% off coupons and the manager knocked the price down to $200 for everything! Score! The manager thought there might be more chairs coming back in from the same source, so DD1 went back twice but no luck. However, since there are only 5 in her family, the chairs are great for her. They look great, and also match well with her formal dining room table and chairs. Did I mention that they are NEW!? Anyway, we delivered those to her house with instructions that she should clean and disinfect them.

I went over to DD1’s house again on Monday with DH as backup. I was determined to hang her pictures. She has been in the house almost a year and the pix and paintings are still in the shipping cartons where I packed them!!! After they were up, both she and her husband were stunned at the difference they made in the house. I told her that it made me intensely uneasy visiting her in a house that looked as thought the movers had just walked out the door. LOL  Still more pix to get up though, and also another room to work on. DD1 wants to move both her own and DSIL’s offices into the small room between the master bedroom and studio at the back of the house. Once that is done, DGS1 can actually have his own bedroom. He is in middle school and will be 13 in October. He is sleeping in the current office which has a giant L shaped built in desk unit, but it has not been made his bedroom yet. I suggested that DD1 might prefer to put him in the small room off the studio, but she said she preferred to have the office there since it is between the master and the giant studio. You need to get go through the master bedroom to get to the studio and the little office room. Terrible floorplan, but not my house. Also DGS1 wants the giant desk to remain in his room. Luckily, not my problem – yet – until she demands my assistance in figuring out what to do. DSIL also wants the giant L shaped desk unit.  Since he is the Daddy too bad DGS1!

We weighed the lambs again and the ram lambs are ready to go to the auction next week. I am considering sending 2 ewe lambs along too. They are twins and are both rather small. On the other hand, I like their mother. I have decided to sell one of my HIJO sired rams along with some of the ewe lambs as a flock. I probably should keep both the ewe lambs and put one of them in with the ewes I am going to sell. The 2 HIJO sired rams were bought when I thought I might show but I have changed direction and am now only interested in selling meat and breeding stock. I am going to buy another Lewis ram. I need to go through all my pedigrees and decide on which ewes I want to put together into a keeper flock and then possibly start to sell off a few based on rate of gain and body type. My HIJO sired rams and ewes are tremendously thick in the butt and wide across the loin but I have quite a bit of that bloodline now so can begin picking and choosing my keepers more easily.

The first ewes to lamb will be starting the end of August. I have to go back through all my calendars and make a list of upcoming due dates to post. As soon as the ram lambs go to auction we will move the ewes down in front with Axtell for breeding. The crayons on both rams need to be changed out. Then I have to get into the creep pen and clean it out. I will “hire” my grandsons to help. It is easy work in the creep since the hay is loose and light. The ewe pen off the creep is a different matter. That will take a lot more work. At least all 5 jugs are clean and sterilized, ready to go. I have been thinking about getting some hanging feeders for them which will help to keep the hay from being scattered and packed into the floor. I want metal ones from Shaul’s. They are not expensive, but it takes me a 2 day trip to get up there and back. I will order them later so we can pick them up when we pick up my new ram after the October sale. Two day road trip with DH – fun! We tune into the oldies station and country western and sing along. Hideous voices but we love it!

Looks like DS2 and future DIL2 will be staying near San Diego for almost a year. DS2 says he expects to be posted there that long. FDIL will be doig most of her teaching on-line so will be staying with him for most of the time. She will only have to return for meetings.

DD1 will also be teaching from home since LAUSd has decded not to open the schools. This will probably last until after the elections since it is good press for our liberals. It does take a large problem off DD1 however, since she was going to have to go to school 5 days a week while her children would be going 2 days a week and would not be able to come here for daycare since they would be bringing all those Covid germs home to us. Now we have told her that we will have the children over here at least 2 days a week to do their schoolwork with DS1 while she is teaching from home. DSIL has been working from home too, so this will help both of them since there is no way they could both work with the children home all day. We can work with the children individually on their homework and they will finish quickly. It also means that we can use them for additional forced farm labor!!! HEEHEEHEEHEEHOOHOOHOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!    😈

The stock trailer is still at the shop where DH is having the new side steps put on. I ordered them from WW over a year ago, but he has not gotten around to getting it in until now. He has also promised faithfully that when I say “Watch out for that large rock” he will make sure that he knows where it is instead of thinking it is the one way in front of the truck, before driving over it and damaging the side steps again. On both sides.

Had Bubba collected again and got 2 good straws.  Will keep going every 2 weeks until we have 10-12.  Then for the snip.  He now jumps into the car on command.  He even jumps into the car if the tail gate is open without a command.  Is it possible he enjoys his trysts with the technician?  I feel like a pimp.  Ugh.  

We went to Costco and bought toilet paper. 9:00 am senior entry. Limit 1 package. We each got one, then each got one of the more expensive TP as well which also had a limit of 1. Stored them in the 5th wheel trailer, along with some paper towels, and canned beans. Surprisingly, the only canned vegetables Costco had were peas and beans. Not green beans, but black, red kidney, and pinto beans. And refried beans. Generations of westerners lived on beans, so I bought some. I also got a few cans of chicken, Spam, and corned beef. When DS1 goes to Smart and Final I will have him get some other canned vegetables, tomatoes, and also chili etc. We are considering getting a pig and sharing it with DD1 and DSIL. They like eating pork while we prefer lamb. I have 3 orders for lambs, but am going to wait till winter to fill them since I have to feed purchased hay now. With wet winters the sheep grow faster on forage. Everything now is dry and they still eat it but not as readily. I can’t wait to move to a ranch with pasture.  

Garden is still not performing as it should.  The Better Boy variety of tomatoes I planted 6 weeks after the original tomatoes actually have some that are tuning red bushes.  The other 3 varieties have grown into huge bushes but even though I rattle the cages every evening to pollinate the blossoms, the tomatoes are still green!  Not sure what we will do next year, but we plan to change the garden around and I think I may order a garden electrified netting from Premier.  I will try to get a Gallagher charger.  In my present state of mind, there is nothing I would like so well as to come out in the morning and find little electrified bunny and ground squirrel bodies hanging lifeless on the fence!  I wonder if this quarantine is affecting my mind.

GREAT NEWS! My dear friend, whom I call MOM and who calls me her “daughter” had her pet scan and it showed that she is responding well to the type of medication she is receiving. We are overjoyed at the wonderful results. On the other hand, her significant other, our other wonderful close friend is not doing at well with his treatment. These are our dear friends that we play bridge with and with whom we cruise.

 Taking the furniture over to DD1 this evening when it cools down.  DGD1 will be ecstatic.  She will have to wait another week or so for the castle wallpaper border to arrive and go up.  Better post this now since it is so long.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> DGS1 and 2 have the maple bunk beds and dresser that my sister and I shared when we were children.


I have the oak twin beds that my mother and aunt had growing up in the '20s. My younger sister and I used them in the '50s-'70s. My dad drilled holes in the tops of the headboards and bottoms of the footboards so they could be bunked (with four 1/2" metal pins of course). I don't remember if we had a ladder or just climbed up the back. My girls used them bunked for a time until they got their own rooms. I bought some oak and made a ladder. DD1 had the bunk beds in her room, DD2 got DW's twin from DW's parents. The oak beds are now in spare rooms since DD1 has my Mom's full size frame. 



Ridgetop said:


> The next day they went back to Salvation Army to order the king mattress and box spring set.


Given that the sofa didn't fit in the elevator or through the door I suspect that king bed set will be a LOT of fun! I sure hope the box springs are in 2 pieces.


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## Baymule

WOW! You have a has a lot going on! I wish i could share some of my garden with you! We have plenty!


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## Ridgetop

3 tomatoes turning red on the Better Boy bushes have disappeared!  These bushes were planted in the troughs and the tomatoes were above the reach of rabbits or ground squirrels.  I suspect Angel.  Unfortunately, she poops on the field so I can't inspect her stool for proof.  Fortunately, she poops on the field so I don't have to pick up poop very often from my "grass".  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Bruce:
Older, quality furniture is always best.  Unfortunately some of today's kids don't want the old stuff.  No idea of value, solidity or craftsmanship.  Poor fools.  They waste their money on junk instead of passing down the old family stuff.  On the other hand, a lot of families don't have the storage space to keep it as they move around the country.  It's a shame.


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## Bruce

Yep. Their children probably won't be using that Ikea furniture, their grandkids surely won't. I have a black walnut marble topped drop front dresser that was made in the 1870s. Still very sturdy.


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## Baymule

My DD and DSIL shop Ikea. They both have no sense of family heirlooms. I love them dearly, but for all their education, they are kinda stupid.


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## Ridgetop

I am not dissing IKEA (much).  I have bought some stuff there.  2 beds with storage drawers and some book cases to which I added doors on the lower half for my boys.  They held up and I sold them for what I paid eventually.  We also bought a metal queen size bedstead there which we used for many years.  They sell ok stuff for people that haven't got anything else.  And if you like the modern style.  It just won't last down the generations like the old stuff.  I prefer to get old stuff from estate sales or thrift stores and refinish it.

On the other hand you have to know what you are looking at when buying "antiques" or used furniture.  I always pull out the drawers all the way and check for dovetail construction.  Also check for veneers that are thick enough to be refinished.  Many pieces that are over 100 years old were veneered with specialty woods.  However, you want to make sure that they are veneered onto real wood.  The dressers should have inner dust baffles, i.e. the drawers are all separated by horizontal sheets of wood.  The inside pieces of dressers whole be made of wood, not plywood or presswood.  In the old days, some mahogany was considered a cheaper wood and many pieces of fine furniture were made of mahogany with fine wood veneers over it.  Newer pieces 50-100 years old are often made of solid pine, maple, or a combination of those woods with veneers in a finer wood.  When it comes to modern furniture, look for plywood construction instead of presswood.  You can tell the difference between plywood or wood and press wood by the weight of the piece.  Presswood weighs a ton, while wood or plywood is lighter.

My great grandfather was apprenticed through a Guild Hall at 9 or 10 to a cabinet maker in Germany.  He became a Master Cabinetmaker before immigrating after the great influenza epidemic in the late 1800's when he lost his first wife and 2 boys.  I have a large box of tools which he made.  I also have several pieces of furniture, much prized, that he mad with those tools.

My father-in-law, my Daddy, also made cabinets and other pieces when he retired.  I would work with him in his garage and he taught me everything he could.  I have taught it to my boys.  DH gave me a great compliment the other day.  My SIL had a problem with one of his cabinets in their new house.  He asked DH what was wrong with it and DH told him to ask _me_ since I knew all about cabinet work.  DH did *not* ask me, LOL, since he has some hang ups with asking me for help.    LOL I found about it when DH asked if I had figured out what was wrong with the cabinet pull out and I did not know anything about it!  

Here is another old fashioned thing that youngsters don't know - I made chicken and dumplings for the family the other day.  (The whole family loves my chicken or rabbit stew and dumplings).  The children informed me that mommy ha tried to make it the previous week but the dumplings were terrible because mommy was out of Bisquik.  I asked how she made them and was told that It turned out that DSIL1 told DD1 she could make dumplings with flour and milk or water!!!  When I asked her if she had bothered to put in any baking powder she gave me a blank look and said no.  I told her that women had been making dumplings way before the advent of Bisquik and did she use her computer to look up a recipe?  Again no.  She has a Masters degree , DSIL has a doctorate.  It saddens me.  

105 degrees yesterday, abut the same today, maybe lower at 103 degrees.  Next week it is supposed to drop to the low 90's so it will be a work week.  Hoping to get the stock trailer back this week.  As soon as it is done, we can take the ram lambs to the auction.  They are not gaining as well in this heat, preferring to eat only in the early morning and late evening when it cools down  However it has not cooled down at night for the past 3-4 nights.  I have my next lot of ewes due to lamb this month.  I will set up fans in the barn for them to try to keep them comfortable.  My ewes with lambs still on them have to go out to the rams now.  

I am going through my paperwork to determine which way I plan on proceeding with my flock  Not interested in showing so the rams with show lines will be phased out.  Those rams with the show lines were very thick and heavy in the butt and put a lot of meat on my flock.  Most of those meaty ewes are prolific, milk well and are good mothers.  They will stay.  I'm adding another ram in October.  This ram will be chosen for fast growth of lambs at weaning so they can get to the auction around 8-10 weeks at 70-75 lbs.  

My new ram will be from Paul Lewis.  I love the Lewis ram I currently have, and he has done well for me but is 4 years old now.  Paul's stock is all on Lambplan so I can choose the new ram based on the EBVs.  I am looking for quick turnover straight from mama to the auction ring.  

I will be selling at least one of my HIJO sired rams and possibly a couple of ewes or ewe lambs with him if I can put together a flock sale.  If anyone knows someone who is looking for a nice ram, starter flock, or additions to their White Dorper flock IM me and I will give you my info.  Any ewes I sell now are bred to a different ram. Is there a For Sale section on BYH?  I may put an ad in the Dorper magazine as well but I am in no hurry.  

Next week we need to make a hay run.  It tis that time of year when prices are still down but the annual argument with DH will start.  The one when I tell him we need to bring in 8-10 tons of hay for the winter and next spring until prices drop again.  There is no guarantee that we will have winter rains again this winter so we need to stock up.  It is a continual puzzle why a man who has a degree in accounting cannot understand the basic concept of buy when it is cheap instead of when it is twice the price!!!   

Going to church - should I wear my mask in the house?  Isn't it the liberal position that Covid is more deadly and contagious while praying?  Maybe if I mix a stiff adult beverage and sip as I pray I will be safe?!!  LOL  Or is Covid not contagious only while protesting?    Oh yeah, I need my swim goggles too now since Fauci says you can catch it through your eyes . . . .    Soooo confusing . . . .


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## Bruce

Covid is more likely to transmit in close quarters and longer time for exposure. I can't think of many places better to get it than sitting for an hour or two in a church pew.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Ridgetop said:


> Going to church - should I wear my mask in the house? Isn't it the liberal position that Covid is more deadly and contagious while praying? Maybe if I mix a stiff adult beverage and sip as I pray I will be safe?!! LOL Or is Covid not contagious only while protesting? Oh yeah, I need my swim goggles too now since Fauci says you can catch it through your eyes . . . . Soooo confusing . . . .



So just drink some bleach afterward (per Dr. Trump) and you should be fine.


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## Mike CHS

Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> So just drink some bleach afterward (per Dr. Trump) and you should be fine.



If you think he actually meant that, you need to get a new sarcasm meter.  Or maybe I do.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Mike CHS said:


> If you think he actually meant that, you need to get a new sarcasm meter. Or maybe I do.



You may very well be right about I having missed his being sarcastic.  As I have mentioned before, I have Asperger Syndrome and one of the characteristics of the syndrome is the lack of or a diminished ability to detect subtle cues like sarcasm.  But in the briefing where he mentioned taking disinfectant, he also mentioned getting ultraviolet light.  The tone of voice appeared to me to be the same, and I don't think President Trump ever said he was being sarcastic about getting ultraviolet light.  His tone, as best as I can tell, is uniform through the briefing.  You can watch the presentation in this video here and decide for yourself:






Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

Actually Bruce, DH records it and we watch it from out living room.  Not as satisfying but better than nothing and we really like this priest's sermons.


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## Baymule

My DSIL has a touch of Aspergers and can be hard to take at times. He is beyond brilliant smart but can be blunt with no idea of how his words land. On the flip side he is one of the most considerate and kind people I know. When he has one of his moments I have learned to ignore it or if he really gets under my skin I’ll tell him. Sometimes he gets it sometimes he doesn’t. Eh. I just let it go.


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## Ridgetop

Gradually getting everything cleaned out and put away after several home projects. DS1 redid the shelves in his room which necessitated packing tons of stuff into boxes and stacking them in the living room. DD2 has moved into her new apartment and that required me to stack any items I found for her in the living room. Our living room is a formal room which we only use on special occasions – think “parlor” of our great grandparent’s era. With the end of school, DFDIL brought hme boxes of her schl supplies which are stacked in the spare room she was using as an office. Then while doing DGD1’s room, again more stuff awaiting application to the walls, etc., has been stacked in there. Not a lot, but multiples piles of STUFF everywhere. DD2’s stuff is gone but it’s place taken by several boxes of canned goods that need to be placed in the 5th wheel as emergency goods. Luckily, the TP is already out there. Next, on the DR table is now a collection of items that must go to the workshop to be put way. Finally, lots of empty boxes that need to be broken down and put SOMEWHERE!

Picture it! We have a 5 BR house, 2 large living spaces, a barn with loft, old milkshed with shelves, workshop with shelves and cupboards, three 8 x 8 Rubbermaid type sheds, and 2 20’ Connexes, and all this stuff is stacked in rooms inside my house!!! AARGH!!!

DS1’s shelves are up now, and he has boxed up some of the stuff he does not want to keep in his room so 2 boxes to go to the Connexes and the rest out of the living room. DD2’s stuff gone too. Need to drag the bags of canned goods to the trailer and shive them inside. Can’t get rid of the stuff for /DGD1’s room until I feel up to going over to put the borders on the wall, etc. DD1 has a pulled muscle in her shoulder so can’t do it even with me talking her through the process. I have to go out to the Connexes to rearrange the stuff on the shelves since we removed a lot of that stuff for DD2 for her apartment Now there are spaces on the shelves that can be utilized to store other stuff.

Normally I would rush to take care of all this BUT I have had a problem with sciatica. Great pain and my back and knees also bothering me. Laying down doesn’t help since the sciatica hurts even more when flat on my back, or on my side or on the other side . . . . You get the picture. I can’t take Hydrocodone at night since it keeps me awake. 3 Ibuprofen seem to cut the pain but don’t last all night. Finally, I starting taking an Ativan along with the Ibruprofen. Success! A full night’s sleep until 5 or 6 am. However, I really don’t want to continue dosing myself with Ativan of which I have a limited number for panic attacks. Finally, the sciatica has sort of calmed down. My knee is feeling better, and I am getting to the work that has piled up.

Another problem for working in the Connexes though – the temperature is in the 100’s! It doesn’t even cool down at night. We are supposed to be getting a cooling trend next week – temps in the high 90’s. Hopefully I can get out and get stuff rearranged and put away. If I can remove some of the boxes of our stuff in the Rubbermaid sheds DDIL can put her stuff there. Unless we have already removed it and they are full of FDIL and DS2’s stuff. Of course, school will be starting from home again so . . . .

The garden is still growing although the crookneck squash is beginning to slow down. For the first time in living memory the zucchini did nothing! They produced ONE ZUCHIINI ALL SEASON! The tomatoes have lots of green tomatoes but none have ripened. The 3 that looked as though they were turning red have disappeared. Our trough gardens have been a big disappointment. DH’s corn is 2-3’ high finally but there will be no tasselling or corn this year The beans have died. I think that we will redo those troughs next year and put electronet all around the garden space. I’m beginning to think that the trough gardens heat up and cook the roots of the plants. We will try winter gardens in them and it=f they are successful, then we will only use them in the winter. All the potted plants that FDIL bought and planted need watering and care and I am not in the mood to do it. I was worried about it when she started bringing them home. Now DH keeps asking if I have taken care of them. I will turn their care over to *him*. There is a reason *I *don’t have potted plants anymore.

We need to get hay. We are almost out now and the trailer is still in the shop. DH won’t get just a truck load for some reason. I told DS1 and DH that we will need about 8-10 tons of hay for this winter to keep the sheep. They are arguing with me about it but I don’t want to pay $18/bale when I can pay $12/bale. DH also doesn’t realize that we have kept all the ewe lambs this year and are up to 21 or so head. We will have even more this fall when the ewes start to lamb! I can’t make a profit or break even if they refuse to bring in a winter stock of cheap hay!!!

This sounds like a lot of complaining! I need to stop complaining and just get back n the work wagon and get some stuff done. If necessary, I can hitch the trailer and go get the hay myself. What I can’t do is stack it myself. For some reason they don’t want to stack it on the field with a fence around it and tarps over it. Am I the only person who realizes that paying 50% more for hay during the winter is a *BAD *thing?


*I AM VERY GROUCHY RIGHT NOW – BETTER GO WORK IT OFF!*


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## B&B Happy goats




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## farmerjan

No, you are not grouchy.  You are being sensible and practical.  There are days I have to deal with stuff like that with my son. Honestly, there are days I get d@#ned tired of it.  So I get where you are coming from all together too well.


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## Baymule

Male mind versus female mind =


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Gosh!  You are having to deal with a lot of things all at once!  I hope you can get it sorted out.

One idea about cooling off the connexes: make yourself a patio misting fan.  You can buy patio misters and either set them in front of or directly attach them to fans.  With the fan helping the water to evaporate and cool the air, maybe it will make the temperatures more tolerable.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Baymule

Too much stuff!!! I get it. At least we are not storing our kids stuff, but we have plenty of our own stuff. When we went to visit my sister, (her husband died, she has decided to sell her 5 bedroom 2 story house of 4 acres with swimming pool and 2 metal buildings/shops) so she is downsizing. She offered prized family portraits to my daughter, who was glad to get them. DD casually mentioned that she would store them in the attic. WHAT??? Texas heat would destroy them, baking in the attic. So i brought boxes home. Where the (insert inappropriate word here _________ ) am I going to put them? As of this posting, they are still in the back seat of the truck.

When we got home, the garden was screaming at me and i have been on a garden marathon since. Yesterday my son and I got the windows unloaded from the back of the truck. He bought a house that needs work and has replaced some of the windows and thoughtfully saved the old windows for me. A greenhouse is on my someday list. Hahahaha. I already have a stack of old windows, maybe I have enough now to put one up. 

I wish we lived closer, I'd sure pound you with garden produce!


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## thistlebloom

I sure don't envy you moving cross country with all of that stuff. We moved 1500 miles and it all had to fit into the biggest UHaul truck they make. I didn't have livestock and all that goes with that at the time so for us it was much simpler. But I sure got a lot less sentimental about the things I said I'd never leave behind. We have accumulated a lot of stuff again since then. Where does it all come from? The boys are out on their own and we have taken over their rooms, and have managed to fill them too. It's like stuff just breeds and multiplies!

Have you ever seen a chiropractor for your sciatica? I had severe sciatica pain that a doctor prescribed Vicodin for, I could take it every 6 hours and at 5 hours and 45 minutes I was watching the clock for my next dose. It was horrible, the pain made me cry and I'm not a wimp with pain.

I finally found a great chiro through a friend, he told me to quit taking the Vicodin, and got me pain free. I haven't had a problem since, but when I start to get those beginning twinges I do the exercises he recommended and it takes care of it.

I hope you find relief from the sciatic pain, and the heat.


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> As of this posting, they are still in the back seat of the truck.


It will get way too hot in there too! Just hang them at your house and appreciate them until DD is ready.


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> It will get way too hot in there too! Just hang them at your house and appreciate them until DD is ready.


I'm going to unload the truck tomorrow, between cooking and canning pickles. LOL LOL


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## Ridgetop

Rent the smallest climate controlled storage unit you can find and send the bill to your daughter.  Store the family paintings there until your daughter is ready for them.  Also any other good family furniture, antiques, etc.  Heat and cold makes the wood swell and contract loosening furniture joints.  You can usually find a very small unit not too expensive and they often give the first couple months free if you rent for a year.  

You can store all your home canned goods there too since you don't have a basement!  Heat is bad for them too, and if you feel so inclined, you can split the storage bill with her.  

If you are not ready for a greenhouse yet, how about "cold frames".  Using lumber, you make raised boxes the size of the windows.  Then hinge the windows onto the back of the box.  During the winter they act as mini greenhouses, as the weather warms you can lift the tops (the windows) and prop them open during the day.  Gardeners used to use them all the time in cold climates to grow vegetables in the winter, start seedlings, etc.  Especially good for lettuce since you have to grow it in the winter so it won't bolt, but it is too cold without protection.


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## Baymule

I finally unloaded the back seat of the truck yesterday-while the pressure canner was doing it's thing. It wasn't a lot, so it went into a closet where I usually start my garden plants with the help of two shop lights. BJ has his truck back. The windows are stacked up against a tree.


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## Ridgetop

I bet BJ was happy.  

My tomatoes are 7' tall - almost to the eaves.  No tomatoes except tiny green ones here and there.  

  Very disappointing.  I may have used too much blood meal resulting in too much plant growth.  Oh well.  
DH's corn plants have actually bloomed and he has one little tiny cute corn ear tasselling.  He feels like an new daddy!         DH is pointing at the tassel which is blonde like DS1!   You will have to enlarge the picture to see it but he is very proud and happy that we might actually get at least 1 ear of corn.   LOL
 This used to be a zucchini plant. I have ever seen anything that ate zucchini plants like this before. I wonder if we have a vegetarian chupracabra around. The LGDs_ have_ been barking and howling at night lately . . . .


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## chickens really

Holy smokes! I had no idea a tomato plant could grow that tall..😳👍


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## Bruce

Depends on the variety. I doubt this is what Ridgetop is growing but a Matt's Wild Cherry will go 10' or more. VERY small cherry tomatoes. My Sungold cherry tomato plants always get at least 7' tall. The Early Girl and whatever "heritage" type MIL gave me barely make the top of the cattle panels.


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## Ridgetop

The indeterminate variety keep growing which is why they give tomatoes all season long.  Those varieties are best for home gardens.  Determinate varieties set fruit and stop growing.  Those varieties are the ones used in commercial production so they can all be harvested within a month and the ground turned over ready for replanting.  Mine don't sprawl because I am using the cages Daddy made for me over 40 years ago our of old fashioned concrete wire.  The role of wire (slightly thinner gauge than stock panels) was 5' wide and he cut it in lengths which he wired together.  The resulting cages were 5' tall and about 4-5' in diameter.  My tomato plants have been grown in these for 40 years.  Unfortunately some of them have become damaged and have been cut to a smaller  diameter, but I still have 3 out of the original 6 still functional.  This year I had DS1 buy more concrete wire.  Sadly it is now sold in sections, and is not as sturdy.  However, this year I made 2 more tomato cages out of it as well as a couple of teepee trellises.  The traditional tomato cages are not large enough for tomatoes unless you are growing for competition and are pruning the bush to produce just a few exceptional competition tomatoes.  I like production so I don't prune, but this year I really think I used too much nitrogen which produces more foliage and less fruit.  I couldn't find my bone meal which is high in phosphorus but found the blood meal which is higher in nitrogen.  This is also the first year when I did not plant 6 wooden matchsticks round each tomato.  This is a trick I was taught years ago by someone of my grandmother's generation and when I do this I always get great tomatoes.  Possibly superstition but maybe the combination of sulphur and phosphorus.  Who knows?  But no tomatoes yet.  Of course, we planted in May instead of March, and the scourges of ground squirrels, rabbits, and bugs? (although I haven't found any white fly or bugs)  At any rate, if we have to rely on our garden we could starve.  On the other hand, we are carnivores and have sheep and ammunition.  The sheep have eaten all the nettles, but maybe we could boil alfalfa? . . . . 

I posted this on STA's website and am posting it here in case anyone who has not seen it has any ideas.  
My DD1 is having her highly gifted child tested because he fools around dong his school work. Of course, since he was 2 she has pushed him, buying workbooks that he had to complete in addition to his homework, and workbooks and teaching all summer long. She has done that with her other 2 children as well and now has decided that the eldest has some sort of learning disability because he doesn't gleefully do all his homework and extra workbooks immediately. This is a child that is in the highly gifted program and consistently gets top grades. DD1 makes them do their homework over and over until the neatness meets her standards of handwriting. I have told her to let them hand it in as they do it and let the teacher reprimand them and give them a lower grade if it merits one but she is very OCD. 

I told her a long time ago that the children needed to have outside playtime without constant work books but she wouldn't listen. I told her she would burn them out on learning and that is what I think is happening. Now since the 6 year old is mimicking her almost 13 year old brother's behavior over lessons she has decided that that child has the same problem. My opinion is that DGD1 sees her brother getting attention (although it is unpleasant attention of the punishment kind) and is trying that behavior for herself. 

My daughter does not think I know anything. I raised 3 boys with learning disabilities, 1 adopted child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and terrible emotional issues from abuse, as well as having my Early Childhood Education Certificate. Because of my boys I researched learning disabilities heavily. Their disabilities were all language related and with special schooling they all graduated from high school and college. During my time teaching preschool I diagnosed several cases of learning problems which were diagnosed ranging from Autism, Tourettes, and slow mental delay. My preschool director told me I was like Typhoid Mary and shouldn't tell the parents their kids needed testing, but the parents were very grateful to find out that someone had noticed behavior that was puzzling them. They were able to get their children into special education classes early enough to make a difference.

I do not have a college degree however, and my DD1 and SIL1 apparently think I am not bright enough for advice, consequently I have not continued with any advice since the last time she brought up testing and I told her she needed to let the children have some unstructured free time to play. Since my DD1 refused to even acknowledge that I might be correct and try this, she has decided that there is something wrong with the child. they had his tested, however, my SIL did not want to pay for the extended testing instead wanted to immediately put DGS1 on medication. Her Dad and I both were very upset to hear that but we are not the parents so . . . .


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## Ridgetop

I couldn't get my regular variety of Better Boy which zi have used for 40 years with great success.  I bought some Early Girl, and 2 Beefsteak varieties.  Huge bushes no tomatoes.  The Better Boys I finally got and planted in May/June are small but actually had 3 ripening tomatoes which disappeared mysteriously during one night.  Chupacabras or Anatolians?  The mystery is unsolved, but plans are being drawn up for a completely fenced garden area next year, including rabbit and ground squirrel proofing.  Possibly a night scope . . . .


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Possibly superstition but maybe the combination of sulphur and phosphorus.


I think it is the latter  Presumably one could get the same results with the proper fertilizer.


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## Ridgetop

Yup, just don't use any blood meal - too much nitrogen producing too much green growth.


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## Baymule

Our tomato vines are 10-12 feet tall and still growing. They have made so any tomatoes that I am seriously tempted to hide in bushes and throw tomatoes at passing cars. Well, maybe not, I can’t run anymore. I would get caught and a crazy white haired grandma throwing tomatoes at cars would certainly make the evening news. Sigh...... I guess a better idea is to put some more in the freezer for that elusive “someday” when I will have more time to fool with them. 

I feel sorry for your grandkids. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Or a kid in revolt against parents that will not realize their ambitions are doing more harm than good. And medication? Horrors. She needs a whallop with a stupid stick and a handful of pills for herself. There, I said it. You knew I would, I just can’t keep my big mouth shut, it’s part of my charming personality.


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## Ridgetop

DD1 is so convinced of her rightness that she told me yesterday that I had told her that DS2 was diagnosed with ADHD  (NEVER - his LD is aphasia) and DS3 diagnosed with ADD (again NOT TRUE!) while DS1 was never tested at all!???  Where she got this I have no idea.  She was 12or 13 at the time of the testings and I certainly did not discuss these things with her.  DH concurs and said DD1 is "nuts".  I do remember when I would explain some of the behavior issues and inability to do certain school work without additional help, she insisted that there was nothing wrong with any of the DSs and they should "just try harder".  She also insisted that we were "spoiling" DS2 who was the worst of the 3.  Both my brothers have dyslexia, diagnosed when they entered kindergarten at age 5 in Bellevue WA which routinely tested all its incoming kindergartners for LDs back in the late 60's-early 70's.  DD1 also argued with me about that demanding to know when and where they were tested!  

I told her back then that she would never make a good teacher if she was not open to learning about LDs but DD1 is like my sister and DH's sister.  They know everything.  Oh well.  No use even talking to her.


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## Ridgetop

You might have to buy a second freezer! Or open a tomato stand. Actually, have your DS and your DD and her husband put out the news to all their friends that their folks have homegrown tomatoes for sale. You might find people that want to can and no longer have gardens that would buy boxes of them. Put an ad in Craigslist. Lots of people during Covid want to put up their own food but haven’t got the space to plant. If you got enough people replying, you could pack up the boxes and meet several buyers at once somewhere off the farm. You could probably sell them in 10-20 lb. lots for canning. I would buy some, but shipping is prohibitive! LOL

DD2 and FDIL may have to abandon plans for their fabulous wedding reception. The restaurant where it is scheduled has notified them that they may have to cut their contracted number of guests to less than 80. They booked for 200. The restaurant also said they may not be able to serve any food regardless depending on current quarantine rules. So much for thinking we had a date far enough in the future to avoid the Covid restrictions.

FDIL said they will still have the large church wedding but possibly only a small family reception if unable to have the large restaurant bash. Hopefully, since the _restaurant _will be cancelling the number of people they were booked for DD2 and FDIL can get back their deposits. We can have a “small” reception at our home – we can fit about 50-60 people on the patio and inside comfortably and rent additional tables and chairs. We culd accommodate more but need to leave the driveway clear to park cars on the field. We will just have a reception luncheon in the afternoon after the church wedding. No dancing or DJ I suppose which will make DS2 and FDIL sad, but you gotta roll with what life sends you. The invitations have not gone out yet, so we can print cards to go inside stating that the restaurant reception has been cancelled until after the Covid quarantine. We will do cards for the immediate family’s invitations with the address of the house and directions for the family reception which will follow the church wedding.

Since FDIL is from a *large*  Filipino family, her immediate family numbers in the 40’s. Most of our older relatives are now dead so our immediate family numbers only about 20 or so. Many of the guests are out of town, many of the Filipino relatives were flying in from the Philipines and out of state. Probably not able to now. However, since DS2 and Kathleen, both in their mid 30’s want to start a family as soon as they are married, we may have to have the large reception for a baptism instead. It is too bad, both DS2 and FDIL were really looking forward to having a big wedding bash. At least if the restaurant cancels, they should get their huge deposits back. And they had all the fun of planning it.

Here is the best part:

*DD1 HAS FORBIDDEN US TO ATTEND OUR SON’S WEDDING FOR FEAR OF EXPOSURE TO COVID!*

DH and I laughed merrily when he told me her restriction! Then we proceeded to diss her with multiple remembrances of her past misdeeds and annoying remarks throughout the years. It cheered us up. We don’t pay any attention to her restrictions anyway. She is incredibly bossy and know it all. That is why although she is our eldest child DS1 is our Executor. She is furious that he and then DS2 have end of life decision power. DH and I certainly don’t intend to remain plugged in as vegetables with her at the plug! LOL

DD1 is the one who consistently declares that we are not *allowed* to move to Texas. I have no idea where she got the idea that we listen to her prohibitions or rules! We never have and never will. Luckily, during the Covid quarantine she has hardly called us and doesn’t come to visit us often, We are not “allowed” to have the children inside our house and we can’t go in hers because of possibility of infection! We ignore her, of course. This behavior has prompted DH to decide that moving to Texas will not be a problem since she doesn’t visit us or even call us when we are not babysitting the grandchildren although we live 1.5 miles away! On the other hand, our grandchildren’s distress at our eventual move is genuine grief. Maybe they can come for summers and we can attempt to reverse their parents’ bad decisions on child rearing. LOL We do love her, but she is very annoying.

As soon as DS2 and FDIL get married, DD2 and STBFSIL will be toddling down to the courthouse to get married as well. No big wedding for DD2 because she just discovered she is 2 months pregnant. She has had health issues over the past year which resulted in not having her monthly cycle. Her doctor said she probably could not get pregnant so like the idiots they are, they stopped using birth control. Neither of them has much common sense as I have mentioned before. DD2 actually thought she was in the midst of a terrible gastric attack (she has had stomach problems since she was a child – part of her FAS birth defects along with seizures) and went to the doctor where a routine pregnancy test gave her the news. While she would normally be thrilled with the thought of having a baby, she is so sick that she has been in the hospital twice in the past week since finding out she was pregnant due to constant vomiting. Since I am an exceptional mother, I am supportive of her. I only think it serves her right in the privacy of my own mind and on these posts! LOL DH is not happy with STBFSIL or his baby girl, while DD1 is livid that her little sister has been “so stupid”. Everyone else seems content to let them live as they please. After all, she has been living with STBFSIL (Doofus) for over 2 years now. It was only a matter of time. We kept telling them to get married, but they had the joint custody issues and were worried that if they got married the baby mama would ask for more child support based on Kassy’s additional income. Since we are a community property state that happens a lot. The joint custody seems settled now so they will get married as soon as DS2 and FDIL tie the knot. And as soon as DD2 can stand up without puking.

First ER trip was an allergic reaction to the nausea medications her doctor had given her last week when she found out she was pregnant. Stroke like symptoms resulting in complete rigidity of one side of the body and then her jaw and throat clenched. Benedryl in the ER resolved those symptoms but even switching to another anti-nausea med did not help. DD2 went to the ER last night vomiting blood. The ER says she has probably torn her stomach from the constancy and violence of her vomiting. I haven’t told her, but I wonder if she will last out the pregnancy. Hopeful the nausea will diminish in another month or so.

Anyway, I will send out an announcement of their marriage to relatives when they get married *after *DS2’s and FDIL’s wedding. I am not going to steal DS2’s and FDIL’s thunder with a marriage announcement right before their long-planned wedding. DD2 will have to wait and have a courthouse wedding which she had always said she was happy with, followed by a small reception at home. It will be small since Doofus has almost no relatives with whom he is on good terms, and DD2 has only our family. DD1 and I wanted her to have the white dress, attendants, and walk down the aisle on DH’s arm. Not happening though so get over it DD1!

On to happier things. NOT the garden. That is still a source of pain to me. DH’s single baby corn continues to grow however.

Tomorrow we weigh the lambs again. I will paint mark the ram lambs. On Wednesday we take the ram lambs to the auction. Then we turn the ewes out with the chosen ram for breeding. 3 of them will go to Axtel while the new ewe I bought from Paul Lewis will go to good ol’ Lewis for breeding.

Axtell had some unusual scurs when I bought him. They didn’t look like scurs, rather like rounded bony protuberances on his skull. They were rather large too. The other day while checking on that pen of sheep, I noticed that one was missing! He looks normal now – on one side - and the bone scar is small. Interesting. I plan to watch his lambs carefully this year because I don’t think I am going to keep him in my flock. His last lambs grew very slowly and were small. His bloodlines are very good, but I think he is more inclined to produce slow growing show stock while I need fast growing market animals. Moyboy’s lambs grew well so he can stay. I have 3 ewes similar in lines to Axtell so I can dispense with him and replace him with another Lewis ram. I think I will put together a starter herd for sale since I want to separate out the bloodlines that definitely work for me. All my sheep are nice and have excellent bloodlines, but some of them I have a greater liking for due to their progeny and rate of growth. And of course, there is 8040, the Knee Fixer, who must remain no matter what. Luckily, she is one who produces large growthy lambs.

Remember my complaints about DH and his reluctance to bring in winter hay at cheap prices? * Now* he has decided that he will roof over the space between the 2 Connexes and enclose the 2 exposed sides. That will be the new hayshed. ????? I thought I had suggested that before.

Men, they have to come to it in their own time and believe it is their own idea. I kept quiet and admired him for his foresight in placing the Connexes close enough together to make it an easy to shelter space. So clever of him! I thought that is what DH planned, but DS1 says DH originally planned it for a tractor shed. Since our old tractor has sat out its entire lifetime and we need hay storage, DH has decided to make it into a hay shed! He is actually a mastermind, just has to wrap his head around the many projects floating around on this property. He is still involved in his retaining wall behind the workshop. I think he has plans to turn the new flat area into a vegetable garden. Or maybe just a small cornfield. He is enthralled with his baby corn. I hope it survives. He told DS1 that he needs a water line there. DH mentioned he would need it to:


Water his garden
For his rabbits, because
He also wants to set up a small rabbitry again. There is the 12’ x 12’ 3-sided shed below the old milk shed which could be converted into a rabbitry by hanging up the cages that are currently stacked there. DS1 reminded him that we ran one to the workshop when we considered putting a sink in it so the line is already there.

I just let DH putter along doing whatever he wants since eventually we will have to move all this stuff to TEXAS! I have been going through the Connexes again though. They have a lot of gaps on the shelves where we removed stuff for DD2 when she got her apartment. I am also going through stuff and finding more stuff to give to the different children or Salvation Army. This will empty more space in the Connexes which DH said he wanted to use for hay storage. Since they have no air vents though, now he is considering ordering another one WITH air vents. On the other hand, we could transfer all the shelves with building supplies that are in the old block wall milk shed into the airless Connexes and store several tons of hay in the milkshed instead. It has plenty of air flow. The choices are endless, only teetering on the cusp of how much work we want to put in. However, storing 3-4 tons of hay in the old milk shed, as well as 2 tons in the barn, and building a 20’ x 20’ hay shed between the Connexes would give us enough storage space for a winter’s worth of hay without buying another Connex.

Since every republican and conservative in the world is apparently planning to move to Texas, we may be stuck with southeast Oklahoma due to property prices and taxes. No offense to OK since we have not checked it out like we have TX. We hope to sell our Yelm property and maybe our Ft. Worth rental to buy our ranch without selling this place. That way we could move all our farm equipment, fencing, etc. to the new place and have it ready for the sheep and dogs when we make our move. Oh, and rabbits. In the meantime, DS2 and FDIL would live here and pay the expenses while we get our new place fixed up. DS2 would like to buy this place but I really don’t want him tied to Los Angeles or California. And he would have to sink everything into a down payment even with us carrying a second. DH likes the idea, but I am not in favor. I still have hopes that the 2 younger boys may decide to move to Texas with us. DS3 and DIL love Texas and have investment property there already. DS2 has investment property there too but has never been. I am hoping that both sons and their spouses will vacation there and DS2 will fall in love with the state like we have.

We can dream . . . .

Well, back to sorting and disposing of items.


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## farmerjan

If things keep going sideways, you might have to just pick up and leave for Texas sooner rather than later.... CA is getting so nutty that everytime I hear something else, I just wonder what dope they are smoking this time.  Now they want to "OUTLAW" .... like make it ILLEGAL to homeschool your kids?????
I know that I could never take the Texas heat.... but it sounds like that is really where you need to be headed and HEADED THERE YESTERDAY...... Sell out and get out while you still can.  Plans can be changed, and you might not be able to get sold out to move if the state gets too insane.  

If you read my journal, you know I am in the process of buying a house on 2 acres at a very reasonable price for this area.  Needs some work, but not a huge amount.  But VA is about going nuts too, and looking at TN just over the border from VA is starting to seem smarter.  At least the TN gov, and the whole area , seems to believe in the independent, self made self sufficient person there to take care of themselves and to allow others to do so.  Have often thought that the mountains in NC were pretty too.  Good thing is, the VA gov can only serve one term.... and maybe we will get back some sensible people in office.  Problem is we are getting all the IDIOTS from DC and many from up in NY, NJ, and liberal nuts from New England down here.  I am a New England Yankee and not ashamed of it.... But I have nothing in common with the liberal nutcases up there.  We were from working, farming, blue collar, red necked,  real people.  Don't know what happened to that old stock.... maybe they have just died out like the DODO bird....


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Ridgetop said:


> Men, they have to come to it in their own time and believe it is their own idea.



Boy, Miss @Ridgetop, you sure know how to hurt us guys -- just tell the truth about us!


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## Ridgetop

Farmerjan:  I thought you were planning to buy across the state line already due to the liberal changes in VA.  I have been reading your posts and thought that was one reason (aside from a horrible landlord) that was driving the move.

First, my apologies to everyone for my rant about DD1.

Second, my apologies for anything else I said that was inappropriate.

Third, I am beginning to feel the burden of this quarantine!

Fourth, I am now beginning to worry about the health risks of wearing masks – increased dental disease and mask breath.

It is making me depressed and is taking away all desire to do ANYTHING! All I want to do lately is sit and watch television, although NOT THE NEWS! I still have to finish DGD1’s bedroom but will not be going over there for at least another week – see rant about DD1 referred to in the first point above.

Instead I am concentrating on BBC detective shows with a smattering of British sit coms. Luckily from my years in Europe, 2 years in an Irish boarding school, and decades of reading British authors, I speak British. When DH listens with me I often have to translate. Lately he has learned terms such as “boot”, “bonnet”, “flat”, etc. although some of the more obscure idioms are still a mystery for him. And when it comes to those British mysteries that are set in areas of heavy scent and dialect, such as Scotland, Northumberland, and the Shetland Isles, he is lost again. Not to mention the Hercules Poirot mysteries with the little Belgian detective set in a completely different time period. Between his bad hearing and the myriad accents, foreign languages are hard for him. However, he refuses to have the subtitles run underneath preferring to absorb true British in immersion mode.

Today we will sort out the lambs and weigh them. I will mark the 2 rams for convenience and they and their mamas will stay in the jug overnight. Last time we loaded them in the trailer and their mothers screamed all night keeping me awake. DH with his hearing problems snored blissfully through the cacophony. We need to replace a crayon on Axtell. Then we must put a harness and crayon on Lewis. Lewis will get the lovely Lewis ewe I just bought, while the other 3 ewes will go down to Axtell. Moyboy will be removed from the flock in another week and the field flock separated for 4 weeks from any other rams. Then I will turn in Lewis with everyone as a catch-up ram. Any ewes not bred by Moyboy during his several months with them will be covered by Lewis after the 4 week separation. If there are very many misses, which I doubt, Moyboy will be for the auction block.

I need to call the auction barn today and find out what prices are currently. I have several standing orders for freezer lambs but would prefer to fill them this winter. The lambs grow faster on less feed when they can forage. I need $$ now for winter hay purchases. We can fit another 2-3 tons in our current shed and barn.

DH has been chastised for feeding the field sheep before releasing them to the field to graze.   He “felt sorry for them” having to eat the dry brush, apparently forgetting why we had them in the first place! Both DS1 and I pointed out that they did not need to be fed extra. DS1 gives them 2 flakes at night for 12 sheep after they graze all day. They have a condition score of 3+. When DH told us that they kept coming up to him and crying we just stared at him, then explain that was because they knew a soft touch when they saw one. Since they now are congregating around Josie and her feeder in the mornings, we figure that DH has stopped feeding them in the morning. DH was complaining that the sheep did not seem to be eating the remaining forage on the hill and thought maybe it was too dry for them!     It is a good thing sheep don’t drive or he would loan them the car! The big softie!

DD2 will be coming over today for several hours with her stepdaughter. She has asked us to help watch Maysie while she rests because she is either exhausted and falling asleep or throwing up.  How well I remember those days! I was working as a legal secretary.  One day I went to the bathroom and woke up with my head on the toilet paper roll drooling. I had been in there asleep for half an hour. After that I made sure to have someone come after me and make sure I woke up! Ah the good old days of pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing. Have I mentioned I really enjoy old age? Except for the aches and pains. Oh yes, and eventual approaching death.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Farmerjan: I thought you were planning to buy across the state line already due to the liberal changes in VA.


That might make working the land with her son just a WEE bit difficult.


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## farmerjan

Moving across the state line is a very good possibility in the future.  Especially if things with this gf continue.... but this house was too good an opportunity to pass up at the price, to get me out of the rental..... and with the ankle replacement doing so good, and the knees looking like they are desperately needing to be done, being  here for another couple of years might be better.  I am still not happy with the liberal BS that is coming from Richmond. 
Talking to the friend about the wood stove the other day,  and listening to some of the comments he made about how things are "trending" has made me think about it again.  The thing is, we are still somewhat rural here, and the access to the interstate makes it very attractive to outsiders.... especially the idiots from DC and other "cities".  So this place will still be "saleable"  even if things get a little crazy.... and the real "boondocks" will be "closed" to liberal nut cases, but will be more accessible to people who demonstrate a belief in self-sufficiency, independence, and "God, guns, and glory".  It will also give me alot more equity for a move to more land and privacy.

West Va has invited a couple of counties bordering it to "secede" and join WVA.  Several counties down in the most sw tip of Va have said they ought to secede to Tenn and the gov there said "come on"... I don't see it happening.... yet things that are happening now I never thought would.... so I don't rule anything out. 

I just had to get out of the rental and the stupider stuff the landlord keeps coming up with..... and being able to save 150 a month or more difference between a rent payment and an equity building payment of a mortgage, is a no brainer.  But if I am going to do the knee replacements within the next year or 2 then I need to be where I can have friends, and family (son) to help out for a few months.


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## farmerjan

@Ridgetop   no apologies necessary for anything.  That is what is so nice here.  We can kinda blow off the steam before we blow our tops at home and cause irreparable harm.  Besides. sometimes getting it down on paper or just off your chest, can make you look at it differently too.  
I am so sorry for this DD1  being so book smart and basically STUPID about practicalities.  I don't have any real advice for you.  I suspect that she will face the consequences of her actions,  with rebellion and downright major problems from the way she is restricting.... he// she is STIFLING these children.  One thing I will say, take it or leave it..... from my divorce I learned from my therapist/counselor ... do not put her down to the kids even if you have to bite your tongue and draw blood.  You can say that you don't agree, that you might do things differently, BUT, she is their mother and while they live in her house they have to do as she says.  It is her house and she makes the rules.

When I got divorced, and my ex got "physical custody" because I was moving out of state... a whole long story..... I wanted to follow through with shooting him and going to jail just to get him out of my son's life.  But, I refrained.  I had alternating holidays, and the summers.... plus could see him whenever I went north....When my son hit his sr year of high school, he took off one day and left my ex-  drove the 8 hrs to Va and said he was not going back.  Everyone was frantic and they all called me asking what to do.  I said leave him alone, he will probably come to Va and when he did show up, exhausted and an emotional mess, I put him to bed and called my parents and said, he is here, he is asleep, and it will get talked about tomorrow.  They were all about coming down and getting this straightened out and I said NO, leave him alone and I will call you tomorrow.  Then he finally told me  what had triggered the walking out, and stuff he had been dealing with for years, and never told me about.... and we got it sorted out and he went back and lived with my parents for the last 3 months until he graduated.  2 weeks later he was moved down with me permanently.  It hasn't all been roses, but he KNEW that there was a safe haven here.
That is what I am trying to get across.  Don't bash her in any way in front of the kids; as much as you want to tell her off.  Make sure they know that you love them and WILL LISTEN , even when you don't agree..... give them the knowledge that they have a   safe place to be.  Make sure you have rules and don't be lax.... they need to know the limits.  If it gets so bad, you might wind up with custody in some weird scenario....and you might have some really difficult kids to deal with.  

Maybe they will do something and she will get a "figurative slap across the face" and wake up.... and realize or even if necessary, have it explained to her, maybe by the FDIL , that she is destroying these kids.... and nothing in life is perfect.... not even her.

Good luck.  And yes, men can be so thick and stupid sometimes.....


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## Baymule

By comparison, my life is much simpler. Our DD and her husband are great parents and the girls love to come see us. Our son, has never married and has no kids. I would auction him off to the highest bidder if I could. He is going to hit 40 and still be single, He'll be 38 in another month. His great, great grandfather on his father's side, didn't marry until just past 40, married an 18 year old and had a passel of kids. So maybe there is hope. LOL 

@farmerjan moving to Tennessee in a few years sounds like a pretty good idea. Make yourself happy and to heck with it all. For now, stay close, get your medical issues dealt with and enjoy your new home, it will be your down payment to a better place. 

@Ridgetop looking at Oklahoma? Can't blame you, prices here have gone stupid. Probably all those escapees from other states trying to get away from all the madness...... LOL We have another move coming. Don't know exactly when, or exactly where, but I don't think we will be here forever. We bought it at a ridiculous low price and will sell at a ridiculous high price, so we will be ok.


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## Ridgetop

Farmerjan:  Actually I thought your son was selling and moving with you.  Andyou are right.  We never discuss our daughter in front of the kids.  We always tell them what wonderful parents they have.  I suggested family counselling and DD1 said yesterday that she and SIL were actually think about family counselling with the entire family.  If they do that, hopefully some of the issues will come up and she may realize she has to back off.  At any rate we are walking distance (over the hills with trails behind our house) so in an emergency the kids know how to get here.   I am hoping that having 2 days here with us this school year while DD1 and SIL work from home may help out.  It will take some pressure off DD1 and also off the kids if they learn they can hurry through their schoolwork and then have free time.  Maybe she will let them walk over in the mornings.  

Baymule:  Maybe we can check out southern Oklahoma ranches together when this quarantine ends and we are finally able to get back there!  Closer to your kids too in the middle of the state.


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## Baymule

I think I’m gonna stay close to east Texas. I like the green and trees. Brown landscapes and trees shorter than a 2 story house don’t excite me. Oh heck, trees shorter than a ONE story house doesn’t excite me. Can’t believe they actually call that scrub brush trees!


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## Ridgetop

A Requiem for a Golden Boy

Oh, sweet green infant with waving golden locks
          How early were you taken, before you ripened into your promise.
Marauders have stolen your goodness from those who loved you.
          Secretly in the night they came and took you from us.
You will not be forgotten. Already we plan the destruction
          Of those enemies. They will pay for their grim deeds.
Our revenge will be swift and cruel on those who killed you.

Open verse, but I am not much of a poet. 
DH is in deepest mourning  for the loss of his single ear of corn. It was taken in the night by a band of furry thieves while 3 Turkish guardians slept on duty. These ruthless predators have returned uncaught to the scene of the crime many times. They have been sighted in broad daylight by reliable witnesses. They pillage and loot. They are identifiable by their beady, shifty little eyes and thick bushy tails. At a weight of at least 2 lbs. these are the largest and healthiest ground squirrels I have ever seen! Perhaps some sort of genetically altered Super-Ground Squirrel! Is this the newest Chinese threat? The evisceration of our food supply by giant ground squirrels? 

Our Turkish sentries have been reproved but don’t seem to understand the seriousness of their failure. Responding to a serious tongue lashing and demotion in rank with happy tail waggings, these foreign immigrants seemed not to realize that they are here on sufferance to protect our premises. While perhaps they do not recognize Super Ground Squirrels as predators, we have told them in detail of their dereliction. They smiled at us as we gestured towards the green cornstalks, pretending not to understand our strange tongue, and asked for caresses.   

DH has ordered a ground squirrel trap. He is a little optimistic, having ordered one that will hold up to 20 of the creatures. Having caught them, he announced that he would then drive them to the park and release them. Shocked and horrified, I banned this move. Instead, I decreed that we would shoot them in the cage with pellet guns. I would shoot fish in a barrel if it was necessary. Don’t judge. He agreed that this was a better idea since we have no hated enemies into whose garden we could release them. LOL Having shot them, we can feed them to the dogs. They are large enough for us to eat ourselves, but DS1 refused to countenance the idea, stating that they carried disease like Bubonic Plague. I pointed out that fleas carried that. He agreed but said that ground squirrels carry fleas. If they had Bubonic Plague in their fleas, we have already been exposed to this. Regardless, the dogs can eat them as well as rabbits they catch.   

Originally, due to his aging eyesight, and the fact that he missed when he shot at one with a pellet gun, he stated that he would take the 16 gauge and sit u for them.  Reminding them what buck**** wuld do to his beloved corn plants, he searched out alternative methods, thus the trap.  It arrives today from Amazon.

Due to the mourning period over our golden babe, I have been too depressed to post. Ministering to DH in his grief has taken all my time.   He has discovered that he is with corn again though.  3 more tiny ears are on the stalks, probably already marked for death by our rapacious invaders.  Hopefully the trap will help.

  
We are finally returning to some semblance of normal quarantine life. We took our 2 ram lambs to the auction yesterday. I should have taken a photo of the horrible goats and sheep they had in the holding pens. One sheep actually looked like a cross between a sheep and camel. At any rate, they were all bony and thin adult with the exception of 2 or 3 kids around 3 months old. Hopefully, my thick, healthy lambs will go for a good price. DH is picking up another load of hay this weekend since we can fit another 2040 bales it our current storage areas. The price had already gone up $.50 a bale. DH keeps trying to reassure me about being able to afford hay if the price rises any more but I am worried that if we don’t stockpile it now, the price will be unaffordable this winter If we don’t have hay and the rains don’t come, we will be in trouble. Ranchers’ worries. Sometimes I hate loving this life so much.

I will be making up the due date list today for the ewes. It looks like don’t have any ewes due until the beginning to mid-September. The August due dates having remarked. However, that is not always reliable since an overly optimistic ram will often mark a ewe again with high hopes. By making up the due date list I can keep an eye on those ewes that I expect to lamb in order. The jugs are ready for them so nothing to do but wait. The worst part of any pregnancy as far as I am concerned. TMI but my pregnancies were so awful that labor was the best part! Ugh!

This morning DS1 and I will separate the 4 ewes into the ram pens. We need to replace Axtel’s crayon and put a harness on Lewis. The new Lewis ewe will be taken kicking and screaming to Lewis since DS1 insists that putting a halter on her and walking her over will be the easiest way. I suggested putting up the portable chute fencing and running her over that way, but he vetoed it insisting on just dragging her in a halter. Too much trouble to argue with him so let him struggle. I will have to halter the ewe lamb too and take her with the ewe. Then we will run the other 3 ewes down in front with Axtell. The next job will be removing Moyboy from the main flock for 4 weeks so they can recycle if necessary, before turning Lewis out onto the main field with his new honey. That way, if anyone rebreeds I will know who the sire is for registration. After the other 3 ewe with Axtell are marked, they will also join the main flock with Lewis. Moyboy and Axtel can bond in the Field of Celibacy and recover from their Months of Bliss. This entire operation is fraught with possibilities for another giant Ridgetop screwup and chase of the lambs hither and yon.   

DD2 came over last Tuesday and spent a lovely day with us on the patio. The weather was nice, hot but with a cooler breeze. Thankfully she is feeling better and did not throw up once while here. There was a close call when I served dinner which she had announced she and her family would stay to eat with us. I warned her we were having tamales and pork Chili Verde. Meat dishes AND not suited to a queasy or tender stomach. She had already told me that she threw up at the smell of meat cooking. Her moaning about feeling starved to death told me that she would not take “No” for an answer and she had already invited Doofus-Soon-To-Be- Son-In-Law. I don’t know how I have failed as a mother, even though I was and am *PERFECT*.   

I set the table and found some meatless leftovers for DD2, some chicken for Maysie, and DD2 walked into the house, turned green and announced that the meat smells were making her vomit, She ran outside. I took her placemat outside and started to wash off the patio table for DD2. She was appalled that I was making her eat OUTSIDE! I told her that she couldn’t eat with us and spoil our dinners puking over everything! Ugh!   

He stood t the kitchen window with her sad puppy face complaining that she would be “lonely”. Fine! DD2 was handed paper towels and the hose and told to wash the table. DSTBSIL was dispatched to move the placemats and silverware to the outside table. We proceeded to eat outside while DH and DS1 complained about the flies hovering around. Very pleasant Ridgetop meal. LOL No vomiting occurred. DD2 ate meatless Spanish rice, leftover fried cabbage, and salad. A very odd combination for a pregnant woman who can’t keep anything down but go figure. I had thawed a quart of the goat milk DS2 had gotten frozen from his dairy friend in Riverside. I gave it to DD2 to take home and make smoothies with. She is somewhat lactose intolerant but hopefully the goat milk will stay down. She needs to coat her stomach with some form of soothing foods. She is taking Tums which help and sucking caramels since peppermint turns her green. If she can drink the goat milk with no problem, then she can buy it in the store or DS2 can bring more when he comes home from San Diego area where he is working. A fleeting thought of purchasing a miller went through my mind but – I did say it was *fleeting *didn’t I?

While sitting on the patio, DD2 had a good idea for DS2’s and FDIL’s wedding reception at home. The invitations have not gone out so they will have to cut their guest list in half which will not upset too many people with the Covid virus restrictions. We can rent canopies and put them on the lower front area where our old Doughboy pool used to be. It is 25’ x 60’ and is flat. We will need to rent an additional set of steps since the deck is gone now but they only need to go down 4’. The rental company should have those and if not, we can build a short set. With tables and chairs under the canopy and lots of fairy lights it should work well. We can even rent a small dance floor. If we can’t find a caterer, FDIL’s mother has a cousin who does Filipino catering which will feed the ethnic guests and does a whole roast suckling pig which is traditional Filipino celebration food. Very tasty! The rest of the food I can make with my trusty crew of 1. LOL! I would normally insist on taking over DD1’s kitchen since it is huge and doing all the cooking there, then freezing a lot of the food. However, since she has again forbidden us to attend on health issues, I am not sure we will be able to tell her about the reception. She might report us. On the other hand, the neighbors will be there (we only have 4) and with the locked iron gates, the officers can’t get in. Besides, LAPD said they are not rousting house parties anyway despite our mayor’s threats.

Dishes like Burgundy meatballs are an easy thing to make in bulk, freeze, and serve. Also, large pans of Stouffers Lasagna, etc., salads, etc. can be produced quickly and easily. Wine, beer, and champagne are easily procured from Costco. Actually, for my grandmother’s 90th birthday, I ordered all the liquor, champagne and ice from a local liquor store and they supplied the glassware as well. The food is the least part. I will need to hire serving staff since I am not going to host the whole thing alone, the bride can’t do anything, and we all want to be guests. I have several catering places I can try since I would prefer to have the caterers do everything.

We have an acre of parking on the field. The dogs ill be locked in the barn pens with the sheep and the sheep and Josie will be corralled in the night folds. With the florist renting large plants and shrubs to hide unsightly areas we will be fine. Since our lovely view over the Valley is better than the Odyssey’s where we scheduled the venue, FDIL is happy with the change. Also many guests that have to travel will not be coming probably. Particularly the Filipino contingent living in the Philippines.

I’m in a better frame of mind now except for the ground squirrels. DD1 is coming around to DD2’s pregnancy. She even bought her a pregnancy gift of Saltines and is planning to go visit her. Maybe DD1 will get to plan a White Wedding for DD2 after all. DD2 and DSTBFSIL will already be married and have their baby, but they can repeat their vows and DH can walk his little girl down the aisle. I will be holding their baby in the first row. Today’s morals continue to confuse me. My grandmother had to marry in the Priest’s Parlor instead of the Catholic church. My Grandfather was a Lutheran. Things have really changed in the church, but not so much as in our general views. Life goes on.

Now for the Super Ground Squirrels . . . .


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## Baymule

Oh thanks for the belly laugh! Look out ground squirrels!!


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## Ridgetop

And don't forget WATER!  Too far west and it dries up!  Probably kept by East Texans with right of capture!  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Let us know where you think the best areas will be. We are definitely coming once this Covid thing is done. Got to look around some more for just the right place. The problem is that if we get plenty of rain but are too far north, we have to deal with snow and feeding through the winter. If we are too far south and west we may not have enough water. The real problem is that there will be climate problems no matter where we go. They will just all be different problems. We just have to decide which ones are the easiest to deal with.

This time when you move, you will probably be looking for a place with a barn, fencing for the sheep and dogs, and the rest of what you had to put in this time. Having had livestock we all know what is necessary. That is why I inspect the outbuildings first, then the house. The house is last on my list because I know we can fix it easily. The fencing, barns, water supply, wells, ponds, access, etc. are the most important no matter what the size of the property. When we looked before, the sales listing agent was always confused when I ignored the house and made a bee line to the barns! The sales agent would also tell me that fencing was cheap and easy *LOL* and was surprised when I told him how much it would actually cost to fence the properties and do the repairs. Most of them did not know what I was talking about when I asked about GPM output on the wells either. Be prepared to know more about the features than the selling agent. Luckily our agent is a friend and understands we know exactly what we need for our small sheep operation.

So in a major recovery from the Covid destruction of DS2’s and FDIL’s wedding plans, I made a list of all the things that need to be rented and made a bunch of calls. Tents, tables, chairs, propane heaters (October wedding so possibly chilly), large fans (October in southern California so could have a hot spell), linens, china, tableware, glassware, keg equipment, portable dance floor, speakers for DJ, lights, porta potties?, rental plants and shrubbery to disguise our animal stuff (the florist does not do this so need to do it separately) ground coverings, etc., etc., *SERVERS*!!! The food is no problem, but we need servers since I am not going to act as a waitress!

DH again came to the rescue – My Hero – by reminding me that we always used to rent building equipment from Bonner’s in La Crescenta. He remembered that they had started renting party equipment years ago, so I called them.

*JACKPOT!!!*

Matt at Bonner’s said he could supply all of the above, *INCLUDING SERVERS and a BARTENDER!!! Matt is my new BFF.*

To the grand strains of the Hallejujah Chorus I pirouetted out to the family room, narrowly avoiding hitting the door jamb on the way. Once arriving there I informed DH that he had again saved the day! (DD2’s sofa remember?) Matt is coming out next Tuesday at noon to look over the property and see if his tents or canopies will fit in front where we want it or if they have to go on the field instead. I am hoping it can go in front where the pool was since the view is nicer there, while on the field most of the view is blocked by the Connexes. On the other hand, hidden behind the Connexes the party tent will not be noticeable to any evil nosy parkers that want to turn us in. They will have to fly over with a helicopter to do so. The neighbors have been invited so no problem. The neighbors must stay on the invitation list for that reason, but some of the relatives have been scratched out without a qualm. We like these neighbors, not so much the relatives.

DD1 still insists that we do not attend the wedding but she is not the boss of us!!! DH and I are not completely in our dotage yet, although DH is waffling between “Hell, No, I’m *gonna* go!” and “We might catch Covid and die”.

Today my nail lady told me about a client who wanted to get tested for Covid. She filled out all the paperwork on line to get an appointment for the Covid test. When she showed up at her appointment time she found a 2 hour line! She decided she wouldn’t wait so she left without taking the test. *A week later she received a letter in the mail telling her the Covid test was* *positive*! What??? She never even had the test! Our neighbor’s son-in-law works for the studios and every time they change location all the drivers and grips have to get a new Covid test. He is always negative, but it registers on the state list as a Covid positive test! Can anyone spell *S-C-A-M*?

Covid is a real threat, but I really think it is being drawn out as more than it is for most people. Everyone has to go to the grocery store, gas station, etc. I really think most people by now have been exposed in one way or another, either firsthand or secondhand. I am going to wear the mask when I go out in public, stay away from most people, but am not going crazy about it. And when I hear that the Chinese government is saying they are finding Covid in frozen food imported to their country – well, go figure!

Now, back to the reception, ince I don’t have a caterer to do it for me YET, I have to figure out a menu, then how much food, wine, champagne, beer, and soft drinks I need per person for this shindig. DS1 and DS2 can figure out where to buy the keg of beer. They used to obtain the kegs for their fraternity and college parties. DH again suggested a solution – the corner market/liquor store where my children have gone on their ponies to buy ice cream and candy for 30+ years! I will call them to see if they can supply the wine and booze as well since we now have a *bartender*. Some liquor stores also supply the ice and glasses and will deliver during the party as you run out. Costco used to carry Cook’s champagne in the magnums so I will check them out too. Cook’s tastes just like Dom Perignon and is a very nice choice. DH won a bottle of Dom Perignon once and we had a taste test – no difference. Not terribly expensive either. We are not oenophiles obviously.

So happy that I have found a way out of the Covid wedding quagmire. Maybe we will buy boxes of face masks, decorate them with large red smiles, and put one at each place setting for the guests instead of wedding favors!

Now that is taken care of, the food will not be a problem. Maybe not on the same scale as a sit down menu with a choice of entree, but we can do a nice buffet service. I have 3 large buffet chafing dishes and DD1 has another. We used to entertain large groups a lot and I did all the cooking myself. I am not as young now, but STILL IN MY PRIME! lol The whole roast pig will be served on a large tray. The wedding cake will be desert. Giant bags of tossed green salad can be procured and served in some of my huge serving bowls. I have a lot of large serving pieces that can be used outside, including several punch bowls that will do duty as large salad bowls for the buffet table. Coolers can be borrowed to ice the champagne and wine. The keg will be refrigerated somehow, I think. DH and DS1 will know. If necessary, we can roast several turkeys and slice them up to be served along with the pig in the warmers. Stouffers vegetable lasagna will do for any vegetarian guests. We are all big meat eaters here anyway. Let the vegetarians go hungry! How dare they attend a wedding of a family of carnivores and expect their picky food preferences to be catered to! It is enough trouble to arrange this at home reception without worrying about them. Maybe a crockpot of baked beans? They have salad and cake.

The only fly will be the lack of linens for the tables. Bonner’s has the linens, but no laundry service to wash them. Maybe if I volunteer to launder them afterwards, he will at least rent us the tablecloths. We can make do with paper napkins I suppose.

We have tons of battery operated fairy lights that we can put up all over the patio and trees, shrubs etc. We bought them last Christmas to use at BBQs this summer that were outlawed. Curse you, Governor Gruesome!!! And you, Mayor Fartcetti!!!

Just remembered another question for Bonner’s - do they rent the plastic shields to go in front of the food on the buffet table?

So much to do.

We took the 2 ram lambs down to the auction Wednesday. The price was less than before but not too bad since they were barely 3 months old and I don’t have to feed them hay anymore. Our grazing is limited now and all dry. The auction people said that the best prices are in the spring so I will rearrange my marketing strategy again and plan to raise the larger freezer lambs for private clients during the summer since the winter prices are higher for the smaller lambs in the spring. I have fewer private clients that want 100+ lb. freezer lambs so that will work out. All the ewes that are due to lamb will have lambs that will go to auction from January through May or June when the prices will be higher. I also got another customer today, Russian and wants a lamb about 35-50 lb. I told him there would be no meat on it at 35 lbs. He was surprised to hear that it would only be about a month or so old. I explained that my young lambs gain faster than what he is accustomed to buying. I told him I would let him know when my lambs were 50 lbs. and he could come take a look. I had to raise my price for a finished lamb to $250. If I can get $150 for a 50-60 lb. lamb, there is no point in holding and feeding a lamb to 110 lb. and selling at $200! My butcher said I am still underpriced, but better a quick sale than holding out for a higher price that might never arrive.

7041 has already marked. Her pen mates lambed about a week apart after her so I should expect to see 7088 mark next week, and 8040 mark the week after that. The new Lewis ewe has some marks on her side and shoulder, I put her in the book with a question mark, but he was probably just trying to get to know her. LOL

I hope the ewes hold off lambing for another 2 weeks. We are in a heat advisory – temps 20 degrees above normal for the next week. 103 degrees to 110 degrees. Being advised not to overuse the A/C or any electrical appliances during the day in case the power grid goes down. Possible and unpleasant. We have all the blinds drawn, the fans running, and the AC temp at 78+. If the worst happens, we will go to DD1’s house, overpower them, and use their pool. LOL

I really hate summer lambings due to the heat. It is so hard on the lambs, and the discharge from the ewe draws flies like mad. I use fly spray on their backsides to try to avoid fly strike. Since they are inside the barn it is hard to keep the flies away no matter how many fly traps I hang.

Several wildfires around lately. It is already August and our fire season lasts from now through October. The good thing is that our weather patterns usually mean with a very hot summer, we get a very wet winter. Hopefully it will be a good green forage year, if so. Sometimes. . . .

Dh is still plugging away at his retaining wall behind the workshop. He wants to finish it, then put in a short retaining wall on the slope below the patio so we can plant flowering shrubs or ground cover there. We need to find out what will poison Super Ground Squirrels and plant that.

Speaking of the SGSs I had a brilliant thought yesterday about what to do before the wedding in the areas that have been decimated. I will buy cheap artificial flowers and plants and put them in the garden where the rabbits and ground squirrels have chewed up everything. I would buy real ones, but would have to put them in before the reception. They would not survive to the reception. DH read on line that we could make up a spray using hot chili peppers. I know that sometimes works to deter dogs and cats, so it is worth a try. You buy or grow the hottest chilis then put them in a blender with a little water and puree them. Strain the mixture into a jar and use it in the spray bottle to spray plants and anything you need to protect. Be sure to wear rubber gloves when working with the chilis. I think I will start shopping for cheap artificial plants. The area with our new faux grass and the flowering pomegranate will make a lovely spot for photos EXCEPT the roses are all dead. If I can arrange flowering plants along the wall it will disguise the destruction.

Enough for now. I need to go put a cold compress on my forehead with all this thinking and planning!


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## thistlebloom

Try Plantskydd deer repellent for your squirrels. The label says it works on them also. I don't know personally because I just need to repel deer, and it works well for that.








						Deer - Plantskydd
					

Our deer repellent is the best way for achieving a deer proof garden. It's the most Effective, most Tested, and longest Lasting animal repellent out there.




					www.plantskydd.com
				




Seems much easier to me than concocting a pepper spray and worrying about getting it on your skin and in your eyes. I diced some chilies for freezing one morning, that night took my contacts out and wow! Even after all the times I had washed my hands throughout the day the pepper oil still had enough kick to blind me! A memorable lesson, lol.

There are other repellents that work on squirrels, according to the label, and I have used many different repellents, but for deer at least, I like Plantskydd.
There is also a hot pepper wax spray for plants you can apply. I've used it too and my eyes didn't seem to notice, haha.


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## Baymule

We drove halfway to Odessa yesterday to meet the parents and take the grandkids back. That was enough of a drive to remind us that WE LOVE EAST TEXAS and have no desire to move west of Dallas. We are happily living BEHIND THE PINE CURTAIN and will continue to do so. Our son has 35 acres in Houston County (NOT Houston the city-the COUNTY-pay attention here!). It is between Lufkin and Crockett. We may eventually move there. Look around in Houston County. Crockett is so named because supposedly it was the campsite of Davy Crockett on his way to the Alamo. Remember the Alamo!

East Texas does get snow, but not every year and it is generally gone in 3 days. Just enough to make it fun and not enough to make it misery. I haul buckets of boiling hot water to the animals twice a day, BJ runs stove duty and big pots, loads them in my wagon and off I go. It's a pain, but it never lasts long. If that is a bother to you, have a hot water on demand thingy installed in the barn. Most of the year you would wonder why you ever did that, but the 3 days a year that you needed it, it would be a boon.

Here is a link to my 2018 snow storm thread. LOL LOL We didn't get any snow in 2019.  Check out the dates. Snow on January 16 with a record busting 10 degree F cold, then on January 21, over 70 degrees F. Hahaha






						SNOW IN TEXAS!!!
					

Woke up this morning to snow! Actually looked out the window at 5AM and went back to bed. LOL Fixing to start the boiling water brigade. Took these from the front porch, one of Prince out the back door.



					www.theeasygarden.com


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## Baymule

I'm glad that it is coming together for the wedding. Instead of renting tablecloths and washing them, what about buying the throwaway paper kind? It's Covid Time, ya' gotta make sacrifices..........


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## Ridgetop

I am seriously thinking of decorating paper masks for wedding favors!  

Alas, Sweet 8040, I knew her . . . . (stolen from Wm Shakespeare)

My beloved 8040 became a casualty of our massive heat wave on August 15.     Heat stroke took her. It was devastating. The ram and 9 other sheep in that pen survived without a problem. She had been in the pen for 2-3 days but if I had known that the heat wave was coming I might have waited to move those sheep from the creep pen to the front field. The creep pen is on the east side off the property and has more shade while the other field is on the west side of the mountain. It has plenty of shade and lots of water but gets afternoon sun instead of morning sun. Still the day she died it was about 110 degrees. 8040 was an excellent ewe along with her chiropractic skills. She was large and had lovely lambs without any problem and was an exceptional mother I have a September daughter out of her that is bred and due in November. 8040 was not bred yet but perhaps having her ram lamb removed several days previously may have precipitated enough stress that the heat finished her off. I really don’t think so since he was 3 months old and rarely nursing but any separation in the flock might cause stress.  

When large animal control came to pick her up, he said that he had been picking up a lot of large dogs during the heat wave.  People that keep their dogs outside don't realize that they need to keep them cooler.  Our dogs have lots of hiding holes dug out under bushes, etc. where they can keep cool but not everyone has that option.  He told us he picked up one dog where the owner had a female in season.  She was in the house so he locked the male in the garage.  Died of heat in the closed in garage.  Horrible and avoidable.  

At any rate, 2 of the remaining 3 ewes that were in the creep pen with 3 month old lambs have already rebred. 7041 the day after we moved them, and 0123 three days later. 0123 is the new Lewis ewe I bought with a ewe lamb on her. She is bred to my Lewis ram. Hoping for good things there.

The August lambing dates don’t look very likely, but quite a few are due in early September. Hope the weather cools down a little before then. Then several each month through January (the 2 that just bred) and on into February with the last ewe 7088, and possibly AAC, Orange 5 & Orange 6.

Axtell’s 2 ewe lambs from last October don’t seem to have marked yet. They are not terribly large, but are normal medium size for 10 month old lambs. Since the September born lambs bred in July, the month younger lambs should breed this month. They are out of Texas lines which are a little smaller and slower growing so I will keep watching them. They have been in with the ram since they made 80 lbs. Also, will change out Moyboy’s crayon tonight when we bring them in. Even though the ram is not actively marking ewes since most of them are bred, the crayon gets worn off and clogged with dirt and gravel when he lays down. We still have to change it out every couple weeks. AAC who lambed 3 months ago and lost her lamb has not remarked so she will probably be breeding again about now.

Matt from Bonner’s is coming today to give us an estimate on how many people we can accommodate here for the wedding and the estimate for the stuff we will need to rent. Odyssey Restaurant is still waffling about how many people, whether they can serve food, etc. At least we have a backup plan. Fr. Mike said that the neighbors around the church are keeping an eye on how many people are coming to services so we may even have to cut the number of family and friends allowed at the church! What a bunch of nosy neighbors! He is worried that they might get raided during the ceremony! I am beginning to feel religious persecution just like during the Roman days and during the reign of Henry VIII. While I don’t expect we will actually be fed to the lions, jail time might be a possibility. After all, it is only the real criminals like murderers that are being released from prison due to the Covid epidemic here in California. Families wanting to go to church, get married and bury their dead are the ones being arrested and fined. Violent protesters no problem – that is their right, God fearing, law abiding citizens watch out.  

By the way, Kamala Harris is the woman hated here in California by law abiding gun owners for trying to seize all weapons, including hunting weapons. Jut so everyone knows how close the threat of gun confiscation is.

Back to the wedding plans. Since we may have to tighten the invitation list even more, the kids are now considering whether they would just go with a smaller wedding in church and a much smaller family reception in October, then a large party to celebrate their wedding next year. They plan to try for a baby right away so maybe a combination celebration for their 1st anniversary, and a baby welcome.

DD2 is planning the same thing. A very small wedding at the courthouse, then next year she will do the walk down the aisle for a renewal of vows, and family reception at home with about 50 people. DH was so upset when he learned that she would not be walking down the aisle on his arm, that I am now planning a renewal of vows under an arbor of flowers for DD2. She can have the white dress and veil for that ceremony at home since the family is telling me that I am silly to think she can’t have that. Maybe DS1 or DS3 can stand in for a minister as a Master of Ceremonies. At any rate, I have done all I can for now. Just have to see how it plays out and be ready to jump into action.

The Super Ground Squirrels are getting more pushy. They are actively invading the plants in full sight of us and just sneer at us. DH went out again with his air rifle, but it disappeared when he showed up with his long fire stick. We can see them from the windows of the office. DS1 suggested removing the screen and opening the window a crack for the rifle barrel so DH can shoot from inside the house. It might work, but the temps are so hot outside that even that open crack would cause hot air to pour into the house.

DS2 has been going to marksmanship competitions in San Luis Obispo. He is a crack shot and is looking forward to the official competitions opening again. He has been taking DGS2, age 9, with him and says he is also becoming a crack shot. If DGS2 were older I would have him come up and eradicate the SGSs and rabbits. DS2 doesn’t allow him access to firearms (even pellet guns) yet without supervision. A wise move as several BB holes in my shed windows 25+ years ago can confirm.

We had to do flea treatments on the dogs for the first time this year. I think they are getting fleas from all the rabbits and ground squirrels. The fleas drop off into the hay, straw, and grass then the dogs pick them up when they lay down or walk through.


----------



## Ridgetop

Well the ground squirrel trap has arrived. Reading an article in the current issue of the Anatolian Times I realize why our brave livestock guardians are not chasing and killing the ground squirrels. Apparently, the best livestock guardians have a “very low prey drive”. That means that they do not chase down and hunt prey with the same enthusiasm as the standard Labrador. This lack of prey drive keeps them from chasing and playing those cute lambs and kids to death. It also causes them not to chase a rabbit through a flock of heavily pregnant ewes. _Excellent_ behavior for LGDs.  _Bad_ behavior for garden protectors.   We will have to resort to electrified garden fencing next year.

However, DS1 set up the trap last night and baited it with some barleycorn. Today we have a prisoner!    He/she will go to that great garden in the sky soon. In the meantime, DS1 and I saw another evil ground squirrel approach the trap and proceed to climb on top of it – probably trying to release his compatriot! Luckily, he wasn’t able to do so. Sadly, he did not venture inside the trap to play with his buddy. DS1 was worried about our LGDs trying to tear the trap apart in blood lust for the ground squirrels. They did not. Refer to previous paragraph about “low prey drive”. 

Following the bait advice that came with the trap, DH is currently buying a mango and some peaches which apparently are preferred foods. We will try those tonight after eradicating and removing the nasty vicious pest currently inhabiting the cage. Ground squirrels are not cute when trying to bite off your fingers through the wires. They not only carry rabies but also Bubonic Plague. The first case of Bubonic Plague in California in 5 years was just reported last week in Lake Tahoe. It was thought to be spread by fleas on squirrels,  rabbits, and chipmunks, aka ground squirrels, or other rodents. Lake Tahoe is a mountain resort area on the border between California and Nevada. We will kill _this_ hideous predator before putting it in a plastic bag to dispose of it in the trash. Yuck! I wonder if I should spray him with flea spray first before taking the body from the trap. 

We will rebait the trap with the mango and peaches, I also found a couple of very ripe bananas. Hopefully we will not spend more in fruit bait and the trap than it would have cost to buy veggies. Once DS1 has trapped as many of the ground squirrels as possible by moving the trap to various locations (my rose bed aka The Graveyard of The Dead), he will move it into the barn. Since there are no sheep in the jugs or creep pen, we will lock the cage in behind the gate and hope to catch more ground squirrels, rabbits and rats. All nasty little critters that deserve extinction.  

*Yeehaw!!!   Also Bazinga and Eureka!!!    *

DS1 just checked the trap and there are *5* – Yep *5! *ground squirrels in the cage. DS1 said that it is rated for 25 of the little miseries so we are leaving it in place until this evening when we will eradicate them, empty the cage, and bait it with the fruit DH bought and a banana. No time off for good behavior, no clemency, this is a death penalty zone! NO! Ground Squirrel Lives Do *Not* Matter!!!

DS1 said he read that ground squirrels only forage about 50’ from their burrow! No idea where their burrow is, but since they are pillaging both in the front and back of the house as well as in the barn, there must be _many_ burrows. No wonder we will be eating alfalfa soup this winter! I wonder how the farmers manage. Of course, they probably have other lethal deterrents that we can’t use because of our dogs. DS1 is now wondering how to kill the little monsters. Should he put on heavy gloves and try to dump them into a large metal trash can alive and then either poison them or shoot them? I am worried that they will escape while the transfer is being made. We could fill one of the empty horse troughs with water and drown them in the cage.  DS1 said that repumping the air rifle each time would be time consuming to kill all 5,  but I think that is the safest way to go. I wonder how many will be in the cage by nightfall. I really did not think that trapping them would work – kudos to DH and DS1! My heroes! 

DS1 just came up with a solution for the disposal of the ground squirrels!  5 ground squirrels + 5 grandchildren = 5 *PET* GROUND SQUIRREL GIFTS! 

On to Bubba and his ongoing semen collection appointments. He was a champ on Wednesday. The technician had a teaser bitch in heat, and he performed magnificently, producing 11 straws.   She said they were excellent motility and condition so his trips to the vet are now over. I had a brucellosis test done at the same time as the last collection. The test was within the 30 day limit for all 3 collection dates. The technician said she would miss “her big old teddy bear”.  She has never seen him in snarling protection mode. He looks more like a snarling grizzly bear than a teddy bear when that happens. 🐻 Now that he is in the tank, well, his posterity is in the tank, I can have him fixed if I choose. We are waiting to see if Angel can be registered in the next year. At that point we might breed him to her when she is 3 or so, for a litter of puppies. DH wants puppies. I love puppies, and the grandchildren would love puppies, but I really don’t like approving homes for puppies. Is anyone really deserving of one of _my_ perfect 🌡puppies? I am the same about selling breeding sheep. Meat sheep no problem, selling live to someone I always wonder. I have had some bad experiences selling pets in the past so don’t like to do it anymore. I told Erick that if we had puppies, they would be loaded into the car at 12-14 weeks and we would bring them to him in Texas to be assessed and good LGD buyers found and approved by him. He was very happy about that. Any west coast buyers could pick them up at our place or we would deliver them on the way home. Better to deliver them after receiving the checks, I don’t like people putting off pick up dates which often happens.

The heat wave has been going now for a week – triple digit temps.  🌡 🥵  Not muggy heat but true high heat temps 1003-110 degrees. It is expected to last another week at least.  I found DH sobbing into his electric bill. Last night it cooled off to around 80 at 10 pm, and we opened all the windows with the ceiling fans going to get the house aired out. The dogs have disappeared as have the sheep. They are all seeking shade and cooler spot to rest. The majority of the sheep on the large field go into the gully where the temps drop by a couple degrees and hide under the brush. Rika has holes everywhere where she can watch them from a shady, cool spot. Bubba and Angel are sleeping in the old milkshed which has a concrete floor and is 15’ below driveway level.   Slightly cooler there and the concrete floor is cool.  They are slacking off knowing that no predator will be hunting in this weather.  The dogs are not allowed in the house lately since they have gotten fleas. Probably from the ground squirrels! I gave them a flea treatment last week and will reapply in a couple weeks. We have tile floors so if they do drop fleas, the fleas will not locate in any carpets, but instead will instantly jump onto us. So no dogs inside for a while until the second treatment, and I get hold of some flea spray. By spraying them outside first, the fleas will jump off outside instead. Hoping the heat wave will go away in another week or so.

DS2 and FDIL have been working on their wedding invitation list. They are trying to decide whether to have a very small reception and no dancing, with a larger party next year, or a medium small party now. It is going to be a lot of work for us although the bid for the rental of the tables, chairs, tents, fans, and dance floor was reasonable at $2000. However, we would still have to budget at least $3000 for food, beer, wine, champagne and the cake.   Also have to cook al the food in advance.  As well as buying the paper tablecloths, napkins, paper plates, plastic silverware, and plastic glassware, etc. I also don’t have a bid on what the wait staff would charge. On the other hand, it is much cheaper than the $100/hd they would have paid at the restaurant for 200 people.   Not to mention the DJ who will charge over $1000.  If there is o dancing the dance floor charge of $300 will also go away.  More money saved.  At this time since they can't have the big blowout they wanted, I am looking at saving them as much as possible.  It is disappointing for them - DS2 was really looking forward to a big shindig and had a great DJ chosen.  

*I* am leaning to a small wedding reception at home after the small church wedding. Remember our priest warned about busybody neighbors who would report a large wedding party? Small in this case would still be at least 50 people. Darn Catholics – why can’t we practice birth control?! LOL


----------



## Ridgetop

Ridgetop runs amok again. Seriously, "Murphy’s Law" should be renamed "Ridgetop’s Law"!  

So, the Squrrelinator was baited (yes, that_* is*_ the manufacturer’s name for it) and had already caught 5 of the pesky creatures. We were feeling pretty satisfied with ourselves now. Pride Goeth Before a Fall. We should have been suspicious that all was going _too_ well.

Remember how I said that LGDs have a low prey drive? Well, the author in the Anatolian Times should be advised that while LGDs’ prey drive may not be activated by sweet lambs and kids in a pasture, apparently it awakens to full blood lust when confronted by a small wire cage filled with ground squirrels. They become like sharks arriving at blood in the water for a feeding frenzy!

Rika was bringing her sheep up from the pasture. Having refreshed themselves with a long sleep on the cool concrete floor of the milkshed all day Bubba and Angel awakened and sauntered up the steps. Meeting on the driveway an Anatolian Sniff and Greet was in progress when they suddenly became alerted to the sound of squeaks from the cunningly hidden trap. Curious, they converged on the trap and discovered the trapped ground squirrels. *Uh Oh!
*

DS1 became aware of what was happening when he heard loud growls combining with shrill squeaks from outside his window. Looking out he was greeted with the sight of 3 large angry Anatolians dragging the trap across the driveway in an attempt to rip the cage apart. The dogs had dragged it out from its concealment in the garden and were attempting to get at the squeaker toys within.  Each one wanted the trap al. to themselves.  As one would try to take it the other 2 defended _*their*_ right to rip it apart.  The ground squirrels were loudly protesting this treatment.  Pieces of the trap were falling off.  Two of the ground squirrels seemed to have escaped.  

Shouting angrily for backup, DS1 sprinted for the door. I heard him and ran for the door as well. DH, listening to the TV with his TV ears in (he is so deaf now that he needs earphones to hear the TV or have it so loud that the furniture rattles) noticed my rush from the room. I thought I heard him ask where I was going but had no time to stay and explain to him.

Running outside I found an angry DS1 attempting to wrestle 3 large snarling Anatolians for possession of the trap. This was hard since the ground squirrels were valiantly trying to defend themselves by biting anything that got next to the wire.  This included Anatolian muzzles, lips, tongues, paws, as well as human hands and fingers.  Rushing to his side, I tried to pull Bubba back – none of the dogs were responding to our commands of “NO drop it”. It was like trying to stop a Sherman tank with a peashooter. DS1 meanwhile was trying to hold back the 2 bitches. The dogs kept lunging forward and grabbing the sides of the trap in an attempt to tear it open. At one point I thought they might succeed. This was like a feeding frenzy on Shark Week. Finally getting my arms around Bubba’s neck I saw DH appear in the doorway. Screaming at him to bring the leashes that hang in the hall, I struggled to hold Bubba as he lunged for the trap again. DH, still wearing his TV earphones, and unable to hear what was said over the snarling, shouting cacophony, said “What?” “The leashes” I screamed “Get the leashes”. “Get the leashes” bellowed DS1, along with some rather salty language.   Finally comprehending that we wanted leashes DH brought out *ONE* leash. Sigh . . . .

Leashing Bubba I shoved the leash into DH’s hands and made a run for the hallway and the other leashes. Behind me I could hear DS1 shouting at his father (who still had not removed the earphones from his ears) to put the dogs in the barn. DH always insists that he can hear everything that is said while wearing these things even when _we_ can hear the TV program coming from them! LOL  Love that man!  Coming back with the leashes I found DH struggling to put Bubba in the barn while DS1 dragged Angel to the barn behind him. Grabbing Rika as she tried to slink away, I leashed her and took her to the barn. Rika is the smartest of the 3 and apparently, she had just realized that we preferred she not destroy the cage to kill the quivering ground squirrels within.  

With the dogs locked in the barn, DS1 dragged the trap across the driveway to a dirt area to shoot the ground squirrels. DH got the pellet gun. The remaining 3 ground squirrels were dispatched. Apparently 2 had escaped during the Anatolian free for all.  The remaining GSs were probably begging for death now in their little squirrel language. While DS1 disposed of the carcasses and hosed off the trap I searched for the missing pieces of the trap that had been pulled off by the dogs in their frenzy. I brought the hog pliers and rings out to DS1 and he repaired the trap.

DS1 set it up in the barn with the barn gates closed and the dogs locked outside. We hope to catch more ground squirrels, rats, and possibly rabbits tonight. Tomorrow we will set it up in the garden again. This time we will put a large horse trough on top of it to prevent the dogs from being able to pick it up and remove it. Maybe we can chain it to some stakes in the ground. We will try to fence the dogs away from it. As long as we get to the trap and dispatch the contents before the dogs come up from their long daytime sleep, we should avoid a repeat of this ruckus. Kind of like hunting vampires only during the daylight. I could never understand why the vampire hunters always showed up at the graveyard or burial vaults as the sun was going down. Pretty stupid. Wait till morning if you’re too lazy to get there before dusk! The howling wolves in the middle of the city was a nice touch too. We had howling Anatolians.

In another day or two we will set the trap up in the Graveyard of Lost Hopes (or rose garden) which has a fence around it already. The dogs might be able to jump in, but hopefully will not. We will disguise the trap with dying squash vines again and hopefully catch more ground squirrels. Then back to the garden again.  We also need to set it up under the house since we hear creatures loudly running across the pipes in the crawl space.

Occasionally something goes right. It always stuns us when that happens.   My sciatica is back. Where is the aspirin bottle?


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## farmerjan

OM GOODNESS  sounds like my place....As a kid I was called walking Murphy's law.... Really


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## Baymule

I am so sorry about the loss of 8040, I know she was your favorite. That's tough, why is it always the ones you like the most? Why not that scrawny scrub that is going to auction or as guest of honor at supper time? Just not fair!

The ground squirrel adventure! I busted out laughing and read it to BJ, we both laughed our way through it.


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## Ridgetop

Always happy to provide my friends with mirth!  Gotta laugh at us - we do!  Building memories, right?  LOL

Yes, 8040 was a great ewe.  7041 marked yesterday and 8040 was due to mark next week.  Oh well, the rough with the smooth . . . . it is why after 30 years I try not to have favorites, and use their ear tag numbers instead of names.  Doesn't always work to keep me unattached though.  Knowing all their numbers by heart may not be wise either . . . .


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## Baymule

How can you have them and not have favorites?


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## Ridgetop

That is the problem!  Most of them are my favorites, although little Snowflake (DGD1's lamb) has a name and is very tame, coming u for loves all the time.  She is the daughter of our prolapse ewe and was kept in a jug in the barn for 6 weeks because we were doctoring her mama.  

Well, we reset the trap in the barn.  Got 2 ground squirrels and 1 rabbit in 24 hours.  Hoping to get more today although poor Bubba is locked in the creep today so that may keep them from entering the main barn area.  The trap is in one of the jugs.  Once we go 24 hours with no catches, we will relocate the trap again.  DS1 bought a cheap air pistol and some "hollow point" BBs to execute the doomed.  We felt that the hollow point rounds would have more killing power and be quicker.  However we have gone back to the pump air rifle for executions.  DS1 came up from the barn last night after killing the GS in the trap.  He said that after 16 BB's (the full clip) it was still alive.  He reloaded and shot it another 16 times.  Still alive.  He finally dispatched it with the air rifle.  DS1 said he doesn't mind _killing _them but doesn't feel right_ beating the creature to death with BB's _when it is more humane to just use the air rifle.  The cheap pistol apparently doesn't have enough power, or possibly the hollow point BBs are to blame.  He will pick up some wadcutters tomorrow.  They have points and are more lethal than the BB balls.

Angel is in season today and the kennel doesn't open until 3pm on Sunday. Bubba is not that interested yet but she is acting flirtatious already so no need to take chances.  Now that he is in the tank we could arrange to have him fixed, but we want to see if her imported sire can be registered then Angel can be registered.   We will breed her when she is 2 1/2-3.  One litter only.  No point in getting him fixed and then paying for AI from our own stud dog!  LOL  AI is a lot of hassle, you have to track their hormone level, give additional hormones, then daily testing again and hope you catch her on the right day, etc.  If it doesn't take you are down a straw and all that money!  I've done it on goats and hated it.  Another couple boarding fees are worth it until we see if we can get a registered litter.  She is a beautiful bitch.  If we can get her registered we might even try showing her.  Local shows only, and only after Covid quarantines end.

If Biden gets elected I wonder if we will have to show in masks?  I wonder how Anatolians will react to masked judges taking liberties with their persons?  It could get ugly.


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## Baymule

Beat it to death with BBs!! Guffaw! Boisterous laughter! Haha! Snort! That’s so freakin funny!! 

You realize of course it takes a reeeeely twisted sense of humor to fall out in the floor laughing at that. 

Puppies! Yes! Puppies! By all means take her to show. Don’t worry about a masked judge. By the time the loonies get through, dogs will have to wear them too.


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## Ridgetop

Masks on the dogs would be good.  Then the judge wont have to open her mouth and look inside.  She is uber friendly for an Anatolian but who knows when that "Anatolian temperament" (aka growling at the judge who is prying open your jaws) might kick in.  Verboten at dog shows!  

Yes, just talked to Erick and we are hopeful that we might be able to finally get that litter registered.  The issue has been in deliberation at Anatolian Society headquarters for 8 months!  If not, we intended to spay her all along so will just do that.  Having puppies is a royal pain with  LGDs.  You are down a guardian for 3 months, not to mention the time you have to board your bitch in the kennel while she is in season.  If you kennel her on your own property, you are out *2 *guardians as your male moons around her kennel instead of paying attention to his job!  You can pen _him_ up, and she will still work until she is in standing heat.  At which time she will try every way she can to get *into *kennel with him!  
 I told Erick yesterday that Bubba seemed to have a low libido since he was nt interested in Angel even though she was beginning to be flirtatious with him.  She had just come into heat and most male dogs would have been getting beat up by the bitch for bothering her.  Erick did tell me that several of his males (including Bubba's sire) don't pay any attention to the bitches in season until the 3 days when they might be in standing heat.  Then they are all business.  That is both good and bad - good in that she will not get bred early and produce pups, bad in that the male's excitement usually alerts you to the beginning of her cycle.  If Bubba is like his sire, he will continue working until those 3 days  instead of having the normal horny teenage response to the bitch's cycle.  That is good too.

Either way, Angel is safely at the boarding kennel with a bitch on either side of her and no off leash exercise time.  Three weeks in the kennel.  Last night I went looking for her dinner bowl to wash it.  I even asked DS1 if he knew where she might have dragged it.  He reminded me that DH had not fed her since she was already in the kennel!     Oops!


----------



## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> You realize of course it takes a reeeeely twisted sense of humor to fall out in the floor laughing at that.


 I HAVE a reeeely twisted sense of humor! 

DH JUST SAW A TROPICAL STORM WARNING FOR TYLER, TX, AND SHREVESPORT, LA!  HE WANTS ME TO WARN EVERYONE IN THOSE AREAS.  *THAT MEANS YOU AND BJ, BAY! *

Supposed to be flooding too.  Sounds bad so all you guys take care!!!


----------



## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> I HAVE a reeeely twisted sense of humor!
> 
> DH JUST SAW A TROPICAL STORM WARNING FOR TYLER, TX, AND SHREVESPORT, LA!  HE WANTS ME TO WARN EVERYONE IN THOSE AREAS.  *THAT MEANS YOU AND BJ, BAY! *
> 
> Supposed to be flooding too.  Sounds bad so all you guys take care!!!


We will be ok. We are up high, so no flooding for us, just won't be able to go anywhere as the roads dip down to cross creeks in the rural areas. We won't need to go anywhere. LOL Rain 3-5" and winds up to 75 MPH. Very mild by hurricane standards. We are actually glad to have the rain. Thank you and your DH for caring about us! We love y'all!


----------



## Mike CHS

When I see the reports on these storms now I forget how aware I always stayed about the weather living down there.  Since I quit watching any news programming, I only saw about these storms from looking at Acuweather.


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## Baymule

The news said highways going through east Texas are clogged with people escaping the storm. We have to go to town today, so that ought to be fun. But should be NOTHING like the evacuation of Hurricane Rita when hundreds of thousands of people fled and a 2 hour trip took 26 hours. Small towns were over run with people desperate to find shelter. They ran out of gas and there was none to be had. Our town of Livingston opened up schools and churches to shelter people, as did many towns around Houston. It was a mess. I said then, that we were going to move and I never wanted to be in the pathway of a million evacuating people again.


----------



## Ridgetop

This is usually our month to visit Texas so I guess that Covid had one good outcome - we aren't in our 5th wheel in a hurricane!  
On the other hand, we really miss Texas.  
I was talking to my good friend Erick in Leander outside Austin and mentioned the possibility of looking for property in OK.  He was very much against it - I ked y.  He said "Well, it just isn't Texas!"  LOL  Love Texas and my Texan friends!!!  Erick is also waiting for us to move to Texas.  I guess we can't disappoint our friends that are anxious to welcome us.  It helps that we have the same political views and won't be one of the liberal move ins that are ruining the state.  LOL

Well, DS1 set our Squirrelinator up in the flower bed near the little Rubbermaid sheds behind the trailer.  There are tons of rats back there since it is right outside the barn.  He hoped that the rats would be caught in the trap because there are some pretty large Super Rats he has seen back there.  Unfortunately they are able to squeeze out of the Squirrelinator.  We know this because he saw a couple inside eating the bait and after they had eaten everything they simply left!  Our Ratinator arrives tomorrow though.  We should be able to trap a lot of rats since they now think they can leave the trap anytime they want.  Good tactics DS1!  The pointed BBs arrive today.  Yesterday DS1 set up the Squirrelinator again in the garden.  Rika and Bubba were on the field with the sheep or sleeping for the night shift.  Angel is in the kennel waiting out her season.  He went out at 5pm which he  thought would be early enough.  he arrived just as the dogs noticed the trap.  We brought the dogs inside before they became too excited and again tore apart the cage.  Rika and Bubba enjoyed the luxury of AC while DS1 killed the 2 SGSs we had caught.  Slowly, slowly, but we are moving along.  Trap emptying time has been moved up to 4;30 pm.  Next week we put the cage in the front garden.  😈

DD2 and STBFSIL came over on his day off and we all played cards for a couple hours,  It was fun.  DD2 is still throwing up, but t 0 weeks is counting the days until she reaches 12-14 weeks when I assured her she would feel better.  I hope I am right abut that - with DS1 I was sick for 5 months and ok for 2 months, then he started straightening his body into my stomach and kicking any food out!  I was sick again for the last 2 months.  Labor was horrible too  It's a wonder I didn't put him up for adoption!  A mother's love has no bounds.  He's still in the will too!

DD2 and STBFSIL mentioned that they are not going to use the large metal base/glass top table we gave them yet. They will store it.  DH popped out with "brig it back and we will store it here."  I immediately reminded him that he has been demanding I clear out the Connexes so he can store hay.  He looked a little sheepish a he remembered.  He is too sweet and generous.  I just have to remind him that we are emptying our storage spaces to prepare for THE BIG MOVE.  Maybe I can suggest that they store it at DD1's pace.  She won't notice since she has not unpacked all *their *boxes from their move last year!  LOL


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## Baymule

Shhhhhh.........don't tell nobody, but we still have boxes from when we moved in 5 years ago..........


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## Baymule

Erick is right, it just ain't Texas. When y'all move here, we will have to get you both some really cool T-shirts that say it all..... I figure y'all would wear them proudly!


----------



## Ridgetop

Up to 9 ground squirrels now!  One was huge, twice the size of the others - obviously genetically modified, or possibly just on steroids.  A couple others were in the trap but were tiny babies and escaped through the bars.  Maybe we will catch them with the Ratinator.  Complete eradication of the species is now my goal!  

We saw a young coyote on our road this morning.  Maybe the coyotes have chased all the ground squirrels onto our property.  Lots of rabbits too.  Good year for coyotes and their pups with lots of prey.  

Eat!  Eat!  Eat them up, coyotes!

Weather is starting to cool off.  Temperature last night dropped to 70 degrees.


----------



## Baymule

Eat! Eat! Eat them up, coyotes!


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## chickens really

Baymule said:


> Shhhhhh.........don't tell nobody, but we still have boxes from when we moved in 5 years ago..........


That's okay..We still haven't unpacked many boxes and it's been 6 years


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## Ridgetop

_I _unpacked all my moving boxes 30 years ago. The trouble is that I then used them to repack all the stuff that I store for my children (and myself). 2 Connex storage containers full. Oh, wait the old milkshed too. Almost forgot the workshop and its loft. And the loft in the barn.    Hmmm.  I think I need an intervention again.  Bring wine.

Up to 10 ground squirrels now.  DS1 checked with Amazon and the Ratinator won't arrive until September 1.  

DS2 and FDIL will be home for Labor Day weekend and DS2's birthday.  They are hoping to have the reception at The Odyssey after all with fewer people.  It will be a lot cheaper since they originally booked 200 and now the restaurant has to hold it on the patio so only 80 people.  However it will be much easier for us than doing it here.  DS2 said that if we have it at our house that he would have to pay for the DJ and the cake.   At the Odyssey those are both included, as well as the linens, china, flatware, and crystal which are included in the venue charge.  I think it may come out to just a bit more than if we have to put it on ourselves with renting all the stuff and making the food, so not worth the effort of  putting it on ourselves.         Particularly since I just realized we will be in the middle of lambing then and the dogs will be on high alert.  Better not to have too many strangers around then.  A lot of guests have told DS2 and FDIL they won't be coming due to virus so might not even have to change invitations to announcements.  

Lots to do tomorrow.  Now that the heat has broken I want to get the back patio cleaned off.  All the tools and stuff from making our trough planters is still laying around.  I need to pick it all up, toss some of the stuff out, and store the rest.  Those trough planters have been a disappointment.  We will plant in them this winter though to see if cool weather planting will make a difference.  DS1 and I have made plans to dig out the rest of the area and level it off. Then we will build more planters with 2" x 12" boards with wire bottoms since the plants in those thrived, except for those pesky ground squirrels.  however I plan to surround the entire area with an electric fence  DH suggested wire but i pointed out that the ground squirrels could climb those wire fences.  The electric garden fence has smaller holes and will zap them.  Hopefully it might kill them, but if necessary we have our trusty Squirrelinator.  Did you know that ground squirrels are very hard to kill with less than a .22 or shotgun?  Apparently though, rats are even harder to kill than rabbits and ground squirrels!  DS1 read that when researching air pistols.  

Brought Rika and Bubba in tonight for family time.  the doors were left open since the temps had gone down.  They went out around 10:00 pm after something, probably coyotes.  They circled the house and pastures for about an hour giving warnings, but it is quiet now.  Such good puppies!


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## Ridgetop

Bad news and good news!
Bad News:
We just received the tax bill from Yelm WA.  Our property has been reassessed again.  Last year the assessment went up $27,000 and this year $35,000.  This will add another $1000 annually on to our tax bill on my aunt's little house.  It is being rented out but the tenant has not paid rent since March.  The costs on keeping the house without a mortgage are about $500-600 a month.  The tenant was only paying $1000 a month.  His rent was  $200 below market rent.  He has now made up some back rent so he is paid through April - still 4 months in arrears. However, the governor has extended the eviction ban through October and will probably keep extending it through the end of the year.  The tenant only has to offer to pay a token payment and we have to accept it.  There is no dead line by when it must be caught up!  We have been sympathetic up to now but now the lease is up and the tenant wants to stay in the house!  Of course he won't be paying rent.

We called the management/realty company and we can only put him out if we sell the property.    We can't afford to keep the property and let him keep living there for free since we have taxes, insurance, flood control, etc. to pay on the property,   The situation has already cost us over $2400.00.  

Good News:
Property values are up and climbing so we called the realty company and asked for a valuation to sell.  Last time I checked on property values they were down.  Now they are going up fast and property is selling fast.  If we can get a decent price we will sell and buy a small ranch property in Texas on a 1031 Exchange.  We will try to rent that property out until these weddings are over and babies born, and then move back late spring.  I have been talking to DH about selling the Yelm property and rolling it into a ranch property.  If necessary we can also sell our rental house in Fort Worth to come up with more $$ although our equity is not as high.  

If we can find a ranch to buy and rent out the ranch house, we will bring our 5th wheel back and park it on the property.  We can live in it while building barns, fencing, etc.  Then we can put all our stuff in storage while we relocate with the sheep and dogs.  Once there we can renovate the new ranch house.

Maybe we will get to Texas    after all.


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## Bruce

I heard today that real estate sales are way up, seller's market.


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## Ridgetop

And prices i Texas have been rising there for the past couple years which may make it harder for us to find a ranch that we can afford.  If so, we may have to buy in southern Oklahoma.   DH's sister and BIL moved to Idaho which a lot of people like. Who knows what God will send. Are we still young enough to relocate and get a ranch up and running? If we had more water here and a different California government, we would stay since we have our fencing, barn and sheds, and up set up done. On the other hand we don't want to spend money to do any more building if we are moving. We are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. I.e. the liberals and the Pacific! LOL All the west coast states are super liberal. "Go east, old folks" to misquote Horace Greeley. And then there are the plague of ground squirrels . . . . 

Gotta take more vitamins . . . and Prozac!


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## Ridgetop

It has been unusually cool here for the past several days, 75-80 degrees, dropping to the high 60's at night.  What a relief.  We have opened the windows and turned off the AC.  

DH is bringing in another load of hay today.  FDIL is home for a week andDS2 will be coming home on Friday fr the holiday weekend.  We can get to work on deciding about where to have the reception.  I told FDIL that if we can have 80 people at the Odyssey, that it would be better to do it there.  More people allowed and less work for us than having it here.  Aldo they include a lot of stuff that we would have to pay extra for having it here.  Maybe we can start addressing the invitations at that time.  And the announcements for those unlucky enough not to get a seat.  Many people have said they can't or won't come anyway.

Tomorrow the Ratinator shows up.    DS1 thinks we may have gotten most of the larger ground squirrels.  The bait gets completely consumed but no varmints are caught in the trap.  Either we are down to small baby ground squirrels or RATS!  We move on to STEP 2 in Varmint Eradication.  Little dudes beware!  

No, no, don't beware!  Go into the nice safe trap.  We won't hurt you.  BWAA HA HA!


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## Ridgetop

The Ratinator arrived today!    

Can't wait to see how many we can catch!


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## Baymule

We need a picture of this fabulous contraption.


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## Ridgetop

Ratinator 10 - rats 0!    

                                                             THE RATINATOR!

 Here is picture of box and information   Successful catch!

                                THE SQUIRRELINATOR!

 BWAA HAA HAA!  


 THERE IS ALSO A CHIPMUNK VERSION AND SKUNK VERSION. 

DS1 warned us to stand back when he got the cage to dispose of them because of the fleas that might carry disease. 

My DIL says they have the Squirrelinator for their ground squirrel problem in Nipomo and love it.  We will give the Squirrelinator a rest until the ground squirrels have forgotten about it.  We will now use the Ratinator for rats and mice and also the baby ground squirrels that managed to squeeze out of the Squirrelinator.  In the immmortal words from 'Karate Kid' "NO MERCY!"  Yes, I know the _evil karate instructor _said it, but the sentiment I have towards these pests is the same.   "NO MERCY"  

IN JUST A FEW DAYS, THE TOTAL CATCH WAS 11 GROUND SQUIRRELS AND 10 RATS!  ALMOST ENOUGH FOR A FUR COAT.  DH said he had no idea that there were that many of the creatures around!  DS1 and I just stared at him in disbelief.  If you go into the barn at night, or just look in through the windows from the driveway, they are running all around!  You can hear them in the crawl space and attic every day and night too.  Very loud.  Ratinator trap will go into the attic and crawlspace next!  



Is it too late to save the tomatoes?  Still no ripe ones - all DH's corn has been chewed up - new crookneck squash plants making a valiant attempt to bloom and set more fruit.  Will the tomatoes and squash survive?  Will our villains munt another attack?  Will our trusty superheroes, Squirrelinator and his sidekick Ratinator, withstand the assault? Tune in next week for the next episode of Superheroes Squirrelinator and Ratinator vs their Dastardly Foes!


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## farmerjan

Glad to read that it is working so well already.... they do carry more diseases and are the worst vermin.


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## Baymule

I am laughing! Rats and ground squirrels! They don't stand a chance against these Super Heros, Squirrelinator! and Ratinator! Those are some super duper action heroes ya' got there! Superman might be made of steel, but he don't catch rats and ground squirrels.


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## Ridgetop

*UPDATE!   RATINATOR 5 - RATS 0!*

Another 5 have bit the dust.  The Squirrelinator is also attracting varmints but they seem to get in and eat the bait then walk right out.   DS1 says they are being lulled into entering the trap. Good practice except that they are costing us bait.. I could put poisoned bait in but if the dogs eat the poisoned squirrels they will get sick. I can't risk my fearless defenders - the coyotes are brazenly walking up the road to our gates now. DH saw one the other day and chased it away while the dogs were on the field with the sheep.  Last night the dogs would nt leave the front area by the road and kept up their threatening barks.


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## Ridgetop

DS1 just came in and said that whatever is not getting caught in the Ratinator is climbing into the elevated rose bed (Graveyard of Lost Hopes) and then tunneling under the Ratinator to eat the bait from the bottom!  These are obviously genetically altered rodents with higher IQs than normal.  DS1 said he will set the trap on a piece of wood or metal to foil them.  If they try to tunnel up they will get a headache from the piece of solid wood!  LOL

Tonight he will bait the trap and put it under the house.  I heard a large one banging around under the office floor 5 minutes ago.  

*DEATH TO RATS AND GROUND SQUIRRELS!           LONG LIVE RATINATOR AND SQUIRRELINATOR!         😈*


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> These are obviously genetically altered rodents with higher IQs than normal.


And possibly have higher IQs than people who make Ratinators!


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## Ridgetop

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  

HAVE THEIR LITTLE RAT MINDS GRASPED THE CONCEPT?  IF SO I AM DOOMED!!!


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## Bruce

Speaking of rats ... Odd thing today. I have a plastic cover I throw over the garden tractor in the barn so the birds don't sh!t on it. Nothing special, it came on a pile of lumber when the house was worked on 7 years ago. Today I found a little green "pellet" on it. I recognize it as the Ramik I was using earlier in the year to rid the lower part of the barn of rats. It worked. 

Now I never put any of that other than in a couple of chicken non accessible places in the lower part of the barn and haven't used it for several months. How the heck did it get to the upper level AND on the tractor "tarp" which has been put on and off many times since I last used the Ramik???

Is a puzzlement!


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## Mike CHS

The nator part of those terms gets a broad use.  Back when I just used my Weber grill for smoking meat I bought a gadget that was named Smokenator that turned the Weber into a smoker.  

Glad to see that you are getting their numbers down.


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## Baymule

@Bruce I have found rat poison in little piles where rats/mice cached them to eat later. Mice come in the house in the winter, this doublewide is skirted and the dogs can't get under the house. So I toss chunks of One Bite under the house and the mice die before they can get in.


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## Ridgetop

Another ground squirrel in the trap last night.  Tonight the trap goes in the attic.  So far 15 rats, 11ground squirrels, and 2 rabbits!  Will we get some ripe tomatoes finally?  Otherwse, I should have picked them green and made fried green tomatoes and green dilled tomato pickles.


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## farmerjan

That is like me with the predators there at the chickens this last batch.... Good for you getting the population thinned down.  Hope you do finally get some ripe ones.


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## Mike CHS

We have caught our share in traps but the tree squirrels are the worst.  I keep a shot gun by the back door so I can get them as I see them.


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## Ridgetop

We don't have too many tree squirrels here.  Maybe because we don't have too many trees?  They are all over down the hill on the flat.

DS2 is home for the holiday weekend his birthday and has invited the entire family over, along with another friend and his fiancee.  DD1 recently had a go at DD2 over being pregnant without getting married even though she has been living with STBFSIL for 2 years.  DD2 went to visit her sister and DD1 told her she was stupid and immoral to get pregnant.  That she had ruined her life and the DD1 "had planned better things for" DD2.  She expected DD2 to "get more than a 2 year degree", etc.  Se screamed all this at DD2 outside i front of her 3 children, 12, 10, and 7, and DD2's stepdaughter, 3.  Poor DD2, who was in the hospital AGAIN last week due to constant vomiting and dehydration, has  been in tears ever since talking to her sister and is afraid her dad and I will ban her from the family.  DD2 has emotional problems about abandonment due to her early childhood issues.  I am extremely angry with DD1 over this since it is similar to what she did with her SIL 9 years ago because her SIL did not have enough milk to nurse the baby (1st baby, very nervous girl) and was giving him a bottle per doctor's orders due to no weight gain. DS3 has hardly spoken to her since.  _DD1 could have been supportive since she had trouble nursing as well.  _She went back to work when DGS1 was 3 months old, and we were under strict orders to only give him HER milk which she was pumping. Poor DGS1 cried all day long from hunger. DD1 and SIL1 would not listen to me when I told them there was not enough milk, and continued to insist that I feed _only_ her breast milk. Finally I went down and bought formula and mixed it with the breast milk. They couldn't understand why DGS1 was so cranky on the weekends since I didn't tell her about the formula for a couple weeks. Can't wait to have to run point between DD1 and DD2 this weekend.  

Then DS2 invited his good friend, Eric, and hisiancee.  I call Eric my other son because he, DS2, and DS3 have been close friends since high school.  He and his fiancee (close friend of FDIL) are in the wedding party.  Eric's brother is in the BLM movement. DH is furious with Eric since Eric posted some BLM propaganda supporting the rioters and looters.  Then he posted that he was attacked by Trump supporters. Turns out his brother and the BLM group actually were the ones attacking members of a *Hispanics for Trump* rally. Apparently the BLMs don't like Hispanics either. The Trumpers defended themselves and Eric went to "help" his brother and got beaten up. Hopefully it will teach him a lesson. This was at our neighborhood burger place where Hispanics for Trump had been holding a "Get Out And Vote" rally for weeks. More big drama on the horizon. 

Originally I told DS2 that I was not inviting DD1 and family because of the problem.  I had already told DD2 that they could come over because we would BBQ on Saturday when DS2 came home.  DH will talk politics and make matters worse while everyone will complain to mom about everyone else's mean behavior.  Now I get to referee a possible family Donnybrook!!!  
DH said just now when I voiced my concern "Oh, it will be ok".   

I might just go in my room, lock the door, turn on the TV and take a tranquilizer.  I can't wait to move far far away.  No forwarding address and block their numbers.


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## Bruce

DD1 sounds like a piece of work. 
Too bad you can't just go have a "spa day" while everyone fights at the house.


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## Ridgetop

I know.  DH and I have agreed she is like both our sisters whom we don't like for the reasons that they behave like DD1!  you can't escape DNA.  Actually, we both feel sorry for her in a way.  She is so rigid that she will have a nervous breakdown if she doesn't learn to bend.  Got to make sure the grandchildren know they can come to us if they have problems.  

Got the paperwork to list MJ's house in Yelm.  Even more happy to sell since we earned that the fellow that murdered the trump supporter was living in Lacey when tracked down and killed by federal marshals.  Lacey is only about 20-25 miles away and we go to the Lowes there all the time.  

Anyway, I am happy about out=r plan to sell and roll the money into a ranch property in Teas.  My plan is to buy a smaller ranch property with a small house on it that we can rent out,  The property has to have an AG designation on it for TX taxes.  We have to rent the house since we are rolling the Yelm property in a 1031 exchange and not moving back immediately.  Otherwise we have to pay about $50+K to feds in taxes,  I don't believe in paying any more than I have to so a 1031 is the way to go  After buying the property and putting in a tenant, we can start fencing in an area for the sheep and dogs,  If we think we will live on this property when we move we can also build barns etc.  Otherwise we will do enough fencing and building for temporary storage (if n barn already on the property) and plan to live in our trailer when we move back until we find a larger place to buy. We need the hayfields to be in good shape so we can rent them out for cutting and baling the hay as a business to keep the AG designation.  Once we have made several trips with equipment and corrals, we can sell our house here with the prospect of already having somewhere to move the sheep and dogs.  The furniture can go into storage until we find a place.  Once we are living in Texas we can start looking in earnest with the possibility of a cash offer.  This often helps in negotiations.  

Our broker actually sent us a property that would have been ideal.  It was 16.9 acres with 2 modular 3/2 homes on it and a pad for a 3rd with utilities already in.   It was planted in Bermuda hay and had the AG designation, as well as a well.  It was the right price too.  We could have moved there, rented out one house, moved into the other as we moved all our stuff onto the property, sold our house, bought a larger property and moved out.  Then we could have rented the second house and put a third on the pad, giving us 3 rentals.  Perfect, but too soon.  However it gives me hope that we will find what we need when we sell the Yelm property.  

DH has been opposed to selling the Yelm house since we both love the property.  We had hoped to move there with the sheep until the city incorporated it and we could only have 2 chickens!  We actually were going to rent the 2 BR house out and renovate the 2 room bunkhouse into a small 1 BR house for ourselves and just go up in the summers to graze the ewes.  That way the property would not have been empty but we could have spent half the year up there.  Now that our tenant is not paying us rent and has told the mgmt company that he doesn't plan to pay anything and the governor has a moratorium on evictions that he keeps extending, we have n choice but to sell.  DH is peeved at the tenant since he previously liked him and thought he was an ok guy but now that the guy has not interest in trying to make any payments DH wants to get a court judgment against him for the back rent  I told him that it would just cost us money.  The tenant hasn't got anything so can just file bankruptcy and get out of the judgment.  I think we can just file a bad credit rating for him which would be just as good and not cost us anything.  No point in throwing good money after bad.

Anyway, selling the Yelm property brings us one step closer to moving to Texas.  AND OUT OF CALIFORNIA!  I am 3rd generation Californian and sad to go but this is not the California I knew.  Full of liberal hate.  Do you notice that conservatives don't riot and burn down buildings?  It seems to be only liberals that do that in the name of "justice" and "love for their fellow man".  Really?!


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## farmerjan

I don't know about that too soon deal on the place your broker sent you info on.  Maybe the whole family drama makes it a "need to do this right now" move.  Sounds like that place would really be a wise move... even if you had to do some financing?  Would the income from the 2 places rented help pay the mortgage for awhile??? Just thinking of the exodus of people out of places like Ca and the rush for places to get away from the cities.... plus the really really low interest rates on mtgs right now.
Yeah, too bad we aren't closer together since renovating and stuff is not my idea of fun... and I am so unable to "see things"  differently that are there as is.  Really not a good thing for me. 
I am a many generation New England Yankee that moved south.  I still have attachments to  the NE I grew up in.... and the values I grew up with.  So much of it is just not there anymore either.


----------



## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Otherwise we have to pay about $50+K to feds in taxes, I don't believe in paying any more than I have to so a 1031 is the way to go


What happens, tax wise, when you convert a rental to your primary home? 



Ridgetop said:


> The tenant hasn't got anything so can just file bankruptcy and get out of the judgment.


Maybe that is why he isn't paying?? No income? Of course he could also be amoral scum taking advantage of the situation where he can't be evicted for not paying rent. But as far as I know those unable to pay rent now are still on the hook to make good when they can.


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## Mike CHS

Family drama can be some of the worst kind of drama.  What makes it really bad for some families is that they keep trying to "fix" the unfixable.  You guys seem to have a good plan.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Maybe that is why he isn't paying?? No income? Of course he could also be amoral scum taking advantage of the situation where he can't be evicted for not paying rent. But as far as I know those unable to pay rent now are still on the hook to make good when they can.



It is very possible that he is not working although his significant other is.  However, we can't bankroll him and the fact that he isn't interested in making even a minimum payment of $25.00 a month, makes me wonder.  Other stories are emerging of people taking advantage of the moratorium on evictions, even though those people got additional Covid unemployment payments.  Even if he still owes the money we will probably never be able to collect.  He can file bankruptcy and avoid the debt.  We were willing to forgo the $4000 (soon to be ($5000) he owes us if he would  just move out.  He does have a motor home that he was living in before he rented this house so . . . . But since he refused to move out on that deal we have no choice.

We can't afford to keep the place and let him live there for free.  We are already in the hole over it.  Selling the property is the only way allowed by law to put him out.  Landlords didn't get any special incentives or government payments to offset tenants that are not paying rent.  Selling it will help us get on the road to Texas at least, by having a place where we can start bringing our corral panels and other equipment. DH has been stewing about the logistics of a move to TX with all our equipment, livestock, and dogs.  This will give us a place to store stuff for the move, and a place to move into while we find our special property.  Or maybe we will decide to stay in that house if we like the location and layout of the land.  

On a happier note, our BBQ went off without a hitch and everyone was happy and pleasant.  The temperature was 111-117 degrees though so everyone stayed inside.  When we went out to grill the London Broils, I told DS2 that we needed to be careful putting the plastic container on the metal shelf of the BBQ because the metal was so hot!  

I had bought 2 London Broils - 2 lbs. each - but DS2 decided to get 2 more since he had invited DD1 and her family, and his dear friend Eric.  I marinated them all afternoon and they were delicious!  10 adults, 4 children aged 12, 10, 7, and 3, polished off all of them!!!  Even DD2 was able to eat that night.  After dinner we found out why they wanted us *all *there when FDIL brought in DS2's birthday cake announcing that they had gotten a head start and were going to have a baby in April!  Everyone was of course very happy and excited.  DD2 is thrilled and the 2 girls were super happy that the 2 cousins would be just a month apart and BFFs.  DD1 was shocked and I almost laughed at the look on her face.  DS2 has been dying to announce it for a month now, but waited to get everyone together.  Sadly he got called back to work this morning because of 3 power outages and a major fire that started near San Diego.  He was due to be confirmed at the 10 am service this morning and had to cancel  it and rush back to work at 8am.  They were telling FDIL's parents today and he really wanted to be there to see her dad's face since her dad has been telling her they have to hurry and have kids.  It will be the first grandchild on her side and she has 6 siblings!  LOL  DD2 was feeling much better this morning and said she was actually able to go without her medication and no vomiting.  Hopefully she is approaching the time when nausea will end.  DGD1 was thrilled to spend time with DGD2 (DD2's stepdaughter) and the 2 little girls had a wonderful time together.  A lovely time was had by all and it ended nicely with all the kids and grandkids playing board games while DH and I relaxed.  

Hot again today 107 degrees and into next week I think.  Ugh, I hate that we can't turn off the AC and open windows at night.  AC really does a number on my sinuses.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> What happens, tax wise, when you convert a rental to your primary home?


Sorry didn't see that at first.

It used to be that you could move in after a few months and convert it from income property to primary residence and sell immediately.  That changed a couple years ago and now it must be rented 2 year period before you can convert. Then you have to live in it for 2 more years before it is converted back to your primary or secondary living space to avoid capital gains tax on it as income property when you sell.  However, when your heirs inherit, they don't have capital gains tax on it.  Unless you have a mega estate or the dems get in and screw up inheritance tax again, your children are ok to sell when they inherit since the cost basis converts to the value it is when they inherit instead of the cost basis when you bought.  Hope this makes sense. DH could explain it better.  I think it depends on the amount of your estate too which has to be extremely large for death duties.  

At any rate that will be their problem!


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## Ridgetop

7:30 pm and 111 degrees.  Is it actually getting _*hotter *_outside?     😓


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## farmerjan

WOW, I could not take your heat.....


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## thistlebloom

Ridgetop said:


> Sadly he got called back to work this morning because of 3 power outages and a major fire that started near San Diego.




That big fire is in East county of San Diego in Japatul Valley. We lived there in a little cabin with a pond when we were young marrieds. At that time it was very rural and the road in only had 6 houses on it. Now it's got to have over 100. Only one way in and out. I'm sure most of them are gone.  
The fire is up to 10,000 acres this morning.


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## Bruce

Mike CHS said:


> Family drama can be some of the worst kind of drama.


Yep. It was never fun being in the same house as my mother and younger sister's husband. Fortunately it was a rare occurrence. He got something up his butt a long time back and by the end they could have a disagreement about any statement either one made no matter how trivial.



Ridgetop said:


> Other stories are emerging of people taking advantage of the moratorium on evictions, even though those people got additional Covid unemployment payments.


Yeah, I know there are people like that and can't even 0.0001% conceive of being that person. 



Ridgetop said:


> DH has been stewing about the logistics of a move to TX with all our equipment, livestock, and dogs.


ONLY stewing?? I'd be losing sleep 24x7! It is a big enough challenge to just pack up furniture and personal belongings. And of course the older one is the more likely they have WAY too much stuff to fit in a moving van. Purge, purge, purge. 



farmerjan said:


> WOW, I could not take your heat.....


Yep, that is one reason I moved from there. 115° 3 days the week I left in '79 and that was actually unusually high back then. I think the highs are hotter and more often now.


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## Ridgetop

Well, DH relies on me to arrange everything, pack everything, and so forth.  He then loads everything in the truck or trailer and transports it.  We never have any breakages since he used to work for Bekins after high school, and was a Loadmaster in the AF.  That part I leave to him.  Good division of labor.  SIL helped pack and dumped drawerfuls of stuff into boxes.    Had to send him out and repack.  DD1 is not good either since she can't handle change so packing and moving throws her into a nervous breakdown.  

Usually he is very laid back, so "stewing" is tantamount to a breakdown for me!  LOL  Packing up stuff is not hard for me since i routinely go through boxes and pack up or remove items from storage anyway.  In fact I have 3 boxes I brought in from the Connex to unpack and determine what to do with the contents.  Some very pretty copper pots that I will give to DD1 to display on the multitude of open shelves in her new house.  

Now that FDIL and DS2 are pregnant, DD1 is excited since she has saved her baby furniture for them.  I have saved the baby crib and items I used here for DD2 so those will be going eventually.  I have lots of 100% cotton gowns too which I will divide and pass on to the girls for their babies.  I saved them since for a while you couldn't get 100% cotton, only polyester which were not nice for baby.  DD1 got a lot of stuff at showers and didn't want them but I think my other girls might.   I loved them for my newborns since they were so much easier to use than onesies.  Also lots of handmade blankets and quilts in the Connexes waiting to be distributed to my pregnant girlies,  

If or when DS2 and FDIL get an apartment I have lots of other stuff waiting for them too in the way of crystal, dishes, etc.   My Connexes will be emptied out pronto! I might even give them some of my other furniture too. I am considering selling some of my antiques and valuable Persian rugs too. The rugs are very large (13' x 21') and probably will not fit in any smaller house we buy in Texas. I might as well sell them and get the money when we move. I have some smaller Persian rugs that I will bring with me. Some of the furniture will have to go as well although I will keep the antiques that we can use in our new house. Time to start asking what each child wants so we can give it to them now instead of having squabbling once we are dead. On the other hand, DH has tried to give away some stuff that I am not ready to part with! So helpful!   LOL

It is still 118 degrees here.  The heat is supposed to drop to 90's tomorrow but the Santa Ana winds will be coming in. More chance of fires and less chance of controlling them,  We had 2 fires yesterday in the Valley, both controlled and put out.  Today the air is cloudy from the 2 fires on the outskirts of the Valley.  The air is always funny and gives a strange cast to everything when there is fire.  No smoke smell yet, but the Santa Anas will bring it in since each fire is on opposite borders of the Valley.  Haven't been able to open the windows since last week.  At 7:30 last night it was 111 degrees when I cooked the steaks.  The BBQ handle was so hot I could hardly open the lid!  DS2 worked all night near the fires in San Diego area and at 0:00 am was just getting off to go home for some sleep before returning back to work this evening.  First ones due tomorrow!  Better set up the fan in the barn and check that the shade cloth is over the windows.  Problem there is that it cuts down on the air flow through the windows but with this heat, any breeze is super hot as well.  Well every region has it's weather problems.  At least we don't have any hurricanes blowing our buildings down.  I wonder if we could find a ranch with a small hill where we could put one of the old style barns that have the bottom level built into a hill and the hayloft is at ground level to offload the hay.  Then we could run the sheep into the lower level during a hurricane or tornado for protection.  

I hope the the heat breaks before my ewes lamb.  The last heat wave I had to put a fan in the barn for the newborn lambs, and screw shade cloth over the windows to protect them from overheating.  I wish now that I had kept those old livestock fans I had.  Thought we were out of livestock - silly me!    May have to get a couple more cheap ones to put in front of each set of jugs with a block of ice if the lambs have problems.  

This heat wave is the hottest we have had in 100 years.  Better go check those shades and find the fan.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> It is still 118 degrees here.


That is just crazy! I hope the Santa Anas stay down. I recall it being plenty hot enough without the SAs bringing in heat from the desert. They do have one benefit - when they blow you can see the mountains to the east from L.A.


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## Ridgetop

The smog here has dissipated so much in the San Fernando Valley that we see the Santa Monica Mountains from our location in the northeast end near the Verdugo mountains.  The Santa Anas usually bring so much dust that they obscure our views now.  LOL

FDIL talked me into going with DD1, DGD1, and her to look for Flower Girl dresses.  Then Staples to look for wedding announcement kits.  No announcement kits so will use envelopes that we have with the invitations, and just print up the announcement about Covid cancelling the reception on card stock which I will then cut into appropriate card sizes with the paper cutter.

After 3 hours of watching a little girl twirl around in organza, they settled on a nice little white dress in lace.  the bridal gown is lace so she will match a little.  We were able to get a sash in the same color as the bridesmaid's dresses though. I will take it to the fabric store and see if I can get ribbons to match and then make the flower girl basket.  Also get the silk rose petals in the same blue color.  Otherwise I will get white.  I will also see if I can get any matching satin rosebuds to apply to the white flower girl dress as well as a matching flower crown for DGD1.  She is very excited about being a flower girl.   We couldn't get the shoes we wanted because there are no sizes available between child 11 - barely fit - and girls 1- which I stuffed a Kleenex into the toe to help them fit.  DD1 was afraid she would trip in them so another shopping trip will have to be planned for those.  I will opt out.  4 hours choosing a child's white dress wiped me out.  I made an appointment to look for a Mother of the Groom outfit on Friday but don[t have many expectations of finding something.  Since the perfect outfit would make me look 30 years younger and 40 lbs. lighter, I don't think it exists.  I do have a very nice chiffon pantsuit in navy with beading in the top and a chiffon jacket.  I do look fairly good in it so that might be what I wear.  I also had bought a pair of navy beaded sandals with a short heel before my last cruise.  I returned the outfit I bought them for, but they were on sale cheap so I kept them and they will go with the navy pantsuit,  I will look for a new outfit but I am covered with the dressy navy chiffon if I can't find anything new.  I also have a similar chiffon pants outfit in pale mint green but the pants are too tight.  I will look at the fabric store for matching chiffon and lining and make a skirt to go with that top and chiffon jacket.  Or I can add a gore or inverted pleat in the pants to make them fit.  I can wear that for DD2's wedding.   

With shopping for the flower girl dress, I didn't get the shade cloth removed, cut in thirds, and put back up.  DS1 and I will do that tomorrow.  We will also pull the new Lewis ewe and her lamb out of Lewis' enclosure onto the big pasture.  Then before letting the sheep out on the big pasture, we will put Moyboy in with Lewis.  Finally, we will turn the ewes in the front pen out on the big field and then run Moyboy and Lewis into that pen with Axtell.  In another month we will put a harness back onto Lewis and run him into the big field to do clean up duty.  8111 is starting to bag up but does not look ready.  I do have another due date of September 26 for her so she might not go until then.  0329 is due tomorrow but has no bag either  On the other hand, she didn't bag much last time before lambing.  Both 8111 and 0439 are huge so hopefully twins but they will need to be in the barn.  The 2 new ewes I bought last May are also due between 9/23 and 10/24.  He wasn't sure when they marked since the crayon fell off his ram.  I really hate not having a more concise date, particularly since they are first fresheners.  Oh well.  

Tomorrow after we move the rams and ewes around, we will remove the ewes that are due to lamb and bring them into the barn.  We will ether put them into the jugs, or leave them in the creep pen where they have more space to move around.  If we have to retrieve lambs, at last they will not be at the bottom of the gully.


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## Ridgetop

OOPS!  Well I made a mistake reading my calendar.  Those ewes are due NEXT week.  It is a better mistake than due last week and surprised!  LOL  I wondered why there was minimal udder activity in those second timers!  All 3 of the are HUGE so hopefully twins.  The first kidding date is next Tuesday.  Learn to read, Ridgetop!

OK, so got two rams pulled out from the ewes last night and put in the smaller pen together.  Moyboy and Lewis spent the night deciding on hierarchy, both with bloody heads this am.  DS1 pulled Axtell this morning and he can now join the fray.  We will move them to the Field of Celibacy tonight.  All 20 ewes and ewelings are now out on large field to finish grazing off the dry forage.  

After taking off the harnesses, i had to clean them,  I like to do it immediately so rinsed off with very hot water then into a 5 quart plastic ice cream bucket with dish soap.  Dish soap is formulated to degrease so it is the best and cheapest to remove the lanolin from the harnesses.  Half a dozen washings in the tub, rinse well, and finally the tub water runs clean.  Then out to the wrought iron fence to hang them up to dry,  Angel is still in the kennel for another week of season so they will be safe.  2 i did last night are dry and repacked in storage container with crayons.  Last one is on fence drying now.  For some reason if you wash them as soon as they are off the ram, they wash easier.

               RATINATOR - 27 RATS!               SQUIRRELINATOR - 13 GROUND SQUIRRELS!       
Too late for garden survival, but at least we are getting them under control.  There are still more round but at lease we seem to be catching them regularly  This last batch of 7 looked like half grown youngsters from same litter - a same size.  Today's 7 and yesterday's 6 all caught in barn overnight.  Hopefully we can catch the breeders.  Still some around the house and possibly under and in attic although have not heard massive thumping, scratching, and chewing noises while in office and bedroom in last few days.  DIL has 4 kittens, 2 females that will not be spayed so they can have kittens. In a ranch area kittens always wanted. We have asked for one whole litter! When we had lots of cats - no rats. Cause and effect. Since DGSs will play with them and tame them they will stick around. We will have to feed them at first, of course. I will ask her to give us the half grown ones instead of the adorable new ones, The half grown ones will have a better chance of survival and the DGSs will enjoy keeping the babies. Have to introduce them to the dogs though. 

DH is picking up another load of hay today.  Went last week and it was $.50 per bale higher cost than time before which was $50 higher than first time.  He doesn't listen when I say get several loads at the lowest price to save for winter and cut hay costs.  He insists it won't go up in price and is always surprised.  Oh well.  We really need a hay barn since one reason he doesn't want to bring it in is that he doesn't want to store it out in the weather.  We need to cover area between 2 Connexes and block off ends for a hay barn.  For now we will  only feed the rams until the ewes lamb and are in the barn pens.  There is enough forage for them.  DS1 wants to move another double sided feeder into the sheep fold since there ware so many sheep coming in at night.  Keeps the fighting down between heavily pregnant ewes.  Hopefully we will get heavy rains this year.  If it really floods badly, we will have to arrange a better shelter for the sheep.  The Tipi shelter has a gap at the top which allows water to run inside and flood the shelter floor.  DS1 has some ideas how to reuse the corral shelter panels to provide larger shelters for the sheep and lambs instead of the Tipi formation.  Since we will be lambing all winter and into the spring, I can't disassemble the jugs and use the whole barn as a night shelter.  During the day the ewes can seek shelter under the trees and brush but t night when we pen them up I need to have a better covered area that won't flood for the sheep and lambs to lay in.  Maybe put them into the smaller fold with the old trampoline.  It made a great cover for the sheep during the summer. Tractor supply has stock panels and we might have to do the tarp covered hoop houses this winter,  DH and DS1 are worried that our high winds will rip the covering tarps off but we might have to try it anyway.  Maybe the area outside from the toolshed where DH is putting his retaining wall to level the area would make an additional sheltered area for a hoop house to avoid the winds.  It is adjacent to the field and we could feed easily from the barn.  It would require removal of some old chain link fencing that is damaged and needs removal anyway, and the addition of a gate to close them in at night.  

The Santa Anas did not arrive on Tuesday as feared, and the weather cooled off to 85-90 degrees.  Windows open and a pleasant breeze.  Big relief!  

*TRUMP NOMINATED FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE!        *


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## Baymule

Finally! I’m back on BYH!! I had to go to BYC to find out that the security was updated and it is so good, that it blocked the members! Also SS and TEG were blocked. Yay!!!!


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## Mike CHS

Baymule said:


> Finally! I’m back on BYH!! I had to go to BYC to find out that the security was updated and it is so good, that it blocked the members! Also SS and TEG were blocked. Yay!!!!



I was wondering what was going on.

@Ridgetop - we used long tarps a couple of years ago and wound up with about 1/4 loss of several bales from mold.  We are fortunate now to be able to buy from a friend who also delivers it.


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## Ridgetop

Mold is what DH is afraid of.  Last load of hay up to $13/100lb bale.  

*      RATINATOR NOW UP TO 38!            SQUIRRELINATOR UP TO 18 GROUND SQUIRRELS!    *

DS1 moving trap around to new locations as rats learn about it.  Luckily when he catches them he gets about 5-6 at a time!  Moving into the old milk shed next.  I heard them scurryng around in there when I was looking for something Also in the tool shed and other locations.  Not so much noise under the house or in the attics now though.   Trash went down yesterday, thankfully, since those rats were getting stinky even in the plastic bags.  

Haven't been on in a while, getting things arranged for the wedding.  Odyssey is now saying 50-60 guests on patio with food,  No choice of menu as originally arranged, but will serve salmon and prime rib together on plate.  Cake ordered I think - not my job, final invitation list finished and calls made to determine attendance since many are not coming due to Covid.  Invitations will go out tomorrow.  

Flower girl dress was chosen (4 hours!) but fun with FDIL, DD1 and DGD1.  It apparently had to "twirl" properly.  I had to remove the horrible satin ribbon used as a sash and attach the large sash in the color matching the bridesmaids dresses  I tacked the sash on but it can be removed easily.   Since this ishould b DGD1's First Communion year, it can be used for that as well.  I will sew white satin rosettes with pearls around the waist line instead of the ribbon sash. Will also make a veil for her First Communion, but that comes later.   No flower petals are allowed to be scattered in church, so flower girl basket has will just hold flowers matching the wedding colors.  I did make the the fancy ring bearer pillow.  Original ring bearer is not coming so have gotten in  replacement - first was to be DGS4, age 6.  Then determined that he is too shy to walk down aisle so DGS3 was recruited.  He is 9.  He is also shy, but if he suddenly changes his mind, he is same size as DGS2, ge 10, so they will be snatched out of their clothes, and DGS2 put into tux, DGS3 into DGS2's clothes for ceremony and DGS2 will go down aisle.  he has had his eye on that ring bearer position since his sister started campaigning for the flower girl spot.  Since FDIL is Filipino they have some special wedding traditions.  One is that they have a large veil that is wrapped around the couple during the ceremony by their sponsors, and tied with a white cord or rope.  I found a large length of fine tulle in my fabric boxes left from DD1's wedding and luckily also had enough narrow satin cording to whip stitch around the edges - 24'!!!  Then it wasn't pretty enough so I went back and edged it in pearls.  It is pretty large, so Ii may have to cut it down and reapply the edging and pearls,  Told FDIL to take it to her mother for approval.  I had bought the cord already so those two items are done, although the cord probably has to be shortened too.  FDIL ordered the little box of coins (came yesterday) that the groom presents to the bride signifying he is endowing her with his worldly goods so that is taken care of. The favors are ordered.  Good friend of DS2 from 4-H goat showing days is making decorated bars of goat soap and wrapping them.  She kept her dairy goats and has a small "on shares" goat dairy now.  She also has an on line business making goat milk soaps and creams.  She is the friend that hitched her trailer during the fires several years ago and came out with DS2 in the middle of the night to evacuate the sheep.  I am looking forward to seeing her again.  FDIL needs to make final arrangements with florist now that wedding has been made so much smaller - down to 50 from 200.  I still have to make place cards for the tables.  And make the flower girl basket.  Spray paint a basket white and decorate it with lace, ribbons, etc.  Thank you, God, for inventing glue guns.  

DD1 and I spent a very pleasant time Friday afternoon and evening finding dresses for the wedding reception.  DD1 has a rounded figure but has a nice small waist.  She found a lovely mermaid style dress in navy blue with an off the shoulder shawl collar and spaghetti straps.  Immediately took off 30 lbs from her and the navy blue color was superb.  She also tried on the same dress in a deep cranberry which also suits her but not as flattering this time, and a deep green dress with the same bodice but not a mermaid style skirt.  Side wrap which was also very flattering, but the navy was the choice.  Absolutely stunning!  

Then I tried on a column princess cut dress which 8 months ago looked great . . . .   Curse you Covid and the extra pounds you have brought with you! The soft greeny blue color was perfect but I looked like sausage stuffed in a casing. One down. The next one was a nice shade of pink, also a good color on me, with a cape arrangement which covered the pounds. BUT like DD1 pointed out it was obvious that I was trying to hide a large amount of flab. Looked like a large pink cloud. Back to the racks and found a dress that I knew would look right since it had the flattering side wrap, but the color was a funny gray. I did not like the color very much, hard to tell if it was slate blue gray or greeny gray, but our allotted time at David's Bridal was running out so I tried it on. STUNNED SURPRISE! It immediately removed the extra pounds, gave me soft curves, the lace bodice and cap sleeves drew attention up but not as far as my chicken neck, and the high collar dropping into a sweetheart neckline was very flattering. Once on, the odd color looked very good with my naturally platinum blonde hair and _Yes, it is my own color since I pay for it every 4 weeks_!  So while I had not planned to buy a new dress for the reception, I went ahead and got it.  It will be usable for many cruises in the future too - which is the argument I used to convince myself to spend the money.  In addition, when we were paying I remembered to mention that FDIL had gotten her dress,  bridesmaids and flower girl dresses, etc. from David's and we should be eligible for a discount.  Sure enough got a 10-15% discount!  DD1 and I made a pact to not show our dresses to our DHs but instead to WOW! them on the night.  FDIL has arranged a hair and makeup artist for everyone to meet at our house 9:30 am on the wedding day for hair and makeup.  Since the wedding is at 12:00 noon I will wear my navy chiffon beaded pantsuit to that and the dress to the evening reception at 5:00pm.  Getting my _natural_ color touched up the week before.

After leaving David's Bridal DD1 said she wanted me to go with her to find a shower gift for FDIL.  I suggested a date next week since it was 6:00 pm but she informed me that the shower was that night.  Mothers and aunts were not invited since it was in the nature of a combination Bride's Bash and personal shower.   DD1 hopped into my car and I drove to Macy's where she bought a cute combo nightie and robe with "MRS." embroidered on the back.  While there we saw all the dresses in their formal wear section marked down and the dress DD1 had just bought marked down t less than half what she paid  We frantically searched for the size but naturally they were all sold.  We did find a lovely purple dress with a side sweep skirt, cap sleeves, cut out back, and sweetheart neckline from  high collar which was marked down from $200 to *$19.73!!!*  I made her buy it since I can borrow it  If she had not bought it I would have.  It needs to be shortened but that is no problem.  

While we were in the checkout line, DH called.  Did I know what time it was?  7:30 pm.  Where was I?  Macy's.  Why hadn't I told him I was going shopping after my nail appointment?  I had.  (DS1 in the background was yelling "Yes she did".)  When was I coming home to feed him?  Soon.  I told DH to get out the lasagna that was in the fridge and unwrap the cellophane covering and put it in the oven at 325 degrees.  DH whined that he was hungry.  i hung up.  10 seconds later DS1 called.  Dad was asking _him_ about dinner.  DH had not heard what I said and couldn't find the lasagna in the fridge.  What did I tell DH to do?  I repeated the instructions.  DD1 and I would have liked to go out for a drink, abandoning our families, but nothing is open in Los Angeles county so we both just went home.

Tomorrow DD2 and I go looking for a dress for her and Maysie (DGD2).  We will go to Ross first, and if nothing there, will have to go to Nordstrom Rack or Macy's which had lots of stuff on sale.  The problem is that DD2 is a size -0! However lots of dresses are available in that size since there are very few of us that size for longer than 30 minutes.  DD2 is still having problems with intense vomiting.  She apparently has a condition that is worse than normal morning sickness.  I don't remember the actual name but it refers to uncontrollable nausea vomiting, and of course, results in dehydration.  She has now been to the emergency room 4 x and is just approaching her 12th week.  She told me that it apparently gets worse through the 4th month before getting better.  Poor baby.   

DD2 is planning to get married after DS2 and FDIL tie the knot.  FSIL is insisting that they marry soon before the baby comes.  The courts are closed for marriages in L.A. but FSIL's friend got married in a little chapel.  They are checking that out and also the neighborhood Presbyterian church.  They are not practicing Catholics so can't get married in the Catholic religion, but we will figure something out.  DS3 and DIL got married in the local Presbyterian church, but I knew the pastor and had worked at the preschool for years.  This pastor I don't know although she seems very nice.  I will call about it for DD2.  They are not sure of a date yet.  Poor DD2 is so sick she hasn't had time to consider a date.
Then I will have to arrange for a reception here.  Can't do much until the fires are gone - too much smoke.  I hope they are out before October 10 since we have to be outside at the Odyssey!  

The fires are inching closer but are still about 40 miles away.  The  smoke is very bad though and visibility is so poor you can't see 10 miles.  We re staying inside.  The only plus is that the smoke is shading the sun and has lowered the extreme temps.  I don't think we are in any danger from the current fires.  However I have advised DDS and DSIL that if they want a gender reveal party, we are doing a pinata.  I never did like those fireworks reveals - dangerous and stupid.  DD2 wanted to have it as soon as possible but I told her she would have to wait till after the wedding and Thanksgiving.    When she started to whine I said "in the olden days you had to wait 9 months".  LOL  

This morning we sorted out the 3 ewes that are probably due this coming week.  An extra one ran in with the last one that was wilder and hard to catch.  We will catch her and remove her when we feed tonight.  They are not in the barn pens, but in the smaller night fold.  The trampoline gives them shade and I can see them from the bathroom window with my binoculars.  It is level there so they can lamb in that pen.  As they lamb, I will move them into the jugs.  No need to get those tiny jugs all wet and poopy until necessary.  No need for extra feeding and watering chores until the lambs arrive.  They have more room to move around out there too.  I hate confining the ewes in the jugs until they lamb and then the lambs don't come on the first marking date and the ewes are confined in 5' x 8' pens for a month waiting.

Anyway, DS1's college friend is arriving on Thursday for a few days.  We are getting the trailer ready for him and his wife since there is no longer a double bed in the spare room.  I figured it would be better for them in the trailer than on the sleeper sofa, but will discuss it with DS1.  Just remembered that they will be trapped in the trailer with Bubba on the loose all night.  He has to be loose at night for predator control.  We will be wondering where they are for breakfast in the morning!  

Angel is home at last.  She is growing up.  She apparently growled at Rika last night.  She better watch out.  She may be young and agile, but Rika is agile, cunning and the Alpha bitch - after me, of course.  Does that mae her the Beta Bitch?  

SIL showed us on his phone that Costco Business center store has Halal lamb and goat carcasses for sale.  Goat is only $5.89 lb.  Pretty reasonable and we love goat.  Halal is just the way of butchering like Kosher so unless it is some nasty old buck, it ought to be good.  I might buy some.  I think you have to take the entire half.  SIL said it apparently comes wrapped in a burlap sack.

Gotta go.  Lots to do.


----------



## Ridgetop

DS!'s college friend and his wife came for a visit this week.  We were gong to let them sleep in the trailer for privacy but them I realized that if they tried to leave the trailer during the night for any reason, Bubba would object.   In the interest of safety, they slept on the sofa bed in the living room.  If was also probably more comfortable than being in the trailer since the trailer had been shut up for a year.  We had lamb which they really enjoyed and Laine, whose life revolves around hunting, brought us an antelope roast.  Can't wait to try it.  Laine plans to buy 1,000 acres in Montana with a friend, set up some cabins and a lodge, and use it as a hunting preserve.  He also announced his intention to steal DS1 as his manager.  What?!  I don't know what I will do without him but since Laine is not planning to actually need DS1 until 2024, maybe I will be ready to retire from sheep by then. 

DD2 and I went shopping for dresses for her and DGD2.   Found a lovely print chiffon dress for DD2 at Macy's which she loved - all their formal dresses were on sale - probably because no one is going anywhere due to Covid. Then went to Burlington and she found "ankle breaker" shoes.  1" platform soles with 4"heels.  Very pretty gold sandals with crystals but Oh Boy!  I remember  when I used to wear those to work EVERY DAY!!!   Now I can barely balance on little 2" heels!  Also found DGD2 an adorable dress with pale lilac lace bodice and layered chiffon skirt.  I have matching lilac ribbon at home so will made a lace and lilac ribbon clip for her hair.  By then DD2 was played out (so was I) so we went home and I took the dress hem up an inch.  Yes even with her wearing those excessively high heels, it was still too long.  Both my DDs and DILs are tiny - about 5"1' to 5'2" tall.  I have to take up all their dresses.  I feel like a giant around them.  

So then I finished making the flower girl basket - no scattering of rose petals since they might carry Covid germs.  I painted the basket white and wound the handle with ribbons matching the wedding colors and then made a nosegay of flowers i the same colors to fill it  She will have to just carry the basket down the aisle.  If she wants to she can pretend to fling out petals and even twirl for all that.  Next, FDIL took the special couple veil to her parents house to have her mom decide about cutting it down.  After FDIL and 5 of her siblings fit under it, it was decided to take off almost 3'.  I removed the pearls and satin cording, cut the veil down, and then restitched the cording and pearls back on.  Smaller and lovely,

Then FDIL told  me  that her mom had gone to David's Bridal with 2 of her daughters and couldn't find anything.  I made arrangements to take her mom to Macy's to the sale.  Marlene told me that her daughters had chosen dresses that were too young or too old for her.  We agreed that our children could be a trial.  Went to Macy's at 10 am and found that they don't open till 11 am!  Covid hours.  So hopped into the car and went over to Burlington where Marlene bought shoes and an evening bag.  Like me she bought 2" heels saying that way she could be on her feet all evening at the wedding!  LOL  Back to Macy's where she found a lovely pale green fitted lace dress with an off shoulder lace ruffle.  (FDIL said it was reminiscent of the traditional Filipino gowns.)   Since the dressing rooms are all closed, she had to slip the dress on over her clothes so could not really see more than that it fit her.  She got $25 off the sale price.  Then off to Nordstrom Rack to look again.  We found another great dress this one in a lovely shade of deep rose, with 3/4 sleeves, boat neck and side wrap with a ruffle down the front.  Very stylish and sophisticated.  Marlene had a lovely figure - still a size 8! - after having had 8 children!   We got that dress too since I told her she would have to try on the dresses for her children and have them decide which they liked.  Both were lovely and very flattering on her.  Besides she has 4 more daughters to marry off so will have plenty of opportunity to wear it.  

Back home where Marlene and I had to wait for FDIL to finish her zoom meetings to see her mom try on the dress,  I pinned up the hem for her and FDIL agreed that both dresses were keepers.  Then we checked out the new size of the veil and it was approved by Marlene as being large but OK.  

I typed out the invitation address labels in calligraphy.  With the Covid delay, I ran out of time to do them by hand like I did for DD1's wedding.  Then I had to also make new RSVP cards since we needed the guests to RSVP ASAP to their wedding website.  I put the labels and return labels on all the invitations, then FDIL and I pulled out the original menu choice RSVP cards and envelopes and added the new RSVP cards I had made.  FDIL finally got them in the mail yesterday am.  Only 3 weeks to the wedding from today!   She called, texted and emailed a lot of the guests for a definite answer, and many had already said they couldn't come due to the Covid quarantine.  We will be within the 50-60 count so that is ok, although disappointing to all of us since she is the first bride among her siblings.  She is not the oldest either.  Today I typed up the place cards ready for her to look over for a final head count.  Then I will print them out, cut them with the paper cutter, and score them ready to be folded in half.  Today FDIL is at her folk's with her siblings getting the favors made up.  

After this wedding is over, I get to start on DD2's wedding since they have decided they want to be married before the baby comes.  The courts are closed so I will call the local church where I taught preschool and see if they are doing weddings.  It will be a small wedding with the reception immediately afterwards at our house.  She will have to have a flower girl and ring bearer though to satisfy her small niece and nephews.  

My ewes have not produced any lambs yet.  8111 and 0439 just keep getting larger and larger.  Their udders are filing in slightly but are not fully distended, however that doesn't mean anything since they often don't show much udder until after lambing.   The next ones to go will be at least another month or so judging by the shape of them, although a couple do look fairly rotund.  At any rate I have been so busy that I don't even go check on them every day!  I check on them through the window with my binoculars since their large pen is only about 15' from the bathroom window!  I am so glad that I decided to put them in that pen instead of in the barn,  The barn gets too many flies with the ewes in it for very long,  The heat is starting to dissipate and the smoke is starting to clear away too.  Hopefully it will cool down for the ewes to lamb.  I don't like lambing in extreme heat.  It's hard on the lambs and ewes both.  One of the ewes will probably lamb on the day of the wedding and need to have lambs pulled!  It would be just like them!  In fact I think one *IS *due on the wedding day!!!   Well it can't be helped and hopefully she will do just fine - second timer.  I just need an extra item to worry about.  

Another crazy day!  This morning DH talked to my sister on the phone.  Then he came and told me that she was insane!  I already knew that, but it has taken _him_ a long time to realize. LOL I no longer talk to her because she _is_ indeed insane.   Here is what he told me . . . .

Apparently, she and her husband were in bankruptcy before he passed away several months ago. Her income is $1500 per month and her mortgage payment is $2000 monthly. However, she announced to DH that she will buy our Yelm property if she loses her house!   

I don't recall offering to sell it to her and I don't know how she knows we are even considering selling it since it is not listed!  She told DH said her property is worth about $800,000.   Even though she is in bankruptcy and it is about to be repossessed, she told DH she planned to buy our property????   DH said she should immediately arrange with the bank to hold her payments up while she sells the property so she can clear her debts and buy another place if possible.   A sensible suggestion, right?  Noooo, she got angry and informed him that she had emotional ties to the home since she lived there 28 years and her mother-in-law, father, mother, and husband had all died in the house.   (Actually they died in the hospital after being taken by ambulance from the house but whatever.)  According to her, *we* (DH and myself) are only interested in money, but _*she*_ has an emotional attachment to _*her*_ home.  She is obviously very superior to us since we are "money grubbers".  She doesn't want to move from the area since it is close to town.  She then said that we should immediately send DS1 up to Washington with our truck to help her clear out her house and get it ready so she can get a reverse mortgage!  She and her husband tried to do that before, but the lender said they would not consider a reverse mortgage since they had knob and tube wiring.  At the time DH and I offered to give her the money to have the old knob and tube replaced.   Her husband refused to replace it since he had been told by the real estate agent that did the sale that the knob and tube was "better than the new stuff".  DS1 said he would not go up before the wedding if he goes at all.  I don't want him to take the truck since we might need it.  She was not pleased.  She has decided that she will fix up her house and rent it out, then fix up the basement apartment to rent out, and live in her garage.  We had offered several years ago to reno her basement apartment so she and her husband would have an income off it but they informed us that they didn't want our help.  They were angry at us for coming up to fix up our aunt's house, and demanding that they return the items they had taken away from her for "safe-keeping".  

Sorry about all that but she is truly off her nut in many ways.  I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that she has been a rabid liberal since her early college days.  She thinks we are racists and apparently not "woke".  She also is an artist.  She is very talented but when I suggested years ago that she could work as an illustrator, she said that I was a drone because I worked for a living, while she was an artistic soul who was above all that.   ???????   I am sooooo glad that she lives in Seattle, far, far away.  Our 2 brothers live in Seattle and won't talk to her anymore.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Ridgetop said:


> The heat is starting to dissipate and the smoke is starting to clear away too.



Are the fires there dying down, or has the wind shifted to clear out the smoke?

Sorry for your sister troubles.


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## Ridgetop

Oh well, we can't choose our families, just our friends.  I shouldn't have mentioned her.

The Bobcat Fire that was causing all the smoke here has moved north into the Antelope Valley, where people are having to evacuate now.  It is 63% controlled DH says.  Still a huge fire, but the very high winds (Santa Anas) that came in stopped quickly after just a couple days. Those winds and high temps were driving the fire so when the temps and winds dropped the firefighters were able to start to get it under control.   The problem was that the mountains here in
So Cal are very steep preventing firefighters to have access.  The only control in those areas are water and chemical drops from the air.  The fire climbed the San Gabriel mountains and burned through to the next valley where it is now.  Hopefully, the firefighters can get it under control now.  However, after fighting all these fires, they are exhausted.

DGD2 got an up close and personal view of firefighters last week when the fire knocked out power to their apartment building, trapping someone in the elevator.  the firefighters had to come and get them out.  Power did not come back on till morning.  DGD2 was able to watch the firemen rescue the neighbor,  The next day she and her daddy made cookies to take to the station to thank them.  We talked to her about if she was stuck inside the elevator how the firemen would rescue her.  Always good to imprint that help will arrive in a scary situation to a 3 year old. 

When shopping with Marlene (FDIL's mom) I picked up some new puzzles for DGD2.  I still have several boxes of toddler toys that i saved for grandchildren, but had donated all my good wooden Playskool puzzles to the preschool where I worked when my children outgrew them.  Also picked up a set of stitching cards for her - they had Mickey and Minnie Mouse which is her favorite cartoon character right now.  Good for small muscle coordination.  And a set of flash cards - numbers, letters, early words, etc. for DD2 to use with DGD2.  FDIL is a preschool teacher and has all her own stuff like that.  Preschool was cancelled  so DGD2 will not be able to go until they reopen  DD2 had enrolled her in the school near our house where I taught and where DS2, DS3, DGS1, DGS2, DGS3, DGS4, and DGD1 all went.  Soon another group of Ridgetop kids will be attending!  LOL 

I thought we had finished with children's toys around the house, but another generation is coming through.  DH was just lamenting that we will need to be adding more baby carseats to the cars.  Actually he is all noise.  He can't wait to have more tiny babies to hold.  They love sleeping on his soft round tummy a he lays back in his recliner.  He calls it his "baby belly".  The babies instantly go to sleep!

We have made the decision to officially and legally adopt our youngest "daughter".  We were her guardians.  We legally changed her name to ours at her request.  Now she is an adult and we asked her if she wanted us to adopt her. She was so happy and said she had been hoping for it.  She had not mentioned it since she felt it should be what we wanted first.  it is an adult adoption so there will be no home visits or any of that sort of stuff.  We will have to change our Wills and Family Trust as well since the addition of a child or spouse invalidates any current Will.  We are redoing our Trust and Wills to include her anyway, so this will work out.  The nice thing is that with the Court Notice of Adoption an amended Birth Certificate is also recorded showing us as her parents.  In future if anything happens to us she will be able to be present in the hospital as a child.  Our children are all in favor of it.  FDIL wants nothing in his name since DGD2's mother will try to claim something from our estate.  We will arrange DD2's share to be held in trust with DS1 as Trustee until DGD2 attains her 18th birthday.  DD2's portion will transfer to her children if she dies first, again with DS1 as Trustee.  Setting up those appointments on Monday.  We have been discussing this for several years, but did not think that DD2 wanted it. 

Speaking of DD2, she called the other day to apologize.  For what?  Now that she is raising a small child, she realizes how obnoxious she was as a child and wanted me to know that she now sees how difficult she was nd "IS VERY SORRY, MOM".  Apparently DGD2 had given them a bad day.  LOL  DD1 also called to apologize for her childhood behavior when her first child was a toddler.   LOL

DD1 and I had a nice chat the other day.  She reminded me how she had also apologized for being a normal child and driving me crazy when she was younger.  I apologized to her as well for those times she would call complaining about something and I thought she wanted me to tell her how to fix it  She didn't, she was just calling for sympathy so was more upset when I told her what to do to fix her problems.  She also wanted to know why I am not angry that FDIL and DD2 are pregnant before getting married.  I told her that when I was younger, I would have been appalled and angry.  Now I am old and I accept certain things because to repudiate my children for them would only hurt DH, me, and our family.  I never did approve of families that turned out children for pregnancies or being gay.  While it may not be what I would choose, I love my children too much not too accept their life choices or partners.  Anything can be worked out when the family works together.

Altogether a productive week.  I also got all the laundry done, and lots of stuff sorted and out away.  Then the dishwasher stopped working.  Full load and another load ready to go in!  I fooled with it for a while then went under the sink to pull the plug and reconnect.  These new appliances all have internal computers and disconnecting them and reconnecting them often reboots the computer.  No plug just a conduit so possibly direct wired.  DH got DS1.  We really should have him on a retainer salary.  He fixes everything for us.  LOL  He shut off the power at the panel for a few minutes then flipped the breakers back on.  When I told him I was going to do that but the DW is direct wired, he said "No, it isn't - the conduit goes to the outlet on the inside of the DW cabinet."  That was a stupid place to put it - we should have put it under the sink cabinet where we could reach it!  We put the plug under the sink cabinet in all our other kitchen renos so must have realized it later.  I told DS1 that next time we replace the DW we will move the plug to the inside of the sink cabinet.  I hope we remember!  It is working now so that is a relief since calling the repair service even with a warranty takes a week to get them out here.

FDIL is getting her makeup and hair styling done today to try different looks for the wedding.  Less than 3 weeks now till the *BIG DAY*! That reminds me, my dress has arrived and I have to go get it hemmed up.  I can't do it myself since I can't bend over to pin it up.  That is why I pinned up Marlene's when she was here.  She kept saying she would do it herself but her children don't sew and I reminded her that someone needed to pin it up before she could re-hem it.  She can do the other slight alteration to the neckline herself.  DD1 has to pick up her dress too but if it needs re-hemming I can do it.  Just hoping that DD2 can get FSIL to Burlington to get his suit.

Only 1 more rat in the trap in the past few days so DS1 is going to shift locations into the workshop and milk shed. There are still a lot out there.  Go Ratinator!

Waiting on ewes to lamb.  I hope they don't burst!  They are huge.

  Here is 0439.  She doesn't have much udder yet but look at the size of her!  And she isn't wearing wool!  She singled a large ram lamb January 13.
  8111 again huge!  Twin ewes October 20.  Not much udder here yet either although she is filling out also.
Another second timer is also due in a couple weeks, but is not as large as these 2 and minimal udder development so far.  At least the smoke has dissipated so the air will be easier for the lambs to breathe.  They can lamb easily in their pen and I will transfer them to the jugs afterwards.  Visibility is not as good in this pen as in the large fold due to the squeeze and chute blocking part of the view, but it is doable with my binocs.

Off to more chores.


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## Baymule

Awww all this time DD2 wanted to be adopted and now y’all are doing it. I know she must be thrilled. Love conquers all.


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## farmerjan

Congrats on the "better days" with the DD's..... and with the adoption coming up as well as the nearly here wedding.  I don't know if I could have stood all the shopping!!!!!  Good for you.  I hope that you have a wonderful day, and that the "kids" enjoy it .... It sure will be in the record books....

And yes;  you can choose your family.... just not the blood kin!!!!!  Sorry for the sister troubles.... but do not let it interfere with the celebrations of the wedding and the upcoming adoption.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss Ridgetop,

Your stories about your soon-to-be-adopted daughter, and of your acceptance of your daughters and daughter-in-law so warmed my heart.  Your statement below is so wonderful:



Ridgetop said:


> I never did approve of families that turned out children for pregnancies or being gay. While it may not be what I would choose, I love my children too much not too accept their life choices or partners. Anything can be worked out when the family works together.



"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."  I Corinthians 13:1.  If only more of us could put that into practice.

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

Thanks all.  
Finished table assignments.  So hard when some people "aren't speaking" to others!  LOL  However, it makes dividing up family members with friends and family easier since I can put different family members at different tables as "hosts" of the table so friends don't feel they are not important enough to be with family.  All grandchildren are at one table and I have surrounded that table which is in a rear corner with their parents' tables.  LOL  

Luckily, Kathleen will do her own family and friends table assignments. 

Cleared space in spare bedroom/Kathleen's office for wedding gifts which are arriving and cluttering up floor space in bedroom.  Luckily, Carl is still in San Diego area working or there would be no room to walk in that room.   I am not sure what they will do after the wedding.  I think they plan to remain here for a while until they can figure out where to live.  As long as Carl is an apprentice they can send him anywhere in California.  They might buy a 5th wheel trailer to live in eventually or?  Kathleen says that her school will open up sometime between October 31 and January 1.

*17 MORE DAYS TO GO!!! *


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## Ridgetop

Tomorrow DD2 and FSIL will go to preschool for interview.  Private schools contemplating opening around first of year where .  This is the local preschool where DS2 & 3 went, where I taught, and where all grandchildren went.


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## Baymule

On the countdown......... then you need a vacation! Oh! Wait! You can't go anywhere, it's Covid! Maybe you and DH can drive a mile away with a bag of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, park, and have a picnic. Gonna be danged hard to eat a sandwich through a mask......


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## Ridgetop

Yup!  No vacations for a while.  

No money for vacations, cruises, or sheep either, till renter pays up!  

Oh well.  DS1 says he told my sister that he might come up AFTER the wedding for ONE WEEK ONLY!  He will bring back my grandmother's bedroom set and painting.  Not sure if that will happen, but like he said we can't all go since lambing season is coming and someone has to be here that knows what is going on with the ewes.  He hopes to spend a day or two on the road with his buddy in Reno so that will be nice for him.  Before he leaves we will harness Lewis and turn him out to clean up after any ewes not yet bred.  

DS1 said if he doesn't go and something happens to his aunt he will feel guilty.  Why did I raise such responsible children?!  

They are very good children even though I say so myself.  And even though I get angry with them sometimes.

DD2 and FSIL had their meeting at the preschool today.  Apparently our family is "known" there.     All of a sudden I realized that we are going to have to attend another round of preschool Halloween Parades, Open Houses, Christmas Concerts, Preschool Graduations, etc., not to mention the annual "Trike-a-Thon" fund raisers!  Oy Vey!  Then the children will all be going on to the same grade school so more Christmas Concerts . . . .  Just when you think it's safe to go back in the water it begins again!


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## Baymule

Second generation going to the same school....that is so cool. It's a wonder they let your grand kids in.....


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## Ridgetop

Right!  I am surprised too!  LOL


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## Bruce

It's all about the money


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## Ridgetop

Yup!  Probably have a separate fee schedule for our family - 2 or 3 X regular price!  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Waiting for DH to talk to realtor about sale of property in WA.  I thought it was settled - only sign the listing agreement. But DH wants to talk to him again.  OK, then get on it!  I had to drag him into the office to call.  Having to do all the business myself is getting very wearing.  Particularly when DH comes in after everything is supposedly arranged and wants to redo things then tells me to take care of it.  Again.  So annoying.

Also have to sign the retainer for the adoption attorney and send the check.  $1500.00.  I suppose I could do the papers and filing myself if court was in session, but with everything else going on I will let the attorney take care of it.  It is just money.    Then back to the tax attorney about redoing our Trust and Wills to include DD2, set up her inheritance Trust with DS1 as her Trustee. DD2 and FSIL don't want any chance of DGD2's baby mama getting access to it. Neither do we. That means that FSIL can never be Trustee for his and DD2's children on the inheritance Trust. Once DGD2 is 18, Trust can wind up. If DD2 and her children are dead, money reverts to rest of our children. So complicated. Another $2500.00. It is just money.  I like money and hate to pay it out!  At this rate there won't be anything to inherit anyway.  LOL

Next order of business is checking out several states to see what would be most advantageous state to buy in after sale of MJ's property.  This entails looking up tax rates, exemptions for Ag or disability, etc.   One guess as towho gets to do this important and time consuming task?  

Last night we went to bed at 9:30 pm.  So tired I was asleep immediately then woke up at 1:52 am, 2:15 am, 2:32 am, and finally got up at 3:05 am to take half a tranquilizer since I was completely unable to sleep thinking about this property sale.  Should we 1031 to another property and have more renters, need to find a large enough property where it will be financially doable for another person to rent the hay field?  OR just pay the taxes and keep the $$$ in the bank where the lib dems can find it and tax it to pieces?  OR should we convert it to silver or gold and hide it away where the rats can gnaw on it?  OR how do you go about opening a bank account in the Caymans?  Too worried about stuff like this.  And DS2's wedding to be followed by DD2's wedding, then 2 new grandbabies March 10 and April 10.  

I am feeling hemmed in by our children.  It feels like the cartoons where the little  character is against a stake and the other character is wrapping a rope around him.  With the quarantine it is too confining.  Apparently people were getting back to business and beginning to feel happy.  L.A. county has now closed the nail salons Mayor Fartcetti just opened 2 weeks ago.  The barber shops and hair salons remain open - probably so Pelosi can get her hair done again without a "trap".

Heard rats in the house again 3:00 am.  Need to put cage under the house and catch a bunch more.  These sounded big and they were fighting.  Bring on the Ratinator!


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## farmerjan

WOW
And I thought I had a difficult life.....

Try a cup of cocoa with some amaretto in it.... or a cold amaretto and vanilla ice cream milkshake.....puts me out like a light


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## farmerjan

Gold and silver..... silver is a very good investment.... and it is much easier to convert.... gold is kinda high as far as getting it converted over very fast....you can buy other goods easily with silver... invest in some real coins, that can be used as regular money... but with much greater value than their face amount.  I have a few, but am going to take and start getting a monthly payment from the retirement left,  so that I can get more silver.... and then it can't get taxed like in a bank account.  No one has to know where you keep it or what you have if you get some monthly or even weekly...

Or buy a piece of property, don't you have a certain amount of time to roll the money over.... and just move.   It may be the best option....
Heard that there aren't going to be any new sales of internal combustion engine vehicles after 2035.... 15 years away.... and to regulate out all the fracking and available gas/oil from that.... sure hope they all like living like the 1800's..... there is no way they can "produce enough electricity" to plug in all these vehicles that need recharging.... what in the world are these nut cases actually smoking out there????? I would like to see more renewable sources.... but people have to eat and hold jobs and all that in the meantime....and it sure aint going to happen if they can't get to work.... and what about the fuel to operate farming equipment????  Electric aint gonna cut it for a long time....


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> Next order of business is checking out several states to see what would be most advantageous state to buy in after sale of MJ's property.  This entails looking up tax rates, exemptions for Ag or disability, etc.   One guess as towho gets to do this important and time consuming task?



Maybe you should consider North Dakota. Sure, it has cold winters, but with global warming, in a few years it will be nice and balmy. You could get there first and avoid the rush of heat displaced people. Buy up a few thousand acres and you could sell them off as mini ranches of 5-10 acres and make millions. Be sure to save some 5 acre ranches for your BYH friends!


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## Bruce

farmerjan said:


> Heard that there aren't going to be any new sales of internal combustion engine vehicles after 2035.... 15 years away.... and to regulate out all the fracking and available gas/oil from that.... sure hope they all like living like the 1800's..... there is no way they can "produce enough electricity" to plug in all these vehicles that need recharging.... what in the world are these nut cases actually smoking out there????? I would like to see more renewable sources.... but people have to eat and hold jobs and all that in the meantime....and it sure aint going to happen if they can't get to work.... and what about the fuel to operate farming equipment????  Electric aint gonna cut it for a long time....


Yeah, that is a California thing. I thought the same as you. Lots of things would have to happen first, not the least of which is generating a WHOLE LOT more electricity.  There will also have to be a LOT more charging stations, much longer range. My sister has 1 vehicle so when she replaced her 2005 Prius she bought a 2020 Prius Prime, 200 mile range doesn't get you from So. Cal to the Grand Canyon (which we did last November). 

I'm wondering if that mandate was for on road vehicles only and will there be an exemption for long haul truckers? I don't foresee a near term semi that could haul 80,000 pounds of goods thousands of miles on battery power.

The Leaf we bought last month is running about 4 miles per kWh, it will be lower when the cold temps start. With DW's 70 mile round trip 5 day a week commute (she kept her 2006 Prius and drives it one day a week) our electric use went up about 18 kWh per day that she drives. That is about a 75% increase to what we use for everything else. At our current $0.18/kWh electric cost (IF we didn't have the solar), that would be $3.24. At the current price of gas ($2.19), that is equivalent to 1.5 gallons. Of course most vehicles on the road couldn't get anywhere near her 70 mile commute on that much gas ... though her 2006 Prius does.

My Prime is getting about to 6 miles/kWh currently, I assume some of that is due to it being lighter, the Leaf has an 800 pound battery; the Prime's is 265 pounds. But the EPA electric range on the Leaf is 215 miles, on the Prime it is 25 miles (the actual is higher in the summer, less in the winter). Because a fair bit of my driving is short distance, my 16K mile MPGe is 140. It would be a lot higher if not for the two 1,200+ mile trips to Canada (nearly to Nova Scotia on one and onto Prince Edward Island on the other) and several 425 mile round trips to MA. Not much fully electric miles as a percentage of those total miles.


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## farmerjan

@Bruce I did not read all through the one article,  but I do know that this is for vehicles SOLD in Ca and will not affect any vehicles already existing..Passenger vehicles so don't know what "size" will be above that designation.....And it is not going to affect any vehicle coming into the state.... but I think there is a stipulation that you will not be able to register a vehicle in the state that is newer than a certain year, if you are a resident of that state ...Ca.... so in other words, trying to stop anyone from going out of state and buying a new vehicle and then bringing it back into the state to register... LOTS of GREY AREAS.... real MURKY stuff.... but I heard somewhere that they are talking all electric vehicles by 2045.... big rigs included..... 😟😕😕😕

I don't think that 70 miles on 1.5 gallons is that difficult.  My 1996 Ford Ranger 2wd pick up...with over 275,000  miles.... with tool box on back and often 50-300 lbs of feed or meters and various other stuff.... gets an average 26 mpg.... all the time.  I run an average 325+ miles before I start to feel the need to think about getting gas.  It has a 14.5 or 15.5 gal tank..  So that is the equivalent of what you are saying, as far as doing that drive on 1.5 gallons of gas....  I'm not figuring in that our gas is less expensive..our gas is running about 1.89 to 1.99 a gallon.... and I saw one place today that it was 1.79 at a shell station.... and I don't know about the solar/electric  rates off hand,  except that I do know that a few people that have solar are getting wholesale prices for their excess.... my little 1986 4x4 ranger is getting about 20 just around here as I don't take it more than 25-35 miles from this area....town is 16-20 miles and occasionally have taken it to a few farms to test that are maybe 35 miles away.... Our bigger trucks, all diesel, run in the 15 mpg range, depends on the load;  and diesel is more expensive.... which it never used to be until everyone got diesel vehicles because of cheaper fuel.... and the fuel companies got wise to that.... and diesel went way up....
I am not against the electric, or the hybrid.... yeah 30-50 mpg on the hybrids is nice... but is the extra cost worth it???? I really don't know.  And is the all electric, that needs charging most every day I guess, is that increased electricity coming at a "cost" to the environment at the plants to produce more and more?????  I like solar, I really like hydro power as that is more consistent and continuous than either solar or wind....( in some places wind might be close)  I like renewable.... but you have to factor in the overall costs, some not seen like increased generation of electricity SOMEWHERE, to provide that electricity to charge the batteries....and the increased cost of the actual vehicle... to the life of the vehicle... and the life of the battery and the replacement cost of that battery.... and to the fact that an average person/mechanic cannot work on these vehicles.....
Run the numbers against something like my ranger.... with the miles on it, and the maintenance costs... Is it worth it??? I honestly do not know....


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## farmerjan

Sorry, @Bruce... I just realized that my math is wrong... I am using about 3 gallons of gas for that 70 miles.... not 1.5 gallons.  But at our prices that is about 5.00 for gas.... (I was thinking 26 miles per 1/2 gal gas.... Brain is not working right)


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## Ridgetop

Exhausted again.

Doofus' truck has a bad oil leak so he took off work today to fix it.  He asked if he could come over to our place since he can't do any work on cars at his apartment.  DH said ok.  At d11:00 am he showed up then waited an hour to get to work since "the engine had to cool down first".  He said that he would have to order a part and needed to tear it apart to see what part needed to be ordered.  At 1:00 pm he announced that he couldn't fix it.  Since he needs a truck to work, alarm bells started going off in  my head.  Particularly since he and DD2 had just spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at our house DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  OK for her but he could have been working on his truck on those days he had off from work instead of taking an additional day off.  They stayed for a big dinner each day that I cooked.   DD2 then drove her own car over to spend the day with us as well. DS2 is home this weekend for his apprentice class, but I delayed cooking dinner hoping they would leave. Finally they left at 6pm since I had just put dinner into the oven (frozen lasagna which takes 2 hours to cook when it is frozen. So back to Doofus. DH suggested that he rent a truck from U-Haul so he would not lose his job since he has now taken off 2 days this week - Tuesday to take the daughter to the doctor for her checkup and today. He could have done what every working parent does, schedule the checkup on his day off but chose to take the day off instead. For while I was beginning to think he was growing up but now maybe not. Then DH suggested he take the truck to a shop and see how much it will cost to fix it. He checked and it will cost $200 to fix so they are going to take it to the shop tomorrow so another day off work. I cautioned DH not to give him any money to fix it since I feel like Doofus is getting too comfortable at our home. 

I am getting really tired of having additional people around all day.  And really really tired of having to cook for 6+ people.  FDIL will do the dishes afterward but I am feeling really old.  Just because DD2 is nauseous is not a reason we should have to entertain her.  I was actually unkind to her today.  She asked if I was not happy to have her over  and I said NO.  I then softened it by saying that she should stay home and rest.  BUT  . . . . 

Finished making the lace cover for the Bible today for the wedding ceremony.  Then got a revised list of guests from FDIL and redid some of the place cards.  The count is at 60 (including the bride and groom) but when I checked with FDIL she said she had a few more people to contact to see if they were coming!  I reminded her that we were only allowed 60 guests.  Even though I have a lovely new dress to wear, I am almost at the point of deciding to stay home with my feet up!  LOL  At least I have the table seatings arranged for our family and friends so that is ok.  She will have to do theirs.

My ewes are still holding onto their lambs.  Or the lambs are still refusing to come out.  DD2 came in and asked if they were supposed to be lambing now and I said yes, any time between last week and next week.  She said they looked enormous and one was actually waddling. I did not tell her that in another 4-5 months or so she would be looking like that and waddling too.  I am a good mother sometimes.

Yesterday I made 6 dozen chicken enchiladas and froze them.  This morning I put them in freezer bags - 5 to a bag. Last week I made chili verde, and spaghetti sauce.  I made the spaghetti sauce in my InstaPot and it was so easy and so much less work to use that.  I also made the chili verde in the InstaPot as well.  I froze 2 bags of spaghetti sauce and 4 bags of chili verde.  Each bag has to feed 5+ adults.  I am tired of cooking for so many.

Yesterday we listed the Yelm house.  Now that building permits and water permits are being issued, we will probably get an offer.  If we don't sell the house, at least the tenant has to vacate and we can put in another tenant that will actually pay rent.  We are selling with the wood stove and appliances not included but optional.  The propane stove is 5 years old, and the refrigerator was just replaced last Christmas.  The wood stove is a really good one and there is another very old one that is actually worth more money in the bunkhouse that we will keep.  If we actually ever get out of here we will need those stoves in the barn and workshop during the winter.


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## Baymule

So that's your real motive for leaving California--you are running away from your kids!


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## Ridgetop

*You Bet!*  

DH and I used to joke that we couldn't get a divorce since neither of us would agree to take custody of the children!


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## thistlebloom

Sorry to ask this, but why are you doing all the cooking? Seems like plenty of able bodied people around that can step up and take turns.


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## farmerjan

I think that it is a 2 edged sword for @Ridgetop .... if she does the cooking at least things will not get ruined, burned up, taken out and not get put back, or put back and not found again when she needs them.  If she says there is the kitchen, it could be left in a disaster that would make her madder than if she had just done it herself.... I usually offer to help do something/anything until this past year or 2 when my ankle and knees hurt too much to stand for any more than a few minutes.  I actually like doing the dishes....
And if she wants to eat a decent hour, she has to get to cooking at a decent hour.  But it is poor taste on the "kids part" to not at least offer to get going before dinnertime if they have not been invited.... I hate it when people just hang around like that too....
 I never expected to eat at my mom's unless it was pre arranged.... or she was standing there insisting me/we/whoever stay.  It was often expected that I stay when going down to visit when I lived an hour away.... but I still always said something to the effect.... and often offered to bring stuff with me to at least contribute....

I am sorry that "he" is once again acting irresponsible.... it is hard to get someone to change.... 

And there is something to be said to the "running away" if they don't respect your space even if you are the parents and the kids think they own you.  I never did that with my parents, and don't do it with my son.  I would never "expect" to get fed, or waited on, or helped with something unless I asked or it was first offered.  
I ran away to Va partly because my ex would just come to the house whenever he felt and thought he still had a right to walk in... after a knock at least.... but I stopped that with the adoption of a german shepard that turns out had an extreme dislike of men.... was abused they suspected at the pound that I adopted him from....advertised as for a woman only home... and the first time my ex decided to come in, the dog went for him.... stopped that BS real quick.... My very innocent justification was that I was alone and I wanted protection.... and that he would protect my son also..... he couldn't make any case against the dog.... Thank you God.....
He//, I might run away again..... who knows....


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## Bruce

farmerjan said:


> but I heard somewhere that they are talking all electric vehicles by 2045.... big rigs included.....


I guess we'll see, there have been quite good advances in electric vehicles in the last 10 years so another 25 years might be enough time .... though some of us won't have to worry about it 



farmerjan said:


> I don't think that 70 miles on 1.5 gallons is that difficult.


Then why can so few vehicles attain it? (yeah I did see your bad math post  ). Do you recall in 2003 when gas first went over $2/gallon and everyone was crying about how we'd all go broke? People started buying smaller vehicles, especially when gas went over $3 then over $4. But gas is back down to "super cheap" (my how soon we forget the pain of $2 gas) and back to the larger vehicles. And even by model they get bigger. I know people who had a hybrid Toyota Highlander, when they replaced it they got a hybrid Rav 4 because the Highlander had grown and the new Rav was the size of their old Highlander. 



farmerjan said:


> And is the all electric, that needs charging most every day I guess, is that increased electricity coming at a "cost" to the environment at the plants to produce more and more????? I like solar, I really like hydro power as that is more consistent and continuous than either solar or wind....( in some places wind might be close) I like renewable.... but you have to factor in the overall costs, some not seen like increased generation of electricity SOMEWHERE, to provide that electricity to charge the batteries....and the increased cost of the actual vehicle... to the life of the vehicle... and the life of the battery and the replacement cost of that battery.... and to the fact that an average person/mechanic cannot work on these vehicles.....
> Run the numbers against something like my ranger.... with the miles on it, and the maintenance costs... Is it worth it??? I honestly do not know....


"charge every day" would depend on the battery range of the vehicle and the commute. DW needs to charge every other day though she could probably squeak every 3 days during the warm weather. Most people don't have a 70 mile daily round trip commute though. 

Most of the power we get from the electric company is renewable, hydro, solar & wind but your point is valid. There are still plenty of coal fired plants and natural gas fired plants. And clearly the cost of the vehicles will have to come down substantially though to be fair, there are a LOT of vehicles sold annually that cost more than our new Leaf, starting with Ford's most popular model - the F150. I'm not suggesting they are equivalent vehicles, totally different purposes (if used FOR those designed purposes). Google says the average price paid for new vehicles in 2020 is just shy of $38K. 

And, yes the average mechanic isn't going to deal with the hybrid parts of a Prius but in fact we have NEVER had ANY part of the hybrid system need service. That is 5 vehicles since 2004. My 2004 had 130K miles when it was totaled, the 2009 that replaced it had 140K when it was totaled. DD2 has 180K on her 2006, DW has 235K on her 2006, DD1 has just over 100K on her 2010. But our local mechanic has made money on those cars. Brakes, bearings, oil changes, etc. DW's 2006 is still running fine, the decision to buy the Leaf now instead of waiting is tax related.


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## farmerjan

A 70 mile round trip for work here is very common.  Unless you live right in town and work at say the hospital or one of the colleges, it is 20 miles for me to go to town in either north or south directions.  Add in many having to take kids to a babysitter, and then pick up, and a spouse having to drive in a different direction... and 50 miles a day is minimum for most.  When I go test, which yes, I realize is not the average job... but I figure a minimum of 70-80 miles round trip for all but about 4 farms.... several are 50-60 miles one way.   But yeah, many do not have that long a drive I don't imagine.  

Nearly every one of my vehicles has nearly twice the miles on it that yours have... granted yours have been "retired due to accidents"... but I have had a few over the years that also have gone that route... but over 200,000 at the time.  

So you have never had to replace any batteries on any of them?  I have heard, maybe true or NOT, that they last an average of 5 years????? And are expensive to replace..... Please enlighten me on the normal yearly upkeep costs.... I do brakes once a year or less.... oil changes are routine when I can get to them,  Bearings?????,  So maybe not much more in annual upkeep than a "regular" vehicle..... interesting.... 
But then again, I could not even begin to manage with the farm stuff,  with a car.... I had a "duster" after I got divorced and it got so abused hauling feed and trying to stuff a half dozen sq bales of hay and countless trips to do stuff, that a truck was a godsend......


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## Baymule

Haha @farmerjan I had a 2003 Ford Focus wagon, loved that car. I could carry 500 pounds of feed in it and tie 3 bales of hay on top. If I really needed to, I could stuff 750 pounds of feed in it. I'd tell the guys at the feed store to put the feed in that red Ford truck, then watch then get confused. LOL At 750 pounds, it squatted down and wallowed all over the rad, but what the heck. What's the difference between feed sacks and 4 or 5 fat people? I wrecked that car in Houston, on the 610 freeway loop. It's a bad feeling to total a car in a big city, miles and miles from home. Hah! No problem, I just called a wrecker in Livingston, and got a ride home in the deal!


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## messybun

I find electric cars interesting, but as far as “clean” fuel I’m not so sure. I’ve always had a problem with where the electricity came from being “cleaner” than gas. On the other hand, I don’t think removing all the oil from under the plutonic plates is the best idea either, as seen in the increased earthquakes. Because who thought hey let’s take out all the lubrication for these giant moving plates, it’s not like we need it or anything. But, unfortunately, it is too expensive to make oil at the current time.


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## Ridgetop

Farmerjan has it right!  I do the cooking because no one usually jumps in to do it  As far as DD2 and Doofus she can't cook and even if she tried her pregnancy nausea would be a problem.  As for DS1 and FDIL they will cook and also clean up too.  I am not eating much lately, just not hungry so don't eat dinner, so am passing on cooking to them for a while. They also do the dishes.  The cooking is not necessarily the problem, it is planning, thawing, cooking and distributing meals to 6-8 people that is getting me down.  I did this since I was a teenager of 15, my mother, worked and I came home from high school to feed and care for my younger siblings.  Father was an alcoholic and when he showed up was drunk and I had everyone fed, bathed, and in bed.  Then when I had my children I was doing daycare and feeding 6 children in addition to my husband and self.  I can do it in my sleep, just have finally gotten to the point that if I don't want to cook for that many people I get cranky.  As we Catholics say "It is my cross to bear for Jesus".  LOL  On the other hand I have a real appreciation for Martha in the bible story when she complained about her sister, Mary, swanking around sitting with the guests while Martha did all the grunt work in the kitchen!  I would have made sure to dump anything I was serving onto sister Mary's lap! Serve her right!  Maybe even have burned Jesus' dinner - that would have taught those men a thing or two!  So unchristian of me.  I am just a bad person.  

Enough feeling sorry for myself - no time for it!  

Lambing officially started yesterday morning with 8111 producing 2 ginormous lambs.  She is a small ewe but twinned easily last time. This time I noticed her laying down and getting up several times with stuff hanging out the rear so went out with my box of tricks, antiseptic soap, halter, and towels.  I told DS1 to come help me. Sure enough she had a lamb stuck with both forelegs back and just the head presenting.  I managed to get the head out, but still could not pull the lamb out so went in and finally found a leg lying all the way back along the body.  No room to work, but finally got the one leg out - couldn't find the other but managed to work the lamb out.  She came out squirming and no mercomium so that showed no stress on baby, just a huge lamb.  Second lamb presented the exact same way!  Couldn't find forelegs but head was out and lamb alive so again went in for leg and was able to work one leg up and out and get lamb out,  Ram lamb, smaller than first.  Ewe weighed 10.3 and ram weighed 9.0 lbs!

I don't know why they were so enormous although she might have been late lambing.  We had cut out all grain months ago, and they got only a night time alfalfa feed since there is still forage on the field.  Anyway, one to keep and one to sell so all good.  She didn't lamb in an 8 month cycle though so perhaps that is why.  Her last lambs were born about 11-12 months ago which probably let her put on more condition.  I really don't like lambs that large at birth.  While I was trying to get first lamb out DD2 and Doofus appeared at the house and asked if we needed help.  I told DD2 yes, so she climbed into the corral and was able to take the first lamb and dry it off when I got it out.  Doofus had never seen lambs born although DD2 said he had been there when his daughter was born. Maybe, but he seemed surprised at the amount of fluid and blood from the second lamb.  I will give the ewe 12cc Penn today.  DD2 and Doofus helped bring ewe and lambs into jug while DD1 kept Bubba back.  The DD1 set set up the waterer and feeder in jug while I iodined cords.  Mom and lambs resting comfortably in jug today,

Next DD1 asked me to go with her to pick up and try n her dress so I said ok.  She tried on the dress they ordered for her.  It did not fit well, more like a sack.  Very upsetting.  They offered to alter it at a price but we insisted that the original dress fit fine.  The saleslady said they might have ordered wrong and sure enough they had ordered a _Woman's_ size which is wider through the body.  They got the one she had tried on before (luckily it was still there) and she put it on and it fit perfectly so she said she would take that since we don't have time to order another one.  She wanted to take the one she tried on at the time but Noooo they had to order one for her, and ordered the wrong one. Anyway she now has her dress. 

She wants to go with us to look at dresses for DD2.  I scheduled an appointment for tonight for DD2 to try on dresses but she called me later and asked me to reschedule it for Saturday since the Maid of Honor wants to go with her to look.  I might as well make 2 appointments so the MOH can try on something.  I told DD2 I would like pinks and lilacs for her colors since I am tired of blue, peach, and greens combinations.  Red would be a normal color for a winter wedding but I don't want that either. She is very lackadaisical about the colors and wedding.  She said she always wanted an outdoor wedding - why do all these girls want to be married outside?  Bugs, sun, rain, brides have no thought for what makes things difficult.  

I also arranged for DD2 and Doofus to do a ZOOM interview with the minister tomorrow afternoon.  Then we are going to Odyssey to look at the venue for the wedding.  I told her that she could be married outside at the Odyssey if she wanted to.  I am afraid she wants to be married here at our house which will make a lot of extra work for me. We could arrange the ceremony here in our yard and rent chairs for the patio then go to the Odyssey for the reception. It would look quite lovely.  On the other hand, I will have to hire a cleaning crew to clean everything here - more $$, and also do drywall and painting of the holes in the ceiling from the HVAC installation which our contractor friend never finished. I will be doing that anyway with DS1 but with rushing this wedding through won't have time to finish drywall repairs and painting it before December 12.  

I could let them get married quietly and then plan a reception later, but I really don't like that idea.  I want her to get married now with a proper wedding before she is showing IF she is determined to marry Doofus which apparently she is.  If she waits till after the first of the year she will not only be showing big time (unfortunate for a bride) but if the quarantine is lifted all venues will be booked again so it will be 2 years before she has wedding. Right now we can afford an afternoon wedding at the Odyssey. Plus I want to marry her off before the baby comes so that we don't have to wait around for another wedding if we decide to move! Tacky to marry her off with her own baby hanging on her skirt or demanding to be nursed anyway!  LOL  If she doesn't like it, she shouldn't have gotten pregnant.

Old fashioned and selfish of me?  OK, but my money my choice!

The date is set for December 12 with the minister, and Thursday we will book the venue.  Saturday we will look for the dress.  Then I will book the flower  appoitment with bardwill's for after DS2's wedding.  Jocelyn at Bardwill has done all our weddings and funerals as well as all flowers we send or receive for past 30 years. After DS2's wedding I will make the flower girl baskets and ring bearer pillow.  DGD2 and DGD3 will both be flower girls since DGD1 will be needed to tow 3 year old DGD2 down the aisle.  DGS2 will be ring bearer (his great wish). The groom and best man will wear tuxes.  Possibly the father of the bride will also wear a tux. DD2's and DH's choice.  I will print out the invitations from a wedding kit. I need to get them registered on a bridal registry so they can choose their gift choices.  

Luckily I have now done 2 weddings and assisted my cousin with her step daughter's so know all the steps. Thank heaven this is not an ethnic wedding so I don't have to learn a bunch of ethnic customs, this is just a straightforward wedding.  Simple since DD2 doesn't want a fuss.

If it seems like I am pushing DD2 into this, she is pretty nauseous and depressed so not really interested in doing anything except dwelling on the December 10 custody hearing on DGD2.  Hopefully this will help tAke her mind off that hearing.  They are going for joint custody. AGAIN.

oFF TO MY FITTING.


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## thistlebloom

Here ya go Ridgetop and 🤪.
I think you have definitely served your time in the kitchen!

I get cranky if I'm in the kitchen more than a few hours. Except for Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. That day and that day only I will cheerfully put hours into prep, cooking, and cleanup, for a meal that's over in 15 minutes .


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## Mike CHS

"My money, my choice"

  I always enjoy reading about your logical decisions.


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## Baymule

When you get these weddings done, you need a vacation!


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## Bruce

farmerjan said:


> So you have never had to replace any batteries on any of them? I have heard, maybe true or NOT, that they last an average of 5 years????? And are expensive to replace..... Please enlighten me on the normal yearly upkeep costs.... I do brakes once a year or less.... oil changes are routine when I can get to them, Bearings?????, So maybe not much more in annual upkeep than a "regular" vehicle.


Nope, no battery changes other than the 12V. That "last only 5 years" was major FUD by GM wanting people to NOT buy the 2004 generation Prius (and repeated ad nauseum since by people who did not actually check for factual data). GM's line in 2004 was "hybrids are a dead end, wait for our hydrogen car, available in 5 years". Every year it was "in 5 years". Guess what, GM still doesn't have a hydrogen car. Not to mention that it currently takes more energy to generate the hydrogen than you get out of it. And where is THAT energy coming from if you can find a station? Most likely the same power grid that will charge your electric car. As such, hydrogen vehicles are LESS energy efficient than an electric vehicle.

Google says < $3K to replace a 2nd gen (2004-2009) Prius battery excluding labor. My sister had a 2005 with over 200K miles on it when the traction battery went. That is actually early but through PriusChat.com I found a guy who sold her a rebuilt battery for $500 installed and he came to her house to do the work. Seeing as how she hadn't had a new car for 14 years she decided she might want to buy one, the guy that installed the rebuilt (means swapping out bad cells for new ones) bought it for $2,500 for his daughter. 

Normal upkeep is the same or LESS than a non hybrid, at least for every one in the family I know of (which includes DW's parents, 3 of her cousins, 1 of one of the cousin's kid). Oil and filters, tires, bearings. Brakes last a lot longer because unless you slam them on, the friction brakes don't even engage until you are down to 8 MPH. The oil change schedule on the 2004-2009 was 5K miles but even then it isn't really necessary since the gas engine isn't running all the time the car is moving and never when it is stopped at red lights or in the long lunch time line at McD's  (except in winter when you have the heat on; this does not apply to my Prime, the heater is an electric heat pump). I had an oil sample done when my 2004 went out of warranty, they said it would be good to about 12K miles. Oil change on my 2018 Prius Prime is 10K miles and that is WAY soon given there are many days and miles that the engine doesn't run at all. I've got 16K miles on it now at 140 MPG. That is 114 gallons of gas since the end of Feb 2019 (bought a "last year left over"). Mind you my info is for the Toyota hybrids, some manufacturer's technology is different to some or a great extent. GM's hybrid was a total joke.



messybun said:


> I find electric cars interesting, but as far as “clean” fuel I’m not so sure. I’ve always had a problem with where the electricity came from being “cleaner” than gas.


Very true, it definitely depends on the source of the electricity.


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## farmerjan

Thanks for the info @Bruce.  I am definitely not up on an electric or a hybrid car.  So are there hybrid pickups?  A small one would be interesting.... I am not in a market for a new vehicle, although I find the info you provided very interesting.  What bearings are you referring to?  That has me stumped.  I just had the brake line replaced on my 96 ranger pickup... 2 years ago I had one of the wheel/brake cylinders replaced, this time it turned out it was only a line and a compression valve.... and they flushed the radiator and then found the crack in it so it is going to have to be replaced.  With the miles I have put on it, and the "roughness" of those miles,  I am not upset over it....I mean, it has over 280,000 on it I think.... I can't remember.... but I know that it is well over 250,000....will have to look at it when I pick it up tomorrow.... so putting a couple hundred in it a year is still a whole lot less than a payment.....And I haven't bought a new vehicle since my 1979 f150 2x2 truck as a leftover when the 1980's came out.  My first and probably only new vehicle.....


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## Ridgetop

I understand that hybrid electric pickups are coming out in 2021 from Ford. Also Tesla is making one.  I don't know how much they would carry or pull so will have to wait.  They will get better every year.

DD2 and FSIL spoke to pastor Arlo today on ZOOM.   They really like d her.  She is young with a 2 year old and new baby and apparently they got on very well.  dd2 is much happier about the whole wedding now since Pastor Arlo was pleased that they see this wedding as a wedding of each other into a complete family.  

I made them give me a guest list (many of whom I hope will not come since they are out of state) and the count was 75. So much for a "tiny little wedding Mom" and "We don't have a lot of friends Mom".  They were amazed to see how many relatives they actually wanted to invite, and how many friends they had.  I will have to work some magic to save money on flowers, centerpieces, etc.   I have the hurricane lamps and mirrors from DD1's wedding where we used candles as centerpieces instead of flowers.  The cake is included in the luncheon price which saves some money.  DD1 suggested that we just do net bags of mints tied with ribbons in the wedding colors for favors which will save money as well.  We go to the Odyssey tomorrow afternoon to check out the venue and possible locations for an outdoor wedding which DD2 has now said she wants.  December is not the ideal month for that but it is southern California and we can move inside afterwards.  The venue says they expect to be able to hold indoor events by then.   If necessary we can hold the wedding inside the church if the weather is bad.  No need to worry yet.

FDIL has added a couple more names to the guest list for October.  I had the table plan set but this means that we have too many people so have to add anther table.  Venue said that they could do this so we now have 4 tables with 5 guests, and 7 tables with 6.  FDIL and I went over the tables and placed older people with older people and the younger ones together so they will be able to be loud without the older relatives disapproving.  The children will be placed at a table surrounded by the 3 tables at which their parents will be sitting.  I think the arrangement will be a good one.  I need to do the last 4 place cards.  The rings were picked up today and FDIL picks up her dress on Friday. DD1 has hers, DD2 has hers, the tuxes are ordered, DS1 might need a larger shirt, and I need DH to try on his dress shirts.  Corona weight might have struck.  I pick my dress up tomorrow.  I certainly wish my daughters sewed since it cost almost as much to have the dress shortened as it did to purchase!!!  I am not happy about that but nothing to do but complain.

This morning when I fed 8111 and her lambs I noticed that the 10.3 lb. ewe lamb was already nibbling hay!  Not even 24 hours old!  I really think from the size of these lambs and the dates I had for them that they were overdue and that is why they were so large.  If 8111 continues to do this I might cull her although I really like her and her bloodlines are superb.  Next dates are 9/18 (past) and October 7 for 0439, and October 9 for 8219.  8192 and 8179 are both due during the month of October but I dont ahve any dates for them since I bought them bred and the crayon fell off the buck so Wes had no idea of breeding dates.  I just hope they are actually bred since they are bred to one of his good bucks and their ewe lambs would be good keeper lambs for the flock.  We'll have to see what they give me, if anything.  I hope I don't have to pull any more lambs.  I couldn't figure out why I was so sore last night - even my butt hurt.  Then I remembered that I had been crawling around in the corral trying to tug 2 great humongous lambs out of a tiny little ewe!  I am just getting old.  I wonder how much longer I can keep doing this.  But if @farmerjan can keep going with her schedule and knees, so can I.  I just have to suck it up and tough it out!  LOL  

The October Dorper sale is going on this weekend but I am not very interested in anything.  I would like another ram, but without my tenant paying rent, I have no money for anything.  I did get a call from my Armenian client, Hovik, for a 50 lb. ram lamb but didn't have anything close to that size for him.  He would have taken a ewe lamb but my smallest ewe lambs are about 80 lbs. so too big.  I told him any ewe lambs that size would be $300 since that is the price for a registered breeding ewe lamb and these are almost ready to put into production.   He said he would get back with  me in 2 months when the little ram is ready to go.  I was happy to hear from him since he pays $150 cash for a 50 lb. lamb - about 2 months old.  Since the ewe would be weaning her lambs about then and would still have the ewe lamb on her that works for me.  I might be selling a couple larger ewe lambs this winter and spring when prices are higher.   I would like to see what they would bring at the auction.  The auction person said that ewes with lambs at side bring a lot so if I have any I am not really interested in with a single ram lamb, I might try selling a ewe with lamb at side. My flock is growing and I will need to start selling ewe lambs to keep it under the numbers I want for my forage and hay budget.  Most of the lambs that are arriving over the next few months will be at sale age during the spring which is when our auction prices are highest.  I will have to look up ethnic holidays and put them on the calendar so I get the lambs down to the auction at the right time for those holidays.  Starting to plan out my sales campaign and calendar.  Sure hope we get lots of rain this year.  The forage is still holding up in the far corner of the field which mean that we only give a few flakes at night when the sheep come in.  We need another load of hay too before prices get too high.

The house in Yelm has been listed.  If we get an offer we will have to come back to Texas, Oklahoma and Utah to look at properties.    Not so sure about Utah, their reservoir ran dry this summer because the snow pack was too light  However, Travis said that he would be interested in leasing the ranch for the hay which would take that off my mind.  The house could be rented out too.  Utah also has an AG exemption for lower taxes if used for farming. We would have to check into it to see how many acres would be needed for the exemption.  That will satisfy the 1031 Exchange terms of like kind property, and give us somewhere to move to when we sell out here.  On the other hand, the fact that they have run out of water to irrigate until spring when the snow has fallen, and Travis said he is not selling any hay this year since he needs everything he has baled for his sheep, has me worried about Utah.  When they have water for the wheel lines, they make great hay with abut 4 cuttings but without winter snow pack, the reservoir didn't fill.  Texas is still calling us, and even south eastern Oklahoma night work for us in the way of a small ranch.  Like my Uncle Sig told me years ago, "Water is everything!"  

Tomorrow we need to put the Squirrelinator in the front again  FDIL's plants took a hit and have been chewed off!  Apparently the squirrels have moved to the other end of the patio.  One of the dogs caught a rabbit and left it on the "lawn" for us.  I picked it up and got rid of it before it could swell and burst on the "grass".  The weather has turned super hot again.  No humidity.  

Governor Gruesom has just enacted legislation to put together a committee to look into "reparations".  For whom?  Anybodywith a deep tan?  Africans that immigrated after slavery?  Maybe I can get some of that reparation money if I "self identify" as black.  Has the world gone mad?


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## Baymule

Do you have any more children that aren’t married? How many more times do you have to do this?? 

Cross Utah off your list. Climate change and no water make that a reject place to move to. Texas prices are getting ridiculous....... people keep moving here from out of state! LOL LOL Oklahoma prices are wending upward also. With all the fires on the west coast, I expect an exodus of refugees with insurance money to spread out like a pack of locusts, gobbling up everything in their path. You’d better hurry up and sell that Washington house, and can probably get a very good price for it as housing is in short supply. Advertise it in California and a work from home-any location sales pitch. 

Your 8111 ewe sounds like she might need to go to the sale. Keep her daughter. I have a few small ewes that are going to auction next year after weaning their lambs. I’ll take my money and put it into a couple of registered Katahdin ewes.


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## Bruce

farmerjan said:


> So are there hybrid pickups? A small one would be interesting


Looks like Ford is going to have a hybrid F-150 and as Ridgeline said, Tesla is working on an electric truck. Super weird looking and I expect it will be as unaffordable for the masses as the rest of their vehicles. 



farmerjan said:


> What bearings are you referring to? That has me stumped.


Wheel bearings.


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## farmerjan

@Bruce ;  Are the wheel bearings a problem?   We will "pack the bearings" with grease if they need it, but I can't remember having to replace any wheel bearings on a regular basis.  Sure, some have gone bad, mostly the ones that are "sealed bearings" that you can't grease.... and we have had several go bad on the trailers over years.... 
An F-150 is not much good for what we do, can't carry a big enough load for most everything we do on the farm..... why not a "small pickup" like the ranger or the old dodge d-50 that was a great small truck for stuff....or the little toyota p.u.  I had one and loved it, like I use these little rangers for lots of stuff that doesn't need the big trucks.  Seems to me that a small p.u. that was electric or a hybrid would have alot more appeal.....and maybe be more reasonable for use without worrying about long the charge would last, on a bigger truck, with a heavier load, and variable working conditions.  A small truck has limitations, yet is very useful.....


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## Bruce

Maybe the Prius wheel bearings are sealed? I guess they probably are, I don't think there is anything in the service schedule about greasing them. All I know about the Prius bearings is that they are a PITA to get off due to dissimilar metal issues. No idea if that is the 2004-2009s only or later ones as well.


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## Ridgetop

Got an offer on the Washington property 3 hours after the listing came out.  Full price but the terms are a no go.  Since a developer is offering to purchase, they want to make the sale final WHEN THEY GET THEIR FEASIBILITY STUDY COMPLETED  i.e. when they have firm planning permission which could take months and months.  The dates they put in the contract to do this extend to next October.  They can get any money they put down back f they can't get permission in 6 months.  Then they submitted the offer with *no cash (check) for good faith money but a Promissory Note!   *We refused this offer since it won't work for a 1031 exchange.  And in fact ties us up from acting on any other offer for a year!   So no need to make a rush visit to any state yet.

Our broker did call me and say that he had told them they would need to readjust the offer.  However, no second written offer setting forth the new terms he told me verbally has come through  I told him to send in another written offer for us to look t over.  Their offer expires tonight and I am too busy with weddings to deal with it anyway.

As to future weddings, DD2 is the last child to marry off on December 12, 2020!    DS1 doesn't want to marry, having designated himself the "favorite uncle". We already gave him and his brothers what we spent on DD1's wedding several years ago. DS2 is paying for his own wedding himself. However as with any wedding there are a lot of little things and large things that need to be addressed so . . . . It is a headache with the seating plans and lower allowable numbers due to Covid. DS1 and FDIL said just let everyone sit where ever they want *but any good hostess knows that will not work!  *You have to allocate seating to put people together who will be compatible.   We have 60 people okayed by the restaurant for the patio reception then people kept RSVPing at the last moment and FDIL kept accepting them so the number was up to 64.  2 people cancelled so down to 62.  I was able to seat everyone (restricted to 6 people/table and 6 tables so since she and DS1 have a "sweetheart table" to themselves we are good.  She and DS1 are calling one couple that were not coming to ask them to try to come since they paid for 64 people!   Apparently as the wedding grows closer the prospective bride and groom no longer understand the concept of a *"LIMIT"!   *  Now FDIL has been told by the church that we have to cut the number of attendees to 50!  2 people have cancelled, but still at 62 plus photographers, so now we have to ask some people not to attend the church service!  I am leaving that up to the bride and groom.  

The Filipino wedding traditions are apparently similar to Mexican traditions with "sponsors".  She has *6 *sponsors.  That is NOT a typo, 6 sponsors all of whom must come to the rehearsal.  Then there are 3 readers for the mass so again more people for the rehearsal.  Not to mention the fact that any persons taking part in the wedding have spouses that will come to the rehearsal dinner.  We are having it here at our house outside on the patio.  I borrowed  two  8' tables from DD1 and we have two as well.  We will have 32' of table space with 16 folding chairs, a table with 6 chairs, and patio seating for 20 people.  We used to have giant parties so have lots of seating.  

We expect around 30 people at the rehearsal since all the siblings will show up whether in the wedding or not.  DS2 has 7 siblings/partners and FDIL has 8 siblings/partners.  Then there are the 6 sponsors, flower girl, ring bearer, and their parents. - 3 of the children's parents have duties in the wedding so would attend anyway.  At this point I lost count.  I would give the rehearsal a miss but have to be present to light the Unity candle during the ceremony.  I plan to leave immediately afterwards to get home to set out the  food and put the tablecloths on the tables.  (I don't want to do it too early and have birdie poop on the tables!  )  

The bride's parents are bringing a whole roasted pig (Filipino style - it even will have an apple in its mouth!).  Her sisters are also bringing a couple deserts and possibly Filipino regional dishes.  I am baking a Stouffers meat lasagna and a cheese only lasagna, making a huge green salad, and scalloped potatoes (requested by the bride instead of potato salad).  I already made 3 zuchini cakes which are in the freezer, and will cut up melons for a fruit salad on Thursday when I chop the lettuce, green onions and cukes for the salad.  I might cut up some tomatoes in a separate bowl for people to add to their salad.  FDIL will make rice in the Instapot and the pig comes with different Filipino sauces that will accompany the rice.  Got out my chafing dish for the potatoes, but am considering just putting the baking dish on the table instead.  Paper goods are all purchased at the dollar store.  We will eat outside but all food will be in the house on the kitchen table and counters.  Extra coolers are in process of arriving from DD1 and I have to tell DD2 to bring back the 2 folding chairs I loaned her.

The rehearsal is at 5pm Friday night. I have a nail appointment at 10:30 am that morning. I am going to get all the salad & fruit chopping done on Thursday. That means I also have to empty both refrigerators and make room for all the food on Thursday am. Friday night will have to package up all leftovers and parcel them out to both families. On Saturday I have a hair and makeup appointment courtesy of FDIL at 9 am. The wedding is at noon after which the wedding party will go away for the afternoon long photo session for the posed bridal pictures that no one will see again in this lifetime. After the church wedding we will load up the flower arrangements to take to the reception. Since there is another wedding 2 hours after ours, with their own floral arrangements, we might as well take ours to the reception to save some money. Then the left over family (not in the actual wedding party) will return to our house to eat rehearsal leftovers and rest(?) before getting ready in our evening attire for the reception. We need to be there early with the flower arrangements. I was going to go early to make sure the mirrors (left from DD1's wedding) are put under the flower arrangements on the tables, but I called the florist who has done all our stuff for 30 years and she said to drop them by the shop and she will take care of it.  Since FDIL's sisters did all the favors and are going early to place them at the tables, I can just give them the name cards, and seating plan. I got coloring books, crayons, and puzzle books for the children instead of the handmade soaps, etc. the adults are getting. FDIL suggested this and it is a good idea. The hope is that these items will keep the children busy and out of everyone's way as they party.  I plan to drink heavily during the 2 hour open bar to recover my sanity and do not want any grandchildren bothering me during that time. Since I did the table seating arrangements, my table will be in a galaxy far far away from the children's table. The three tables with their parents are grouped around the children's table as a buffer. 

At the last moment I had to produce all our photo albums for FDIL because one of her sisters wants to put together a photo memory slide show of the happy couple during their formative years to play during the reception.  Now I get to put them all back and rehang a bunch of pictures on the walls.  This is rather a last minute thing they decided to do The wedding has been in the planning stages for a YEAR!  Why is this happening the last five days before the wedding?!  

On Sunday the 11th of the year 2020 I will officially take to my bed.  I don't know how long it will take me to recover, but I will be making no food, cleaning no houses, and doing no laundry.  No visitors will be allowed.  I might have to deliver some lambs, but since they don't talk back I will be available as an ovine midwife.

*Now on to DD2's wedding.  *I went by Hobby Lobby last Friday to look at what was available in wedding stuff since Michaels had nothing.  *Eureka!!!  *Their entire wedding section was on HALF PRICE SALE!  I called DD2 who came to meet me there and we got the invitations, little bride and groom favor boxes, wedding bubbles (no rice, birdseed or other items are allowed to be tossed at the bride and groom as they leave anymore), thank you notes, "just married" press ons/peel offs for the car, guest book, flower girl head pieces, etc. etc. you name it I got it half price.   *SCORE!
*
Next in the House of Perpetual Nuptials - I made appointments for fittings for the bride and her Maid of Honor for the next day, Saturday.  DD2 has decided that she will only have one attendant  so I set both appointments back to back. DD1 went with us. We had a great time. DD2 put on her shoes - 1" platform, 4" heels, she now barely came up to below my nose and I am not a tall woman.  The first dress DD2 tried on was exactly what she had described to the stylist. Off the shoulder, sweetheart neckline, V shaped back, flaring skirt with a waistline that could be raised a bit to hide any incipient baby bulges (non-existent at this time - 16 weeks), and long sleeves. She looked lovely. It was perfect.  On sale and decent price - OK we're done here . . . .

We convinced her to try on other styles. Where is the point in having 1 1/2 hours of trying on time with the full attention of the stylist for wedding gowns if you don't utilize all of it? The next was also off shoulder, sweetheart neckline, open back, etc. It looked fantastic BUT was a tightly fitting sheath style. It looked great now, but in 2 months??? With a full 1 hour and 15 minutes of our time left MOH, DD2, DD1, and I went on a search mission through the store to find more styles. One at $1600  was admired then instantly dismissed by me as too expensive.   By this time my knee hurt so I tottered back to the chairs by "our" fitting room, sat down and let the 3 of them have fun. Four more styles were triumphantly chosen by the girls and carried tenderly back to the fitting room by the stylist.  

Back into the fitting room for the B to B.  The next gown was attractive if she were a 40 year old bride. Then DD1's favorite - strapless with a very full skirt of tulle.  Cries of distress emanated from the dressing room as DD2 tried to find her way through the ruffles into the gown.  Assisted by her Maid of Honor she finally emerged saying she couldn't find her legs.  Not surprising.  That style, which had looked phenomenal on DD1 with her tiny waist, full hips and bosom, swallowed up tiny DD2.  What looked like an animated fluffy wedding gown posed in front of the mirrors.  We couldn't find DD2 in all the ruffles although what seemed to be the head and shoulders of a miniature girl might have been poking out of the top of the giant marshmallow.  After a good laugh DD2 staggered back into the dressing room.  More pathetic cries for help arose as DD2 was again engulfed in layers of tulle.  The MOH ran to help.  After being assisted out of that gown, the third style was tried on.  By now DD2 had decided that she would go with dress number 1 which looked lovely, could be adjusted for any baby bulges and was exactly what she had visualized from the beginning. With just one dress remaining the three of us coaxed her to try on the final selection.  

*A vision stepped out of the dressing room to a gasp of admiration from all of us!  ANGEL TRUMPETS - HEAVENLY MUSIC - CINDERELLA AT THE BALL!!!  *

     

Here was the dress to make the groom drop to his knees, the dress that would make her daddy cry, the dress that had a tear actually forming in my own stern eyes.

Fitted bodice with an Elizabethan waist, layers of tulle were appliqued with delicate lace flowers with just a hint of palest blush pink, pearls, and the selling point, a lace up corset back that would allow expansion for any possible baby bulge!   But it was strapless and DD2, who has peculiar illusions about her exquisite face and delicate body structure is convinced that she has "ugly arms" ???  The stylist produced a coupe of wisps of tulle decorated with delicate beading which she attached to the dress forming off the shoulder sleeves reminiscent of Gone With The Wind ball gowns.  We all sighed in ecstasy.  Recovering slightly from the glimmer of the magical princess standing before me, I beckoned the stylist over to ask the price.  Gulp!  It was higher than the dress that up to now had been our favorite, but _was_ on sale so it would only set her daddy back a couple of hundred $$ more.  DD1 whispered that she had planned to pay for part of the dress for her sister.  OK.  Several veils were produced and tried on.  Two were rejected as being too heavy for the dress.  The mention of a modesty veil to cover her face as she groped her way down the aisle was brought up and the stylist produced a shorter veil of the most fragile tulle every woven.  Tiny embroidered and beaded fairy like details were on the edges.  A vision looked back at us.  The veil was so fragile and fine that with the modesty veil over her face DD2 did not appear to be wearing one.   The veil was on sale for $79.00, marked down from $200.00.  It was perfect for the dress, allowing all the delicate detailing of the gown to show while highlighting rather than detracting from it.  A tear did actually leak out - so sue me, I'm her mom.
Although *we* all knew that this dress was *THE ONE*, DD2 decided to try on the first dress again.  After the vision that we had just seen,  the first dress, formerly so beautiful, now looked like a tacky rag.  

The veil was purchased, the dress ordered, and a date set for the alterations.  There are *always* alterations needed on every wedding dress.  In DD2's case there will have to be slight alterations to the back of the lace up corset panel since she is so short and the dress could not be ordered in a petit size.  No wedding dress has ever been made and sold that was not made for a completely different body type than the girl or woman who purchased it.  You would think that a size 2 gown would be made for short petite girls but nooooo!  Size 2 dresses are designed for 6' tall stick women.  The alterations often cost almost as much as the dress (FDIL's dress was on sale very reasonably but the alterations practically doubled the cost).  However, I checked out the skirt and since it is a simple satin under gown with layers of tulle on top with  no lace edging around the hem, the hemming of the gown should not be too expensive.  If it is, I can easily do it myself and save the money.    *NOTE: when buying a wedding gown (or any gown) that will need shortening make sure that you do NOT buy one with lace edging around the hem.  The alteration department charges exorbitantly to remove all that lace to shorten the gown, then to hem it, and to reapply all the lace edging.  They also like to delay the alteration appointment until the last possible moment so they can charge you a "Rush" charge.*

Actually, just don't have *any* daughters.  Oh, and don't allow your sons to marry any Filipino girls from traditional families since the husband-to-be in Filipino tradition has to pay all costs for the wedding.  Reminding his future in-laws that they were now in the good ol' US of A did no good.  Luckily, we had given our son his allotted wedding portion some years ago and he has a good income.  DS2 is really into his wedding plans and happy to plan and pay for a mega blowout with his Bride-to-Be.  They have done it all except for the rehearsal dinner.   And remembering DD1's wedding, don't allow your daughters to marry any Chinese men from traditional families either.  Chinese weddings invite every imaginable family member to the rehearsal dinner which requires many many specialty courses and foods to ensure good luck.  Also the bride has to have at least 2 wedding gowns, a Chinese one and her traditional one which she has to change into and out of during the course of the reception.  No bride ever born would pass up the opportunity to buy multiple gowns if allowed.  *In fact, just don't allow your children to marry anyone.*

DH just called.  Apparently DS2, aka "The Groom", may  have told his brother, aka "The Best Man", that he had to be here Friday evening for a rehearsal with his son, aka "The Ring Bearer", but apparently that small nugget of essential information had not been passed on to DS3's wife, aka "Mother of The Ring Bearer".   She is not a happy camper. And we now have to set up our 5th wheel trail to bed down their family of 4. I thought they might be going to her folks who live a few miles away, but apparently they will be with us. One more item for my to do list. Because we all know what it means when your man tells you _*"We"*_ have to get sleeping arrangements ready! 

Anyway, I will probably not be back on BYH (the real world) for a while since there are only 3 days left before H*** breaks loose here in the form of the rehearsal dinner and wedding.


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## Ridgetop

Forgot to say that the brightest spot of the day was that the Maid of Honor had to leave early (DD2 "did not realize" that I had made appointments for them both  )and wanted to come back for another appointment but we found a dress that she loved and persuaded her to try it on then and there.  

It fit like a dream.  It looked gorgeous on her and she bought it so she is taken care of.  Just the flower girls to go  DD1 doesn't know why she should have to buy another flower girl dress for DD2's wedding but the current flower girl dress DGD1 has is white while the one DD2 wants is ivory.  I would say nix DGD1 as a flower girl but since the other flower girl just turned 3 and is shy, she needs her cousin to drag her down the aisle during the ceremony.

Oh well, who said life should be easy, especially for mothers.  Of Brides.  At least DD2 is so sick from her pregnancy she hasn't got the energy to become a Bridezilla like DD1 was.  And if I can get her married off in 2 months, she won't have time to turn.

LOL


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## farmerjan

God Bless You, @Ridgetop .  I hope that the wedding goes off well, there are no disasters, or fire threats, or earthquakes, or meteors dropping out of the sky on your head.  And no lambing complications that day are allowed!!!!!

The best to the bride and groom and I hope that it is the start of long and happy life for them... Get them married, get the next ones married.... then get the HE// out of DODGE !!!!!!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Full price but the terms are a no go.


No, really?? Sounds like they think they are buying property that the seller doesn't really care if it sells or not. Who would accept such terms?



Ridgetop said:


> You have to allocate seating to put people together who will be compatible.


Do you have a "dating site" style application they have to fill out?



Ridgetop said:


> Now FDIL has been told by the church that we have to cut the number of attendees to 50!


That is a Covid created switch, usually there are more invited to the wedding than the reception due to cost.

And, all I can say is:
BETTER YOU THAN ME!!!!!!


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> And, all I can say is:
> BETTER YOU THAN ME!!!!!!


Don't crow too loudly, you have daughters!


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## Baymule

Oh my. You need a short vacation between weddings. Due to Covid, that will be in your RV in your yard. All you really need is wine and steaks on the grill. 

This is going to be a lovely wedding, with all the preparations you have done, it can't be any other way than perfect. Gee I hope the sheep get loose to attend the reception!


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> Don't crow too loudly, you have daughters!


True but there is no way I'm going to do all that Ridgetop is doing! My job is to provide an appropriate amount of money. I won't be doing table assignments and the like. And no way I'm paying for the expensive weddings I hear about. Fortunately my girls are fairly practical (knocking on wood they stay that way).


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## Ridgetop

Had a few minutes to spare so got on BYH - actually I was exhausted and my knee hurt so told everyone that I have to do some computer work in order to sit down for a few minutes.  It was true since I had to print out the last 5 place cards for the wedding!  this afternoon FDIL produced the Bible that her mother is giving her for her wedding.  It is slightly smaller than the one I already made the cover for, so now I have to make the cover smaller which means removing the pearl edging, re-stitching the cover, and reapplying the pearl edging.

Woke up this morning to a complete electrical blackout.   DS1 said he had gotten up during the night and all the power was off before 5 am.  DH went up to find out what was wrong and the word was that someone had committed suicide on a power pole.  I don't know if that is true, but someone hit a power pole on the boulevard, tore it out and knocked it 60 feet down the road.  Doubtful if they survived.  Since it was on the uphill straightaway portion of the road not sure how it could have been an accident.  Usually accidents take place on the downhill portion of the road after people exit the freeway.  They don't realize how fast they are going when they come down the hill.  Luckily it did not happen on Friday or Saturday.  However DH came back and told us that the DWP had sent for more crews since they had to bring out a pole truck and heavy gang to set the new power pole, then restring all the wires.  They got us emergency power by noon.  Other parts of the neighborhood had power up much sooner.  My grandchildren were disappointed since their computers were back in operation for school by 8 am.

Many weddings are really over the top.  FDIL is the first in her family to marry so she and DS2 (who loves a good party) seem to be going all out,  Since they are paying for it I don't care.  LOL  DD2's wedding will not be as expensive as most but will require a little more work since I have to print out the invitations.  Thanks to Covid, it will be small.  Sadly, everything here in CA is expensive.  We are holding expenses down by having an afternoon wedding reception, but DH would be disappointed if his little girl did not have a nice wedding.  I won't have to do anything for our granddaughter(s)' weddings except critique the job their mothers do and withhold commiseration when the DGDs turn into Bridezillas.  Hee hee hee!

However, I found out today the the groom did NOT tell his brother -  the best man - that there was a rehearsal on Friday night.  This is what happens when mothers do not run the shooting match!  Again, not my problem and we can find someone to stand in for the ring Bearer in the rehearsal.  DGS2 will be happy to do it since he wanted the position of Ring Bearer but was passed over in the interests of sharing the positions around the family.  LOL

DH and DS1 kicked into high gear today to clear off the entire barn and driveway area.  The 3 grandkids came over to help and have been removing stuff, carrying it to various sheds where it belongs, or throwing it out, and weeding out the dead vegetable plants.  Right now they are preparing to move a load of toilet paper into the Connex from the 5th wheel.  DS1 counted and said there are 236 rolls.  To paraphrase Scarlett O'Hara "I will never go without TP again!" DS1 says he is not going to buy any more for me no matter what.  

Patio is set up, all furniture and tables have been scrubbed, seating arranged although no cushions yet - no sense tempting Fate (or Angel), tables in place, and service table for drinks set up.  Extra coolers were procured from DD1. My lists have been made of the chores to be done on the days before Friday evening.  DH will go to the produce store and pick up the stuff to be chopped for salad.   DS1 will go to the grocery store for the pickle relish for the potato salad (which was not on my original list yesterday) and ice.  DD1 has cleared out her second fridge for salad storage overflow.  50 lbs. of ice will be obtained by DH or DS1 on Friday morning to chill drinks in troughs of icy water.  

When the sheep invade the patio and proceed to lamb in the middle of the guests, the dogs escape from the barn and steal the roast pig off the table, and other assorted mishaps, I have a bottle of tranquilizers or perhaps just additional wine!    No wedding would be complete without these last minute horrors - particularly no Ridgetop wedding!    DD1's wedding dress got locked into the car on her wedding day.  No one had a spare key so someone had to go home in another car (45 minute round trip) for the spare key!  We have 2 more tries to get it right.


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## Mike CHS

I think you got it right already in spite of a few mis-steps by some.


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## Ridgetop

The wedding is over.   Really great and DIL2 arranged for it to be live screened on U tube under Carl and Kathleen Wedding for friends and relatives who couldn't attend. (If anyone wants to view it I think it is still there - no need to send a gift. )

Several glitches with the rehearsal and wedding as expected.  DH, DS1, and I were late for the rehearsal having been dispatched back to the house for forgotten items.  The rehearsal dinner went off well.  The roasted pig and salads were on the table which looked a little sparse until I remembered that DD2 had remained home to supervise the baking of the 2 lasagna trays, which were not on the table.  Those were retrieved from the warming oven, cut and placed on the table along with a large pan of special noodles.  Filipinos borrow freely from both Hispanic and Asian cultures for their own ethnic identity.  Noodles signify long life and you never cut a noodle since it shortens the life span.  I love Asian noodles so was delighted to see them.  Then everyone was called to partake of the buffet whereupon the bride's mother discovered that the special Filipino cakes were missing.  Daughters were dispatched to find them.  While I may decry the lack of daughters (who can cook) to help me with cooking, at least when ONE person is in charge you don't usually forget necessary items.  The little cakes were in all different colors and flavors ranging from pistachio through onion.  Yummy.  The Bride's Father was selected to carve up the roasted pig which he did under directions from the Bride's Mother.  DS3 made Margaritas and we partied.  The climax was a gender reveal where we found out we are getting a new grandson in April.  With 7 girls and 1 boy the new father-in-law was openly crying.  He did say he would be checking under the diaper in the hospital to be sure however!  The Bride and her ladies all left as did the Bride's parents and other older members of the party. Then the Groom, Groomsmen, and other young men in the party adjourned to the other patio for more liquor and cigars.  I went in to clean up the kitchen.  By then my knee and ankle were aching into my hip and back.  I was tempted to leave everything but knew that The Wedding Day is always hectic.  I put away all the food, started a load of dishes, and threw away a few things.  The guests had already cleaned up the patio before leaving.  The dogs were released and fed.  Bubba seemed to like all the remaining guests, only one of whom he had not met before.  I checked my ewes one last time, and finally I was able to go to bed dragging my, by now useless, leg behind me.   🦵 OUCH. We had a terrific time at the rehearsal dinner and I really expected the wedding reception might be an anti-climax.  

Next day I was up early for my makeup and hair session at the Bride's hotel room.  I immediately drove to the wrong hotel    but managed to make it in time to the right one.  The entire female contingent of the Bride's and Groom's families were there drinking coffee and eating snacks.  I brought the leftover Filipino cakes which were greeted with cries of delight.  

An hour and a half later, made up and styled, I left the hotel where all the women, my other 2 daughters, and their girls were getting makeup and hair done.  I came home to make sure everything was well with the 3 (helpless) males. There were actually 4 men there but the Best Man had his wife to look after him.  I had to find a shirt and tie for DH, a tie to match DD2's dress for FSIL, and put in the cuff links and studs for the Groom.  His Bride had given them to him and he wanted to wear them since he had a bow tie.  After dressing him, I turned my attention to DS1 who was also struggling with studs - his had come with the rented tux.  The Best Man pointed out that since he was not wearing a bow tie, but a regular tie, he did  not need to wear them - at which point DS1 threw the offending studs back onto his bed and rebuttoned his shirt.  DD2 then showed up with FSIL and daughter Maysie.  While DH taught FSIL how to tie a double Windsor with coaching from DS3, I went to find the lilac hair ribbons for 3 year old Maysie whose hair had been done at the hotel.  Grandma tied the ribbons on the 4 tiny front ponytails in her curly hair.  On to DH who was demanding his boutonierre which I explained was waiting at the church.  DSIL showed up with his 2 older boys who had to show me their nice new suits.  DD1 was dressing at the hotel with the Flower Girl and would meet everyone at the church.  I assigned the cars to carry everyone to the church since some of them would be traveling for pictures right after the wedding ceremony while the rest of us returned to the house for a snack and me for a quick change of dress.  No cars could be left at the church since they would be needed later for return from the reception at the other end of the Valley.  

The Groom, DS1, the Best Man, and the Ring Bearer were sent off in the Black Dragon, proudly bearing 2 giant American flags mounted in the bed along with a giant Just Married flag.   (He and his brother had built the mounting the previous day.)  They also had my portable mounting block in the back so the tiny Bride, who tops out at 5', would be able to scramble into The Black Dragon in her "mermaid" style dress and train.     The Black Dragon has extendable running boards, but even I have trouble getting onto them!    DSIL, and his two boys drove off to the church in his van.  He would then exchange children with DD1 and take the Best Man, the Ring Bearer, and the Flower girl in his van with its safety seats on to the photograph sessions.  Other vehicles would be allocated at the church for transporting the wedding party to photos etc.  FSIL, DD2 and DGD2 left.  DH, DDIL, DGS4, and I then drove together to the church, returning only once to the house for forgotten items, and an emergency needle and thread to repair the Bride's gown.  As it turned out one of the bridesmaids' dresses needed a few stitches as well.  

I did not think I had to be there early so arrived about 15 minutes before the wedding was supposed to start to find *pure pandemonium!  *The Bride had not even left her hotel by 12:15 pm and the wedding was due to start at 12:30 pm!   The Groom took the  wrong freeway, followed by FSIL and DD2, but he was corrected by Best Man and DS1.  Not sure if he was making a break for it or just tired and confused.  LOL

Then *no one seemed to know where any of the necessary ceremonial items were *except for the flowers which were laid out in the entry. The Ring Bearer and Flower Girl were running around ringless and flowerless.  The Sponsors did not have their necessary items and no guest book had been placed ready for signatures!  I had packed everything in a box marked "Rehearsal and Wedding" which the Bride had assured me her sisters would bring to the church and and pass out the items to the appropriate persons.  Obviously on a wedding day people become illiterate!  The Bride's sisters had indeed brought the box, but no one remembered where it had been placed.  I finally located it in a pew.  I collared the Ring Bearer and Flower Girl and gave them their appropriate items.  Then I sent them to the foyer to wait for the procession.  I found the Wedding Rings, Veil, Rope, Bible, Rosary, and Coins, and passed them out to the correct persons.  The Bride would have to wait until after the ceremony for repairs to her dress since by now we were running very late.  The eye part of a hook and eye on her dress was missing and needed to be replaced.  No problem, but no time since we needed to start the wedding.  Another wedding party were arriving at 2:00 pm and it was already 12:30 pm.  The church wedding coordinator, Tina, whose son had been in DD1's class in school, grabbed me to pin on my corsage.  The Ring Bearer and Flower Girl were nowhere to be found.  The Groomsmen were wandering, while the groom had noticed an elderly uncle to whom he was talking oblivious to frantic calls from Tina.  The Father of the Bride was weeping at the sight of his beautiful daughter in the foyer, while the Mother of the Bride was waiting with their son to process down to her seat.  

Escaping from Tina as she tried to thrust me into a pew, I said hello to my uncle and accidentally insulted my cousin thus brightening DD2's day.  My cousin had gone very gray and before I realized I told her I hardly recognized her with her gray hair and she needed to find a good colorist!  I also called her "Honey", which might be considered a Califrnia variation of "Bless Yore Heart".   Since becoming old I have no control over my mouth - it is very freeing. Since none of us like that cousin (she has been vicious to DD2) my family was very pleased with me.  

Next I proceeded down the aisle to the front of the church gathering up Groomsmen, the Flower Girl and Ring Bearer.  Herding them all in front of me back to the foyer I threatened DGS3 and DGD1 with mayhem if they left their positions in the foyer.  I assigned the Best Man to watch the ring Bearer and DSIL to watch the Flower Girl who was now wearing her wreath at a jaunty angle.  Pausing only to straighten her crown, I returned to the rear pew where I pushed DH in, then the Groom, and told them to wait there without moving.  I then told DD1, DD2, FSIL, and DGD2 who were still chatting with my elderly uncle in the middle of the center aisle about DD2's upcoming wedding to get into their pews on the RIGHT side of the church.  PRONTO! Since by now poor Tina was having a meltdown trying to arrange the bridal procession.  

Finally, she told us to proceed and DH and I escorted DS2, the Groom to the front of the church.  The Mother of the Bride was escorted to her pew by her son.  then the Procession began.  The Flower Girl was adorable in her "twirly" lace dress and flower crown, the Ring Bearer was adorable in his tiny tux.  He did not swing the Ring Pillow around like a baton, but carried it carefully flat.  The Groomsmen and Bridesmaids processed up, all of them handsome and beautiful.   Finally the moment we were all waiting for arrived.  The organ music swelled, and in came the Beautiful Bride on her father's arm.  When he got to the front he placed her hand into that of the Groom.  I was ready and as the Bride and groom went up onto the altar, I quietly pressed a couple Kleenexes into his hand  Surprised, he looked at them a moment then wiped his eyes.      Aaah, tradition.  DH's eyes were also watering as he watched his son.  Luckily I had extra tissues.  The Mother of the Bride and I beamed with pride.  And on my part, gratitude that it was finally over.  Our old pastor was watching from the wings too.  Dear Fr. Larkin brought DH into the faith as a convert, gave DD1 her First Communion, married DD1 and DSIL, buried several of our relatives, and has been a good friend.  He is not well now, and was on a cane, but we were overjoyed to see him there.  He had been invited to the reception but both he and Fr. Mike declined.

As our wedding party filed out, I collected all the items, and noticed that the next wedding were waitin in the wings with puzzled looks on their faces.  The Bridal party was rushed outside for some pictures and DH, FSIL, DD1 and DD2 collected our flower arrangements from the altar so the next florist could put hers up there.  Since the bridesmaids were dressed in red and carrying red roses, our apricot and blue color scheme would not have worked for them anyway.  LOL  We quickly put the flower arrangements into the car to transport to the reception, and made sure that everything was removed fro the pews as the next wedding guests took their seats.  Photos with family outside the church before the bridal party went off to their secret photo locations.  I was able to repair the Bride's and the Bridesmaid's gown between photographs.  Then we all collapsed into our cars and went to our house with the family. We snacked on leftover rehearsal food, and I changed into my evening reception dress.  Finally everyone left for the reception with the flowers.  DDIL, DGS4, and I left  while FDIL let out the dogs again and closed the gate.   We didn't bring in the sheep but with the 3 dogs on guard they were safe.  I did check the heavily pregnant ewes from the window with my binoculars and they were fine.  On the road, BUT we received a last minute call from the Groom AND had to return to the house for comfortable shoes for DS1, DS2, and the Groom's overnight bag.  

Finally arriving at the reception, the Groom and DS1 met us in the parking lot and retrieved their belongings.  I had to repair the Bride's gown again since there had been another malfunction.  The last stitches - actually put in by her sister - had  unravelled.  I made sure the eye was firmly attached this time, and the Bride was rezipped into her gown ready for the grand entrance.  BUT NOT QUITE YET!  The microphones and speaker that the couple had purchased needed to be located in someone's car and brought into the reception area.  With Covid no DJ was allowed so no mike or speakers.  They provided their own and one of the Groomsmen announced everyone.  The Groom had gifted his Groomsmen with long ceremonial daggers and the Bride and Groom decided to have their attendants form an arch holding their bouquets and daggers in the air.  Everyone agreed that it was very DS2.  It made a lovely entrance though and was fun.  

Now that we were finally at the reception I immediately got myself a large Mai Tai and sat down to chat.  What a relief, pressure all gone!  The reception was great, and we even danced.  The little girls danced a lot too and DDs and i agreed that it was a good thing they both had "twirly" dresses.  LOL  DD2 looked lovely as did DD1 and both were complemented greatly on their dresses.  Everything was lovely, the view from the terrace looked over the Valley's lights.  the food was excellent, and there was a 4 hour open bar.  I had 3 Mai Tais over the evening and enjoyed myself immensely.  The Bride and Groom each had a dollar dance and danced with men and women alike.  The Groom made 
$100 more than the Bride but he was really a kick on the dance floor!  LOL  We finally packed up everything and came home where DH and I fell into bed and slept the sleep of the exhausted.

Next morning DS3 and DH were already up and chatting when I got up.  I did more dishes left from the day before, and DDIL, DGS3 and 4 came inside from their sleeping quarters in our 5th wheel.  I fed them Zuchini cake and informed their mom that it counted as a vegetable at grandma's house.  LOL.  DGS4 said if it was a vegetable he didn't want it but after a bite he gobbled it down.  DD1 called wanting to come over and bring donuts.  Everyone perked up at the mention of donuts and I texted DD2 who also came over with her family.  A couple of friends showed up as well - Lianne has been friends with DS2 for 22 years since their goat showing 4-H days.  She was one of his Groomsmen.  She is also the friend from whom I got goat milk for Snowflake.  LOL  Finally the Bride and Groom came over to pack their suitcases.  They are going to Catalina Island for a 3 day honeymoon.  

When they arrived DSIL told them that the rest of us had never been to Catalina so he had found last minute cheap tickets and reservations and the whole family were going with them!   DDIL2 went a little pale and clutched at her chest. DS2 immediately told DSIL "Fine, you can drive us down to the boat". However as we all broke into laughter she immediately asked DD1 which hotel we were at and of course, that broke up the joke. She knows us all well now so it only took a moment to realize that we were teasing. It was a good joke and believable though because we made DSIL tell them_* he*_ got the reservations discounted on line - which he always does.  More donuts and coffee, then DS1 collected everyone's tuxes to return.  DS2 and DDIL2 went to pack for their honeymoon.  The rest of us waved them off to visit her folks before catching the 4:00 boat.  

I brought out all the leftovers from the rehearsal dinner and served lunch on the patio.   We all relaxed  and visited while the grandkids ran around and played.  It was a lovely morning.  In the afternoon DS3 and his family packed up and left for their 3 hour trip home.  Lianne and her friend also left.  DS1 announced he was retuning the tuxes.

No sooner than they had driven off down the road than I heard a painful bleat from the corral and one of the ewes was lambing,  I put on my boots and got my lambing box and went to see  what was going on.  She looked like she was having a bit of trouble.   Luckily DS1 had not yet left so he was able to come help catch her.  She is one of the range ewes and not tame.  We caught her and I checked her.  Sure enough the lamb was coming but was slightly stuck.  I eased out foot and head but the other leg was still inside.  Finally I found it knuckled under the pelvic bone. Got it out from under the bone and he slithered out.  After waiting for a while, no other lambs were noticeable although she had another bag of waters presenting.  We decided to move her into the jugs which we did.  Still no more lambs so I checked her.  Another lamb but way up and I didn't want to burst the water bag.  I said let's leave her for now and come back later.  Sure enough about 20 minutes later we checked and another lamb was on the ground. One of each, both nice sizes and healthy.  I may have jumped in too fast to pull the first one but I would rather do that than wait too late.  So nice of that ewe to hold off until after the wedding!

I did text Lianne about her terrible timing in leaving.  By now she has pulled as many kids as I have.  5 minutes later and she could have been helping me in the corral!    However FSIL did a good job with the ewe on her halter getting her into the barn, while DD2 and both granddaughters watched and then helped rub the lamb dry.  Little Maysie was impressed about the "stuck" lamb and how Grandma got it "unstuck".  

Today, catching up on emails and relaxing!!!


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## farmerjan

So glad to hear that it went well, considering every "little thing" that were hiccups.  And so very nice of the ewe to wait until you were less pre-occupied to help her!!!!!

Congrats to the whole group, and a long and healthy happy future to the newlyweds.


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## Baymule

All your hard work paid off, it sounds like it was a lovely wedding.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> (If anyone wants to view it I think it is still there - no need to send a gift. )


Is there any cake left? 



Ridgetop said:


> I had packed everything in a box marked "Rehearsal and Wedding" which the Bride had assured me her sisters would bring to the church and and pass out the items to the appropriate persons.


I gotta understand this - you put the RINGS in the "Rehearsal and Wedding" box and left it in someone else's care?


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## Ridgetop

Forgot to post pix of the roasted pig!  Here it is with DGS3 and DGS4.  DGS4 named it Franklin.  

        DS4 ate lasagna instead of that yummy pork.  
 Also pix of Bride and Groom and   cutting cake
 and Groom (DS2) dances with Mother of Bride and Bride with Father of Groom (DH)  DD2 with fiancee  - next wedding in 2 months
 Flower Girl aka DGD1                               DD1 and DS1  


DGD1 and DGD2 will be joint flower Girls for DD2's wedding  This will negate any possibility of DGD2 crying and refusing to walk down aisle from shyness.  DGD1 will just tow her along and trusting little DGD2 will just follow along like she does now as the other DGChildren lead her into bad ways.  Apparently these bad ways have already started since DGD1 and DGD2 were admiring the wedding cake when DGD2 put out her finger and took a swipe of frosting. FSIL saw the crime, removed both girls, and wiped off the evidence.   DGD1 showing no loyalty to her partner in crime immediately denied her part.   Another amusing story to be related at future family gatherings to shame my granddaughters.  I collect these stories about my children and grandchildren. 

We shoved DD2 to the front of the line where she caught the bouquet.  Same with FSIL - not taking any chances on their wedding not going forward!   Doing the invitations this week.  Here is a peek at the wedding dress.

 Sister DD1 adjusting veil - Choice made!   Happy Bride To Be!

Had a problem loading these pix when trying to post this so this is going up a day later than when written.

The Bride and Groom are coming home this evening from short honeymoon to Catalina Island.  Then they will be heading for San Diego area where he is working and has a 2 room apartment.  DDIL2 will b back and forth during the week for doctor appointments and school meetings.  She can do ZOOM meetings from their apartment.

DS1 is heading to Seattle tomorrow.  My sister asked him to come up and help her 'clear up" her place so she can get a reverse mortgage.  He is taking our truck as per her request so he can make many trips to the dump.  DH is giving him money since she will probably not have any cash for the dump.  Not sure what she wants him to do and he is not looking forward to this trip, but says he feels obligated by duty to help her,  She has antagonized both our brothers and sisters-in-law.  One set will not even speak to her and the other prefers not to.   What goes around comes around.  He is supposed to bring back a painting for me and if I had the money i would buy another that was my Grandmother's but cash is tight now with DD2 getting married and not collecting any rent for the Yelm property.  

We turned down the offer on the Yelm property since the buyer wanted up to one year to finalize the deal and all thee money he paid for extensions would be taken off the price of the property.   Even the earnest was written up as a Promissory Note, with part of that being returnable to the buyer if they cancelled.  Never seen an offer like that before.  Just say "No" as we told our kids.  Oh yes, and although we told our agent that we would not even look at another offer until after the wedding on the 10th, the buyer demanded an answer on the 9th.  The agent sent an email telling us to accept and respond by 9:00 pm on the 9th!  Pressure, anyone?  My response on Monday to our agent was rather prickly.  In fact I told him that the price would be going up if the property did not sell within the listing period.  Don't mess with us.  We may be old, but we are smart and mean!   

Everything  is now cleared up from the parties.  I am bringing in the boxes of items that were used in the rehearsal and wedding and storing them for the next wedding.  I was going to leave the 14" mirrors that were under the flowers but at the last minute DD2 decided she *"might" *decide she wanted them under her flower arrangements for her wedding.  Is this the first evidence of her "turning" into a Bridezilla? I hope not! 

Weighed lambs yesterday.  Newborns weighed 10.3 ram lamb and 10.1 ewe lamb.  The ewe (0439) is carrying less flesh than the ewe that lambed 2 weeks ago but is still at around 3. condition scale.  She is a larger ewe.  The 2 week old lambs now weigh 17.6 ewe and 29.8 ram.  The ram lamb has more than doubled his birth weight of 9.0 lbs!  The ewe lamb weighed 10.1 at birth and has only gained 7.5 lbs.  Still a good rate of growth.  Their mother  (8111) is still carrying a lot of weight and is probably still at a condition score of 3.5 at least.  I need to not go into the barn between am and pm feeds since she eyes me piteously and tries to convince me that I did not just feed her than morning.  I must be strong!  No one else is uddered up yet, although there are quite a few due in the next couple weeks.  Several of those are first fresheners so udder development won't be as noticeable, particularly if they are only carrying singles.  The two ewes I bought already bred    last May are looking big so they should lamb soon.  Last date for them with that ram will be the end of October.  Another yearling first freshener is due the same time.  

We saw another ground squirrel on the wall surrounding the Garden of Death.  DH says we will bait the Squirrelinator and place it on the other side of the wall.  The dogs can't get to it there because it is inside the small sorting pen and has wire around the bottom of the corral panels.  I think we will also bait the Ratinator and see if we can catch some rats in the old milk shed too.  Or try to get it into the attic just in case.  I haven't heard much rustling there but DS1 did see a mouse in his room the other day.  We will have to put down some more sticky traps and bait some jaw traps.  We can't use the Ratinator for the mice since they just run in and out of the bars.  
*

*


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## Baymule

That pig looks good! Great pictures of the happy event. One more to go and then 2 babies. By that time you will be around the bend crazy and will need to get away. I hear east Texas is a nice place........


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> I gotta understand this - you put the RINGS in the "Rehearsal and Wedding" box and left it in someone else's care?


DS2 says that only the ring boxes were in the Rehearsal Box.  I was only responsible for getting all the items needed into the boxes and giving them to her sisters for transport to the church and reception.  Of course, once the boxes were at the church, nothing was removed thus the confusion by the time I arrived.  



Bruce said:


> Is there any cake left?


Yes, there is most of the top layer left in my freezer.  I cut down a cake box to hold it nd then wrapped the box in plastic wrap.  One of the first things DS2 said when the happy couple arrived home was "Did you guys eat all our cake?"  Sp little trust!   

The kids had a good time in Catalina. Only complaints were that they couldn't go on the Zipline or the extremely bumpy off roading adventure due to pregnancy.  However, they got a free upgrade to some other tours and stuff so all good. They want to go back so maybe next time the family can all go for a few days.  Nice outing for a family reunion.

Change in plans for DS1 who was leaving today for Seattle.  He originally told my sister that he was leaving yesterday so par for the course, she called him *yesterday afternoon* when he would have been half way there to tell him *NOT *to come up yet.   Apparently she needs to clear up a lot of stuff so he can "get to the things he needs to fix". ?????  And why has she not been clearing out those things in the past several weeks since she told him to come up!!??  So like her and why she has never been able to get stuff done on her own.  Apparently she needs to sort everything out because a lot of her junk is "valuable" if she sells it on e-bay.  However she doesn't sell anything, just keeps it.  Can everyone say *"HOARDER"?  * So now he will wait until she calls him again. In the meantime, her window to get a reverse mortgage before foreclosure gets smaller. I can't think about this!    She is the proverbial grasshopper (not the Kung Fu one).  The proverbial one.

On to the next wedding, I will be working on DD2's invitations this week.  Hopefully they will go out next week.  Then the next item will be making the Flower Girl baskets, wreaths, and the Ring Bearer pillow.  I think I will also make myself a new jacket to wear.  I found a length of Chinese style brocade in fuschia that will look very nice over a plain color dress or  pair of pants and top.  I _could_ wear the dress I bought for DS1s wedding but hate to wear the same dress to DD2's wedding, and don't have a jacket to go with it to change the look.  I am going to Ross next week with DD@ so will look for something inexpensive that would go with the colors in the jacket.  Or I can make something.  I have a lot of fabric lengths in my fabric boxes.  We'll see how much time and energy I have.  I have a lot of stuff that i wear on cruises *BUT *most of that stuff is black, not wedding appropriate.  Still have a couple of months - oops, a month.

Waiting for next bunch of ewes to lamb.  Current lambs are really nice looking.  Birth weight a little higher than I like, but strong healthy lambs.  Got a call from someone looking for a ram but she wasn't too interested when I told her the price of the mature ram I am selling.  She had Dorpers that she "just raises for meat" and can't justify the price of a good ram.  ???  I am always amazed when people say that they don't want "good" sheep because they are just for meat.  Don't these people realize that the "good" sheep produce more meat?  When I told her what my lambs weigh at different ages she was shocked that they were so large.  Apparently she keeps her Dorpers until 8 months old to butcher because hers don't grow large.  She didn't seem to realize that you need to verify the weight gains and that if you don't weigh you are holding your lambs too long.  I told her to look on line for the condition scale since holding Dorpers too long  just adds fat, not meat.  It also costs you more in feed to add that fat which is all trimmed off by the butcher.   She wants  me to make up a "package deal" for her for a ram and some ewes.  I will try to work on that this week as well, although am not very confident that what I consider a well priced package deal with my bloodlines will fit with her ideas.  I can put in a juvenile ram that will go for much less than the 2-3 year old ram I was considering selling, along with a couple of ewe lambs out of different lines.  That would bring the cost down considerably, but I won't go below the prices I can get at the auction of course.  I will see what I can do.  I promised to send her photos of my sheep.  She was asking about "fat tailed" sheep since she heard that they had a lot of meat on them.  I will send her pix of my Dorper butts.  A lot of them are so thick they look more like hog butts than sheep butts.  LOL  This is the second time that I have gotten a call for a good ram and not had any young rams to sell.  I might start keeping the ram lambs that I am holding for the butcher as entires since they can go in with the larger rams until they are slaughtered.  We can butcher them up to a year old without any gamey flavor, and I usually have a ram that I am not breeding anyway.   

Hope we get rain this winter.  Still trying to decide where to go with prices everywhere rising fast.  Need to check the property taxes in different states on farm land.  Texas may be getting too rich for our blood.     Southeast OK is just over the border and may work out better taxwise.  BUT I LOVE TEXAS!


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## Baymule

So your sister is about to get foreclosed on..... is a hoarder.... reckon she might be better off in some sort of assisted living? That’s gonna be a tough one. 

Your sheep are so nice that you might make more selling some breeding ram lambs. 

Go look around, but it ain’t Texas! You might want to hurry up on that. I’m betting on a mass exodus of burned out Californians with insurance checks in grubby hands, spreading out over the lands like a plague of locusts. Prices will be going up. People have exit money now.


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## thistlebloom

Ridgetop said:


> She is the proverbial grasshopper (not the Kung Fu one). The proverbial one.



You are hilarious 😂


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Arkansas has low property taxes -- just sayin'.


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## Bruce

And we know that there are at least 2 nice people in Arkansas.


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## Mini Horses

AND -- those 2 nice people have a LOT OF pasture they'd lease!!!!

Wow -- might be a match made in Arkansas.


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## Ridgetop

As soon as we have a definite (workable) contract on the Yelm place we will be traveling in search of our ranch.  We have several places we _could_ go but Texas has our hearts.  We will be looking seriously once a contract is in the works.  

In the meantime, I plan to get through DD2's wedding, start going through the Connexes again to dispose of our "stuff".  We have a lot of collectibles and good stuff in them so need to sort out everything and give it to the appropriate homes.  The 4-H gear can go to DS3 and his boys who will be in 4-H soon.  Cattle show sticks, hog show sticks, cattle halters, show lamb halters and coats, etc.  I think I also have an egg scale and possibly an egg candler.  I already gave them the incubator and baby chick house with the lights.  A couple of our rabbit cages and some water system parts will also go to GS3 and GS4 for their rabbit breeding projects.  Then I will give the rest of the kids a choice of different items that are packed away and valuable.  i didn't have room for all the nice things I have (some Dresden statues, antique needlepoint pictures, etc.) in the house.  I also have some cool country items (my great grandmother's washboard, antique tools and kitchen implements, etc. and other items that used to hang on the walls in the kitchen) that need to be unpacked and given to the kids for their homes.  I already gave DD1 the copper pots and pans but if she doesn't want to display them,  DDIL1 might want them since she has a very country style decor and an area  to display them on top of her kitchen cabinets.  I will check with DD1.  I already got rid of some of the custom bedspreads and throw pillows I had for staging the apartments.  I am starting to empty out the Connexes a bit and maybe soon DH can have one of them back for hay and feed storage.  The loft over the tool shed will be next - it is mostly full of boxes of books - I never dispose of books, particularly series or authors that I really enjoy.  I will have to go through them to see which I want to keep and which to get rid of - also if any have been chewed by varmints.  I have too many to be able to afford to put all those titles on my Kindle!  

DS3 told DH that he wanted the old metal shelves that we removed from the rented Connex which we were planning to sell for metal.  DH is planning a trip to Nipomo to deliver themsince we need DS3 to sign some papers transferring his whole life insurance policy over to him.  He is paying us the cash value.  DD2 is also buying his whole life policy while DD1's husband told us to just cash hers in.  He doesn't believe in whole life insurance, just in term.  We were the beneficiaries but since they are married with children they want the policies to stay in effect.  By buying their policies from us they keep the policy and change the beneficiaries to their own families.  We had the policies for burial expenses which we no longer need to carry.  This will give us money for DD2's wedding and also get us out from under the payments.  God always finds us the extra money we need when we need it.  🙏  God takes good care  of us.  
My computer is down and I have to use DH's.  DS1 (our tech guru) doesn't know what is wrong with it.  It refuses to open for me.  It is a laptop so if I have to buy another one DS1 will have to remove my hard drive and download all my files.  I keep all the business files and photos on it so it is a problem.  Luckily DH does all the tax stuff and personal business stuff on his.  Hopefully DS1 can run a diagnostic and repair it otherwise . . . .    

Today or tomorrow we have to dock the 2 ewe lambs and give CDT shots to the lambs and their moms.  I give a CDT booster after each lambing.  That works out to every 9 months per ewe, overlapping their protection a bit.  Also tetanus shots and ear tags.  Since tomorrow is Friday, I might weigh again too since DS1 will be able to catch and carry for me.  One week old for the 2nd set of twins will be Sunday so if we put it off until then it won't be a problem either.

Time to try to do the invitations on DH's computer.  I have done these before ass well as graduation announcements so know there is a template in here somewhere - just have to find it.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> DS3 told DH that he wanted the old metal shelves that we removed from the rented Connex which we were planning to sell for metal. He is paying us the cash value.


Cash value of the shelves as shelves or scrap metal? Scrap is worth almost nothing, maybe $20-$30/ton. Those would have to be some pretty heavy shelves to be worth even $1. Not even worth the fuel to take them to the recyclers unless you have a LOT more or have some copper.


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## Ridgetop

Something must have been left out of my post.  _DS3 is paying cash value for his whole life insurance policy and will transfer it to himself paying and beneficiaries will be wife and sons.  _These are policies we had on our children when they were little to pay for burial expenses if something happened to them.  A friend had lost a child and the burial expense was huge so we took out policies on them.  The metal shelves we will just give him since it will get them off our property. Yes, the price of junk metal is very low unless it is copper or aluminum.  We save our metal until DS1 takes it to the recycler.  He doesn't get much but it leaves the property without a trip to the dump where *we* have to pay.  DS3 has several Connexes on his property and wants the shelves for one of them.  They are in fairly good condition since they have been inside the garage or Connex for 35 years.

DD2 is feeling better and was able to to to work this week for 2 days.  She works freelance in Big Bear cleaning vacation condos.  She likes it, is fast and thorough and the money is good.  FSIL went with her and helped and they were able to stay overnight with his dad and stepmom.  His parents are thrilled about the wedding and new baby.  Most of his dad's side of the family are coming.  His birth mom and that side of the family are not invited since they were very mean to DD2 and DSIL.  His birth mom even tried to get him denied visitation for DGD2!  Weird right?!   Anyway, I told DH that that witch was not invited since I was not paying for her to have food and drink after the way she treated our baby girl!

Anyway, since the rehearsal dinner where  DD1 got tipsy on DS3's margaritas, she and DS3 have been back to a loving brother/sister relationship.  Big relief for the rest of the family.  Already talking about family reunions.  I am not planning them.  With the wedding of DD2 my job in that area is done!  

Still waiting on more lambs.  2 or 3 ewes are huge but no udders filling out yet,  A couple of first fresheners are looking big too but no udders which is normal for those youngsters.  Not much udder development until lambs are born and ewe starts nursing.

I hate DH's computer and can see why he has a stiff neck that he has been gonig to the chiropractor for.  The boys bought him a new screen and it is huge.  My neck hurts within 15 oinutes of using it.  I hope
DS1 can get my computer unfrozen and the files transferred.  I am gong to call my DSIL and see if he has a spare laptop that I can use that we can download my files into.  DSIL often buys new laptops very cheap when he gets a very good deal and resells them.  If he has one I will buy it and DS1 can go over and the two of them can trnsfer my hard drive into the new computer.  To avoid a stiff neck on DH's computer I have to sit so far back that I cannot reach the keyboard!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Something must have been left out of my post.


Yep, the "He is paying us the cash value." sentence immediately followed the shelves topic and immediately preceded the "which kid is buying their insurance" topic. You can see why my feeble mind didn't keep up!



Ridgetop said:


> Yes, the price of junk metal is very low unless it is copper or aluminum.


Um, copper yes, aluminum isn't worth the time to sort it out from the regular scrap metal. I took a bunch of metal in April, 2,200 pounds mostly regular scrap metal but also a decent amount of copper and aluminum. I'd been saving out the aluminum cat food cans from the others as well as the non deposit aluminum soda & tea cans, had a BIG box worth almost nothing. The only reason the metal fins I took off the copper pipe was worth anything is because "clean" copper is worth a fair bit more than "dirty" so removing them made the pipe worth more.


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## Baymule

A laptop is the way to go. I can sit in my recliner versus sitting upright in a chair at a desk. It is named Lazy Boy for a reason. If I were an ultra liberal, I would protest, burn the store down, because I want a Lazy Girl recliner. But I'm not and don't care.


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## Bruce

It's called a Lazy boy because "boys" just sit in them and fall asleep watching TV. The "girls" do something useful while sitting so Lazy Girl would be a misnomer.


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## Baymule

The Lazy Boy suits my disease. I have Butt Drop Disease.


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## Ridgetop

I am glad to hear that there is help for that disease since I think I have gotten it too!  

Well last night the dogs were working like crazy.  I was in the office working n DD2's wedding invitations, etc.  Heard them barking, growling, howling, making a  lot of noise in the gully.  Thought there must be some coyotes on the prowl.  Nothing to worry about though - it was dark but the sheep are in the night fold at night.   This morning looked out the window and the sheep were all out of the night fold!  It was foggy - weather has cooled off and when weather cools off the marine layer rolls in damp and makes it foggy - can't see across the field.  

Anyway, I went out and counted the sheep.  They were fine.  The dogs did not come bounding up to greet me but if show up as I fed in the barn.  They are probably tired from having to work hard all night with the sheep.  Since there are 18-20 ewes that were loose o the field, it is not surprising that they had to work hard.  Apparently FSIL was given the responsibility to chain the night fold shut.    He didn't get the chain on right and the gate was pushed open - probably by Josie the Mule in an attempt to get at the sheep's hay after she ate all hers. Or before, with mules who knows! Anyway, everything is ok. It is good for the dogs to have to work unexpectedly like that and I am confident in their ability to protect the flock with 3 of them. Rika the cunning old girl with experience, Bubba the brawny muscle, and almost 2 year old Angel, enthusiastic, energetic, and learning more all the time. Good dogs!!! 

So, the invitations are all printed, the response cards are all printed, and the small cards that I will include with their wedding registry information are saved in the computer and only needing printing and cutting.  A small meltdown yesterday on DD2's part as she went to pieces over when and where the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner/meet /greet new relatives party would take place.   Also when all FSIL's relatives will arrive and where they will stay.   She called her future step-mother-in-law and I finally had to take the phone out of her hand to discuss arrangements with Deanna.  I told DD2 to be careful since this could be the beginning of the "turn" into a Bridezilla.   As she glowered and chewed her nails, I arranged everything with Deanna.  No problems since the out of town relatives have half their families living here and plan to stay with them.  Aaah, the pathos of youth, the drama, added to THE TURN OF BRIDEZILLA!  

I have placed the printed invitations and the envelopes (that still need addressing) on the dining room table so I have more space to work on them.  I will print and cut the small cards with the bridal registry information on them today for enclosure in the invitations.  Then I need to decide if I want to hand address the outer envelopes in caligraphy or just do the labels in script font.   I will use all the free return labels that have been sent to us over the years (hoping for donations to various causes) on the response cards.  LOL  DD2 might help me stuff the envelopes and place the return address stickers.  I would place garlic around the room for protection, but I think that only works on vampires, not Bridezillas.   

DD2 and I are going to meet up at Ross (senior day 10% off) and she needs a good support garment for under her dress.  The same ones as are selling at the bridal store for $70, at Macy's for $40, are at Ross for  $12.99.   HA HA over priced specialty stores!  We will probably go to Macy's for a strapless bra though.  Although none of the stores are allowing you to try stuff on.  You have to buy it, take it home and try it on, then return it!  Luckily the stores are allowing returns on lingerie.  She will come over and we can work on putting the invitations together.  Then at 4:00 pm DD1, DGD1, DD2, and DGD2 will all go to David's Bridal to look at Flower Girl dresses.  This will be DGD1's second time as a Flower Girl - does this mean "always a Flower Girl, never a Bride or Bridesmaid"?   Once we get the dresses and sashes - the sashes are all sold separately now since the Flower Girl dresses are all white and the sashes are in different colors to match the wedding colors.   So much easier and cheaper.  Next I will go to Michaels Hobby and get artificial flowers in the wedding colors for the baskets.  No scattering of petals allowed anywhere anymore so the baskets just hold artificial flowers in bridal colors.  

All I have to left to do *then* is to call all the vendors and set up appointments, some with the bride and groom, most with the bride and me, hem the bridesmaid's dress, attach the sashes to the Flower Girl dresses, make their flower wreaths, disassemble the blue trimmed basket from DS2's wedding, replace the ribbons with the pink and soft rose ribbons, make the ring bearer pillow, order the mints on line for the table favors, deal with the paperwork on DD2's legal adult adoption, make an appointment to redo our Trust and Wills (adoption of new child requires this), wash the mirrors for the tables, deliver them to florist, arrange the rehearsal and meet/greet/rehearsal dinner with grooms relatives and ours, and figure out a date for the DDs and DDIL to all get together to make table favors a week before the wedding.   This gathering will be FUN or heads will roll!  

Easy peasy!  Oh yes, and lamb out a few ewes in the interim.  No problemo!  Oh yes, I was planning to make the fuschia colored Chinese brocade  into a kimono style 3/4 length jacket to wear with a pink dress or chiffon pantsuit.  Lined of course!  

Off to get my shower and meet DD2 at Ross.  Then errands.  Did I mention going to the dollar store for the kids party bags?  It is are on my "To Do" list.

After this, packing up a house, barns, flock of sheep, equipment, etc. for a cross country move will be a breeze!


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> The Lazy Boy suits my disease. I have Butt Drop Disease.


Ah, but do you have "furniture disease"??


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> Ah, but do you have "furniture disease"??


If you mean that my chest has fallen into my drawers, the answer is no. My chest and it's   *accoutrements*  are still where they should be.


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## thistlebloom

This is for Josie  I love a meddlesome mule .


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> If you mean that my chest has fallen into my drawers, the answer is no. My chest and it's   *accoutrements*  are still where they should be.


Yep, that is the disease.


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## Ridgetop

Josie the Mule is the sweetest mule ever.  DDIL1 and I laugh about our en who think the best way to catch a horse or mule is to stride into the pasture swinging the halter at them and calling them.  Our old horses used to come running when we did that but our current horses now give us the hairy eyeball. and contrive to stay just out of reach!  LOL  Josie the Mule gets in your face until you run right into her if you turn around if you don't want to catch her, but you have to hide the halter if you want to put her in a corral or tie her out of the way!  LOL

Last night I did the response envelopes with return address labels and stamps.  Then I printed and cut the Registry cards, put the response cards, response envelopes, registry cards, and invitations in the envelopes, applied the return address labels, stamped them, and addressed them.  OK OK, I admit I used fancy script labels instead of writing the  addresses in caligraphy.  But my back was seizing up and I am 16 years older than I was when I did all of DD1's 250 invitations in caligraphy.   Today DH mailed all the invitations!    

Today I also scheduled the rehearsal, contacted the minister and gave her the time and date, contacted several DJs and photographers for bids - they are recommended by the venue and give a discount (supposedly) if I use them.  I would hate to see the price list without the "venue referral discount"!    However, having been through the claws of wedding vendors before, I was expecting the prices and in fact was pleased that they might come out lower than expected.  Today I also sorted out all my wedding purchases. Items needing to be transported to the ceremony and reception went into a special box,  As stuff gets made, assembled, etc. those items will join their little friends in the box ready for THE WEDDING!  Yesterday while waiting for DD2 and DGD2 to arrive at the Flower Girl dress appointment, I also contacted the florist and set an appointment for November 4.  

Multitasking - Thy Name is Woman!

Yesterday I accompanied DD1, DD2, DGD1 and DGD2 on their quest for the *perfect Flower Girl dresses*.  The Perfect Flower Girl Dress has several important _"*Musts*"_.  First it _*must* _be beautiful, but not so beautiful as to overshadow the bride since we know that Flower Girls demand all the attention anyway as they sweetly walk ahead of the bride and her father down the long aisle. (Unless they are sobbing and trying to run back to their mother in which case the entire congregation is treated to hissed threats to "Walk down that aisle or else"! Then the mother - always in an outfit that clashes with the bride's color scheme has to drag the screaming child down the aisle followed closely by the bride regretting the decision to use that adorable child as a flower girl. However, that problem is being averted since DGD1 will do the dragging and DGD2 will enjoy being dragged by her cousin since she follows her everywhere anyway. I cunningly arranged for 2 flower girls for just this reason. 

Second it _*must*_ twirl with abandon since all flower girls know that they plan to twirl on the dance floor until they are dizzy and fall down, thus causing dancing couples to trip over them.  This is apparently flower girl exhilaration to the max!

Third, it _*must*_ not be too expensive but also *must *not look cheap!  And since the flower girl will want to wear her flower girl dress multiple times, *must  *be reusable, thus washable.  So any requirements, so little time

To get on with the story, DD1 tried to convince DD2 that she should order the same dress that DGD1 wore as flower girl for DS2's wedding.  This would save DD1 money.  DD2 resisted since she abhors lace and DGD1's dress is completely made of lace.  DD1 graceful abandoned that attempt and the two (little) girls enjoyed dressing their offspring in a multitude of fluffy dresses.  It was like watching them play with dolls.   That is if the dolls had not been running around on the dais, TWIRLING to make sure the skirts swirled out enough to show off their underpants, singing the hit tunes from Frozen at the top of their voices, and "tap dancing" by stamping their feet.  The children enjoyed themselves very much.  Finally a compromise on the dresses was reached.  The style chosen was very plain but they were in stock in the store.  This was good since some of the dresses would have to be ordered and would not be delivered until 2 days before the wedding - which is taking a BIG chance on them not arriving at all.  With the addition of pink sashes (luckily the store had 2 in stock) the dresses looked very sweet.  The overly simple look could be fixed, said DD1, by Mom (me) sewing multitudes of little pink satin rosebuds over the tulle skirt.   Thank you, Dear.  

It gave me a wonderful warm and loving feeling to watch my girls talking to each other as they walked back to their cars with their 2 girls.  I may not live to see my DGDs marry, but I know that the strong togetherness our family has for each other will endure and keep them together after DH and I are gone.  DD1 had insisted on paying for her sister's dress.  DD2 returned the favor by buying both FG dresses.  They are besties again.  I can only wonder how long it will last.  Sigh . . . .  Sisters . . . . 

Then I went to Michaels for pink and mauve artificial flowers for the FG baskets.  Got home at 7o pm nd made dinner.  DH insisted on watching Grace & Frankie till midnight (the show we discovered and both love) so I  took a nap during it.  I will watch it another time,  Bless you Netflix.  Had a bad moment this am when I couldn't find DGD1's basket then realized that she had taken it home with her.  I called DD1 and told her I needed it back to do up in pink for DD2's wedding.  I will get it on Saturday at the alteration fitting for DD2's gown.  In the meantime I have updated my To Do list.  

DS1 had the grandsons coming over to sort out the corral clamps for the pipe corrals.  He has decided to get to work on the front pasture fencing and will clamp together our existing pipe panels.  However, over the past 35 years some of the clamp connecting bolts and nuts have rusted together, other bolts have been stripped or bent so he is making use of the grandsons, ages almost 13 and 10 to do this sorting for him.  They will be able to use the power drills to unscrew the bolts which make them very happy.  Testosterone Speaks!  

The weather has changed suddenly as it does here in so Cal.  The nights are very cool and the days stay cool till afternoon when they warm up to the 70's.  Nice refreshing weather to do our outside work which is why DS1 wants t get the front section fenced into a pasture.  DH said he wants to close off the lower pasture that the rams are in currently so he can seed it when the rains come (or if they come).   He would water but our water bill is horrible.  We have had leaks and fixed them but I think this leak is from a toilet that has been running forever.  Unfortunately it doesn't run ALL the time and DH can't hear well enough to hear it most of the time so has been in denial.  Until the last water bill.  DH had a hissy fit, accusing everyone of wasting his expensive water.  He decided to try turning off the water to the toilet and just turning it on when someone used it nd needed to flush.    This did not work well since he turned it off the day after the wedding while all the family was still here and everyone was using the toilet so he had to keep going in and turning the water back on for a flush!  Finally, he decided to fix it.  He suggested calling a plumber but at DS1's look of shocked surprise and horror he relented and said maybe they could fix it themselves.  Then he and DS1 went down to the street to see if the meter was turning after turning off all water in the house and yard.  The toilet did not run while they were out of the house - like the car that only makes that funny sound when you are driving alone!  After more discussion while the toilet ran and DH couldn't hear it, DS1 took an entire day and went back and forth to the plumbing store to get the correct size innards for the toilet.  He replaced all the guts and now it has stopped running.  I bet our water bill is down 50%!  It has been running intermittently for 20 plus years!  Need I mention that I have been saying it needed to be repaired for 20 years?  No?  You already guessed that?  OK

My ewes are still holding out on me and I am still waiting for lambs to arrive from the 3 ewes due this month.  I will be  extremely disappointed if the ewes I bought as bred don't lamb before the end of the month.   However, it is what it is. The nursing ewes need an increase in their rations. They are heavy milkers, had big lambs and the lambs started nibbling hay within 2 days of being born! 8111 lambed at a condition score of almost 4 and is now just over 3! The lambs are sucking her down. 0439's condition score was lower but still good however she is also losing condition. With the cost of hay I might give them barleycorn to help them maintain condition. It is cheaper to supplement them with a small amount of barleycorn than add half a flake of hay to their ration, DS1 said to feed an extra half flake alfalfa in the morning too. We have been feeding half a flake am and half a flake pm, but some of the flakes peel very light feeling. We still need to bring in more hay before the heavy winter hits. We have missed the low hay prices though. There is still a good bit of dry forage out in the far corner of the pasture though. Pease let it rain! 🙏   But not within a few days of the wedding!  Just enough to wash the skies and make for good pix.  After the wedding it can come down in hurricane gales though.  I want the forage to grow.

Yesterday while I was attending the "Flower Girl Musical" tryouts, the grandsons came over to work and cleaned the jugs.  Yay!  The older DGS is trying to earn money to go on the class trip to Washington DC next year (postponed from this year of Covid 2020.)   While they are not as capable or strong as my children were at younger ages (since they did not grow up on a farm working with livestock) they are still capable of learning and of doing work.  We will teach them to be strong.  LOL  One thing is certain, they like making money so all the little annoying stuff we are getting tired of doing that requires bending over etc. can be passed on to them.  

Well, got to go and make a ring bearer pillow.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Yep, that is the disease.



That disease is a bad one.  Possibly terminal.  The only answer is to support the dangling bits by laying in your recliner!  LOL


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## Ridgetop

THANK YOU!      THANK YOU!     THANK YOU!     THANK YOU!   THANK YOU!  TO ALL YOU BYHers who encourage me to continue writing my stories.

I am a published author!!!  Not a _paid _author, but 3 stories that I submitted to magazines have been published.  
 

I am a realist so must also admit that with the dearth of shows and show winnings to report on, the various breed magazines are desperate for articles.  The Anatolian Times published "This Little Piggy Went to Market:" about Ham Hocks, and has published the first installment of "Our First Anatolian".  The Dorper Report published a serous article on the importance of Livestock Guardians to the sheep rancher.  

I would never have had the courage to send them in without all you guys telling me I should.  Your support has been so important to me over the years.  My BYH family had become some of my best friends.  I love you all.

Back to the wedding - 
Booked the DJ, chose the menu, mailed the invitations, made the Ring Bearer pillow - now on to the Flower Girl dress sashes, crowns and baskets.  

DD@ just arrived - got to go.


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## Bruce

Congrats Ridgetop!


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## Baymule

Congrats on getting published!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

Congratulations!  Maybe you will become as famous a wit as Mark Twain!


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## Finnie

You really do know how to tell a story.


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## Ridgetop

Thanks all.

However after every triumph is a great fall.  As you know I printed, stuffed, and mailed the invitations a few days ago and was dancing around the house in triumph!  Yesterday, however I received a shattering call from  dear friend who wished to attend the wedding but did not know what time.  I assured her the time was printed on the invitation just under the date.  I pulled one of my invitations to double check and LO AND BEHOLD!  The time was indeed missing!  I know  I had typed it in since I had to spell the whole thing out instead of just  10 a.m.
      Jump little emoticons, jump and emote!    Much worse language was heard issuing from these lips of mine.   And my lips occasionally touch food!

Off to Hobby Lobby to buy some printable correction cards to send out to all the invitees.  Then to print them out, stuff more envelopes, Print off address labels for a second mailing of 50 cards, return addressed, stamped, etc, and ready to mail.   Pure drudgery!

Then sew the pink sashes on to the flower girl dresses, along with the 50 satin rosebuds scattered over the chiffon skirts, and assemble the flower girl baskets.   A  word of caution to any moms with marriageable girls  - current thoughts on rose petal scattering is a firm "NO",  due to slipping hazard, or mess which the gardener or maintenance has to sweep or vacuum up.  Instead just use a little nosegay of a couple of flowers to match the
 dresses and they will be happy.  Use artificial flowers for those since the flower girl will be using the  bouquet as a sword to fight with the ring bearer.  He will be well armed (or shielded) with his pillow.

I have now finished my Christmas shopping for all the grandchildren.        I am on a very strict budget with having to pay for the wedding, the adoption,  and the redo of our Trust (to provide for all our children including DD2.  Since this s a legal adoption, we have to redo portions of our trust to encompass DD2 and DGC3 and protect her share from DGD2's greedy baby mama in case something happens to DD2.

Got to go to bed today.  Tomorrow I have to finish some wedding arrangements and decide on the photographer if we have one.  Might ask DDIL2 if her sister will do the  photos.  She is doing quite a lot of good photos now and sis very interested in the field.


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## Baymule

Time of the event! Like you needed more work. I think I would have been pitching a screaming, cussing hissy fit myself. Peeling bark off trees! Always pitch a fit outside as you don't want to peel the paint off the walls with the sheer volume of cuss words, and thus have another chore to do, repainting.


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## Bruce

Probably why the young folks now do online invitations. Get a postcard in the mail with a link to an event website. Not quite what we old folks are used to but errors/omissions are easily corrected and it is way cheaper than printing and mailing invitations.


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## Ridgetop

Well, took 2 tranquilizers last night to avoid going into a full blown hyperventilating panic attack! 

Today not so darling GS1 turned 13.  Family party Saturday night.  All had lots of fun.

DGS1 allowed to have 4 of his friends over for a party in the back yard yesterday,   Apparently they decided to go for a hike.   Grandpa got a call from DGS1 that his friends  wanted to come meet us. ???   Strange but OK.  We waited for them to show up at the front door when we would the dogs in the barn. 

Next thing is DS1 coming in and telling us that DGS1 and his 4 friends are climbing over the back pasture fence in the empty acreage.  *All 3 dogs, naturally, were barking and growling.  *One boy was actually hanging on the fence when DD1 saw them and ordered them to get off the fence.  Apparently DGS1 told them the dogs were harmless!!!  DS1 told them the dogs were dangerous, to get off the fence, get away from it and go home.  He told them they couldn't come in.  Go Home!  The boys got off the fence.  

DS1 then came into the house to get his phone and call his sister to ask why her partygoers were climbing into our yard.  *30 seconds *later he returned to find the boy that had gotten off the fence had decided to climb it again.   This time he was inside the yard with DGS1.  DGS1 was struggling to hold back Bubba while the other boy was scrambling back over the fence.  None of the children said anyone got bitten.  DS1 yelled at them that he had forbidden then to enter the yard and they were to *GO HOME!*

Next I got a call from my daughter.  DD1 told me that the boy had bee bitten and his mother had taken the boy to the emergency room.  He had several dog bites on his leg and back.  The bites were punctures, not tears - so no stitches needed. and were not serious according to the boy's mother who is a nurse.  Also according to the mother this boy is one of those children that routinely gets into situations where he ends up in the emergency room.  The bites were not that deep, no stitches  were needed.  Punctures don't get stitches anyway but there were no slashing tears.

DS1 says they were probably warning nips from Bubba since a serious bite could have killed the boy.  Thanks for those encouraging words DS!!  Have you considering going into the mental health field to counsel people with deep anxiety issues?  I am glad I have my little friends to calm and console me.   Ativan, let me count the ways I love thee.

The mother is a nurse and said the bites were not that bad but the emergency room insisted on the name and address of the owners since all dog bites bites are required to be reported to the Animal Control.  I provided the rabies and inoculations information .  In this case, having seen what Bubba can actually do when attacking something, these bites were probably more his version of warning nips.  

On top of everything else, we can now expect a visit from Animal Control about our dog that bit a "child".  

The 3 other boys (also 13) told the DD1 and the mother of the bitten boy that DS1 told them that the dogs were dangerous and not to enter the yard.  While I don't l want the appellation of "dangerous" to be applied to Bubba who was just doing his job to keep strangers out of the pasture, all the other boys did admit that they had been told *NOT* to enter the yard by DS1.  DGS1 had told them the dogs were friendly.  DGS1 did not realize that they were friendly to only to *HIM *since they knew him from a baby.  The saving thing here may be that all the "children" are actually 13 years old, and were trespassing. The 13 year old boy that was bitten is also taller than his mother and as tall as DS1.  Apparently when a "child" gets that big the dogs no longer recognize him or her as a child but as an adult.  DGS1, having never seen Bubba in protection mode was a little shocked at how powerful he was.

The dogs had announced their opposition to the strangers entering the yard  by barking and growling.  When DS1 appeared and ordered the strangers to back away and go home, the dogs fell silent.   When DS1 left to get his phone, he left the 3 Anatolians on guard silently watching.  When the strangers decided the dogs being on quiet watch and they could climb over the fence in spite of the warnings, the dogs did not bark again.  

Like Erick had told us, Anatolians issue warnings.  When the warnings ae ignored and disobeyed, they escalate with a higher degree of protection.  When the predator enters the property after being told to stay out by the dogs, they simply dealt with the intruders/predators the only way they can.   Barking and growling didn't work, their silent presence at the fence did not work, so they moved their aggression up a notch to biting.  If the boys had not retreated but had tried hitting the dogs with sticks, etc. the dogs would have upped their game, meeting aggression with aggression.  

This io what these dogs do to protect our flocks and ranches.  After consistent warnings, escalating each time, to meet threat with threat, eventually an aggressive predator who did not retreat would have been attacked  and killed.  

These dogs know the meaning of the "Thin Red Line".

After scoffing at me about my insistance to raise the fence around the property, now DH is congratuating himself on doing it.  Apparently they stopped at one steep spot and I was informed that I told them to stop there ???
I never told them to stop, I told them to do the entire property!!!  I think they ran out of wire and never went back to finish.  Now, however, they have decided to finish those few feet since that is where DGS1 is climbing into the yard.  I will also have to invest in a bunch of "No Trespassing" signs too!  I don't suppose our liberal residence would honor or even know what purple fence posts meant.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Wow, I'm sorry that happened but glad the boy is ok. Hopefully he will have learned to listen when an adult gives him instructions. I hope the animal control visit goes smoothly. Your dogs were doing their jobs and the boy was trespassing.


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## Ridgetop

By bedtime Sunday the Ativan had worn off so I took a second and managed to get a good night's sleep.  

OK, Monday.  I woke in the morning with the feeling that our insurance and evidence was on our side if anything did happen in the way of a potential lawsuit.  The dogs were contained in a fenced yard.  We had raised our fences.    The 3 large dogs had been barking and growling at them.  The boys had been warned by one of the dog's owners not to enter the property.  The other boys were standing back from the fence.  The boy that got bitten had gotten down off the fence and was standing on the ground back from the fence when DS1 went to get his phone and returned.  In that 30 second window the boy had decided to climb back over the fence!  At that time the dog gave him several warning nips (Anatolian nips to be sure but nips all the same).  So, yesterday, after another call from DD1 telling us that DSIL was going over to the boys house to talk to the parents, I was again in need of calming.  However, I had decided that if the boy's parents sued us I would file a counter suit against them for trespass, mental anguish to us and our dogs, and would also counter sue the boy, my DGS1 and his parents.  A good offense is the best defense.  

I did not take another Ativan since I hoard those for emergencies like hearing that Martians have landed and are attacking sheep farmers or my dog had bitten someone. 

Instead, I printed out the corrections to the invitations, stamped and return addressed, address labels, etc. etc., and DS1 mailed all of them.  Done.  On to the next chore.

At least the dog bite incident put the alterations cost out of my mind. The total alterations came to just under $600.  AND a petticoat was produced that "was needed to make the dress fill out and look better".  Why wasn't this petticoat mentioned when we bought the dress?  Price?  $80.00.     The salesperson hopefully asked if I wanted it.  My scowl answered her, and DD1 tactfully said "not now".   As I was telling the lady to bag the dress up and I would do the alterations myself,  DD1 stepped in, wrestled it out of my shaking hands,  and forbade me to try.  I whined that I could at least do the hem but she said she would pay for half of the alterations.  OK, the dress now comes to about $1600.00!  Without the necessary petticoat!  I told DD2 to be very careful with the dress so that she could wear it to her next wedding.  Both my daughters exchanged telling glances and rolled their eyes, carefully saying nothing.  They made me ride in the back seat.

When I got home I pulled out one of my old square dance petticoats.  That petticoat was very full but very short since it was made for square dance airplane skirts.  I will fit it on DD2, and add a long slim top to make it the length for the wedding dress.  It does not need to be full at the top. I used to have my old wedding petticoat, but remembered that I got it out of the Halloween box and used it for DD1 for her full wedding dress 16 years ago. I think this square dance pettticoat will work fine after a little work from me, and I can save $80 plus tax.



Next, I got to work on - What Else?! - more wedding stuff!  Having warded off a panic attack by incredible self control instead of my trusty drugs, I managed to send out all the correction cards.  (I have already gotten 1 response - I wonder if they realized there was no time printed on the invitation?  No matter, the correction will take care of that.)  

I finished sewing on the last pink rosebuds on the flower girl gowns.  I finished their flower crowns with ribbons pearls and extra ink flowers, then I moved on to the baskets.  I took off the blue ribbons from DGD1's basket to change it into a pink basket.  I wrapped the handles of both baskets in pink ribbons then filled them with a tasteful arrangement of white , pink, mauve, and rose flowers and tastefully stitched on pearls.  The dresses went back into their plastic bags the crowns were wrapped in tissue and packed in a box, and the baskets were bagged ready for the big day.

Next, I sorted all the bridal junk out.  The picture of the cute bottles of bubbles on the cover of the box showed the bottles dressed in black and white bows and rhinestones.  When I opened the box to admire them I realized that was a *LIE!  *The box did not even have any ribbons or rhinestones *in* the box to use on them.  *False Advertising!     * I had to get out my Craft Box, my Black/White Ribbon Box, and Pink/Purple Ribbon Box. (Yes I do have all those boxes and they are labeled.  Doesn't everyone?)  

Anyway, several hours later half the little bottles are dressed in black ribbon ties with a gold rhinestone stud.  The other half have white, pink, or mauve ribbon bows with a pink flower. I also printed little labels for the bottles, announcing the bride's and groom's name and the date.  This is necessary in case some drunk party goer stumbles into the wrong wedding.  Or some relative or friend cannot remember whose wedding they are attending! Absolutely adorable, taking only 3 hours to accomplish.  Tying those tiny bows are tricky. Luckily I could do it while watching the interminable political rallies and Confirmation swearing in.  

A gift arrived today for DD2 as well.  Now I will need to empty the spare bedroom/DDIL2's office/wedding gift storage of a DS2's and DDIL2's gifts.  That will give us room to stockpile DD2's gifts.  While this sounds easy, actually it is not.  I first have to empty out and rearrange DS2's storage shed in order to get room for all their wedding gifts.  They are both currently living in their 1 room apartment in San Diego somewhere for his job.  They might come home next weekend, or not, but in order to make sure this gets done, DS1 and I will have to do it.  

I also realized that I have used up my computer printable labels.  I will pick up some more today or tomorrow.   Today I also have to go out to Porter Ranch where there is a very large Joanne's Fabric store.  I need to see if I can match some fabric for my 2 dressy wedding pantsuits.  Sadly, I hate to admit that they both need a gusset to make them more comfortable to wear to DD1's wedding and reception.  In other words I am too large for the pants.  The pink one I wore to DD1's daytime ceremony is still wearable, but a bit tight.   I made the pants fit tight so it is my own fault - I should have made them flowy evening trousers, but I was lighter and more vain 16 years ago.  The other one is a lovely light green chiffon which was passed on to me by my dear friend, but the pants are uncomfortably tight.  If I can find a matching fabric, I can add a gusset in the side seam and an elastic waist.    Otherwise, I can't afford a new outfit right now.  

While at the Joanne's store, right next door is a Walmarts and possibly a Staples or Office Suppy.  So 2 birds with one stone.  Next order will be Amazon - the individual cameras for each table for the guests to take pix.  $80 for 10.  We have 10 tables so that works and if we have an extra table, none for the children.  Still not clear about the photos and how much to pay.  The photographer has lowered the 2 hour mini package to $695.00.  Still high so still thinking about having DDIL2's sister take them.  

Maybe I should just take another Ativan and a nap.  







Instead I


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## thistlebloom

I think if you ever get tired of raising sheep you could kick butt as a wedding coordinator. Truly! I'm in awe and very pleased that I have sons.

Remembering my dad offering us $100 to elope to Las Vegas, haha. 
My folks got off easy, we paid for our own very simple wedding... I never was princess material.


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## thistlebloom

I'm hoping your* tresspassing and dogs protecting your sheep* incident is a non starter in the sue department.


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## Baymule

CLIFFHANGER!!!! Will Animal Control show up demanding that Bubba be out in quarentine?

Will STUPID BOY'S parents sue? 

Will STUPID grandson pull another stunt like this?

Will STUPID BOY ever learn his lesson about trespassing?

Give Bubba a steak. Good dog.

Give STUPID  GRANDSON a swift kick in the butt.


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## Ridgetop

Sent off copies of rabies certificates to daughter to give to boy's pediatrician.

Exhausted after errands today.  Did find exact color fabric to make large palazzo style evening pants to match my dusty rose wedding suit.  Fabric 40% off so got enough to make a kimono style long jacket too.  No need to buy pricey new mother of the bride outfit.  Then walked a block to the Walmart for office supplies.  Walking is good for  me.  Huff Huff Puff Puff.  Driving back DS1 called - Ralphs having sale on butter mints so detoured over to meet him and buy 6 packages at $1.00 each.  Not enough but they will make a dent when mixed with more.  He will be watching for them to go on sale.

Arrived home to find DGSs 1 and 2 had finished chores and left.  DH talked to them severely about what happened.  I WOULD HAVE STRUNG HIM UP AND   - never mind, forgot for a moment this was a public forum.    Apparently he has been chastised.  I still have my horse whips though.  

Now to fix something for dinner.  Leftovers sounds good to me.


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## Baymule

I think Sentry would be like Bubba. He is suspicious of strangers and doesn't like most men. I can only imagine the outcome if some dummy was climbing over the fence.


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## Ridgetop

These dogs are like having a loaded gun.  Harmless until someone does something stupid!  I talked to DGS1 and he admitted he was shocked and scared when he saw what Bubba was capable of.  It was a good lesson for him, and hopefully the other boy.  Also made us feel totally secure that our guardians were on the job.  

Completely inundated for a week with wedding preparations.  Finished sewing my wedding outfit, then added a gusset to the pants to my older fancy pink outfit I wore to DD1's wedding (15+ years ago) and made a few other alterations. Tried them both on for my dear friend, as well as the evening dress from DS2's wedding. She agreed that the dress was too evening formal for a morning wedding so that was rejected.  She liked the old outfit which I had altered  better than the new one.  It was more structured and fitted.  The new outfit has harem pants and a kimono top, a style mistake since the fabric is very soft and flowy!  Looks like a "pajama suit" which was popular many years ago.  I have dressed it up by adding some wide bridal lace I had in my trim box, outlining the front of the jacket and sleeve cuffs.  I am making a matching top to which I wilI also add the lace across the neckline.   Since my friend ("mom") chose the older outfit, I will add some extra beading and pearls to give it a lift, and will wear it with my dusty rose pashmini shawl.  I will keep the new outfit for another occasion.  In another few years I will be old enough that wearing out of date styles will be trendy for me.  LOL

Met with the florist, and set dates to confirm menu and linens with the venue.  Also spoke to them about possibility of no indoor dining and rain.   Was told that they would put up canopies on the patio i necessary. They provide propane heaters for patio dining, and since the patio can sit the correct number of guests by utilizing the boardwalk which would be the aisle for the ceremony, they would use all of it for tables and move the wedding ceremony to another location.  Since restriction to the patio (Covid and Governor Gruesome) means we will be on several levels I will number the tables to sit the older members on the main level and the youngers ones will have to go up and down stairs.  I need to make sure the bar will be on _our_ level!  LOL  

 Emailed cake baker, photographer, and DJ and gave all contact information to DD2 and vice versa. Monday the Maid of Honor will come over and I will mark hem on the dress and do hem. Also made bridal petticoat for DD2. Lots of work, but worth saving $80.00 since I had all the fabric in my fabric boxes. LOL I used to do a LOT of sewing. I really enjoy it and with the quarantine will do more to use up the fabric that I never made up into outfits. I used one of my old square dance petticoats with a layer of nylon netting on top. I will put blue ribbon on it for something blue.  DD2 called and said that they have an addition to the guest list. A close friend of groom who apparently has already bought a large wedding present for them. Only one person so no problem. Always need a single person to fill in a table somewhere.

Another ewe lambed several days ago.  Birthweight on the single lamb out of first freshener 8189 was 9.9 lbs. Nice healthy ram lamb.  Other 4 lambs are gaining nicely although moms are losing a little condition.  I will be adding a small amount of grain for nursing ewes today.

DS1 cleaned the creep and lamb space in the barn with DGS1 and DGS2.  Then last Tuesday they removed the creep gate and wooden fencing and relocated the creep gate in a better location.  We will put the 2 ewes with the older lambs in the larger pen next week when the grandsons show up for their weekly barn work day.   I think we will start using the large scale for the lambs then too since I don't think the weights we got on the 2 older lambs were correct in the hanging scale.
A couple of the ewes are starting to bag a bit.  Hard to tell with the yearling first fresheners, and with the older ewes I just notice they stop looking like shriveled bags and begin to fill out.  Hard to say when they are completely ready though, so my calendar is the best check on them.

DS1 has been fencing across the lower front of the property to add another fenced pasture for grazing.  He hopes that fencing this off will provide another area for rotational grazing.   The sheep tend to eat all the young tender stuff and leave the less palatable forage.  DH says that he will toss a bunch of seasonal pasture seed out when it rains, hoping to encourage a better growth of grass and forage.

*WARNING!   This next section contains drama and wild emogees!!!
Unsettling  drama from my sister last Monday.*    DD1 and DD2  told me that they had to come over to talk about "something" with me.  
According to DD1 my sister called her and spent 2 hours running down DD2.  My sister does not even know DD2.  Apparently my cousin (who needs a dye job) told my sister that she was insulted by my entire family and their attitude at DS2's wedding.   She said that my uncle felt slighted because we had not seen him right away and rushed to talk to him. (They were both wearing masks and sitting in far back corner of our huge church instead of up near the family.) None of us recognized my cousin at first since we all agreed later she looked terrible and had gone completely grey. My remark about her hair needing a color job might have been rude, but "bless her heart" she did look bad.  Besides no one else said anything like that. DD1 said she did not recognize her but quickly added it was because we are all wearing masks. Everyone else was very pleasant and happy to see my uncle. My cousin did not say a word to us the whole time. When future SIL was presented to uncle and cousin, with his 3 year old daughter, uncle asked if the child was actually DD2's child?!!! _That _was rude! DD2 said "No", that she was to be the child's stepmother. According to my sister our cousin had not gotten a personal invitation yet which rankled, and sister was incensed over that because according to her, our cousin "had done so much for DD2". Untrue, but sister persisted in saying that DD2 was a liar, thief?, and the worst sort of person!  My sister has only met DD2 ONE time. DD1 got angry and stood up for her sister telling aunt that aunt herself did not even know DD2 and was in no position to say nasty things like that. I was proud to hear that. My sister must have been getting this from my cousin, who has never liked DD2 and has said a lot of bad things about her, and me. Our family no longer has anything to do with this cousin or her family. Then my sister said that our uncle "would not come if cousin was not invited!" Oh well, he refused to come to DS2's wedding reception even though when I found out about cousin living with him I extended the invitation to her as well. They are big liberals so are probably afraid that as conservatives we will purposely give them Covid! 😷 This is the cousin who upset DD2 by telling her and all the family that we are racists! LOL DH does _not_ like her.  

So sister held forth to DD1 for over an hour about our family's bad behavior (?) (sister was not present and only heard this from cousin who had never treated DD2 well and with whom I have argued about DD2.   No love lost there!) Then sister switched to self pity about her dreadful life now husband is dead and none of her siblings will talk to her and she will lose her house and be bankrupt and homeless, etc. etc. etc.  DD1 refrained from saying that she had brought it on herself.   

DD1 discussed phone call with DD2 and they both came to talk to me very upset.     DH was not included in this discussion. DD2 was terribly upset and thought she should call Terrence to apologize for _his_ "hurt feelings".  DD1 said _she_ would call him to hear his side of the story.  I told them no one should call but I would take of the invitation fiasco.  We had not sent my cousin an invitation since we invited no other of my cousins to the wedding (Covid has its uses).  However, I told DD2 that I would send my cousin an invitation and if anyone asked just say that she had indeed been invited and leave it at that.  The invitations had just gone out anyway, and she was not invited to Carl's wedding (I wouldn't have invited her anyway) because we did not know that she had moved in with our uncle (not her father) until I called to find out if he was attending the reception since he had not RSVPed.  (Who was rude there?)  😒  A discussion ensued between the 2 of them with me trying to calm them all down.  I assured them that the only rude person had been me with my comment abut dying her hair and that I would not retract it nor apologize.  If she preferred not to attend and if my uncle chose to sulk I was fine with that.  More discussion ensued with the 2 of them proceeding to hash out all the reasons they hated my cousin and why we disliked that side of the family.  It was decided that my sister was a typical member of that bloodline, who enjoyed making trouble since she had no life.  I told the girls that I would explain to their dad what the problem was, but that he would be extremely angry about this.

Later that night I told him what happened and as I had expected, DH exploded into rage.   At 10:45 pm he decided to drive over to my uncle's home and confront him and my cousin. I stopped him from doing that. Next DH decided he would call Uncle, cousin, and my sister and let them have an earful.    He also rescinded the uncle's invitation to the wedding and announced that DS1 would not be allowed to go to Seattle with our truck to help my sister. He spent about an hour and a half raging about the temerity of relatives who stick their noses into our family business without having any knowledge of the people involved and without having met them or seen them in years.   By the time he stomped off to bed I was exhausted. I would have taken a tranquilizer but needed to be on the alert in case he woke up and decided to call any of the guilty parties. The next morning he called DD1 for a run down to what was said - she said, then I said, then she said, etc. etc. etc. 

DS1 gave the most intelligent advice and I decided we would take it and passed it on to my DDs and DH.  We decided to ignore sister's diatribe and pretend that we knew nothing about anything.  I told girls that any "insult" was between cousin and myself, no one else.  Since sister and cousin are known for making trouble and blowing up things to get entire extended family upset, we decided that Uncle probably had not said anything like what was reported.  I figure that he may have said he _could not go_ without cousin since he is in his 90's and may no longer be driving. I sent out an invitation to cousin and we will pretend that we sent one originally. If they don't come, we will not have to worry about more people than we have space booked for.  If they come, I will put them at a table in an outer galaxy far, far away from us.   LOL  Since I have too much in my own life I don't ever wonder what is said abut me and really don't care what anyone thinks of me.      I guess the joke is on them.

DH is already watching Hallmark Christmas movies!!!     He loves watching the finale when it snows as the lovers kiss.


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## thistlebloom

Knowing that side of your family's history, why oh why did your DD1 waste 2 hours listening to bitter lies? 
When I have found myself in situations like that I have made it a rule (it did take me awhile to catch on unfortunately) to make the conversation a Pepsi commercial - polite, cheery and very short, hanging up before they get any traction.
Life is way too short to allow people to spread their misery around.

I may have missed it, but I hope the dog drama is behind you now.


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## Ridgetop

She felt sorry for her.  I might have made a mistake raising kind children . . . .


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## Baymule

Life is better when you cut off trouble making relatives. Let them stew in their own misery. 

You are going to pull off the most beautiful wedding for DD2! I know she will treasure this day all of her life and she has you to thank for it. You are a wonderful Mom.


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## Ridgetop

Haven't heard anymore about dog bite.  Family is still friends with DD1 so probably ok.

We are getting excited about wedding.    Or maybe I am just looking forward to it being over and done with!  LOL  Made the petticoat and then had to remake the top since I cut the pattern down from a very old one (when I was a size 8).  Patterns and clothing have been resized since then and I accidently cut it too small.   However, when I remade it I to allowed for  the growing pregnancy tummy on DD2.  She is a size 4 - weighs 100 lbs.   Her 4-5 month pregnancy tummy looks like my 2 month pregnancy tummy was, however since she is sooo tiny, it _is_ starting to show.  Luckily the wedding dress is a lace up bodice style with a basque waist which will disguise it.  I do have to work on some sort of headpiece for the veil.  She didn't like any of the tiaras we saw, they had tons of rhinestones and she is not a glitter girl.  I wish we could find one with pearls.  I got a very pretty wedding head band (actually 2 of the same head bands which I attached together to make a wreath.) which she likes but I am not satisfied with the look.  I need to figure out how to make it work on the veil.  I told her we need to look at other tiaras.  She also liked my suggestion of fresh flowers in her hair.  I can make fabric roses as well to use in a headpiece.  Still time to decide what to use. 

Decided to book the photographer for 2 hours for the "before wedding getting ready" pix, ceremony pix, and posed family pix.  Will go to venue Wednesday to finish more arrangements and pay $$$.    Like DH says, it only happens once so . . . .  Met with the florist and discussed simple arrangements.  I told the florist that we like carnations (an under appreciated flower) instead of roses so will see what the estimate comes to.  8 small table arrangements - DS2's were rather large for the long tables since they were designed for the larger round tables.  Then a garland for the wedding arch, and a small swag for the sweetheart table.  Small wedding arty so minimal boutonnieres, corsages, and DD2 wants a small round wedding bouquet instead of a larger cascade.  She is so tiny we have to be careful to have proportionately sized items.

Adoption is moving along too.  Hopefully will be done before wedding otherwise need a form signed by DD2's new husband allowing adoption - ??? Legal provisions are peculiar sometimes.  Had to declare that DD2 was not developmentally disabled as well, so maybe it is to prevent fraud with persons collecting government income for disabled adopted adult children/parents to care for them as relatives. Anyway, moving along with everything including amended birth certificate.  Somehow the adoption has made a big change in DD2's relationship with brothers and sister.  She seems so much happier knowing she is permanently and officially ours.  

Haven't heard any more from sister, etc.  and probably won't.  Even if we do, we will ignore it since I don't pay any attention to those people anyway.  I wondered why I was not as angry as the rest of the family about it, but realize now that if you really don't care about the people saying those things they can't hurt you.  Amazing!  

I have taken a good look at my flock and will sell a couple of the yearling ewes sired by Axtel after Christmas. They will sell exposed to a ram, and hopefully bring a decent price.  They are not as large as the 2 yearlings out of Moyboy.  I think I may eventually sell my Axtell ram too.  He has a lovely butt on him and is very long, but doesn't seem to blend as well with my other lines.  Sometimes you just don't get a good linear match no matter how good the individual animals are.   I will sell some of the May ewe lambs too.  I might send out some flyers to people that have inquired about my flock before.  

We got some rain the other day and a big drop - 20 to 30 degrees - in temperature.  It is still cool, but no more rain is expected yet.  We did get a lot of snow in the mountains which is a good thing.  

The tenants in Yelm have moved out leaving the property dirty and with a lot of junk.  No new offers on the property yet, but the rental manager said they could put in a short term tenant.   I think we will go with that.  DH and I might go up to check on doing repairs or painting after Christmas.  If DD1 goes with us, DD2 and her husband could stay here at night to feed, or she could come over during the day, feed in the am and pm then go home at night.  The dogs would be ok at night with the sheep.  I am waiting for pix of the property and its condition.  I would need to arrange our trip between lambings.  I am so glad that they moved out!  I would have listed the property sooner if I had known that was what it would take!!!  I would still like to turn the little 2 room bunkhouse into a rental too, but I think it  might take too much money to be worth the rental we would get.  I would really just like to sell it and buy another property.  It is too bad since we love the place and really wanted to move our sheep there.  But like I told DH - it is too close to my sister!   

I am refusing to watch any news about the election until the final results have been decided.  Too upsetting . . . .  And the virus vaccine has just been pronounced safe for use! Biden and Harris are trying to take credit for it!     We all knew that would happen!!!


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Check out costco or sam's club for the flowers, I love carnations and had them in my wedding. You can get a very large number of white carnations for not that much money. They make a floral spray paint, lots of color options, available at Michaels & elsewhere, that you can use to change the color of the flowers; just practice a little before doing the actual flowers to get the effect you like.


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## frustratedearthmother

Ridgetop said:


> And the virus vaccine has just been pronounced safe for use! Biden and Harris are trying to take credit for it!


Could you post a link to that - I seem to have missed it.


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## Mike CHS

frustratedearthmother said:


> Could you post a link to that - I seem to have missed it.



It is put out by Pfizer









						Pfizer’s Early Data Shows Vaccine Is More Than 90% Effective (Published 2020)
					

Pfizer announced positive early results from its coronavirus vaccine trial, cementing the lead in a frenzied global race that has unfolded at record-breaking speed.




					www.nytimes.com


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## frustratedearthmother

Thanks Mike - great article!

 I did hear a blurb about it on the news just a few minutes ago.  I've not been watching much politics though and I was curious about Biden/Harris taking credit for it?  I haven't heard anything about that and was curious.

It's also interesting that Pfizer hasn't taken any government money from operation Warp Speed in the development of this vaccine so Trump probably won't get to take credit for it either.


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## Ridgetop

If he loses the election (still hopeful) they will bee able to charge for it too.  

Don't want to think about politics - too distressing.  

The weather here is remaining cool and brisk, but no more rain so far.  Fires are occasionally occurring but so far the smoke has all gone with the rain and the views are beautiful.  I am just enjoying how the hills look in their summer coats of brown.  I do love how they change color.  Green after the spring rains, gold when the wild mustard blooms, then 
y green as long as we have rain so . . . .  I just enjoy what there i s when t is there.  

Some of my ewes are huge!  One was sprawled out on her side and her rear leg was sticking out horizontally to the ground.  Her giant belly was sticking up into the air.  I had to look carefully to make sure she wasn't dead.  She looked like she had died and her carcass was bloating!!!  

DD2  and the Maid of Honor came over yesterday evening to have me do the hem on the bridesmaid's dress.  Summer is a size 6, and very tall, and she was wearing 3" heels but the dress was still about 4" too long !!!  The girls wondered why it was so long.  I told them it was so the bridal salon could charge a fortune in alteration fees.  I really think that is where they make their money these days.  When DD1 got married the alterations were included in the cost of the dress.  Now they charge you for everything.  I knew I should have done DD2's hem myself!   I could have done all of the alterations myself, but like DD1 said, why stress myself.

Anyway, I am going to do the hem and baste it in and then have Summer come back to make sure that the length is right.  The girls wanted it to almost brush the floor.   Any change of shoes and it will be too long but that is not my problem.  This dress is nice but almost the same as the first one that did not need alterations.  Slightly different fabric. Who knows what goes in in the head of young women any more?   And who really cares either!  

Finally figures out a headpiece that DD2 liked. v She has also decided to put some glitter on her black hair to "make it not so boring".  These young brides don't understand that the bride is never boring!  LOL

Back to the sheep - the 2 "bred" ewes that I bought in May did not lamb when supposed to so will lamb covered by my backup sire.  Disappointing.  I should have let at least one go and put the price towards another ewe.  Live and learn.  However, I do like these ewes and know their bloodlines.  I have a lot from this one line and they have good maternal  instincts, lamb easily, milk well, and produce nice lambs.  I just paid too much since they did not produce any lambs out of a different ram.  I was hoping to add some diversity to my flock with ewe lambs from a different sire however, the risk you take when purchasing bred/exposed ewes is your own.  Besides they often produce ram lambs anyway.  LOL

DH and DS1 have decided they need to build a new hayshed.  DS1 has been using our metal corral panels to fence off the front pasture for summer grazing.  He removed the panels around the hayshed and redid the gate into it to keep the sheep and Josie the Mule out.  The other day he went out and noticed something wrong on the back.  Apparently one of the 4 x 10' 3/8" plywood panels had warped enough that Josie the Mule could rip it off the barn.  We blamed  poor JtM but actual evidence showed that the sheep had been squeezing inside to eat the haybales in the back for about a week!  DH and DS1 did a temp fix and are now in serious discussion of building a hay barn/hay shelter.    Any one remember Mommy Dearest suggesting we might want to build a new hay barn last year when DH built his retaining wall behind the tool shed?  He ran out of blocks and it is not quite finished.  He has done some backfilling but due to the wedding expenses didn't buy any more block.  Now that project (like so many of DH's projects) has been out on hold while he and DS1 build a haybarn.   he never bought more hay for the winter while prices were down since he didn't want to store it on the field.  Now we are getting to the point when he must bring in another 2 loads of hay and the hayshed is collapsing.  

Mommy Dearest has decided to step aside and let her big, strong men deal with this problem.  Mommy Dearest is dealing with the wedding.  Mommy Dearest has tranquilizers to help her through the hay predicament if necessary.  Also a liquor cabinet full of wine.  No $$$  but Mommy Dearest won't care after a tranquilizer or glass of wine.  

DH and DS1 are trying to decide in the placement of the new hay shelter.  It must be in the lee of the Connexes since that will shelter it from our strong winds and bad storms.  Yes, Southern California does get hit with some very bad storms.  DH and DS1 are arguing with each other over where the gate should be.  It must be located so the truck and trailer can back up to unload the hay.  DH's hearing is so bad now that it causes him to misunderstand and he thought DS1 wanted the gate to go in the back where the truck and trailer could not access.  I had to translate for them.  Poor DH!  He is really having trouble with his hearing even with his hearing aids in.       I suggested they use 4x4 posts and just put a metal roof in the hay shed.  I am only a woman though, so apparently can't understand the difficulties of building this structure.  Not to worry though - I won't share my wine or tranqs!!!  So there!  LOL

On the other hand, I plan to cut out and sell about 5-6 sheep, not counting the lambs that will be going to auction.  My Armenian client wants a couple 50 lb. rams though so I should have those in another month or so.  That will be a quick $150 each, no commission.  It will buy 4 x 4's or metal roofing.   The yearling and late spring ewe lambs will go to the auction if I don't get any interest from buyers after sending out my flyers.  I need to call and see what prices are right now to decide whether to hold them for after Christmas or maybe send a couple now.  If no one is selling much right now, I might be better off to send a couple before Christmas.  

I have decided to go through my cabinets and give my daughters and daughters-in-law my buffet chafing dishes.  I won't be holding big parties anymore, and the girls might as well have them as have me store them.  I am also going to talk to them about my pretty serving platters and other dishes.  They might as well have some if them now too.  I have several punch bowls, with 30 glass punch cups, the chafing dishes, serving dishes, etc.  I could give some of them as Christmas gifts this year.  Money is tight and they are  in the original boxes so why not?   I have decided to start using my Waterford crystal for Thanksgiving dinners and then put it in the dishwasher.  A good friend who inherited her mother's and both grandmother's crystal said she started doing that and nothing broke so why not.   Like she said, that way she could use it and enjoy it.  She had no children and only 1 niece.  She said no one needed 4 sets of expensive crystal goblets so she would use them, wash them in the dishwasher, and if they broke it didn't matter.  She had a point.  

Eventually all this stuff needs to go to my daughters and daughters-in-law so why not now.  They will eventually be holding their own large parties so should have the benefit of the stuff now while they are young and can enjoy the work   fun.  LOL  Once DS2 and DDIL2 have their own pace I might give them some of the antique and collectible furniture.  DD2  will also get some.  DD1 doesn't want a lot of it since it is not her taste.  Eventually I will go through my paintings too and start to give them away.  That way I can see the children enjoying them.  DS1 already has a couple of paintings he remembered from our old house growing up.  He had asked for them for his Reno apartment and I gave them to him.  They are packed and stored now.  Eventually I will put them up in his room.  I would like to find a place to move to that has a small apartment or guesthouse for him so he will have his own space with us. That was the good thing about the Yelm place, we would have fixed up the 2 room bunkhouse into a small apartment for DS1.   Eventually he could have rented out the front house after we were gone for additional income.   I can't stop grieving for the Yelm house and lost animal keeping zoning, although the thought of living that close to my sister in liberal Washington sends chills down my spine!!!  LOL

Well, time to work on some more stories to submit to a couple of publications.  Also a follow up to my Guardian Dog article in the Dorper Report magazine.


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## thistlebloom

I think it's good to gift your kids with things they can use now. My boys don't seem to be sentimental about family items, so that makes things a little easier to pare down.

I think your sheep and Josie are in cahoots!


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## Baymule

Why move all that stuff? Paper plates, crystal plastic forks and red solo cups are the way to go!


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## Bruce

frustratedearthmother said:


> I've not been watching much politics though and I was curious about Biden/Harris taking credit for it? I haven't heard anything about that and was curious.


I've heard not one thing about Biden/Harris taking credit for Pfizer's vaccine. I'd like to see a link to that.



frustratedearthmother said:


> It's also interesting that Pfizer hasn't taken any government money from operation Warp Speed in the development of this vaccine so Trump probably won't get to take credit for it either.


Of course he will.


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## frustratedearthmother

Bruce said:


> I've herd not one thing about Biden/Harris taking credit for Pfizer's vaccine. I'd like to see a link to that.


I hadn't heard that either.  That's why I hoped she could post where she heard it.  

However, weddings must take precedence over politics!    I hope the wedding goes well.


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## Ridgetop

Apparently now the CDC says when eating Thanksgiving dinner you must bring all your own dishes and silverware to eat with!   And your own food to eat!  And sit 6' away from each other!  With Gov. Gruesom saying to wear masks _*while*_ eating and no more than 3 households 9we have to choose which children we can invite), Thanksgiving sounds delightful this year!  
Instead of Thanksgiving this year our family will be having a BLM rally.  After eating dinner we cook here without masks on Grandma's china and silver, shouting at each other in family tradition, we will go out looting for some really _good_ Christmas gifts.


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## Baymule

I want to go shopping with you!    
Sounds like fun! Of course we will wear our masks!


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## Bruce

I read today that Gov. Newsom went to a birthday party at a restaurant with a dozen friends. Kinda "do what I say not what I do". Too many hypocrites in government.


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## Baymule

I read the same thing. It smacks of dictatorship.


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## farmerjan

Yeah, he's an A$$...... and another of the "elite" that thinks they can dictate and not follow because HIS RULES  are for the peons below him.
This is what so many of those far left nutcases are believing..... they can make rules for the lower masses and they will be able to sit up there and lord it over the rest;  and benefit from the suffering and the sacrifices of these "lower peons".


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> I read the same thing. It smacks of dictatorship.


I don't know about dictatorship but not too much thought spent on what he was doing and how it would be perceived.


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## Ridgetop

I have not been on for several days.  Been doing  lot of sewing.   Made 2 Advent calendars - red felt banner with  green Christmas tree to hang on the wall.  24 numbered pouches underneath to store small Christmas ornaments that go up on the tree every day in December.  The children love it and fight over who gets to put up their favorite ornaments.  I made one for DS2 and DDIL2, and another one for DD2 since she seems to have lost hers when she moved back from South Carolina.  Also making small felt ornaments for the calendars.

Hired the photographer for the wedding.  2 hours only.  Checked out what the provisions would be if it rained and was told that the restaurant would probably just sneak us into a room.  It the governor or mayor cancel all weddings etc., we will get our money back fro the Odyssey and hire tents, tables, and chairs at our house.  We have enough flat space for parking.  We will call everyone to tell them of the change of venue and tell some not to come.  Then put up signs stating "BLM Rally".  This wedding is going ahead no matter what!

Yesterday another first freshener lambed a single ram lamb.  9.4 lbs.  This morning I checked the sheep through the bathroom window with my binoculars at 6:30 am.  One of the larger ewes was starting to lamb with a massive mucous plug.  I went back to bed for another hour then checked again around 8:00 am.  Still no lamb but now a nose was presenting.  DH fed a flake or two and she waddled over to the feeder so decided to wait a while longer since the last ewe I pulled might have been able to have the second lamb by herself.  I thought I rushed to  pull it too soon.  At 9:30am DS1, DH and I trooped out to pull the lamb which was still just a nose and no labor from mom.   The ewe had returned to the shelter and was laying down seeming to push a little so DS1 let out the rest of the flock.  Still no progress so we decided to bring her into the small catch and put a halter on her.  DS1 held her and I checked her progress.  She had a ginormous lamb head trying to come out, no legs or front feet!  

After about 15 minutes of trying to find a front leg, I found it but it was too big to pull up and out.  After another 5 minutes of struggling with the leg, I decided to push the entire lamb back in to get more room.  Naturally the ewe objected and began to vigorously push the lamb out.  Finally i got the lamb back in enough to coax out the leg but I couldn't get him out.  I switched places with DS1 who pulled the lamb out.  

It looked pretty dead but I grabbed it by the hind legs and swung it vigorously.  Just as DH told me that it wouldn't do any good and ds1 said it helped to clear the lungs, the lamb snorted and wagged its head.  The ewe was exhausted nd the lamb was weak.  I checked the ewe inside and it felt like there might be another one but pretty far up inside so we brought the ewe and lamb into the 5th jug where we continued rubbing the lamb and iodined the cord.  The ewe was still exhausted but was encouraged by the lamb noises to start cleaning him off.  The ewe had a drink and ate a bit of hay.  She was no longer contracting so DH stayed to watch her for a while, then DS1 took a turn.  I went up and cleaned up and had my coffee.  DS1 eventually came up and said it looked like she was passing the afterbirth.  Half an hour after that I went down and she had a much smaller lamb laying on the pen floor.  It was a ewe lamb, more lively than the ram lamb.  I iodined the cord and left mama cleaning her baby.  Tonight the ewe lamb is up nursing and the afterbirth is on the pen floor.  Tomorrow I will weigh the lambs and double check their conditions.  The ram lamb seems rather weak but after his ordeal it is natural.  Hopefully after a good rest he will be up and around too.  

Tomorrow the grandsons come over and clean pens for us.  We will weigh all lambs, do the second vaccinations on the older lambs and transfer them and their mamas into the creep pen.  The younger lambs will get their first vaccinations.  In another week or so they will get ear tagged and then transferred to the creep pen.   Still 10 ewes to lamb between now and January/February.

UGH!   More sister drama Sunday with DS1 getting angry with DH who apparently called sister anyway. Loud shouting by DH all over the house into the phone at DS1 who was also shouting. Then both claimed that neither one was angry with each other. DS1 intervening, and ending with peace between father and daughter until the next day when DD1 showed up to vent about my sister. Apparently she had texted one of her well known long self pitying rant to DD1 which has peeved her. In them she explains how she is known for her sweet nature and kind heart and everyone is mean to her . . . the crowning glory of this text was telling DD1 that she should look into her heart and soul and consider her obligations to her religion, etc. DD1 came over to read it to us and tell us all about it. She and DH went over the whole thing again while I returned to my sewing. DS1 got them all calmed down which was not that hard since they all turned their anger against my sister. Like DS1 said "Why annoy the last people in the world who are willing to speak to her?" It cost me 4 nights without sleep until I gave in at 3am and took a tranquilizer. I really hate doing that because it makes me groggy the next day. We are beginning to worry that my sister might really be going a bit insane. Probably not enough to get her committed though. I don't understand why it is apparently MY fault that I have this crazy sister! 
I told DD1 to block her calls but she says she can't do that because she feels sorry for her!  I feel sorry for me for having to live through this drama!
Tomorrow I will recut the new jacket I made and change the style from kimono sleeves to regular sleeves.  No rain in the forecast for a while.


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## Baymule

Sometimes it is just not worth it to keep in touch with certain relatives. If she was not related to you, I'm sure no one in your family would choose her as a friend. I have a cousin, mother's brother's daughter, that is nuts. Full of drama, nothing is ever her fault, problems all the time and will talk for hours, complaining the whole time. I was the last one in the family to have anything to do with her and it finally got to be too much, I cut her loose too. Life is much better without such narcissistic people in it.


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## thistlebloom

What Bay said. It only compounds the drama when the complainer knows they have an audience. Then when it is repeated to the family, which the complainer intended all along, it's not a ripple effect, more like a tsunami.
You can't keep your sympathetic daughter from partaking, but if it were me, I would ask her to not share. It upsets everyone and is nonproductive.

I have two relatives who seem to make it their ambition to divide and destroy. I understand the turmoil it creates.

Glad you were able to birth that big ramling and he survived!


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## Ridgetop

Yes to what you both said.  Oh yes, she told DD1 that Trump *personally murdered* her 90 year old husband who had a super bad heart, diabetes, etc. by "bringing Covid to America" himself! My BIL did not even contract Covid, but died of a heart attack which had been expected for years! my sis told DD1 that she believes the doctors changed his medicine and it killed him - obviously on Trump's direct orders! Straight jackets anyone? Even though all flights were grounded at the time, I should have rushed to her side when he died. This in spite of being told BY HER that we should wait for the memorial service which still has not taken place or even been planned!   I haven't spoken to her personally in years.  Sad not to be able to have a good relationship with a sister though.  I am so glad that all my children enjoy getting together with their siblings.  God has been merciful to me and mine.  Luckily 1200 miles separate us.  Not far enough in my opinion.

The little ram lamb looks perkier this am.  Both lambs cuddled up with mama.  Will weigh everybody today and vaccinate.  No ewes looking likely to deliver today or tomorrow. 

Got the move out pix on the Yelm rental Friday and it took a while to down load them into a format I could use.  Some were blurry but not too much damage.  The doorknob on the bedroom door is missing and will be difficult to replace since it was the original knob from 100 years ago.  You can't just remove those old doorknobs and replace them since the hardware is made differently with a large plate.   You almost have to replace the entire door as well since removing the plate and catch take out so much of the wood in the door.  The tenant stuffed a paper towel or something in the doorknob hole.    Anyway, it looks  like the carpets are ok, maybe need cleaning in the living room.  Appliances are fairly clean although a few food items were left in the fridge and a package of frozen vegetables in the freezer.  Glad I instructed the management company to clean it out, toss any food, and unplug it with doors propped open.  No photos of exterior but through the windows I could see some trash left around the property.

We may have to go up there to sort things out.  While we don't like leaving the property vacant, DH says better to do that and wait to see if the moratorium on evictions is lifted by the liberal Gov. Inslee before renting it again.  We haven't had another offer on the property which is ok.  I think builders are waiting to see what happens with the election and Biden.  After Christmas I will see if we can get DD2 and SIL2 to stay at our place part of the time to feed for us.  Most of the ewes will have lambed by then.  That way we can go up ourselves with DS1.  I suppose he will have to help my sister remove the years of junk she has at her place.  Currently, according to DD1 and DS1 she plans to move into her basement and rent the upper house.  Since the only thing keeping her from repossession is the Covid shutdown, I don't hold out much hope of her being able to come out of this with anything.   Luckily she never had children so her genetics won't carry on.    Anyway, we will probably rent it again if we can't sell on our terms. When this listing runs out, I might list it with another broker.  I am instructing our current agent to list the property in the nationwide multiples.  

No problem finding a tenant for the property.  Rentals are at a premium up there,  When we go up, I am considering adding Ikea closet to both bedrooms, then it will become a 2 BR house which will rent for much more.  Current rental value is about $1200-1400.  As a 2 BR it will definitely become a  $1400-1500 rental.   I am also considering emptying the 2 room bunkhouse, closing off the rear room, and running new electric and water lines to it.  That way the finished half could become a laundry room where  the tenant would have storage and a washer/dryer.  Since I don't want to put the money into adding a bathroom and making it a second rental, it might make extra rent.  On the other hand I could rent a PortaPotty and let my sister live in the bunkhouse!  

Today I am going to empty out the dining room of all the wedding items for DD2's wedding.  I need to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner which I am having here.  We will go to DD1's house again this year for Christmas.  That way we can leave when we get tired and come home, leaving the siblings to play board games until dawn if they want to. Before, I would go to bed while DH and the children played in the family room.  Eventually DH would join me while the children played on.  My house stayed much cleaner on Christmas Day last year!  

The dogs were going absolutely crazy 2 weeks ago in the evenings and all night long.  They would start out around dusk in the front of the house after the sheep were put up, then by bedtime would be working in the gully.  Something or somethings were out there that they really were worked up over.  This constant aggressive warning barking lasted about a week, then calmed down.  It was not the normal "I am on duty so stay away" barking.  This was really aggressive "I know you are out there and if you come on my property I will kill you" barking punctuated by occasional snarling.


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## Ridgetop

Oops, apparently I hit post.  This is the season the cougars start coming down from the hills so it might be a young cougar checking out properties.   The smells of birthing ewes would draw them in.  At any rate, penning up the sheep at night helps the dogs in their protection.  It is easier to protect the boundaries of the property while the sheep are in pens at night.  The rams are in front of course, but the dogs have access to that field.  The dogs have calmed down over the past few days so whatever it was has probably moved on.  Hard to break in and steal a sheep when the burglar alarms are making a lot of noise and are armed!  LOL


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> You almost have to replace the entire door as well since removing the plate and catch take out so much of the wood in the door.


"Kind of"  All the wood was removed to put the latch system in the door. You might be able to find a casement latch at an architectural salvage place. Given the age of the door it might make a nice "accent" piece rather than installing a new door and modern latch.


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## Ridgetop

Yes, we liked the old door knob.  The tenant had worked for a house flipper then gone into business himself as a 'flipper".  I would think he had taken the doorknob, except that without the doorknob assembly it really wasnt worth taking.   Oh well, we will think of something to repair it.  Maybe we can find one in Yelm.  

The grandsons came over today and cleaned out the hayshed.  Then they came with me to the barn and caught the lambs to weigh and vaccinate.  After the 2nd booster on the older 4 lambs we transferred them into the large pen with the attached creep.  The little guys had a lot of fun figuring out the creep gate and running out onto the hillside, scaring themselves at the openness of the hillside, and absence of mom.  They will have a lot of fun in the larger pen and will grow better.  I really like the older ewe lamb so will have to watch her as she grows.  She is 7 weeks old now.  Not so sure about the younger ewe lamb but she is only 5 weeks old so needs to grow more.  Rate of gain is good on both sets of twins.  

The remaining 3 ewes are being kept in the jugs with their much younger lambs - 2 weeks, 2 days, and 1 day old.  The ginormous ram lamb weighed in at 13.1 while his smaller sister weighed in at 12.1 lbs.  The ram lamb was a little dozy yesterday but today is recovering well.  

After moving the 2 ewes and their older lambs into the creep pen, the DGS1 and DGS2 cleaned out their jugs and put down Dry Stall.  Al water buckets were removed and cleaned then replaced and the ewes with only 1 lamb moved over into the clean stalls. Next those stalls were cleaned out and the entire barn (not very large) raked out and cleaned.  DS1 noticed that ACC 0100 had bagged and looked like she was dripping a bit.  After shoveling up everything from the barn and moving the barrels out of the barn, the GSs drove the ewes back up out of the gully and into the night fold.  DS1 separated out the heavy ewe and out her into the catch pen for me to look at her,  She definitely looks like she is ready and when I checked her breeding date she is due today.  DS1 said that maybe she will be the first one of this bunch to actually lamb in a jug!  LOL  I don't mind them lambing in the open pen with the rest of the flock around since they seem to be calmer with the flock around them.  Lambing in the gully is a NO NO though!   Hopefully she will lamb tonight or tomorrow morning.  This is her 3rd time, first a single ewe, then a single ram that she lambed on the steep gully hillside at night and it died.  I put her back in with the ram immediately and she rebred a month later.  I hope she has twins this time otherwise I will consider removing her from the flock.  She is a very nice ewe with good genetics though so I hate to do that.  We will see what she has.

The Maid of Honor is supposed to come over today or tomorrow evening to try on the dress.  I hemmed it up and basted in the hem to make sure it is right.  If it is the right length, I will cut off the excess and do the final hem.  I used some ribbon in the exact dusty rose shade as the gown and made ribbon roses for her mask.  Hopefully she will like it.  The mask was covered in sequins in white with a rose cast but I thought decorating it with the ribbons roses would m wake a nice touch,  DD2's wedding mask is completely beaded with pearls and is really pretty,  The groom has a black wedding mask with a bow tie.  These masks are ridiculous.  I really don't think they do that much good since everyone has been self quarantining.

DD1 called today to say that DSIL1's aunt wants to come for Thanksgiving from San Jose in northern California.  She wanted to know if the entire family would consent to getting Covid tests done to make sure we didn't infect her.  I told DD1 "No".  With this new government taking over and some lawmakers wanting to make testing mandatory and put the results on your cell phone so they can track people that supposedly have Covid or have been exposed I don't want the government testing me at all!  When AIDS was so prevalent, the government wouldn't allow positive AIDS test results to be released because of "privacy".  Covid has everyone hysterical.  And the hysterical people are about to run the country!!!  That is more frightening than Covid itself!

Anyway, since our entire family has been hanging out together I don't see why anyone should be tested.  I would like to see Louise, but she is more likely to infect us than we are to infect her since she is coming from northern California. 

I am just not afraid of Covid anymore.  I am more worried about the incoming government rationing our toilet paper!  I was traumatized by having to use only 1 or 2 squares of TP for 8 months.  The emotional scarring is still there.


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> DD1 called today to say that DSIL1's aunt wants to come for Thanksgiving from San Jose in northern California.  She wanted to know if the entire family would consent to getting Covid tests done to make sure we didn't infect her.  I told DD1 "No".  With this new government taking over and some lawmakers wanting to make testing mandatory and put the results on your cell phone so they can track people that supposedly have Covid or have been exposed I don't want the government testing me at all!  When AIDS was so prevalent, the government wouldn't allow positive AIDS test results to be released because of "privacy".  Covid has everyone hysterical.  And the hysterical people are about to run the country!!!  That is more frightening than Covid itself!


Obviously she is a government spy, sent to see if you are complying with the number of people eating turkey and wearing masks. You are suppose to heap your plate up with the Thanksgiving dinner goodies, run it all through a blender and drink dinner through a straw so you don't have to remove your mask. You are wise, grasshopper to refuse her demand for an invitation.


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## Bruce

SIL's aunt inviting herself to Thanksgiving dinner at your place?  Pretty cheeky of her even if there was no pandemic.


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## Ridgetop

She invited herself to SIL's place.  She is alone.  All SIL1's family have an open invitation to our place.  They are really fun and we get to play Chinese mahjong!  SIL's mom stayed at our place for a month when DGS1 was born.  We are good friends.  Sadly she is not in good enough health to come out much anymore,  Louise is the younger sister (Yi Pau) and usually is busy with church friends so doesn't come much.  We really like her too and wish she would come down more often.  Aunt did not ask us to get tested, it was SIL who wondered if we minded.   Which we all do.   She did visit China several years ago with her church group to do charity work.  Possibly she was lured to the dark side but since she, her 2 sisters, and mother escaped the communists over 50 years ago I doubt it!  Some of the relatives are still living in Hong Kong which is having a hard time now from communist China not iving up to its agreement with Great Britain.  Is anyone surprised?!  

So Anatolians 2 - coyotes 0!     Another dead coyote carcass dragged onto my lawn.  Bubba refused to give me his toy but since I refused to touch the rotten thing except with my shovel and scooper, he probably didn't realize I wanted it.  Or he thought I wanted a pre-breakfast gnaw and wasn't willing to share.  I chased him off the lawn with it.  He didn't understand why I didn't want him to have a comfortable place on my lawn to chew his prize, so but he brought it back as soon as I turned my back.  I decided to wait and clear it off later.  Leaving Bubba to his prey, I went into the house to pour coffee.

I had checked on the pregnant ewe through the upper barn windows that open onto the driveway before coffee making and poop scooping but no lambs.  She was just standing there looking sheepish.  I gave DH his coffee and he asked if I had fed in the barn.  No Dear, busy scooping poop and trying to remove rotting coyote from the lawn.   I went back down to the barn to feed and could hear a newborn mewling.  They sound a lot like a cat when first born. They haven't mastered the loud bawling of older lambs yet.  

No lamb in the pen with the ewe but she had a small bloody discharge so I went down to check and was distracted by the mewling of a bloody newborn trying to enter the creep pen where it apparently figured it could get a quick bit of breakfast.  I went to pick up the lamb and return it to the new mom but Bubba beat me to it.   

Surprise!    He has obviously matured into a nurturing male Anatolian  He very gently sniffed the little lamb and started to lick and clean it up.  I picked it up - a ewe lamb - iodined the cord and brought it back to its mother in the jug.   I was extravagant with my praise of Bubba's behavior, which was exemplary.   Next job - find the spot where the lamb could have escaped.  Since it was newborn, the escape was not planned.

Sure enough, there was a hole next to the jug fence panel where the little girl must have rolled under the fence into the hole.  Remember the water leak in the barn last year?  The wet ground had given way into a gopher or rat tunnel leaving a fair sized depression in the barn floor.  We never filled it in since it was right next to the fence where we  wouldn't stumble into it so . . . .   Apparently the lamb was born right there and rolled under the panel into the hole, struggled to her feet, and wandered around the barn looking for mom.  Meanwhile mom was standing silent in her stall, probably wondering what had just happened.  When the lamb was returned to her mom, the ewe began to clean her off.  Hopefully she will have another lamb soon.  In the meantime, I put a board across the panel to prevent anymore accidental escapes. 

Then I fed the ewes in the barn.  DH joined me and we fed together.  Nice bonding time.  Very quiet in the barn.  I entered the larger jug t feed since DH didn't want me to toss the flake from the outside.  I eft the gate open for bubba and Angel t come in and meet the lambs  Mom was busy eating and the lambs are 3 days old so the initial crazy protectiveness had died down.  Besides the ewes all knw the dogs.  Bubba and angel proceeded to look for any afterbirth that might have remained - it had been scooped up and fed to Bubba the previous day by DGS1, but dogs are ever hopeful.  After ascertaining that no delectable bits of slimy decomposing afterbirth remained, Bubba and Angel licked the lambs all over and then left for other pursuits.  

I will go down in another few minutes and check water buckets and see if we have a twin.  I am glad she had this lamb easily with no help.  I was getting tired of pulling the first of a set of twins each time.  And having to pull both of the first ewe's twins.  I will be rechecking my feeding program and go over it with DS1 to see about limiting their feed for the month before they lamb.  

Also I will select my next ram for low birth weight, high weaning weight.  That should help.  Lewis is supposed to produce lower birth weight lambs, but the first 2 sets of pulled twins were his and all 4 around 10 lbs.  On the other hand, both ewes lambed carrying a condition score of  over 3.5 so obviously we are feeding too well.  That was with no grain at all, just forage hay feed.  Of course, DH felt sorry for their pathetically sad eyes (posers!) so he was feeding hay in the am until DS1 stopped him.  I think he was still secretly throwing a flake on the ground behind the hay shed when he fed Josie the Mule though.  The crowd of sheep behind the hay shed every morning after being let out to graze looked suspiciously like a crowd of high schoolers sharing ciggies behind the gym!

Last night I redid the hem on the Maid of Honor's dress.  The hem dress has 4 divided underskirt panels and a chiffon overskirt.  Some of the panels were ok, others too long.  The dress is actually a size 2 - the Maid of Honor is tallish but tiny.  She was a track star in high school and has maintained her skinny body.  Anyway, when i tried to redo the hem, i decided to just use my gauge and shorten the underskirt the same length all around.  I have a feeling with the separate panels they might have been designed to be different lengths.  Another problem was that the Bride wanted the dress to be longer while the Maid of Honor, wearing extremely high heels equivalent to a step ladder, was afraid of tripping.  She finally said she preferred the dress to be a bit above touching the floor.  The overskirt is chiffon, cut on the bias which makes it tricky to hem.  I will have to mark the new length of the overskirt and hang it for several days to allow the bias cut chiffon to settle.  I used to have a tailor's dummy which would be extremely useful right now.  I could adjust it to the right height and put it on a table to work.  Instead I have been crouching on the floor at the Maid of Honor's feet like a supplicant slave.  Easy to do years ago but now once I am down I can barely make it up again.    I am not sure but may have donated it.   I didn't see it in the Connex when we emptied it out, and it no longer is in the closet where I used to store it so . . .  .  It was a Petite size which I bought to fit dresses on for DD1 so it didn't fit me since I am taller, and for a long time (before Bridge) I was only wearing farm and construction clothing to work.

This is why older houses with huge attics and basements were so useful for families.  Do you notice on Hallmark shows how the heroine always goes into the attic and finds old stuff that makes her sentimental causing her to rethink selling the old place and decided to keep the little town (which is stagnating without any business or jobs) just the way it is?  Or keep the Christmas tree farm which is being repossessed? Or . . . .   you get the idea.  Maybe it is good that there are no more giant attics or basements - which is the reason I own 2 Connexes stuffed with junk!   

Just checked ewe.  Second lamb born (ram) and afterbirth passed.  Had Bubba retrieve afterbirth, iodined cord and now will take my shower.  WAIT!!!  Dead coyote (half of him) still on lawn - first run out and chuck him over the fence while Bubba enjoying his breakfast snack.  Then show and dress for doctor appointment.  Love it when a plan comes together!


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## Bruce

Good boy Bubba!!


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## Baymule

Good on the twins! And Bubba, he just wanted you to admire his prize!


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## Ridgetop

I removed his portion from the patio lawn while he was eating the afterbirth.  However, apparently Angel had split the prize since she was busily crunching coyote bones and fur on the front lawn.  I will get that later.  Filled out the registration paperwork on the ewe lambs in the barn so I wont get confused who is sired by whom.  Then I went over my ewes still to lamb and made a new list of the remaining pregnant ewes, which ram was used, the dates they marked, and when they are due.   The old list was getting confusing with a lot of scratch outs and dates added in.  

Just got a text from my DDIL1 asking if the wedding is still on!  

*Governor Gruesom strikes again.  In time for Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping, Gov. Gruesom has posted a purple alert across the state.  No gatherings, closing more stores, restaurants, bars, etc.  No gatherings over 10 people who must be 6' apart.  Weddings and funerals in churches are forbidden and referred to as "cultural gatherings".   Religion is a cultural gathering now?  Is that how they will get past the pesky Bill of Rights and Constitution?

Isn't preventing gatherings how the communists and Nazis stopped any opposition to their new rules?  And they want our guns too? *

Wedding receptions are now banned.  I immediately called the Odyssey to find out about this.  Was told that they are not closing for outdoor dining.  Also they are showing all large bookings as "patio dining" instant of hosted banquets or events.  DD2 called me hysterical and told me to cancel the wedding since she does not want to have us pay for a reception to which no one can come.  Instead she wants us to hold a large wedding next year???!!!      NOT HAPPENING!  Apparently Gov. Gruesom has decreed now that places must only be at 25% capacity.  ???  

I told her to calm down since I would move entire affair to our house.  We can easily seat and feed 30-40 on patio, 50 if I can get a tent on short notice put up where the old Doughboy pool was.   That location has a lovely over the valley.  Already had the tent man out and he measured..  Lock up the sheep, Josie the Mule, and the dogs.  Lots of parking on the field.  Wedding ceremony can be held on the lawn - I will put up an arch with flower garland for ceremony.  After ceremony we will start off with purchased appetizers and pitchers of Mimosas.  Champagne, orange juice and mint leaves are not too expensive and mixing the Mimosas up in large punchbowls means self service will be easy.  I will order a whole roast pig, roast a turkey without stuffing, make Burgundy meatballs (easy to make ahead in quantity and freeze), rice, and large green salad.  Buffet service with paper plates, plastic flatware, plastic tablecloths. No mixed bar - only champagne, beer, wine, soft drinks.   If quarantine police show up we will all hide in house and I will turn the dogs loose.  I don't think they will climb the fences and gates are all deadbolted.  Plus my signs advertising the BLM rally might hold them.  I really don't think the police want to be storming private gatherings anyway, and we are not visible from the road.  Of course they could fly over in the police helicopter but really, let's be serious!!!  

DD2 originally wanted to be married at home anyway with a very small wedding.  We can clear a spot for dancing on the patio, use the DJ, the photographer will do photos, and I will hire servers.  Not what I would choose for DD2's wedding but there is nothing for it.   I am *not* cancelling at this point! I don't think I have enough tranquilizers to get through a cancellation, rescheduling, etc. 🤬

DD2 and FSIL are upset because his grandmother who was coming from Florida has canceled her trip.  It is a shame, but she can come out when the baby is born.  Now the possibly smaller size wedding has them worried that more people will continue to cancel and we will have to pay for people that are not there.   I told them that unless the restaurant cancels the reservation we don't get our money back anyway so will have to go ahead with it.  (I did not tell her that the photographer that we just hired last Friday won't refund the money regardless.)  She suggested getting married quietly now and having the big ceremony and reception later with a lot more people invited.  *NO! * DH says he is *not* paying for another wedding next year since we have spent so much already on this one!   Besides it is so *tacky* to have a wedding with the bride holding her baby during the ceremony!  I went to one of those years ago and it was just not right! Call me old fashioned, but really! And I couldn't face my grandmother! 😰  She would be rolling in her grave and possibly causing an earthquake!

Having spent so much on the dress, and other items, I will just move the wedding to our house and get it over with! We could easily have scheduled it for next year if they didn't get pregnant but since they _wanted_ to get pregnant they must suffer the consequences.  The wedding *will *take place on December 12!    Already she is beginning to show a bit and in another 4 weeks who knows!  Luckily she is very tiny so hopefully with the style of the dress she won't be very obvious.   Plus the dress laces up and we can just lace her up tighter, like an old fashioned corset!   Hold your breath honey!

Got to go weigh new lambs and do vaccinations and worm new moms.  Working with the sheep will calm me down.


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## Ridgetop

Darn it! Got side tracked!  Took some pix of new lambs and forgot to post them.     Later.


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## Baymule

Trying to postpone the wedding? Haha, Don't she know by now that _nobody_ backs up on you? Nah, not happening, I haven't know you as long as she has and I already _know_ that!


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## Ridgetop

Too right on that!  I have calmed her down a bit though and they are fine with going ahead now.  Her worry now is that fewer people will come since they have not sent back the RSVP cards.  I told her that the date to respond is November 24 and then we will have to call a lot of them anyway.   Particularly to get a count and menu choices for the restaurant.  Not a worry since this is not my first rodeo - I mean wedding.  Which is similar to a rodeo with a lot of buck offs!

DD2 also called her (birth) half sister and niece about the response we received with a completely unknown name on it. Apparently their boyfriends can't come (they were not invited anyway!) so they just figured they would invite some cousins that DD2 never even heard of!  And she never understood why I didn't want her associating with those family members!  

Anyway, she called and told them that those people were not invited and if they didn't want to come alone, that was fine too.  Good girl!  They are coming from South Carolina so may change their minds about coming.   Everything is planned out for a last minute switch to having the wedding at our house if the restaurant cancels.  If we have fewer people, I will see if we can change to another patio location that accommodates fewer people and will lower the cost which is per head.  No problem!

So last night weighed the new lambs - ewe lamb 10.5 and ram lamb 8.8 lbs.  DS1 discovered a large cut on ewe lamb's head which accounted for my seeing a lot of blood on her and thinking it was from the birth.  We put on iodine.  Also gave shots to lambs and mom and then wormed the 4 ewes still in the jugs.  We will worm the other 2 in the large creep pen next week when we weigh those lambs again.  In 2 weeks when the CDT has kicked in we will dock the ewe lambs.  If DS1 decides to do them sooner I will give another dose of  immediate acting Tetanus vaccine.  Then went out while DS1 fed and spray marked 3 first fresheners that look to be developing udders.  

Here are pix of the current lamb crop so far.

 Split twins born yesterday am.  Split twins born 3 days ago.  2 jugs of single ram lambs born to first fresheners a week ago.  In the background are 3 of the months old lambs in the creep pen.  They are really loving all the outside area that they can access on the left (through the white vertical bars) out onto the hillside where their moms are.  
 Guarding the flock -   Sadly this coyote disregarded the Anatolian warnings!   The coyotes in our area seem to be pretty stupid!  They are howling outside now as I type this and the dogs are answering them.    
Another type of guardian or just a strangely large red sheep?   Josie is very protective of the ewes when they are lambing on the field and will chase the dogs away.  She is a good guardian and loves her sheep, but the dogs are better.  

DH is getting 2 loads of hay today.  He wants to get it in before the prices go any higher.  Came back and said he would get another load tomorrow because the price actually dropped $1 a bale! 100lb+ alfalfa bales for $12/bale!  That is cheap for good alfalfa here, especially this time of the year.  FSIL came over this afternoon to help unload the hay out of the trailer and stack it.  DD2 wants him to learn farm work.  DS1 and DH are training him.  

I was cooking dinner when DH came in and yelled that a ewe was lambing and the dogs were chasing her!  Stopping only to turn off the stove, out I went to find pandemonium on the field! In actual fact the ewe was one I marked last night to show she was due any day. She was missing in the count when the sheep came into the night fold. She was down trying to lamb in the gully and instead of waiting for her to finish, then retrieving the lamb and ewe, DH sent FSIL down to chase her up. ?!?!?! What was he thinking, chasing a ewe while she was in the middle of lambing?!. Obviously he has never gone through labor! 

The ewe ran up and when Bubba and Angel ran to her, DH began shouting at Bubba.  Big mistake!  When you shout at Bubba he thinks you are encouraging him to do whatever it is he is doing.  The ewe ran, Bubba ran, Josie chased both of them, Angel thought it was a great game.  FSIL ran after them, directed by DH.  DS1 shouted at everyone to stop but no one could make out what he was saying.  Clouds of dust billowed up, the sun was going down.  Rika, the Perfect Anatolian, rolled her eyeballs at their stupidity.  

It was at this point that DH had come in to get me.  Going out, I found DS1 trying to stop DH from chasing the ewe. DH was telling FSIL to "catch her".  DH couldn't hear anything DS1 was yelling - his hearing has gotten to the point he is almost completely deaf.    DD2 was struggling to hold Bubba and Angel.  Bubba broke away but DH was able to leash him.  As I held the kennel gate open and told DH to put Bubba inside, DH marched past me oblivious - he really can't hear anything anymore and there was a lot of noise.  I watched helplessly as he dragged the dogs into the barn.  
Well goody, that meant that we could not just run the ewe into the barn now since it was full of Anatolians.  

The lamb's nose was sticking out of the ewe throughout all this chasing and running.  Finally, after DH, DS1 and FSIL penned her in the small catch pen, I went in and tried to get a loop around her neck.  DH got impatient.  He and FSIL came inside the catch pen in spite of my telling them to hang back.  The ewe broke past me, through them, ran to the gate which only DD2 was protecting and pushed it open.  Bye bye sheep.    

Eventually we ran her into the smaller night pen and I opened the gate to the chute and squeeze.  By now DS1 was still unloading and stacking the hay bales so I told FSIL to go and help him finish.  DH, annoyed with me that the ewe escaped the catch pen, had already gone back to the trailer to finish with the hay.  DD2 and I watched the ewe in the pen and waited for her to calm down.   She stood watching her flock in the adjacent pen.  Trying to tempt her over to the feeder with a handful of grain and some hay so I could drop the loop over her head did no good.  Finally DS1, FSIL, and DH finished with the hay.  DH and DD2 went to the barn to bring the dogs into the house and free up the barn.  DS1 gently chivvied her through the gate into the chute and he and FSIL got her into the squeeze.  

Now the fun began.  We decided that I would pull the lamb while the ewe was in the squeeze.  *But *I am no longer the slender supple girl I used to be. I am older, much wider, with arthritis in my back, a bad knee, and a lot less range of motion all around. However, I was beginning to fear for this lamb so into the chute I went. I had to crawl through the narrow sorting gate, make a right turn into the chute, crawl through the chute and up the ramp to the rear of the ewe. Too bad no one thought to capture this on video.     By now FSIL had gotten the halter on the ewe - upside down.  DS1 showed him how to put it on correctly, while simultaneously scolding me for "always bringing out these &%$*@! rope halters, Mom, which you know I hate!"  

Finally wedged into position behind the ewe I put on my gloves and lubed up.   I just had my nails done so wasn't going to ruin my manicure by reaching in without gloves.       DD2 had returned from helping her dad put the dogs in the house and was ready with towels and the lube.  This was a small first freshener but the lamb was not huge and Eureka!   There was actually a foot right behind its head.  Lucky for me and I edged it out.  Now I could pull on the head and one leg. The lamb came out fairly easily but lifeless.  I handed the lamb over the side of the chute to DD2 who grabbed it and swung it around.  This is a great lifesaver and has rescued about 6 lambs that we thought were totally goners.  After swinging it for a minute or so DD2 gave a shout of triumph - the lamb was alive!   Opening the chute DS1 jumped the ewe down, DD2 rubbed the lamb, and FSIL was given the chore of leading the ewe into the barn.

I was still trapped in the chute.  

Remember I said wedged?  I finally was able to back down the squeeze ramp and climb the horizontal bars of the chute.  I avoided a pratfall by hanging onto the corral fencing of the catch pen.   Help from my devoted children?  NO. They were oohing and aahing over the precious tiny lamb that DD2 had brought back to life.   Following my family down into the barn I opened the gate of the last empty jug.  FSIL dragged the reluctant ewe inside the pen and DD2 laid the lamb tenderly in the pen after I put iodine on the cord.  We watched expectantly.  The ewe completely ignored the tiny white thing.  Can anyone say anticlimax?  

Where was the joyful reuniting between mother and lamb?  Where was the bonding?  The ewe wandered over to the adjacent pen and gazed, puzzled, at the good ewes mothering their lambs.   The tiny lamb had not really made any noise - maybe she didn't know what it was.  Uh Oh.  Maybe she would reject it!  No, this ewe was of the same good mothering stock as a couple of my other ewes.  It was her first baby,  I had pulled it out, she hadn't even seen it yet - no wonder she was confused.  The ewe began to eat hay while her lamb lay there.  The lamb staggered to its feet and was attempting to nurse a bar on the jug while its mama nonchalantly filled her stomach.  OK.  I went back in the pen, put the halter back on the ewe and tied her up.   Then I helped the tiny ewe lamb find the teat.  Once I heard some slurping noises, I was able to relax  a bit.  At least the lamb could nurse - its face was slightly swollen around the mouth from being stuck in the pelvic opening while the ewe raced all over.  After redirecting the lamb a couple times I released the ewe again and came out of the pen.  Watching for a few minutes we were all relieved to see the ewe finally start cleaning her baby and talking to it.  

We came up to the house and I finished cooking dinner for everyone.  Another typical Ridgetop episode with a good ending.

Tomorrow we will vaccinate the lamb, tag the older singles and turn them in with the older lambs to free up the next 2 jugs.  There are still 2 ewes with udder development due to lamb - I marked them with orange marking paint so we need the other 2 jugs.  And the family thought I was stupid when I insisted we needed *5 *jugs.   LOL  

I still have 278 rolls of TP in the Connex too.


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## Baymule

Your sheep and dogs are so much more exciting than mine! My sheep usually lamb at night and surprise me the next morning. The few that have lambed during the day, most of them snuck off and still surprised me. I have never pulled a lamb or even assisted at birth. I did have one really stupid ewe who birthed really stupid lambs, neither she nor the lambs ever knew what to do. Second round of stupid lambs sealed the deal, they went to slaughter along with their stupid mom. My dogs never entertain me with dessicated non-freeze dried coyote pancakes, I feel deprived. Likewise, they never regale me with utter pandemonium, I am greatly saddened by my loss of confusion. To top it off, my husband can HEAR!


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## Mini Horses

No dogs, no sheep ... But saw a dead coyote by the road couple days ago.   No excitement here.   Reading about yours is enough for me!


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## messybun

Ridgetop said:


> Apparently now the CDC says when eating Thanksgiving dinner you must bring all your own dishes and silverware to eat with!   And your own food to eat!  And sit 6' away from each other!  With Gov. Gruesom saying to wear masks _*while*_ eating and no more than 3 households 9we have to choose which children we can invite), Thanksgiving sounds delightful this year!
> Instead of Thanksgiving this year our family will be having a BLM rally.  After eating dinner we cook here without masks on Grandma's china and silver, shouting at each other in family tradition, we will go out looting for some really _good_ Christmas gifts.


It’s a funeral for your dearest friend Tom.


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## Ridgetop

messybun said:


> It’s a funeral for your dearest friend Tom.



Tom _is _sadly dead and his partial cremation  scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, however according to Governor Gruesome funerals are now considered "cultural events" and also banned indoors (no church services in other words).  

However, _our_ nationwide "cultural" religion requires us to eat Tom's partially cremated corpse amid shouting, laughing, toasting, and other loud and noisy displays of passion.  While we don't shout "Hallelujah!" we do shout "Yum!" and "Pass the gravy" with religious fervor.

We will keep you all in our prayers on this day of religious "cultural" celebration!   No flowers please, but donations of cranberry sauce may be made to countless families (including yours) around the country.


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## Ridgetop

Dearest Baymule:
Your lack of excitement saddens me.   But I _am_ willing to share.   Come visit us!   

Having a deaf husband can sometimes be helpful, as when you mutter unpleasant things about his annoying habits.  Most of the time though it is incredibly problematic.  I have to accompany him to the doctor, translate questions (and answers that make no sense because he is answering what he _thought _he heard instead of the actual questions), when he makes business phone calls about anything I have a phone thrust in front of my face as I am involved in other chores with instructions to talk to whoever it is but without any information on who the call is to or about. (I may be an all-knowing domestic and farm goddess, but there are limits to my powers.) It also gives him a perfect excuse to not do anything I ask! LOL But he is a big cuddly bear and I love him. 

My ewes _will_ quietly give birth in their pens when they are confined to them, but if they are out on the field and go into the gully, UGH!  Without excited shouting the dogs let them lamb quietly and don't mess with them.  Shouting makes the dogs think something is wrong and they need to return the ewe to the flock pronto.  Since we are chasing after the sheep, they join in to help.  Most of our problem is living on such a steep hillside.  NO ONE wants to go into the gully to retrieve a newborn lamb.  FSIL was sent because he is young and fleet.  Knows nothing about sheep, but is willing to try at the moment.

I really recommend that every sheep or goat owner acquaint themselves with proper presentations of lambs and kids, and with the various bad presentations that can occur. _* Usually nothing ever happens*_, but *IF* you ever do have to assist a ewe giving birth it is essential that you know what to do to be able to assist.  It is inevitable that the close friend who has delivered multiple goats and kids will be out of town, at the doctor's office, or have his/her phone turned off or dead when you call.  

We have no sheep/goat vets and I had to learn all this myself from a book.  Then as a 4-H leader I taught it to my project members.  They still called me every time there was a problem and with dairy goats - mostly Nubians who are renowned for litters instead of twins - I got a lot of extra practice.  If there is a problem you have a certain time window in which to pull the baby.  If the face is presenting usually the nose will be sticking out.  This is a good presentation since the cord is probably intact and the baby will live for several hours while you get it out.  Ignore the tongue hanging out the mouth and turning blue since it is normal.  Knowing where the front legs are is a must since you need at least one of them out to help ease the shoulders out when pulling.   _It is also important to know that they are the *front *legs!  _If you have a malpresentation and are trying to pull a head and rear leg through it will never fit.  If there is no room to get the front leg out, you need to push the baby back inside the protesting mom to give more room to rearrange its position.  Just a hint here - she won't like this and will fight you ruthlessly.  This can be painful as she contracts and pushes hard, squeezing your hand between her bony pelvis and the baby's skull!

If the lamb seems limp and dead when you pull it out, don't despair!  The swinging trick really works!

Wrap a towel around the slippery rear legs, hang on tight and swing the lamb upside down vigorously.  Don't be afraid you will break the lamb - they are very flexible as newborns. This is a lifesaving move and being too afraid to swing the lamb will result in death anyway. The swinging motion forces any placental liquid the lamb  may have inhaled back down its throat from the lungs and out of the nose and mouth so it can breath.  

The only lamb I lost after swinging it was last year when I swung it till it moved but then tried to do mouth to mouth.  I think I forced some remaining liquid back into its lungs or windpipe doing that so I don't do mouth to mouth any more, just swing upside down vigorously.

After this exciting and exhausting process don't forget to iodine the navel.  After all that work you don't want the baby to develop "navel ill" which is a joint infection caused by infection setting in through the navel cord after birth.  While the infection enters through the navel, it manifests in infections in the joints.  We use Iodophor full strength.  A large pill bottle works best since you can dip the entire cord stump in the bottle.  I hold the bottle tight to the baby's belly with the cord inside the iodine and slosh it up onto the belly to make sure everything gets disinfected.  The full strength iodine also helps to dry up the cord to seal out germs.

A rear leg presentation is also possible to pull but is harder since the baby's survival is less optimistic since the head may hang up in the pelvis.  Remember to use a downward pull since that is the normal sloe of the pelvis and birth canal and the baby will come out easier.

Because I have so many years positive experience in pulling lambs and kids, I don't wait too long.  Sometimes I probably pull some lambs too soon.  I am working on that.  LOL


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## thistlebloom

When I decide that my life is too boring I will raise sheep. But with my luck it would turn out like Bays and not be exciting and hilarious. My husband is however losing his hearing so maybe that will help some.
Please give Josie the Mule a carrot from her Idaho fan club. She's the best .


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> If the lamb seems limp and dead when you pull it out, don't despair! The swinging trick really works!


Yep, that is what was done with the c-section pups at the vet's office when I was in college.


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## Ridgetop

So now a new directive has come from Mayor Fartcetti.   Everyone is to stay home and no one is to go to relatives' homes for Thanksgiving.  While this may cancel Yi Pau's (DSIL's aunt) visit, my family of scofflaws will ignore it.  Safe behind our deadlocked gates, protected by our 3 Anatolians lounging on the lawn with their dessicated coyote remnants, we will make merry.

DD1 wants us to host a sleepover for the grandchildren next week  I told DH we culd do it on Tuesday when they normally come to work.  That way the next morning DGS2 will be in residence to make pumpkin pies with me.  He has asked to do this and I said yes in a misguided moment forgetting that DD1 would not show up with him till about 4pm on Wednesday by which time I will be deep in stuffing prep.  This way we get more work done and pies made early on Wednesday am which is when I like to do it.

Thanksgiving weekend is also the weekend my sons bring in the Christmas decorations and I start the 3 day process of decorating.  This does not include putting up the tree which is a 1 day process of its own since I no longer have small children to decorate it for me.    

The following week I start the Christmas cookie baking rite.    This year DD1 wants to bake cookie plates of her own which means that I must go to her house and teach her the hidden rituals of my grandmother's recipes that she has never bothered to learn. This is necessary since one day I will wake up and find that the Christmas cookie baking spell has deserted me. It happened to my grandmother and I had to take over the Christmas cookie baking for her. Soon it will desert me too and I must prepare the next generation in the secrets of the craft. Or never eat another of the special Christmas cookie recipes handed down in our family for 5 generations. If this tradition is allowed to be lost I will be cursed by my children's children unto the ages. Oh the responsibility!  

DD1 is not a very good cook.  It is sad since she does not really learn and never wanted to.  Her cakes are ok but not light and fluffy.  Her frosting is ok but not perfect clouds of delectation.  I think she inherited my DMIL's lack of tastebuds.  DMIL was not a spectacular cook either except for her pumpkin pies and homemade pie crust.   Darling Daddy did most of the cooking.  

BUT THIS IS THE YEAR!  DO OR DIE!


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## Baymule

Hey! I bet you don't know about your favorite governor! You have been so busy with weddings, illicit Thanksgiving plans and equally illicit, underground Christmas plans with _more than your own household in attendance! _HORRORS! What a conniving little criminal you are with your super spreader events!  You can play frisbee coyote with the grandkids!

Anyway, there it a petition in circulation to recall your buddy, Gavin. 

You are welcome!









						OFFICIAL RECALL PETITION: Recall Gavin Newsom | RECALL GAVIN
					






					recallgavin2020.com
				












						REBUILD CALIFORNIA
					

Unaffordable housing. Record homelessness. Rising crime. Failing schools. Locked down population while the prisons are emptied. Governor Newsom has failed!




					recallgavin2020.com


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## thistlebloom

Signs of intelligent life still in CA.


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## Baymule

In response the the 10:00 curfew now imposed on the people of California, they were protesting in the streets last night. Where were the burning buildings, the looting, the out of control crowds? Don't these idiots know how to hold a peaceful protest?


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## Baymule




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## Ridgetop

Bay! You always cheer me up!


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## Ridgetop

It is official!  The restaurant is closed for outside dining as well as inside dining FOR A MONTH!  That takes them past the wedding date.  They are not sure if Governor Gruesome will extend the closure through Christmas as well.   Nothing like destroying as many businesses as you can.   I will get back my money from corporate - IN A MONTH!  I have sent in the official request, now it must be sent to their corporate offices for a check to be issued refunding our money.  It takes 3-5 weeks.

I have a call in to the party rental company for a tent, tables and chairs.  However, he told me he is not sure he will be in business after Christmas.  Three generations and Covid and Gruesome are  probably puttig him out of business.  He will get back to me after Thanksgiving about what he can supply.  Three generations of rental business and another family business bites the dust.  Thank you Governor Gruesome!  

Governor Gruesome is in quarantine after exposure to Covd.  He is blaming some poor Highway Patrol officer for the exposure instead of the giant maskless birthday party he held for tons of people in a restaurant.   Apparently one of his 3 children at their private school (where they are getting one in one tutoring instead of classroom time) came in contact with a classmate who tested positive.  Enough about him.

I now have to decide whether to hold the wedding here, chancing rain, or cancel and postpone it.  I am getting tired and not sure abut my decision.  I will continue hemming the Maid of Honor's dress anyway since it needs to be done and will give me a respite from decision making.  DD2 actually always to be married from home instead of the restaurant so *she* is happy with the restaurant cancellation.

DH has decided to give away DD2 in his nice suit instead of renting a tux since FSIL has not gotten an appointment for a fitting or chosen tuxes yet.  DGS2 can also wear his lovely brand new suit as ring bearer instead of a tux.  Since this is a home wedding it will be totally appropriate.  I am now sorry that we decided on the gorgeous fairytale wedding gown since the original dress she tried on would have suited a home wedding better but it is too late for that.   She will look like a fairy princess still.  I can carry off this wedding but will have to make some changes.  

I suppose we will have to do plastic table cloths and paper goods.  Or I can go to the dollar store and buy plates and goblets for $1 each and donate them afterwards to the church or Goodwill.  Need to price the paper and plastic stuff first.  Cleanup will be easier with paper goods.  I have about 35 glass punch cups I could use for the mimosas with my 2 punch bowls and probably could find more at the thrift stores around.  DD1 might have a set too.  Need to ask her.  Mimosas in paper cups?  UGH!   Mimosas in glass punch cups?   Better . . . .

I need to discuss this with DD2 and FSIL - if they decide to put off the big reception and get married quietly by Pastor Arlo here at home.  Now that I am getting my $$ back I can go along with it for the reception.  But doing it a second time is rather tasteless although she will get a second wearing out of the dress . . . .   LOL

Either way, I have to get to work on this.  I have to send the rental company a list of what we will want to rent, and get a quote.  He told me they might not be in business after Christmas due to this constant quarantining.   I must send out change of venue cards to those that have RSVPed they are coming.  

The grandsons are coming over today for their standard workday.  they are going to be spending the night too.  That way we can get to work early tomorrow morning on the pumpkin pies.  I need to haul the turkey out of the freezer.  DS1 said turkeys are on sale for 47 cents a lb. so if I get another one it will do for the wedding.  

Thanksgiving is sneaking up on me this year    and then I have to put up the Christmas decorations. Bake the Christmas cookies, finish the shopping such as it is, and everything else in addition to the wedding. 

I am Woman - I can do this!  I have raised 5 children and survived.  I have pulled 100's of kids and lambs and not puked.  I am still with DH after 50 years!  I am STRONG, I am INVINCIBLE, I am also a little tired . . . .  

Slap myself !  No self pity!  Get on with the program!   AAARGH!


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## farmerjan

YES, YOU CAN DO THIS.  !!!!! All the nice things you listed/said in my journal, the least I can do is support you too.  I still think that getting them married, small reception, and then let them have the baby and start their life is going to be LESS STRESSFUL in the long run.  You will survive this.  
Do Paper, make it easier on yourself;  with the mimosas in glass.......I am sure you can beg/borrow/buy enough to make it work.  Might be fewer coming than you originally thought too before this is all over.   Once they get themselves settled, and the whole mess with shutdowns and all is done, THEY can host a huge summertime bbq/get together/celebration.  By then, you and DH should be moved and can just go back as GUESTS......

Gov Gruesome is a real piece of sh!t  trying to blame his "exposure" on some police officer rather than the whole  "DO AS I SAY, STAY AT HOME, WEAR MASKS, SMALL GROUPS OF NO MORE THAT 10.......RATHER THAN AS I DO WITH A BIG BIRTHDAY BASH, UNMASKED, OVER LIMITS OF PEOPLE NUMBERS.....ETC.......
Typical of those that do as I say mentality.... not taking responsibility for their own actions and then trying to blame it on the "average Joe" working person.  What a  jerk.


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## thistlebloom

Get them married. If it rains tell everyone to bring an umbrella. What's a little rain? It will make telling their wedding story to their kids ever so much more interesting. Even better than walking to school in four feet of snow, uphill both ways! Perfect weddings are so boring anyway.


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## Baymule

Better than that, if it rains, go to the BARN!!! A little sheep poop on fancy shoes will make it a wedding to remember! LOL

Wow, what a mess. Yes, you are WOMAN and you can do this. I second the paper goods and big trash cans. 

What a crying shame over the family business. How sad. What are people supposed to do? They show lines miles long for people lining up at the food banks here. People are out of work or working a lesser job and they are broke. Can't make a living if you can't go to WORK.


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## Ridgetop

"Out flew the web and floated wide

'The curse is come upon me' cried

The Lady of Shalott (sp?)"


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## Ridgetop

To paraphrase Alfred, Lord Tennyson - 

"Out flew her plans and floated wide
'The curse is come upon me' cried
Unfortunate Ridgetop."

Yes, I have been cursed and will suffer planning the wedding AGAIN!  

DD2 and FSIL have decided to have a tiny private wedding NOW and hold the formal ceremony and reception next spring after the birth of their baby.    

I am in the process of sending out postponement notices now.    Also cancelling al the vendors, and trying to get a future date with the Odyssey.  

Although I could have done the wedding here at home without a problem, here is the reason they decided to cancel.  Apparently FSIL is know far and wide among family members as a Doofus.  They are overjoyed that DS2 has taken him in hand and made him into something they can be proud of.  That said, they ALL want to attend the wedding, BUT the new Covid closures have made that impossible.   Since his family all want to attend and witness the NEW FSIL2 in his moment of glory - becoming a man instead of a Doofus, DD2 and FSIL have decided to postpone.    

Life sucks, and then you die.   

So at least I have everything done for the wedding and will just have to fight with hundreds of other bridal families to obtain a date in June.  It must be in June to allow the bride to recover her figure and get into her wedding gown.  She is tiny so maybe May (but that means that DDIL2 will have a month old baby) no, has to be June.  I will have to remake the petticoat since I made it to fit a pregnant bride.     I am extremely annoyed over this development.  I am designing Governor Gruesome and Mayor Fartcetti voodoo dolls so I can stick pins into them!!!  Guess where?

Anyway, over Thanksgiving we had strong winds that blew down the newly erected pipe corral fencing.  Not surprising.  To me.  I told DH and DS1 they would need posts in the ground every so often to support the 10'-24' corral panels that were just clamped together. I was ridiculed so now they are discussing how to re-erect the fence and support it.  Instead of digging a hole and putting a post in the ground, they are planning to attach a secondary panel at right angles to the long span.  This will apparently give it support.   I know the ground is hard and rocky, but surely digging a hole for a single support post every 20 feet or so will be better in the long run than wasting a full 10'-12' panel?  This is why I no longer involve myself in the plans of DH and DS1.  

These additional pastures were to be used with breeding rams and their designated lady friends.  As untrustworthy as these fences seem to be, I am rethinking that plan!   

Thanksgiving was very nice.  DD1 sent her 2 boys over for "sleepovers" with PauPau and GyongGyong Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  This was ok since on Tuesday they worked in the barn and on Wednesday we made the pumpkin pies.  It was decided by DH to extend their visit through Friday.  After all, they were no trouble to _him_.  

They did have to do a lot of barn cleaning, stall cleaning, etc.  They also worked cleaning the large night folds on the field.  DH pays them $5 per stall - divided between them. They were very unhappy to find that he pays the same for the 30' x 40' night folds as he does for the 5' x 10' jugs.     LOL   The jugs are dirtier though since the night folds are only for night and the sheep are out on the hillside during the day.  The jugs hold 1 ewe and her lambs but they are in them 24 hrs/day.  Also DH uses his tractor in the night folds.  Then DS1 moved one fence panel to install a walk through gate into the catch pen.  So much easier now to move ewes around.   And so happy he did it since Thanksgiving night - after dark - a first freshener proceeded to deliver her single ram lamb in the pitch dark.  I had told DS1 and DH that we really needed some floods on that side of the house to be able to check the sheep at night.   Instead, I went out with my flashlight and iodine in the pill container to dip the cord.  No need o move her since the jugs were all full! 

I had expected the second ewe in the pen to deliver before both first fresheners since she was, is, and continues to increase to ginormous size.  In fact, the day before thanksgiving she was laying on her side very still and I send DS1 out to check her.  She is so large that she looked like a dead carcass with her belly already bloated!  

On Friday we needed to move the ewes with the earliest single lambs into the creep but they needed ID first.  The drawback to all white sheep.   First we had to tag them, so we decided to tag everything except the newborn lamb.  That done, we proceeded to move the 2 ewes and lambs into the creep pen.  Now their stalls needed a recleanThen we brought the new mom and lamb into the barn.  DGD1 carried the new lamb, weighing in at 7.8 lbs.  She had ben allowed to spend Thanksgiving night with us since all the family were engrossed in the family board games ritual.  Except for me, stumbling around in the night fold with a flashlight and bottle of iodine.   

Anyway, we now have a free jug for the next ewe to lamb.  Tomorrow is the day when the grandsons come over to clean the barn again.  At that time we will weigh all the lambs, including those currently in the creep pen.  The 2 ewes in the creep pen will get wormed.  The 2 ewes with twins that lambed the week before Thanksgiving might be moved into the creep pen too.  That pen opens out onto the hillside where the lambs love to run and play.  Healthy for them to exercise.  They grow faster out there.  

My next group to lamb - 5 of them I think, will not lamb until January.  Although that huge ewe is due any time between now and Dec. 1.  She is also a first freshener, but her udder has developed, and looks like she is having twins or triplets.  I told DH and DS1 that if she as triplets and one is a ewe lamb, we will put up a covered dog run at DD1's house and give the ewe lamb to DGD1 to raise on goat milk and LambLac.  That way the new ewe lamb will be really tame like Snowflake.  I am it sure that a first freshener can raise triplets so am prepared to have to supplement.  With the children quarantined at home, they will have time to bottle raise a lamb.  DD1 used to bottle raise all her goat kids and is experienced at it so can help DGD1.  And I will have bottle raising a lamb off my plate.  Hee Hee

The day after Thanksgiving DS1 and DS2 brought over all the Christmas decorationsDS1 had the grandsons help string new lights to replace the ones that have burned out over the years.  Then he and DH went off to Lowes on Sunday and bought more replacement light strings.  They can't find the extra strings that they bought last year.  They are not sure if they finally put them up or we stored them somewhere.  DS1 has looked in our storage areas but I think they might have been packed in different storage box and I will have to go look for them myself.  Eventually.  Maybe.  

This year I did not go all out like I usually do  I did not put up some of the ornaments.  I am getting old and tired.  I think I will pack up some of my stuff and take it to DD1's house to decorate.  Next job, making Christmas cookies.  I have gotten clever about this since standing for days on my feet results in knee ankle and back aches.  Instead, I make the rolled and press cookie dough then refrigerate or freeze it.  The bar cookies have to be made the same day so I do them all on ne day.  Then, cool, cut package and freeze.  I devote one day to the press cookies and one day to the roll and cut cookies.  These are the special Christmas cookies handed down from my German forebears for generations.  If we spent a Christmas without these cookies my children would have a breakdown and there would be a great earthquake caused by my forebears rolling in their graves.  In order to prevent a massive undead uprising, I make these cookies every year.  

I really need to make a batch of fruitcake too.  It stays good since you just keep pouring liquor over it and freezing it, but I haven't made any in the past several years.  It is an acquired taste and I used ot make it for my aunt, uncles, and mother.  I am the only one that has the secret recipe from my Grandmother and she swore me to secrecy.  I was even forbidden to give it to my mother - her own daughter!  This legacy will probably die with me since not too many people like fruitcake anymore.  Probably due to the dry stuff decorated on top but with no fruit inside that is sold as fruitcake in stores.  The secret of a good fruitcake, according to my grandmother, is to have only as much batter as is required to hold together the candied fruits and nuts!  Then, you keep it moist with liquor.  It needs about 3 months to age properly.  Since nuts and candied fruits don't go spoil, and the cake itself is constantly moistened with whiskey or rum, it lasts forever in the freezer, just getting more and more hard proof!    My grandmother used to keep hers wrapped and stored in large metal barrels with the tops hammered down by my grandfather.  She made them before Thanksgiving and kept them stored airtight with the liquor poured on them till Christmas.  As a child I did not like fruitcake but with all that  liquor on them I now know why!  LOL

All my Christmas shopping for the grandchildren is finished.  Much of the shopping for my children and DH is finished.  This is a small Christmas year.  We seem to alternate between large gifts and small gifts when we recover and retrench.  Also as the children get older they don't seem to need as much or want as much.  DS2 hates getting money or gift certificates and he is the hardest to shop for.  DS3 is easy - if I can't find exactly what I know he would love, we give him $$ to put towards his next project or large tool.  DD1 doesn't have time for hobbies so not sure this year.  Each year I have given her a large coat sweater to wear while teaching, but since she is teaching from home, I am not sure what to give.  I would give them a puppy, but they have to want that for themselves to make the commitment.  DD2 and FSIL already got their gift early.   DD2's birthday is December 9 and I have some maternity clothes for her.  Maternity clothes for DDIL2 as well.  DDIL1 has started doing more entertaining at home so for her a chafing dish and other entertainment items.   Getting much harder to buy gifts for them now.

Anyway, I guess I will go out and see if I can find the lights for DS1.  I can check my huge ewe at the same time.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Ridgetop said:


> I know the ground is hard and rocky, but surely digging a hole for a single support post every 20 feet or so will be better in the long run than wasting a full 10'-12' panel?



 It may be moot by now, in that your DH and DS1 have already put up the fence, but I seem to recall that Miss Babsbag had a walk-behind Bobcat that she used for digging post holes.  Do you think you could rent one of those to make the work go easier?


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## Ridgetop

Sadly no.  This is on the front of the property and it is steep.  Not as steep as the 60 degrees in the gully, but still steep. 
 Not sure what they will do. I don't think _they_ are sure what they will do.  Having the front corral panels all fall over has put a crimp in their plans.   They  haven't done anything about them yet.   I think if  ask they will tell me they are trying to decide what to do.  LOL  DH just said that the ground is like concrete to dig right now.  I guess no field pens for a while.  Ground will soften if we have rain, but he wanted to order some field grass seed to spread when it rains.  I told him he should order it now if he plans to spread it before it rains.  Peace is kept by not offering suggestions.  He did say that he would need to rent a jack hammer to dig post holes.  I say whatever it takes but I am not strong enough anymore to do the job so . . . . 
Glad there were no sheep in there.  _Particularly _glad there were no breeding groups in those pens!!!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> DD2 and FSIL have decided to have a tiny private wedding NOW and hold the formal ceremony and reception next spring


That is what DW's nephew did. Original wedding planned for June at a resort, pushed out to October. They got married with just family and the reception will be held at the original venue next summer/fall.


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## Baymule

If you have been bad in life and you get turned away at the Pearly Gates, your forever punishment will be a Wedding Planner!


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## Ridgetop

No wedding planning until June.  New date is reserved at Odyssey for June 19th.  DD2 and FSIL will marry quietly, have baby and then we will have a recommitment of vows by the minister and the reception.  This will be an evening wedding.  A bit more $$ but will allow guests to travel in am and only have to spend 1 night in hotel or with family.  Work schedules will be unaffected.   No expenses left to pay except other half of Odyssey fee, flowers, and officiant.  Have bit ordered the mints yet so they will be fresh when we fill gift boxes.  
help
New news!  Have another offer on the Yelm property.  Full price (we may have priced it a bit low), 1031 compliance,  and 60 days to do their due diligence.  Problem is that I have to be very careful with counter offer since buyers are the selling broker, our selling agent, and a builder.  This means that there is a conflict of interest between "our" agent and the selling agent and buyer all being the same person - or at east 1/3 of the buyers.  Also with a complete lockdown on its way we will be hard pressed to find a ranch property to buy.  There is a time limit with a 1031 exchange.  There are also some terms in the contract we won't accept, and DH wants to counter with a reduction in the sales commission as well,  since the agent/broker is part of this buyer consortium

Now, where to look?   Northeast Texas?  But Bay and BJ might move . . . .   Oklahoma?  same problem . . . .  Mid Utah? - friend there will farm the hay ranch for us - he grows hay now, raises Dorper sheep commercially, and would like produce more hay . . . .  Buy nothing, just pay the capital gains taxes and bank the $$?  But Elizabeth Warren and the Dems are coming for us with a wealth tax . . . .   WHAT TO DO?    And how to look at property threatened with huge fines if we travel?
 HELP!


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

If you pick a state where you have a friend there, you could look at places online and have the friend do a walk through and Face Time or Zoom the walk through so you can "see" it better than just pictures online. Plus the friend would probably know a little better what you are looking for than a realtor. Sounds like a great opportunity but just need to clear a few hurdles first.


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## Baymule

What is the time limit for reinvestment? We love Smith County, but I am seriously considering Houston county. DD is job shopping again, no telling where they will end up. She is looking at south Dallas. Our son has 35 acres in Houston County, family land that goes back over 100 years. He may possibly be able to buy more next to his, that would bring him up to 50 acres. DD may move around, I really don't want to live right next to a big city. DS, if he builds a house on his land, will never move. It will always be his home, base of operations. DS's land is between Crockett and Lufkin, very rural. Perfect!


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## Ridgetop

I will have to look up Houston County.  We need to be within driving distance of a good medical facility at our ages.  We want to bring our sheep with us, or rather the best ones, and our dogs.  We need water, so east Texas.  

1031 Exchange IRS rules require the seller of a 1031 exchange to list the property for which they are planning to "exchange" their sale property before escrow closes.  The 1032 exchange rolls over the capital gains taxes into the new like kind property.  In this case, since our property was a rental we can roll over into any kind of commercial, rental, or business (farm) property.  We just have to find a property, have an offer accepted, and show it as our planned purchase within  certain time period before escrow closes.  Also in a 1031 exchange al the money goes through a 1032 Trustee.  You cannot have any access to the money or funds from the property.  If you do, the 1031 Exchange becomes invalid and you are responsible for capital gains taxes on any profits whether you continue the purchase of the new property or not.  

If necessary we can roll the 1032 Exchange into investment property - rental houses - but that would not give us the option to move onto a ranch that is already set up for our sheep and dogs when we sell our California property.   

This is  good opportunity to sell and buy a small ranch now.  Then after DD2's June wedding we would take several months living in our 5th wheel trailer on the property to improve fencing for our dogs and sheep, build barns or shelters etc.  First though we have to counter offer on this offer.


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## Baymule

Lufkin has good hospitals. It is in Angelina county, but you don't want to live in that county, taxes are too high.

How long does it take to close on a sale like that?


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## Ridgetop

They are asking 60 days to do their prelim stuff.  If it s in the contract that we must have a 1031 then they will have to extend until we have one  However, we need to report that we have an offer in on property and specify which property or properties we have offers on.  I have to look up the actual time limit.

The problem here is that I can't trust our listing agent to be on our side since he is one of the buyers and also represents the buyers as well.  That means I have to look everything up and do most of the stuff myself to double check him.


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## Baymule

Nothing like a self serving back stabber. You are way too smart for that. They don’t know who they are messing with!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I will have to look up Houston County.


Interesting that the massive city of Houston isn't in Houston County (which has a population < 25,000).


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## Ridgetop

I am sure that he will be ok.  It just means I have to be that much more careful in reading and specifying everything.  I always read _everything_ before signing anyway though.  When signing escrow papers usually the notaries only want to give you about 30 minutes to rush through and sign everything.  I tell them to allow 2 hours because I read every word of the final docs through.  Once I caught some errors that our interest rate by 1.5% and the resulting payment by several hundreds dollars.  In spite of being told the documents _*would be changed after*_ we signed them, we refused to sign the docs.  They were sent back and redone otherwise we would have been locked into a completely different contract!  The finance people said ti was a mistake in the office but we weren't going to sign anything that was not correct.


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> Interesting that the massive city of Houston isn't in Houston County (which has a population < 25,000).



We love Sam Houston, the first and third President of the Republic of Texas. Only fitting that we name a city, county and university after him. There is a park in Huntsville with a couple of his homes moved to it. History. Leader of the Texas Revolution, Sam Houston led the fight and won the Battle of San Jacinto, over the Mexican President, Santa Anna. Santa Anna signed papers, giving Texas our independence from Mexico. March 2, 1836 Texas Independence Day. 
Remember the Alamo!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I am sure that he will be ok. It just means I have to be that much more careful in reading and specifying everything.


Unless you have a buyer's broker, the real estate agent is always working for the seller, even the buyer's REA is working for the seller. Given the REAs' commissions are based on the selling price, they both want the highest price possible. When the buyer is also the seller's REA, I doubt they will work as hard to get the best price for the seller.


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## Ridgetop

I already told him  we are going to counter offer.  Our counter is *contingent* on us finding a 1031 property, we will *not *clean up or repair the property since it is to be an "as is" sale for building, and we asked to drop the 6% commission to 3% since the buyers are both the selling agent and broker, buying agent and broker, and buyers themselves.

He wants to discuss it at 3:00 pm today.  He did not print up the counter offer as I instructed.  We'll see.

At this point I am also considering our ages - DH is 77 and I am 70.  How many HEALTHY years do we really have to work our sheep in the future?  Do we really want to expand our sheep operation to make it profitable?  Will we want to move back to be near our children in the future when we are older (not in our prime as we are now!  LOL)  I figure we have about 10 years left to stay here, with DS1 to help us with the sheep and property.  After that DH will be 87 and I will be 80 - ready to retire to a smaller place.  

Maybe we should just 1031 the Yelm property into 2-3 separate rental houses in Texas.  Each of them would rent individually for what our single property in Yelm rents for.  The taxes would be higher, but would also be tax write offs. This would give us additional income to pay for hay purchases for our small Dorper flock here.  Eventually we can sell off our property here.  We will avoid some taxes by selling the 4.5 empty lot next door as a 1031 exchange since we currently show it as investment property.  Then we could rent in Palm Spring and spend our summer traveling or cruising.   I will call my TX real estate broker abut investing the proceeds in rental houses instead of a small ranch.

I really hate this Covid quarantine!  Otherwise we could be traveling to see other locations around the country.  Being restricted at home makes us feel OLD!  Feeling worried about the future.


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## Baymule

Age is a factor. Family is a factor. And Grandkids! Texas would be a grand adventure, but I think you would miss your kids and grand kids. Your DD2 will gift you with another grandchild soon. California politics suck, but that's where your family is.


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## Mini Horses

There are those "life" decisions you face!   I'm fortunate with only 2 kids and 1 grand.  All close, none moving.  For me it is, or would be, where to downsize.  Or just sell off part of my property and stay in place.

I got rid of all the investment properties a few years ago.   No more tenants!


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## Baymule

Mini Horses said:


> There are those "life" decisions you face!   I'm fortunate with only 2 kids and 1 grand.  All close, none moving.  For me it is, or would be, where to downsize.  Or just sell off part of my property and stay in place.
> 
> I got rid of all the investment properties a few years ago.   No more tenants!


How many acres do you have and could you just lease it out for hay or livestock? Put the land into a trust and it passes to your heirs, bypassing taxes-for now. Who knows what the wackos will do to taxes with all their "free" stuff?


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## Mini Horses

15 acres.   Yeah, could lease but not real interested in that.  DD doesn't want the farm, DS wants but, not getting.   So I would divide and sell, leaving main house and a few acres for DD.   There is a trailer at back now, DD lives there, so could easily work it to my advantage with sales.  It's a ways off before I feel that will come to pass. After all, I'm just pushing 75, not daisies     I'm thinking about 10 yrs out...downsizing will be more attractive.


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## Baymule

When I can’t stay on my feet and I don’t know who my kids are, I have instructed them to take me camping. In bear country. Rubbed down with bacon. Pitch my tent out a ways and don’t come looking for me. LOL


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## Bruce

Probably not the worst way to go.


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## farmerjan

Bruce said:


> Probably not the worst way to go.


It would be a horrendous situation as it takes a lot for a bear to actually kill a person..... 
I realize that is "tongue in cheek"  on @Baymule  's part.... and I fully understand the thought behind it, watching my mom going into a vegetative state with Alzheimers...... but ...... not a bear bait deal...... gives me the shivers......


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## Bruce

I was thinking maybe a wolf would be faster


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## frustratedearthmother

Heck no - no bear!   A bottle of sleeping pills and a box of wine while sitting in the middle of the pasture looking at the stars!


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## Baymule

I'd have to buy my own.......if I don't even know who I am, how am I gonna get my grubby hands on wine and sleeping pills?


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## farmerjan

They can help you out with that..... an overdose when you aren't in your right mind is not too far a stretch...... Alzheimer patients are constantly wandering away from their homes......


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## Baymule

If genetics is any indication, my mind will be clear and I'll live a long time so I can be a PITA to my kids and grand kids.


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## frustratedearthmother

Baymule said:


> I'd have to buy my own.......if I don't even know who I am, how am I gonna get my grubby hands on wine and sleeping pills?


It's called pre-planning lol!


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## Baymule

Hey @Ridgetop !!!! I just found great Christmas presents for your family! 

Amazon.com: Recall Gavin Newsom anti CA California Governor Gavin Newsom T-Shirt: Clothing


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## Ridgetop

farmerjan said:


> It would be a horrendous situation as it takes a lot for a bear to actually kill a person.....
> I realize that is "tongue in cheek" on @Baymule 's part.... and I fully understand the thought behind it, watching my mom going into a vegetative state with Alzheimers...... but ...... not a bear bait deal...... gives me the shivers......



I agree with @farmerjan!  Animal caused deaths are painful and nasty.  Not quick.  Predators will eat as soon as the animal goes down, often still alive.  I understand that freezing to death becomes painless at the end. 

However, since we know that @Baymule will give any of her children that try to rub her with bacon in bear country a swift backhand, we don't have to worry about that.   And BJ will take their bacon, scold them for wasting good farm raised pork, and get a  frying pan.  LOL

With labor saving devices - chutes, tractors, etc. we can do anything for a long time.  I am probably just reacting to being incarcerated by Covid with depression. 

Our Texas broker and friend sent us several promising properties.  One in particular that DH really likes from the computer photos.  50 acres with a nice little house.   *Address is 2815 Arrowhead, Gilmer, TX. * This is a working hay and cattle ranch, fenced and cross fenced with barb wire.  It looks in good condition from the aerial photos.  It costs more that we will get from Yelm, plus there are purchasing and escrow costs so we would need to take out a loan, but interest rates are lower at this time.  Possibly doable.  Would also have to find a tenant for the hay and cattle fields.  Cattle prices are low right now - is that right @farmerjan? - so maybe finding a cattle tenant would be hard but a hay grower might want to lease the property, allowing us to lease out the house.

I think DH really loves the yard and view of property from house.  I like the size and shape of the property.  Some of the properties we looked at are crazy shapes or long pencil thin strips.  This property looks accessible for haying machinery and has a large hay barn on the property.  It is called a hay barn but is enclosed so might not be suitable for storage f hay in a humid climate but would certainly be good storage for equipment.  The fact that it is set up for working cattle, with pens and sheds  is good.  With the addition of stock wire around the bottom of the cattle panels they would work for sheep too.  *I find no listing of a well or where the water supply comes from. * I really want a well even if they are on co-op water.  The house layout is not ideal - kitchen is bad location and small.  Closed off from the main room, but I suppose we could gut and redo.  Pier and beam foundation allows for moving utilities to a better spot.  Floors look great but are laminate so eventually we would possibly replace with tile.   I prefer tile floors for wear in livestock areas.  So much stuff blows or tracks in.  There are 3 bedrooms *and 3 bathrooms* which is odd for a 1973 built home, and looking at the single car garage door on the back of the house, it looks like they converted part of the garage to a large master suite.  Or maybe enlarged the master with part of the garage.  Anyway the house looks in good condition from the photos but they are deceiving.  Dual paned windows (no idea how old).  The cabinets look original but have been painted.   The kitchen counters are laminate, and eventually we might change out the bathroom counters since those tiny 1-2" tiles make cleaning difficult, but it would certainly be a rentable house.  We need to rent it out for a couple of years to conform to the 1031 law.  Also while we are making trip to TX for several months at a time to fence it in for the dogs and sheep.  We will live in our 5th wheel while we do that. 

I have been thinking about the fencing.  The property looks like it has been hayed for some time and the fields are in good condition.   I don't know how old those photos are.  I am considering fencing only part of the property for the sheep and dogs.  We don't need to fence the whole 50 acres yet, or possibly at all.  By keeping most of the property under lease to someone for hay and cattle, we could fence off part for sheep pastures, add a barn/workshop for the sheep to lamb and ourselves to work in.  The tenant would have access for haying equipment, cattle trucks, loading, unloading & doctoring his cattle, etc. without disturbing the dogs or ourselves when doing his normal business. 

While this property may not be available to us when we close our sale in Yelm, another hay/cattle property could be fenced in that way.  This makes larger properties more attractive since we would be able to carve out a smaller, more manageable ranch space for ourselves while keeping the farm exclusion on the taxes with most under hay cultivation and cattle.  Also I am considering adding Boer goats to our Dorper ranch when we move to Texas.  Our friend in Leander says he is getting much higher prices for his goats than sheep.  That is becoming similar here at our auction.  Goats are bringing more among the ethnic communities and they are starting to pass sheep in price.  However, they don't grow as large as quickly so probably lb. for lb. yo are getting the same  Since we have a lot of experience with goats, they might be a financially desirable addition.  I would have to disbud the breeding does though since I hate horns on animals.  Bad for fences and feeders.  Handy as handles, but otherwise, unpleasant. 

I am feeling more upbeat now after discussing this.  We will have to take out a partial loan since this property costs more than we will net out of Yelm.  However I think the rent would cover the payment and the taxes since the property would still be farm property with the exclusion  We would be renting out the house and the land separately.  I went on line and looked up the property.  It has been listed off and on since July 2018.  It was listed again in June 2020, and a price drop July 2020. 

DH wants to put an offer on this property once we have a signed contract in Yelm.  On the other hand if we can't find an affordable ranch in TX, we could just buy 2 rental houses to fulfil the 1031 Exchange rules, then finance them to buy a ranch.


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## farmerjan

You sound much better.... glad about that.  Yeah, the covid depression is real..... I have had a few days of feeling that things will never get done here.... then with the friend that is going to have that mini-excavator in a couple weeks to do the fruit trees and all.... and he agrees that it would be a waste to not move free trees..... THANK YOU !!!!!
So even if I don't get out of the rental for another month... with my crazy work schedule now.... I am just not going to be able to do everything so it may take a little bit longer..... but I can see some positives again. 

If you can get the Yelm property sold, then you have some leeway.... and if you can get a loan this is the time to do it.... I sure am glad to have a mortgage at less than 3%..... Yes, you have options.... you just needed a little positive response from the real estate person in Tx to give you a better outlook again....

I don't think this is my forever home.... even with the fruit trees and such getting moved here..... but I can make it as good and useable as possible for me right now.....  and I do not want to be rushed into getting things done.....but I was needing to feel like something was happening.... waiting on the floors was nearly a total deal breaker for me.... I was ready to just say to he// with it a few times.... but now I am feeling better.... and the fruit tree moving thing is making me feel better.  So, I am back on the positive side again....
SO, I GET IT..... and you will find something that will work and you really need to get out of that crazy state......


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## farmerjan

Forgot to answer.... cattle prices in Tx and those states in the area that have seen drought conditions are low.  It has affected our cull cows here, and lowered the prices on the feeder steers.  Part of that is backups in the feedlots again.... plants are killing slower with all the restrictions, and the increase in the positives.... and people having a "cow" over all this insanity.....And I understand that there is a problem with trucking again.... not enough to haul all the cattle that are being moved through the sale barns.  This is going to translate into lower prices through at least the early part of next year.  
If that is a hay farm/ranch.... that is the best way to go for awhile.  Hay is saleable... and if the hay barn can store it, then it can be held over for a few years if necessary.... closed in is normal here.... especially for sq bales... but rolls stored inside are definitely good too.  I think that in Tx there is more of a need for hay storage.... because of the weather/drought conditions that hit there.... and although you might not make alot of money off the hay lease..... it will keep your tax status if nothing else.  I am not a very good person to advise about Tx though... @Baymule  is there.... although I don't know how close to where you are looking..... We don't get the droughts like down there, we don't have the heat in the summers, and although we do have some dry seasons, and sometimes hay is a concern.... not like down there where it seems they have more problems with it than we do.


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## Ridgetop

@farmerjan - why don't you retire to Texas and we can make hay together!   
@Baymule can join us and we will have a great old time getting into trouble!   The boys can come bail us out! Or wait, DH and BJ will probably be in adjoining cells! 

You are right abut just keeping the property in hay for the farm exclusion.  If we have to pay to have it cut, I can deduct those expenses on a farm tax return and deduct my costs for the sheep here in California in the same farm return.  I think.  Have to check.  I can also deduct the LGDs expenses.  That ight be the best way to go and just lease out the house to a tenant.  

Seriously, I would not be so worried if I had any hay experience at all, other than book knowledge, and what I have learned from reading your posts on making hay.  Our hay experience is in alfalfa, not coastal hay.  I won't know if the hay tenant is improving the fields or ruining them.  I suppose if worst comes to worst, we will pay someone to harvest and bale the hay and sell it ourselves from the ranch if we can't find anyone to do it on shares.  I really don't want to bring in cattle since they are so much larger than the sheep and goats I am comfortable with.  In addition, their health needs and vaccinations amount to more than putting magnets in calves so is not something I am familiar with.  Even transporting our sheep to Texas climate will be a new earning curve in parasite control, let alone any other types of vaccinations than CDT, etc.

I rarely need to worm my sheep here in California's super dry climate but in Texas I will need to be testing and worming much more frequently.  Worm eggs don't survive our hot summers on barren ground here after they have eaten all the forage by mid summer/autumn.  When we have El Nino conditions of rain we do worm more but it hardly ever happens.  I might have to change my feeding program too since I will no longer be feeding alfalfa which is a very high protein hay.  Instead I may have to do some type of supplement, particularly to the lambs to get them to keep condition and weight.  On the other hand, since west Texas, with its poorer forage and grazing, is home to major Dorper sheep ranches, perhaps they will do just fine grazing and we will just have to use grain to train them to the new enclosures. 

My friend in Leander who mostly has forested scrub for his goats, says that he has few parasite problems either.  He has also done a lot of culling of unthrifty animals over the past several years to help that situation.  He keeps his goats for training his LGDs and is only interested in healthy animals and kids.  He has started feeding a copper rich supplement which has really changed the condition and survivability of kids too.  He says he is getting very good prices on his kids now, and is taking them to auction at around 3 months old.  He does no vaccinating and rarely worms any of his goats.

However, I do feel better and more motivated to sell the Yelm property.  Waiting now on the agent to respond to our counter.  We will have to go up there to empty the rest of MJ's personal papers (a lot of them are my grandfather's old accounting books, etc.) out of the 2 room bunkhouse where we locked them.  Also need to get the little antique pot belly stove from the old bunkhouse as well.  When we were up there over the winter when MJ passed we used it to heat the 2 room building.  ONE piece of wood lasted several hours and we worked with our jackets off!  I want it for the workshop or barn in Texas.   I'm taking it!


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## Baymule

That is a nice place. Here's another. Let me stir the pot a little.......

Houston County, TX Farms & Ranches for Sale | realtor.com®

This one already has a RV hook up, nice house!
Houston County, TX Farms & Ranches for Sale | realtor.com®

42.18 acres in Houston County, Texas (landsoftexas.com)

42.54 acres in Cherokee County, Texas (landsoftexas.com)


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## Ridgetop

Thanks Bay!

Been looking at places on line.  We want to stay *below* $450,000.  That $450K figure would mean we have to take out a loan of about $100,000 which would be covered by renting the house.  The hay fields would be leased to a hay farmer or cattle rancher who wanted grazing.  That would lower the taxes.  I don't know if we could find anyone who would rent the house and land together and farm.  We have found several places that would work for us.  

This place does not have to be the place we will finally end up in either.  It must just be usable as a ranch property and rental while we get set up for the sheep.  When we get ready to convert it to our own home, we will do some work on it if only cosmetic - paint, counter tops, appliances, flooring, etc.  That would all be written off against the rental.  The extra fencing would be written off against the farm.  Once we were in we would decide if we wanted to stay there or find a larger place that might have hunting land for our sons.   Once we were living in it we could apply for the disabled vet exemption on property taxes.  Also once we were in the place we could add on another room if necessary.  We are thinking 3 BR 2 BA.  DH wants a dedicated guest room though, so we might need a 4/3.  That is a lot to take care of though and I want to cut down on housework.  LOL  We could get another trailer, connect it to a septic dump, and use it as a guest house.  No heating or AC when we don't use it, and just clean it when company comes.  

Lots to consider, but we will be putting in some bids in late January/early February on several options.


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## Ridgetop

Yesterday grandsons came over.  They cleaned the barn and we weighed, tagged, docked ewelings, and doctored ewes and lambs.  The 10 week old lambs born September 28 weighed in at 63.2 and 62.8 lbs.  The ewe lamb of the pair is looking particularly nice and will be a keeper for now.  The next pair born October 11 weighed in at 57.4 and 48.8 lbs.  Again a nice looking set of lambs.  Will be keeping the ewe lamb for a while to judge her conformation.  Both these sets of lambs are out of my Lewis ram.  The ewes are starting to lose condition from nursing and we have started giving them barleycorn before removing them to get into condition for rebreeding.  We rewormed one of them.

The next lambs were born between November 3 and December 2, completing the fall lambings.  Two single ram lambs born November 3 and 5 weighed  at 42.2 and 33.2 respectively.  The next sets of twins and a single were born November 16, 18, and 19.  They weighed 28.6, 30.0, 28.8, 28.4, and 26.8 lbs.  The single was a ewe lamb out of one of my newest purchased ewes - sadly supposed to be bred to another ram, but did not take and was rebred to MoyBoy.  He produces very nice lambs so will be watching them as to keepers for the flock.  The final lambs were a single ram out of 8040's daughter bred to my Axtel ram.  I am not impressed by his get, but need to watch them mature.   That lamb was the smallest one born this year at 7.8 lbs.  He weighed 20.8 at 3 weeks.  The youngest lamb is the surviving twin in a pair of ewe lambs produced by the second of the two that were bought exposed but DNT and were rebred to MoyBoy.  This ewe is a definite keeper.  She is all hair and at 10 days old weighed in at 13.8 lbs.  Since one of my aims s to have complete shedders she will stay.

The lambs received shots, tags and the last momma was wormed.  DS1 had to resize the creep.  It is almost time to move the 4 largest lambs to the field.  Probably will do it Saturday.  Noticed that we need to trim hooves too.  So will have to move the ewes through the squeeze again.  One of the rams also needs trimming badly.  

Finally we drained 2 more Actinobacillus abscesses on one ram and one ewe.  Liquidy green Actinobacillus pus   !   Nasty, but getting used to it now and draining only took about 10 minutes.  Hardest part was catching the ram in the squeeze.  The ewe was relatively easy since I put up a head catch in the barn with a panel and DS1 simply ran her into it.  He had complained when I put it together, saying he would just catch her and hold her but that is so much harder. Once she was in the head catch, DS1 moved the side panel over to contain her and she stood pretty still.  5 minutes and the job was done, disinfected, and back she went.  He admitted it worked well so we left the head catch panel attached to the jugs and just folded it over along one side.  

Getting up from the ground there was a strange crunch in my GOOD knee and suddenly I couldn't stand on it for the pain.  I managed to hobble to the house but that knee would not bend!!!  I put heat and ice on it and while standing was painful, sitting  was worse unless the leg was lifted straight out.  Every time I rolled over in bed it woke me up!  This morning it hurts less, and I can bend a bit but still not a complete 90 degree for sitting in a chair.   Hopefully it will recover over the next few days - just hope that I don't have to pull any lambs or do any vet work until it will bend again!

It gives a whole new understanding to @farmerjan's knees!  Having one bad knee is a breeze since you can bend the other without pain but when both are a problem!!!  Go have them done Jan!    I couldn't go up or down the stairs properly with either knee!  And I only have one step inside the house into the new hallway/laundry/DS2 BR!  And no job!  And help to do the feeding!


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## Mike CHS

I really hope that knee is only a minor problem.


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## Baymule

Gurrrrl........ you're gonna have to have that knee chopped off and a brand new one run in under you. Floppy knees that hurt so bad that you wish a grenade would blow it off and leave it on the side of the road for the buzzards to eat, ain't no fun. Fine one you are telling @farmerjan to get her knees fixed, WHAT ABOUT YOU?   

My name is Baymule and I approve this message, delivered in a slow Texas drawl.......


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## Ridgetop

The knee is  much better.  it is bending now and the soreness is going away.  I am wearing my Tommy Copper knee brace.  No need for chopping yet.

DS2 and DDIL2 came home yesterday.  DS2 refused to let us know saying that he anted to "surprise us".  Luckily, I had a large leg of lamb in the Instapot.  The night before we dined on leftovers and they would not have gotten any.   Surprise!  LOL

Later today the DGS2 is coming back over.  DGS1 has homework.  We will sort out the spring ewe lambs and mark for the butcher and the keepers.  The neighbor wants a butcher lamb and DDIL2 wants one for her dad for Christmas.  She was disappointed when I took the last ones to the auction.  Both she and my regular locker lamb customer told me right afterwards that they wanted another!  I will call the butcher today to find out when he can take them.  Plenty of hands on deck so I am sure sorting will turn into a typical Ridgetop fiasco.  I can't wait.   

The Yelm property s in escrow.  The buyers have 60 days to determine the plat, permits, etc. to make a final decision on the sale.  Then another 30 days to close so we may own our property in Texas by Easter.  We have 3 properties our agent is checking on for us.  The first one we posted in Gilmer has 2 offers on it.  The husband the man just died so the wife is waiting to decide on offers for a month.  Marv loves it because of the yard.  We are also checking out a 42.54 acre property Bay found for us in Alto.  This property is long and thin which we don't like.  It has a pond, hay barn, breeding barn, etc.   It has been in use as an Angus breeding ranch so has the exclusion.  The house looks good as a rental, pretty large 4/3 but with 2 bedrooms upstairs, we can close them off until we get visitors.  Or convert them into an upstairs apartment for DS1.  There is a large additional office off the garage with separate wall AC, desks and computer hookups and set up with a TV where the owner probably watched the bull and cattle sales.  Plenty of room for our file cabinets, office supplies, business records, etc.  Or could be converted into a guest house.  It is listed at  $479K which is even more than we wanted to spend, but still doable.  The 3rd property is also in Alto but is only 17.54 acres.  This one has 2 houses on it, a larger one with a lovely pool, and a 2 BR house that could be rented.  There are hay fields and a barn, but does it have the ag exclusion and well?  Checking on that.  This one is attractive because it is listed under what we have to spend from the 1031 roll over.  And another one in Rusk - d10 acres with a stocked pond, 40 x 40 shop building with attached office and half bath, pool (but with a liner instead of gunite).  This one is even cheaper at $289,500 so would have leftover $$ for another rental.  

But is it what we want?  Lots of acres, but not enough for a hay operation or to rent for haymaking.  Large land with rental houses are a pain in the neck since the tenants destroy the exterior land by dragging all kinds of stuff onto it that the owner has to get rid of.   I don't think the last 2 are anything we would want to live in and although the pool is attractive, it is additional upkeep on a rental property.  If we want one, we can put one in when we move to TX.  The summers there certainly warrant one.  We love to swim and no one would would swim in the pond on purpose!  We would like to stock it with catfish though, since that is one of our favorite fish and fun for the grandkids to catch when they come for holidays.  Relaxing for DH too.  

However, it's good to know that there are a lot of nice possibilities out there for us to choose from that will work for our move to Texas, whether we choose to live on that property permanently, or move to a larger acreage when we sell the California house.  The California house has an extra 4.5 acres of vacant and which is listed as investment property on our taxes so we will roll acreage that into a 1031 exchange too.   We can add some of the money from the sale of our main house to purchase a larger property then if we decide to do that.  

I am also going to look up the requirements on the *Woodlands Exclusion* - keeping the property in woodland for wild birds and deer.  That would be an alternative to complete hay farming.  Also enjoyable to have some hunting area on the property for our kids when they come out with their families.   Half in woodland and half in hay pastures with sheep.   I may need to take some classes in woodland management to get that exclusion.  It woud give ur kids hunting and fishing areas though.  With free hunting and fishing for our kids they may decide to move out here eventually.  DS3 is already talking about it,  DD2 and her husband are saying once he finishes his apprenticeship with the union and is a lineman (which will be a while since the apprenticeships are closed at the moment because of Covid) they might come out.  She already said that they are going to rent instead of buying in California since they can invest their money in a rental house n TX instead.  That will also give them a pace to move to if they come out,  DS2 and 3 already have rentals in TX so we are gradually moving them east.  LOL

And to think I was ready to pack up for the rest home until my dear BYHer friends took me in hand and slapped some sense into me!    Thanks guys!  I needed that!


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## Baymule

Alto is a very little town with a 4 way stop crossroads. LOL LOL What they do have is a very active police department. Back when we met DD halfway to get the Grand daughter #1, we met in Alto. We all got speeding tickets.  BJ call the city office on his first one and talked to the city secretary for deferred adjudication. She got to know his voice and would say, Mr H did you get ANOTHER ticket?


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## Baymule

Have you looked at Anderson County?









						Elkhart
					

THREE BEDROOM TWO BATH BRICK HOME ON 34 ACRES. SELLER JUST COMPLETED THE FINAL TOUCHES OF NEW FLOORING, PAINTING, CROWN MOLDING, CEILING FANS, INTERIOR DOORS, WINDOW TREATMENTS, AND CUSTOMIZING SOME C




					www.landsoftexas.com
				




This one has two houses on it and 2 wells








						77 acres in Anderson County, Texas
					

QUIET COUNTY ROAD. OPEN PASTURE WITH POND FOR HORSES, COWS AND LOTS OF WOODS FOR HUNTING! Easy to access pastures and woods due to lots of rural road frontage. Well maintained 3/2 brick home (2046 sq




					www.landsoftexas.com
				












						67 acres in Anderson County, Texas
					

This GORGEOUS tree lined 67-acre property is a must see! The cross fenced pastures are excellent for grazing livestock and hay production. The spring fed, fully stocked pond is near 3 acres and estima




					www.landsoftexas.com
				




Red carpet? Orange formica? Plywood cabinets? This place is fugly. But it does have potential and the price is right, I bet they would negotiate.









						31.4 acres in Anderson County, Texas
					

WOW! Over 31 acres of land and the perfect bones for your farmhouse! If you are looking for a handyman special on a stunning piece of land, this is the one you have been waiting for. This 3 bedroom, 2




					www.landsoftexas.com


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## farmerjan

I think @Baymule  wants you to move......HINT HINT


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## Baymule

Just tryin' to be helpful......


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## Ridgetop

Back from a quick visit to Palm Springs on Wednesday afternoon to visit our TX realtor friend.  Kris has just closed escrow on a condo located overlooking the water hazard complete with migrating geese, pelicans several species of ducks, egrets, etc. on a golf course as well as another parcel with a 2 BR 1 BA house which he plans to rent out for vacation rental and 4 tiny units (singles and 1 BRs).   The 2 BR place had been redone with new kitchen and bathroom, paint, and floors.  Kris introduced us to some acquaintances as "special" friends who brought our truck to help him move furniture!  LOL

*Having read this back, I see that I am a REALLY BOSSY person who takes the bit in her teeth and runs with it, trampling over everyone in her way.  If I was a horse I would sell me!  *

I had promised to come help him shop in the consignment and thrift stores to furnish and stage the rental.  We extended our trip till Monday morning since there was so  much to do.  The golf course rental came fully furnished, but the bungalow needed everything from furniture to toilet paper!  Vacation rentals need everything supplied.  The price that it costs to rent one in Palm Springs is extortionate so you have to do it up nicely.  Otherwise you get really nasty reviews on Twitter.  4 days of non-stop shopping and picture hanging!  By the time we were done I was dead, my knees, ankles, hips, and back were screaming at me, and I was ready to collapse.  however, we got it done - Kris whined after each store every day but I drove him like I had an electric prod and he was a recalcitrant steer!  I kept impressing him that if he needed to get the place rented out as a vacation rental we had to hurry since the season in Palm Springs is only from October to Easter.  Between the end of May and first of October the temperatures are too high to attract many people, even with a pool.  He was going for a specific look in the little 2 BR.  He was trying for  mid- century modern, but the place was actually mid-century Pam Springs bungalow.  The golf course condo was strictly southwestern - lost of Mexican tile and those painted Mexican painted sinks.  Done custom when first built by first owner so no leeway there, particularly since it had lots of custom wood work in a very Spanish hacienda style.  Since it was furnished appropriately and he did not plan to rent it this year that was no problem, just the bungalow.

He had a budget and had already spent half of it on the new furniture and beds so our work was cut out.  I was able to fix the style even with the new ultra modern pieces he had already bought.  Orange upholstered headboards, gray backless sofas that can become extra beds, large round metal and glass coffee table, small mid century chairs in turquoise and orange, and a small dinette set.  No art, rugs, lamps, or other bedroom furniture, etc.  He said he had been looking for dressers and nightstands but had no luck.  I found him a very good Henredon bedroom set that was art deco - black lacquer with rosewood fronts - that went with the mid century bungalow theme.  We split it up and put the armoire and bedside tables in the master and the dresser in the second bedroom - the only way the furniture would fit.  Then he decided he hated the burnt orange headboards with the inexpensive turquoise print quilt sets he bought in a hurry.  The quilt sets did not look like anything you would use in a high priced vacation rental but were not returnable.  Kris decided he could use them in Texas, so we replaced them with white spreads which toned down the orange headboards.  With some minimal artwork, and bedside mid-century style new lamps Some excellent modern artwork in large scale, throw pillows, accessories from consignment and thrift stores, kitchen supplies from the Dollar store, and the job was almost done.  We still needed a couple of occasional tables for the living room, one nightstand for the secondary BR, and rugs to pull the rooms together.  The floors are Saltillo tile. A last run to Marshals got us the rugs, and a couple of light weight wicker stands which we topped with trays to made end tables, lamps, and a few inexpensive decor items.    Then I packed up his modern white china from the golf course condo and exchanged it for the cute china with TX brands he had in the bungalow.  I was strict with him and pointed out that the western ranch china did not belong in the mid century bungalow but would look ok in the Spanish hacienda place.   

Did I mention that I was *BOSSY*!?

We started Thursday morning and I drove the 3 of us like galley slaves!  I ignored Kris' whimpers that he was tired after 2 stores.  I didn't listen to his pleas to swim in his pool or soak in the hot tub.  Complaints of hunger were also ignored - no eateries were open anyway - thank you Gov. Gruesome!  Instead I made poor Kris eat fast food and shop till we both wanted to drop.  Luckily for DH, he opted to stay in the truck to "protect" our purchases.  He got in a few good naps that way.  Sunday we only had the artwork to finish hanging, and a couple items we still hadn't located.  Kris had decided he needed two cushy chairs for the rental but I vetoed purchasing them since he was almost out of budget $$.  He also wanted some chaise lounges for around the pool but we couldn't find any that fit his almost empty budget.   Instead I told him we should take 2 of the chairs with cushions from the hacienda condo and use them.  We would wait till January when he came back to get the chaises.  

We were supposed to have left Saturday afternoon but couldn't leave Kris in the lurch since he was flying home on Tuesday the 23rd and was hyperventilating about not having the property ready for rental.  Checking his emails he found that he had missed an inquiry the day before about renting for Christmas and the people had given him a bad review for not answering _immediately_. While Kris went to meet his handiman and rental agent on Sunday, and finish setting up the TVs, DH and I loaded the 2 chairs and cushions from the condo in the truck and went to the final 4 shops on the way to meet Kris. I lucked out at Revivals and found 2 country bedside tables for the golf course condo - $25 each with a 10% senor discount. At Goodwill I found 4 identical excellent quality chaise lounges for the pool area. They were $19.00 each BUT Goodwill was having a half price sale on all green tag furniture. EUREKA!!! 

$10 each for excellent strap chaise lounges and one even had a nice cushion.  The truck was full and so was the cab -  I had even managed to find the final decor items for the rental and my remaining Christmas gifts while shopping!     But I was still not finished since I had t go back t Marshall's for a rug for the small bedroom.  This room was cute with a campy picture so we had decided to get a fake sheepskin rug for it.   I finished hanging the huge art pieces at the rental on Sunday.  We arranged the lounges and chairs around the pool and did some final tweaking.  Everything looked great when we left that evening.  I even steadied the glass decor pieces on the open kitchen shelves with museum wax against earth tremors.  

Monday Kris left early to meet a new gardener to repair the irrigation system.  I packed and did the laundry ready to remake the bed.  Then I hung the last 2 large art pieces Kris had bought.  Originally they were for the rental then he decided they were not right for that place and we found ideal spots in the hacienda.  Although they are modern metal sculptural pieces, they blend in well as contrast pieces with the Spanish furniture.  Using a piece that is a complete opposite style (antique with modern etc.) can often make the entire scheme flow together better.  Then we loaded up, picked up lunch and met Kris at the rental to say good bye.  

I apologized for my bossiness but Kris said that he couldn't believe that we managed to get everything done so he was hay I pushed so hard.  Glad I didn't lose him as a friend.  LOL

Oh yes, while there in the evenings we looked at ranches and put in an offer on one.  Kris is also getting information about the one in Alto which is more money, but the land is currently rented out with a farming tenant already in place.  That 42 acres also has an operational well.  The 50 acres in Gilmer had a well but it caved in and the bid to repair the well was $18,000.  We would definitely put in another well or repair the exsiting well.

The 2 properties are shaped differently too.  Gilmer is almost square with much wider road frontage which means more taxes but has the option to divide into 2 - 25 acre parcels later.  It is the one with the caved in well.  The house sits back from the road almost in the middle of the side of the property in a bunch of trees on that one.  It is also 10 minutes from town and the Walmart.  That ranch is a probate sale and any offers must be approved by the court.  That won't happen till January.

The Alto ranch is long and narrow with a much larger house (twice the size so more taxes) but less road frontage, costs $50,000 more, has an operational well and has a farm tenant.  Whether the tenant will keep farming the place we are checking into now.   The house sits close to the road on the Alto farm too which I like less.  The agent on that place is out of town till January 2.  

No rush and we are still looking at other places.  We don't have to declare our prospective purchases until the Yelm sale actually completes.  We have a problem not being familiar with Texas locations.  We will go to Texas to look at these options in January or February.  DH says we will drive back instead of flying.

Got to finish working through my work emails, send off docs to Kris, etc.  Then tax time again!  Ugh!


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## Baymule

Kris knew who to call for help! That's awesome that you brought along your very guard for the purchases! Who knows what would have happened without your DH/guard???   

Which ever place you buy, it will be the right one.


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## Ridgetop

Kris just emailed that he will not be back in mid January but the end of January.  Did I frighten him off with the possibiity of more shopping?


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## Baymule

Here are some more, this one is 15 miles to Crockett

35.54 acres in Houston County, Texas (landsoftexas.com)

29.35 acres in Houston County, Texas (landsoftexas.com) 

This place is nice, but no inside pictures of the house

46.82 acres in Leon County, Texas (landsoftexas.com) 

2029 W State Highway 294, Elkhart, TX 75839 | MLS #63996550 | Zillow


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## farmerjan

You get things done and it sounds like you needed to be the one to get it done in the time frame and budget.  

I could not take the heat in Texas ..... winter time temps here are mostly not too bad.... 20's to 40's most days in the winter.  And we normally  do get a decent fall.....spring has been alot less springlike..... with "winter"going right into summer it seems.... But I could not deal with Texas summers.  I like a little snow and cold for a bit.  Would like it alot better if I didn't have these meat birds.... which I normally don't have this time of year.   If I was all moved  they would have been in the freezer already.  Oh well.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

_Happy New Year, Miss @Ridgetop!_


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## Ridgetop

Same to you and your beautiful gal!  

Hopefully this year will be better than last.  Vaccine for Covid will help, even though there is a mutated variant now. Like all flu virusess this one has mutated, but hopefully the vaccine will at least mitigate any effects of this new one. Kind of like we all get our flu shots even though the vaccine we get not work on all the new types.


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## Ridgetop

Weighed lambs on new Year's Eve.  All lambs in creep just hay no grain.
3 month old lambs weighing in at ram 72.4, ewe 67.4.  2.5 month old lambs weighing in at ram 64.2 nd ewe 54.8. These were twins.   

Next age group just under 2 months single ram lambs 54.2 and 49.4.  

Next bunch of lambs were still in jugs, weighed, 2nd vaccination and transferred to creep pen.
Age group 6 week old lambs - twins - ram lamb 41.6 and ewe 39.4, and ram lamb 39.8 and ewe lamb 40.6.
Single ewe lamb - 38.8

Last 2 lambs were both singles, and still young so kept in jugs for anther week or so.  9 ewes and 11 ewe in creep pen so kept these in jugs to avoid over crowding  Oldest 2 sets of twins are ready to go on field, kept in due to heavy rain and mud.  
1 month single ram lamb - 31.8; 3 week old ewe lamb - 24.6 (this ewe lamb was a twin but mama lost twin ewe.  First timer I don't think she realized another lamb was born and didn't clean off face - smothered in sac.      Next time she will get the hang of it.

Today we moved my original 2 ewes into the jugs.  They are not due t 1/5 and 1/12 but since the flock followed Carl's truck through the gate dinto the driveway and into the barn, it was a good opportunity to separate them into pens. The last ewe is due 1/17 and Blue 11 actually is looking larger.  DS1 caught her and I felt her little maiden udder tissue is just forming.  Last date for her to lamb is 1/19 so possible.  Probably a single if so.  her half sister lambed 11/26.

Time to choose a ram to turn out with the ewes that lambed 9/28 & 10/11, and the October/November 2019 born ewes.  

Several f the ewe lambs look really nice and will be keepers.  I need to make another appointment in March with my butcher for some of these lambs,  He was booked up through February when I called for a spot last month.  COVID butchering back up finally reaches California.


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## Baymule

Very nice weights on those lambs. So Covid slaughterhouse shortages finally showed up, huh? Did some Californians remember their roots and got with the program on raising their own?


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## farmerjan

3 months is a "butchering backup"  ????? How about a year or more backup here....
Better make a few appts  to have them as a safety net.... you can always cancel, they usually always have someone needing a spot to take a cancellation.

The weights on the lambs are VERY IMPRESSIVE.....


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## Ridgetop

Thanks, FarmerJan!  I figure to call Kent tomorrow and book a slaughter date every month for several months.  Three or four ewes due this month. so . . . .  

Around the Easter holidays I can save feed money by sending them to the auction and hopefully getting $135+/hd for 50-60 lb lambs.  However if we get more rain and forage the lambs will grow easily to slaughter weight (100+lbs.) for nothing.  Judging the market - the grower's dilemma.

Some of my ewes are due to be bred this month - yearlings that didn't breed last spring.  I will hold the spring lambs over for another 6 months.  And of course, the ewes with older lambs at side can also be bred back now.  I like to keep lambs coming all year round since I can only fit 5 ewes in my current jugs.  We really need to move to a Texas ranch so our flock can multiply and we can have more jugs.  

It will mean adding *at least* one other LGD.  Rika is starting to show her age - 8 years old.  One litter sister has already died, while Erick has retired her litter brother, Asker (Bubba's dad), since he was starting to show signs of age.  A close friend who helps Erick at his ranch has taken Asker to be her home and yard guardian.  Angel is 2. and Bubba is going on 5.  At the moment the three of them under Rika's training and guidance are doing fine.  However, Bubba is blind in one eye, and Rika is showing her age.  It is probably time to tell Erick we need another female puppy,  

If we were on our eventual ranch in Texas, he might loan one of his younger dogs to us for training in an emergency.  As it is we should think about adding another dog in a year.  I hate to think of Rika aging.  She s my darling.

We have been looking at ranches in eastern Texas.  Some of them have mainly native pasture grass mixed with some coastal.   I told DH we might eventually have to reseed which could be expensive.   

*Farmerjan:  *What would we have to do to reseed coastal into a field which has healthy pasture grass mix?  
Would we have to disc the current good grass under and then replant?  Or could we just reseed the field with a good hay variety and hope eventually it would establish over the current grass?  If and when this happens *Farmerjan *we will hire you as a consultant and have you come for a visit to give us your opinion. Not in the summer, of course. 😓

We don't know if or when we will be able to get our Texas Ranch.  Looking at properties and waiting on the Yelm "turn down" period of discovery to be over February 8.  At that time we will be in a very strong position to buy.  Judging by our luck though it will also coincide with removal of all quarantines and a giant surge in land purchases meaning we will not be able to find anything to buy!  

So far one offer was turned down by the probate court.  Another seller doesn't want to sell on a contingency even though the offer is cash.   *☹️  *However we are not giving up.  Determined to get to Texas!   

*Wagons East!  Gone to Texas!  (Soon )*


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## Baymule

Hitch up that wagon!! Will y’all be coming by way of 20-mule team?


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## farmerjan

@Ridgetop ;  thank you for the compliment of "advising" on the reseeding of the pasture.  However.... I am not the one to ask because the conditions in Texas are way different than here and I am not at all familiar with the soil or the grasses that grow there.  I can tell you that if the native pasture is healthy, you will need to do renovations of a sort to get a new grass established.  discing and seeding at the least.... all according what the existing grasses are, even a kill of grass to get a cleaner seedbed to reseed.  You need to talk to the extension agent or soil conservation people.
I am not a big one on chemicals.... but in order to kill off the existing grasses, you may need to use chemicals to kill off the existing grasses.
One thing that we do to renovate pastures and hayfields..... we will plant something like corn or sorghum-sudan grass.  Using an herbicide for the corn, no-till into the field;  then it will get tall enough to then shade out most of the weeds and grasses, that were not killed by the herbicide.  Then when the corn is harvested, the ground is basically bare, plant a cover crop for the winter, or in the case of Texas, possibly plant a pasture mix you want, in the fall so it can get established and then in the spring it will come on fast and will help to crowd out any of the weeds/unwanted native pasture.  
Understand that the native grasses there are usually the ones that will withstand the droughts and heat..... you might be able to interseed some other varieties of grass/pasture so that you will have the best of all worlds.  Drought tolerant natives for the hottest part of the year, cultivated/planted more desireable grasses for the cooler weather.  I honestly don't know the first thing of dealing with the heat/drought/temp swings that @Baymule talks about.  You need a "native" of the area that knows the soil and what will grow and not grow there.


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## Baymule

For grazing, a mixed pasture has a better chance of always having _something_ for livestock to eat. Plus, there is better nutrition in a mixed pasture. For hay, the preferred here is Bermuda, usually Coastal or Jiggs Bermuda.


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## Ridgetop

If the pasture grass is healthy, probably just better off to let it grow, keep it healthy, and make a grass hay, or just let the livestock graze it.  Maybe cross fence to small pastures for rotational grazing.  Let the sheep graze it to 2"-3"  then move them to the next enclosure.  Repeat and move.   ???


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## farmerjan

Rotational grazing is always the best option for the land, and grasses growing there.  Better to buy your hay.... get it early and store it.  If you don't need it, it will keep if under roof.... Maybe get it made on shares if it is a farm that has had previous hay made on some of it.... and you can get the current farmer to continue to make it......  One of those things you will have to see about as soon as you find a place and get serious about buying it.


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

I am excited for you, Miss @Ridgetop!


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> Hitch up that wagon!! Will y’all be coming by way of 20-mule team?



More like 300+ diesel.  LOL  Once we we are on our ranch though we will have the obligatory equine (Josie the Mule) in our field to avoid being run out of town on a rail for having sheep instead of cows.  LOL


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## Ridgetop

By the way. did any one else get the UD NASS Sheep and Goats Report to fill out?  I just finished mine and will send it back (a little late apparently but it's for the government).  If anyone had to fill out one did you notice that the predator control information was mainly about goats and kids, not sheep?  I just filled everything out except for the goat information on losses, births, etc., as it related to my sheep.  It must signal a large movement into commercial meat goat production.

BTW, we just returned from Nipomo and DS3 said that a neighboring rancher's fences came down and his flock ended up at his next door neighbor's.  The neighbor agreed to keep them on his 5 acre back yard while the rancher repaired or ran new fencing.  Apparently coyotes got in and killed a ewe.  When they found her there was only one leg left of the carcass!  

The neighbor does not have any guardian dogs since they don't have any sheep of their own.  

DDIL1 and I spent a pleasant several hours looking a ranches we would buy.   DS3 wants to come to Texas and so does she bit she is worried about jobs for linemen.  He is a foreman here.  He found one job in southeast Texas but they didn't know where that was until I told her it was not far from the areas we had looked for ranches.  We seem to be moving all over the eastern Texas area looking.  LOL They want a small ranch eventually too.  He already has a new Kioti tractor, our old Farmall tractor, and the attachments.  Just needs the hay equipment.  He already knew the steps in cutting, tedding, windrowing, and baling.  Proud of him.   LOL  They are just not sure he could make a living there. She doesn't work and they have 9 year old and 6 year old boys.  

They had finally butchered their turkeys.  He hadn't had time for the past couple months so they just ept growing.  the largest one weighed 45 lbs. dressed out!!!  They skinned them, cut them into sections to freeze and were going to grind some of the meat as well.  They offered me all the necks and I was willig but told DDIL that if she put them in the pressure cooker she could make dog food like Baymule does.  DDIL might try it.  She could also boil them all up and strain the liquid for a straight chicken stock.  DS3 offered me some of the meat and I brought home 4 thighs.  Each one was huge. - maybe 5 lbs.!  DS3 and DDIL referred to their turkeys as "dinosaurs" because of their size. and judging from the thighs they were about that size!  They love raising turkeys each year along with the other types f chickens DDIL raises.  She is finally able to order chicks after several years of Newcastle quarantine.  Ordered some sort of Giant that was black, as well as a few other breeds.  They like to experiment to find ones they like.


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## Baymule

A 45 pound turkey! That would make turkey soup for a year! LOL I guess they like them some turkey.   some kind of chicken, a Giant that is black..... might be a Jersey Giant.

I did not get a UD NASS Sheep and Goats Report  to fill out. What is a UD NASS? Sounds like some sort of uterine birth control device..... 

USDA NASS maybe?


----------



## Ridgetop

That is right - a Jersey Giant, I had forgotten the name.  Tiny chicks in her brooder and 3 enormous black ones!  LOL  

Sorry, it was a *USDA* NASS.  Unites States Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Service Statistics report. This was the first year I got one.  I usually get the farm report asking if we are still raising crops, timber, or livestock.  I fill that one out and show us as semi-retired.  This was a completely different survey.  

The turkeys were a little too large - I cooked 2 of the thighs in gravy tonight but they were sort of chewy.  DS1 and DS2 said the meat was tough.  Of course, cooking skinned chicken or turkey does not give it the tenderness you get when cooking it with the skin on.  I sked my son if he had forgotten what he learned in 4-H when our entire turkey project group entered beautiful 35 lb. turkeys and were disqualified because their turkeys would be too big to fit through the mechanical pluckers!  DDIL said that DS3 was working 7 days a week and didn't have time to kill and dress the turkeys until over Christmas holiday.  

DDIL said they got themselves a mechanical plucker for Christmas to do the Cornish crosses she raises.  Naturally it would not fit the giant turkeys.  LOL  In order to cook one for Christmas dinner they had to cut it into pieces and drop the pieces into the hot oil cooker!  LOL


  Here is the ewe that is due to lamb tomorrow.  This picture was taken from the driveway looking into the barn windows.  I don;t ever remember seeing a ewe that wide before.
  Here she is again at the bottom of the photo.  The ewe at the top is huge to and due on the 12th January.  She did not shed clean this year.  Both these ewes are my two oldest ewes, the first White Dorpers I bought.  They are bred to my Axtell ram.  I haven't gotten many ewe lambs from him so far, and the 2 that I have from last year I am not too impressed with.  I sell all ram lambs for meat so even though one or two have looked promising I didn't keep any. This is his last chance at producing lambs that I might keep.  Otherwise he is going to be sold.  He is a good ram with terrific bloodlines, but he doesn't seem to blend well with the ewes  I have.  It happens that way sometimes - 2 different bloodlines that produce excellent individuals just don't work together.  This ram should have worked well but doesn't.  Oh well.  My other two rams have been producing lovely lambs, particularly MoyBoy.  Lewis produces fast growing meaty lambs.  2 out of 3 isn't bad.

Tomorrow the grandchildren and DD1 and DSIL will be coming to spend the day and night with us.  Truffle the Guinea Pig is already here.  They are having their house treated for bed bugs.  They have no idea where they got them.   The treatment is some sort of high heat thing and they can't stay while it is being done.

Since they will be here, the boys will clean stalls and help move some sheep around.  Several ewes need to be moved into a breeding pen with a ram.   If we can do it, I will try to move everyone into the chute and squeeze and trim feet.  Doing these jobs makes me realize how much easier it will be when we move to a proper ranch with proper chutes for moving the sheep.  Chasing animals is fine when you are young and have young children willing to run and catch the animals.  Now I am in my prime (_not_ older) I realize that wasting time like that is silly.  Also crippling.  I also realize that as I mature I have less patience with children who herd a flock much less catch, hold or flip a lamb so I can give it a simple injection.  Maybe leaving the grandchildren behind won't be so bad after all.  And when we come back for a visit we will bring canes and walkers so they will wait on us!  **


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## Baymule

That ewe is WIDE! Maybe triplets!


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## Ridgetop

Or she just wants to make sure we know she is pregnant!  LOL  She had to squeeze through the jug gate.  

I bought her as a yearling ewe several years ago from Wes Patton along with 7088 when switching over to registered White Dorpers.  She will be 4 years old the end of the month.  She has produced very well for me, lambs easily, milks well, a good mother.  This is her 4th lambing.  She is a Dorper so is on accelerated lambing schedule every 8-9 months.  I have bought a number of ewe lambs and yearlings from him and they are exceptional producers.  My beloved knee fixer 8040 (RIP) was also a Wes Patton ewe that I bought the same time as a lamb.

Waiting for 7041 to drop her lambs today.  The other ewe, 7088,  is not quite as wide, and due on the 12th - while we plan to be in Texas.  DD2 is on standby pulling duty with DS1.  She has learned well from me about getting the lamb breathing and will be able to reach inside with her small hands  I will leave gloves out for her.  DS1 can coach her but his hands are too big for the ewes that have lambs in them.  It gets tight in their!   I actually don;t anticipate any problem lambing from either one of them though.

For some reason our LGDs have taken to howling.  Day or night it doesn't matter - I don't hear any sirens but they probably do.  Some nights they howl for hours though.  It doesn't carry down to neighbors though so no problem.  Or the neighbors don't know where it is coming from.  Or don't have our phone number to complain.  

Nope, going with can't hear it.  

Woke up this am with grandchildren sleeping here.  We went to bed after 11:00 and they were not here yet so figured their parents were bring them over this am instead.  DGD1 is currently ensconced in our bed watching "My Little Pony" cartoons.  Her mother loved and collected My Little Ponies,  DGD1 has them now,  DGS1 and 2 are playing tablet in spare room.  Just heard DD1 and DSIL arrive.  They are talking to DH in other room  Guess I will have to go see what is happening.  DH is bringing in 2 loads of hay today in preparation for our trip to Texas.  Grandkids and DS1 will stack it.  DSIL might have to work from home on his computer.  

DH told me last night that we are leaving this Saturday or Sunday for Texas!!!!!  That sure snuck up on me!  Got to start packing for trip.  DH wants to drive.  He doesn't want to be "trapped in airless tube in sky contaminated by Covid".  We will drive and stay in motels along the way  I asked him about Covid germs in the motel rooms but he said they would be fine.  Go figure!  He loves to drive.  Will smear mud on our license plate once we hit Texas border so they won't turn us back.  

Got to clear up paperwork on desk before we leave, get Hot Spot loaded and take computer.  Also heavy clothes and muck boots for tramping around farm properties.


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## Baymule

Get some Lysol spray if you can find it and spray the hotel rooms. The label says it works against Corona virus. It seems that Corona virus has been around for a long time.......this new strain just popped up? I'll stop here. 

Y'all come on!


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## Ridgetop

Got it!  Lysol spray.  Hope the stores have some in stock.  I have an old half full spray can, maybe I have some liquid Lysol and can make up a solution.  Will look in cupboards and also look in stores for a  liquid bottle.  Packing tomorrow.  Bringing sweaters and sweatshirts (Yelm winter clothes) and muck boots for walking off acreages in TX winters.  LOL.


----------



## Baymule

Lysol spray kills Covid 19! It's on their web site. Spray the room down, then go eat. That spray makes me choke.  I guess it's killing my viruses. 






						Lysol® Disinfectant Spray
					

Lysol Disinfectant Sprays kills 99.9% of the viruses and bacteria* your family comes in contact with every day. Our disinfectants can be used to eliminate germs on commonly touched hard and soft surfaces. This spray eliminates odor causing bacteria and kills mildew, mold, viruses on most...



					www.lysol.com


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## Ridgetop

That annoying 7088 has not lambed yet.  I know she is holding in those lambs by sheer ornery will power and her desire to upset me!  Darn sheep!

DS1 moved the rams up yesterday to the small crral so we can sort out which one to turn in with the breedable ewes.  He and dsil went down and put up the TIPI shelter again for the rams.  It had blown flat months ago.  This time they used a guy wire to hold the bottom poles of the panels together so they can't spread out and collapse flat again.  I wanted DS1 to also attach the other 2 panels to the corral fencing so they would make an additional shelter for the sheep in the large fold.   There are too many sheep to take shelter in the existing TIPI shelter so when it rains they crowd in and remain standing like sardines.  

I think we can also move in another corral pane and put it in the corner to make the framework for attaching the panels like a flat roof.  The roof would be only 5' high but being lower would keep it from being blown off.  DS1 said he has to think about it.    Oh well.  

The metal roof panels are the old horse stall roof panels from our old horse corrals.  They blew off in a really bad wind (we get these 90 mph winds every couple years) and flipped the corrals all the way down the hill.  Luckily we had turned the horses out into the field  during the night when the wind got really bad and woke us up.  We have about 6-7 roof panels that are in god condition - 4 of which are being used as TIPI shelters, and 2 others that could be used as 8' x 12' flat roof panels and give more shelter, or made into another tipi.  We also have a smaller panel and a frame with the galvanized metal torn up.  We could attach either fiberglass or metal corrugated panels to that  frame to make another roof panel.    

DS1 is working on extra fencing for our young ewe lambs that are not breedable yet.  I will probably sort them out and decide to send a couple to the auction to cut down on the feed bill.  Several of them are keepers.  I have several ewe lambs in the very young bunch in the barn that look pretty good, at least 2 that we will keep for replacements.  Once we move to Texas and have grazing, it will not be as imperative to cull the ewe lambs since the market is better there for Dorper lambs.  Loading a trailer with a couple dozen lambs for the slaughterhouse will be just as easy as loading 2 or 3 now.  

If this 1031 property sale doesn't result in a ranch property in texas, we will invest the money in some ther rentals t avoid capita gains.  It will give us more income, but might stop our move to Texas.   For the eventual move to work, we need to by a ranch property ow so we can start moving a lot f our equipment there.  I don't mean sheep equipment either.  We have boxes of hot wire and insulators in the shed.  We have a whole rabbitry worth of cages, automatic watering equipment, nest boxes, transport cages, judging cages, feeders, cage making tools, and miscellaneous rabbitry equipment, etc. stored in the shed.  Also boxes of tack that need to be sorted and much of it given to my DDIL.  We used to have 7 horses so lots of tack stored.  Not to mention extra feeders, tank and automatic waterers, stall mats, etc., etc.  Some of the show equipment can go to DS3's kids.  The stanchions and shearing equipment will come with us.  Not to mention about a dozen large and extra large plastic airline dog crates in which we transported our small goat kids to shows.  Might need them so better bring them to the ranch and store them.

I figure we will have at least one building on the ranch that can have either a dead bolt installed or a padlock.  On our trips to Texas we can pull trailer loads of stuff back to store in that barn.  Moving will take about 2 years - just look at Farmerjan and she is just moving her household items and poultry!  LOL

The sale seems to be moving along.  The last date to cancel the sale for the buyers is February 8.  I don't think they will cancel.  They are getting the property for $25,000 less than DH originally told them to list it for.  The agent and broker (his mother) and their friend who builds large developments are buying it together.  The mother told me that she and her son are the "money people" since the builder has to finish off another project and his $$ is tied up.  They submitted a letter from their bank that they had the full sales price in cash available.  I think they realize that this is a prime piece of property and will be closing n it.  The escrow date to do final closing will be 1 month after the final date (2/8) they can cancel so it will move along quickly.  We have 45 days after closing to identify the 1031 exchange properties we are anticipating buying nd 180 days after that to close.  We can't change the identified properties past the 45 day period though so need to work on getting an accepted sale bid on a ranch.

I am glad we are selling the Yelm property since the 1031 exchange lawyer told me that Washington state which currently does not have state income tax and thus no capital gains tax on property sales is trying to get through a bill that would allow them to collect a capital gains tax on Washington properties sold.  Capital Gains tax is  form of income tax so Washington would have to amend its constitution to put in a state income tax before they could do this Capital Gains tax.  This has been defeated twice.  The state legislature meets in April or May and the legislatures are all liberal democrats who love the idea of more taxes.  The 1031 guy said they want to make it RETROACTIVE to January 1!     How they could do that when no one in that state has ever filed a state tax return is beyond me!  1031 guy said he thought they would probably try to get everyone's federal returns to use them.  

On another note, California's own Gov. Gruesome is working n a new sales tax on California property - 10% on the property sale to be collected from the buyer!!!     That will certainly destroy the property market!  Buyers will want the sellers to pay that tax and the sellers won't want to.  It may come down to each paying half of the tax.  I don't see how that can work either.  Liberals don't care where the tax money comes from, they just want lots of it.  And a majority of their supporters are welfare and illegals who don't own property so won't care about that tax.  Their other supporters may be horrified, or if they have enough money might find ways around paying it.   

Buying gold and silver looks better and better.  I wish I knew how to send my money into an offshore account,  It looks so easy on TV!  

Back to happier topics - We are leaving Sunday for Texas to look at ranch properties.  We would like to get something lined up for the 1031 exchange.  If we can't get anything this trip, we will go back in February once the cancellation clause is no longer in effect.


----------



## Ridgetop

Going to go pack up the Christmas decorations.  The grandsons have brought up all the storage boxes.  It seemed like Christmas time with decorations up only lasted a few days this year!  Going to seem dark and gloomy without all those Christmas lights!


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## Mike CHS

We got most of our decorations put up but we are leaving the little tree out a bit longer.


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## Ridgetop

It is a happy thing!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie

Miss @Ridgetop,

I hope there is a railroad spur line going to your house, because after I read just how much you have to move I think it's going to take a freight train of box cars to move your stuff! 

Senile Texas Aggie


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## Ridgetop

Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> I hope there is a railroad spur line going to your house, because after I read just how much you have to move I think it's going to take a freight train of box cars to move your stuff!





Actually, STA, funny you should mention that possibility!  One of the properties that we liked the most had 2 houses on it - one older and one newer, barns, well, good pipe fencing, hayfields/pastures, and some trees.  Looked perfect and we would have put in an offer sight unseen (other than pictures) but on looking at the property through Google maps we discovered that A RAILROAD LINE DOES RUN ALONG THE ENTIRE PROPERTY LINE, PASSING ONLY 110' FROM THE OLD RANCH HOUSE. 

That certainly answered the question of why the newer house was situated on a different corner.  However, the newer house is only 310' from the railroad tracks.  While the possible ease for shipping our goods and equipment back to Texas is undeniable, the noise might be disruptive to our lives.      And sheep?  And dogs?  

On the other hand, DH is pretty deaf so when he said the RR wouldn't bother *him* I believe it. My mind keeps leaping to the "My Cousin Vinny" film when their first hotel is situated next to the train tracks and they are awakened in the middle of the night by shaking, rattling, and loud whistling as the freight train comes through town. 

It is a nice property though and checks all the boxes so we will look at it and check on how often the train comes through.  DH suggested it might even be an abandoned spur. 
The listing refers to the property being situated on a "QUIET COUNTRY ROAD" but since advertising is traditionally misleading, you notice they do not mention the RR tracks.

Anyway, DH and I are leaving on Sunday to drive back to Texas to look at ranch properties.  We have found 6 that fit our price and other requirements.  If we can't get a contract on one of them, we will go back in February and look again.  

The properties range from 42 to 77 acres.  We need to verify the Agricultural exemption, as well as other things.  One has what looks like a fenced off 3 acre former oil pumping spot with tanks in place.  We will need to check that for previous sale of oil rights and whether the pumping has been abandoned or the oil company can come back anywhere on the property and pump again.  Everything else is good on the property.  

Our favorite property (property only) has a spring fed year round creek and pond, with lots of lush pasture, a small pecan and fruit orchard, and lots of good cattle pens and barns.   BUT (there is always one of those isn't there?) the house was built in1947.  Not intimidating to us - our first house was built in 1920 and we remodeled it and loved it. The problem with this house was that there were only 2 photos on line of it.  I kept researching the property and finally found the original listing photos from 2014 showing all the rooms and the room sf.  This little house - so cute from the outside - is typical of old farm homes.  (DH's family all were farmers in Kansas and Colorado.)  Start out small on the house because the barns and fields are the important part of your farm livelihood.  The house has a porch of course.  Have a couple kids, enclose the porch for a bedroom.  Build another porch.  Have more kids, enclose that porch for a bedroom.  ETC!

This house was renovated with dual pane windows and a new kitchen and bathroom in 2012.  Sold in 2014 and never lived in again.  We were excited until I found the pictures showing THAT THE ORIGINAL OWNERS HAD BUILT ON AND ENCLOSED PORCHES ALL AROUND THE MAIN LIVING ROOM.  THAT MAIN LIVING ROOM NOW HAS *NO WINDOWS OR DOORS TO THE OUTSIDE AIR.  
*

*Oh yes, and it has a cute wood stove.  Can anyone say carbon monoxide poisoning?*


However, in search of the perfect ranch we will look at it.  As well as the oil field, the railroad tracks, and the completely outdated house full of wallpaper.  No stone will be left unturned in our search for the right ranch at the right price.  

Baymule has offered to accompany me and support me through this ordeal.  Naturally, as true and loyal BYHers, we will examine the barns and fences before the house - which we have agreed can be brought up to snuff once we are living in it.  

I am bringing wine.

*LOTS of wine!*


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Oh yes, and it has a cute wood stove. Can anyone say carbon monoxide poisoning?


Do they not have a stove pipe to the outside? Just pumps the smoke into the house? 
A lot of us heat at least partially with wood stoves. 

That RR 300' from the house could be a problem or a BIG problem if there also happens to be the type of road crossing where every train will have to whistle.


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## Mini Horses

My farm is next to a RR.  It was sanctioned for 2 runs a day.  I bought anyway as everything else was great with this piece of land.   I doubled all my foundation sizes when I built.  No issues.   After buying, I found one train went thru at 3-3:15 am!  Whistles and all.  . But, not a huge issue, especially with windows closed.  After about 3 yrs they stopped using it.   Track still there, no trains.  

So look anyway -- you never know.


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## thistlebloom

We heat with a woodstove and have never died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Not even once! 😄
We installed it to code and use it the way it's supposed to be used (basic common sense there). We also have a CM alarm, just to be thorough. 
I love wood heat, nothing else comes close. We've used wood burners for 42 years, but I can understand it might make some people nervous.
For instance my neighbors will not eat any home canned food EVER, because they knew someone once who died of botulism.

And a RR may or may not be an issue like Mini Horses said. We are three miles from a double and a single track that goes through our little town. We are about 200 feet higher so the sound of the horn carries. But if you aren't close to a crossing you don't have to worry about hearing the horn.
Three miles isn't 300 feet, but you do adapt and learn to not hear it.


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## Bruce

That is supposedly true. I've heard that people who live near tracks with trains that run pretty much on schedule wake up if the train DOESN'T come through on time.


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## Ridgetop

We are going to look at it. If the RR does not go past all the time it might be ok. The tracks run past the entire side of the property between the road and the house. Not even on the other side of the road.    The second small house needs updating (window ACs) but will do for a second rental until we move back there and reno it.   Since this property is $450,000 we will need the rental to offset the loan we will have to take out in the property. Doable though if we love the property.  

We used to live on a very busy boulevard in town and with the windows (only single pane back then) closed there was not so much noise.  You get used to anything.  We can put in dual pane windows if necessary  I am more worried about the trains going past and causing a lot of noise and dirt when we are outside working the sheep since the barns and pens are on the railroad side of the property.   We will check it out.

The funky woodstove property is also on our list to look at.  Being an interior room, maybe we could call it a "media room".  LOL  We loved our woodstove in Yelm and my aunt used to heat the entire house with it,  However, it was not in an interior room without any windows or doors to the outside.  This house is very funky, but we are looking at it anyway.  It was remodeled in 2012 but has not been lived in since 2014!  Agent says it is "rough".  Love the property though - lots of expensive pipe fencing that can easily be raised with T-bars clamped to verticals with hose clamps and wire added to bring perimeter to 6' high for Anatolians.  And marvelous cattle working pens - even a separate round pen.  Those pipe corrals and pens don't need wire attached to them since they already have heavy duty wire panels welded on them.  

By the way, the smaller antique woodstove we have in the old bunkhouse in Yelm is coming with us to Texas.  It heats fast and burns long on just one log and we plan to put it in either a shop building or our barn for use in the winter.  I made sure to list it as personal property on the sales listing.  We tried it out when we were clearing out the place somewhat after my aunt died.  We were there in rainy cold weather and DH decided to try lighting a fire in it. Worked great!   It's coming to Texas too!

DD2 and FDSIL came by this am so we lost several hours of time to work.  When they left we went out and moved the Orange tag unbred yearling ewes and the ewes that lambed 3 months ago down front with MoyBoy.  He is an enthusiastic fellow and was really checking iut the older ewes.  Wearing a purple crayon so will be checking for breeding marks.   Wanted to move 2 other ewes into the creep but DS1 said "no".  He wants to wait another week or so t give the 5 in the creep enough space to eat comfortably  Some of them are getting thin.  I think we need to take the 3 month old lambs off their mamas to let them build up a bit.  They can go on the large field with the younger 6-8 month old lambs and bred ewes.

Told FDSIL about Texas having its own electrical lineman classes un junior colleges.  He was very interested.  Said that his cable company is thinking about opening 2-3 places in Texas.  He could transfer and d his apprenticeship in TX.  DD2 said she wants a house on the water and I mentioned that there were lots of small lakes in east Texas where they could afford to buy compared to here.  DD2 had already said if we move to Texas they are going to move there too eventually.  

Back to putting away Christmas decorations.  The tree can come down next.  Each ornament has to be wrapped separately since most of them are old and fragile  I keep trying to give the old ones made by the kids to my children but they refuse to take them since they like identifying them on my tree.   DD1 brought back the ornaments and stuff we used to decorate her Christmas dinner table. I told her she could have them but she said she preferred *that I store them for her!*

*Early sale of our house and faster move to Texas is looking better and better!  LOL*


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## Bruce

Double, or better yet triple, pane windows will cut the cost of running A/C in the hot TX summers substantially. The temperature of a single pane is the same on both sides. If it is 105°F outside you have a LOT of 105°F "heaters" in the walls radiating that heat into the house. Even hotter if the sun is shining on the window.


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## Ridgetop

Some of the houses we are looking at have already put in double pane windows.  We put them in here in California for the energy savings before it was required.  Whenever we replaced any widows at the old apartment building we retrofitted with dual pane windows and doors.  It really cuts down on the sound.  

If any house we buy doesn't have them we will retrofit when we move to Texas.  Possibly do triple pane in Texas, depends on the cost savings in energy, and cost of the windows.  We are also considering putting in solar in Texas.  Solar panels will work on daylight as well as sunlight, just not as well.  We have to see what the prices are and whether it will benefit us.  We will definitely buy a good backup generator though.

Got the tree down yesterday and packed, also the rest of the garlands etc. in the family room.  Working on the living room today.  Already half done.  The only big part is takig apart the wooden reindeer boxes my mother made years ago.  She made one for me and one for my grandmother.  Gammy gave me hers when she moved in with mom, and I put one on  either side of the fireplace with imitation pointsettias and lights.  They are cute but large and I have to remove the antlers and heads to store them.  Only a couple of screws.   Then packing and repacking the storage bins and hauling all the giant bins off to the shed.  

DD2 commented she felt bad that they did not have many decorations, and she only had stre bought stuff on her tree not special ornaments like I have.  I pointed out that I have been decorating our house for almost 50 years and if she lives that long she will be burdened with all this junk too!  And feel guilty if I don't put it up.  I can almost feel the disapproving stare of my grandmother between my shoulder blades.  If she turns over in her grave we will have an earthquake here in southern California!  And I will be personally responsible!    

Not decorating for holidays was almost a sin in her book.  When she got too old, she made me come over nd get her stuff out of the storage area and hang everything u for her.  Then I had to go take it al down and pack it away.  LOL  When we bought our first house she came over and directed me in decorating our house too.  Feisty gal, my Gammy!  My best friend.  

Orange 5 has marked this morning.  She is a yearling out of the Axtel ram I bought.  Not impressed with his get, but will give her a chance to see if she produces well.  Sometimes the ugly ones have the combination of genes that produce champions, while the champions produce garbage.   It has happened to us before so reserving my opinion.   Breeding gd stock s not just for the first generation, sometimes it takes several years to see what you have. Since I have not advertised the Axtel ram I will wait to see what she and her half sister produce in 5 months.  They are the only ewe lambs he produced, all the others have been ram lambs so he has not really had a chance to show me his genetics.  I am thinking about removing the two older ewes from the breeding pen and graining them.  They look a little thin and I don't like breeding thin animals.  I bred them with 3 months lambs n them last time but they were coming off good forage and were in great condition.   problem is we need another corral to hold them in while i grain them up.  I will discuss with DS1.  He has been putting up portable corralling and might have another pen.  I will also pull their lambs.  These girls are getting dragged down by still nursing those big greedy lambs.  Time to wean!

Back to Christmas deco packing.  Just realized that I only have tomorrow to pack before leaving for Texas!!!


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## Ridgetop

Finished the Christmas decoration packing last night and DS1 and oldest DGS loaded up all the boxes and took them to the Connex.  Done till next Thanksgiving!  
Then I packed the box of paper plates, plastic flatware, travel knives, etc.  Added some food and will finish packing that box after DH picks up the instant oatmeal.  Need to take water as well.
Got out the cold weather clothes and thermals.  Yes, we do have them for when we go to Washington state where it is wet and cold all the time.  DH decided to take his overalls since they would be more comfortable on his waist now that it has become a casualty of Covid.  They are 6" too short.!  Country clamdiggers?  Next pair he buys I will wash *before *shortening them.  Got out an old pair of jeans that I use for making jean patches and will add back the 6" length in cuffs.  Did not expect to have to do this but since I got most stuff out last night have extra time.  

DH cleaned out the truck last night and the new clamps for the truck box will arrive today.  The old ones had broken and DH and DS1 said they would have to order them and install "before the next trip".  In the Ridgetop way, this meant that when they got ready to install the truck box they realized that neither of them had given it another thought since our last trip to Texas.  
DS1 went to several hardware and auto supply stores but the clamps were sold out,  It's the Ridgetop way.  DS1 ordered them and they are supposed to arrive today at which time (probably in the dark at 10 pm) he and DH will install them.   DH and I will pack the rear cab of the truck with our luggage, coats, cooler, thermoses, food and emergency supplies.  If the clamps don't arrive in time, DH assures me he can strap the truck box into the truck bed safely.  OK.  I will not argue since that is not productive and what will be will be.
Got to finish packing.  Then will disconnect the laptop and pack that.  That is why I am finishing up the emails, etc. now.  Won't be back on for a couple days.  Need DS1 to load the hot spot with hours too.  
That darned ewe has still now lambed so she may not lamb for another 2 weeks.   Oh well, DD2 is on lamb pulling duty if needed.  DS1 knows what to do and how to judge an emergency.  He has vet numbers and I will show him where the lamb colostrum and formula is in case of worst case scenario.  

DH has gone to Costco.   I will get to sewing the overalls.  Then finish packing suitcase.  Next load truck.  Remember to get out cripple card from car for truck, and also Texas map.  Also all phone chargers, etc. And extra masks.   Easier to just go in 5th wheel trailer since I can load it over several weeks as I think of stuff we will need.  This is a quick trip though and DH wants to come back through Yelm WA, and pick up our personal papers and stuff we are keeping from Yelm house.  We will rent a U-Haul for trip from Yelm.  

Hope I don't forget anything since with the Covid virus may not be able to stop at Walmart if  do.  

Kris has gotten several appointments already for us to view properties.


----------



## farmerjan

Good luck and have a safe trip.  Hope that you find something that blows you away and that you can make a deal.


----------



## thistlebloom

I hope you find a great place that ticks all the boxes and that you love! Drive safe.


----------



## B&B Happy goats

Have fun and safe travels to you, hope you find the perfect place


----------



## Baymule

This is gonna be fun!


----------



## Finnie

Cant WAIT to hear about your adventure!


----------



## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> If she turns over in her grave we will have an earthquake here in southern California!


Was she a large woman? 

Safe travels


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## Ridgetop

No, but the San Andreas Fault is shaky and Gammy was feisty and determined.


----------



## Ridgetop

7041 lambed today.  She was due on the 5th.  Twin ewes, both hairy which supposedly shows good shedding, 9.2 and 8.1 lbs. with no trouble.  Grandchildren came over to clean stalls  before going back to school tomorrow.  DGD1 came too because she wanted to work in the barn.  She is our little farmer.  DGS1 came up to tell e that 7041 had a new lamb and was cleaning her off  He went back to cleaning so DGD1 was given the job of watching the ewe for second lamb.  Second one born easily.  Then DGD1 helped to weigh the new lambs after we weighed the older ones.  2 FF ewes and their lambs were sent out to the big field and 2 ewes with young lambs were moved t the creep.  Next week we will separate the 3 month old ram and ewe lambs from the field and castrate.  No need to still be nursing at 70 lbs.  Just drags down the ewes.  We need more pens to separate lambs into.  Really need to move to Texas ranch with nice FLAT pastures that actually have grazing.  

7088 is due on the 12th.  Her vulva is starting to loosen up so hopefully tomorrow or the next day.  Just checked her and she is laying quietly, breathing heavily, but* NOT* cudding. May be first stage of labor.   DS1 will check on her before he goes to bed  She should not have any trouble lambing and I expect twins from the size of her.

Then Blue11 is starting to show an udder  She is a yearling first freshener so I anticipate a single, although DS1 said she is starting to look very large.  She did not shed out this year so I am not sure if she will stay in the flock sice  am breeding for total shedders.  It will depend on her lamb.  I will keep her another year anyway since they often skip a year shedding or only do a partial shed the first year.  Her wool is not long, just fluffy which makes her look larger.  She will be moved into the barn jug soon since she is due on the 19th.   Have to check 0123 - the new Lewis ewe I bought in May with her newborn ewe lamb.  Her ewe lamb is almost as large as her mother at only 8 months old and a beautiful little ewe.  These Lewis ewes are larger and a slightly different body type than my Patton ewes.  I vove the body type on the Patton ewes - they are super chunky and meaty  The Lewis ewes are meaty but look rangier since they are taller and longer.   In proportion, just larger overall.  I might buy another Lewis ewe if I can get a good one reasonably.  They go well with the Patton bloodlines.  I really want another Lewis ram but can't justify adding a 4th ram for the amount of ewes I have right now.  Before we move to Texas for sure though!


----------



## thistlebloom

Congratulations on the good lambing!
I thought you were on your way to Texas?


----------



## Ridgetop

Small family emergency so had to turn around 4 hours out of town and come back.  We will be leaving again the end of the week.  Good thing we did come back since when we got off the freeway and went to gas the truck DH found the tailgate on the truck was about to fall off  It already had some damage from dropping bales onto it which made the latches kind of difficult to open and close,  Now it has met its end.  This is the 3rd tailgate DH has replaced on our truck.  We have another tail gate that DS3 gave us that will fit this truck.  It is red but it works.  We will go to Texas with a brown truck and a red tailgate.   

As it was, the ewe lambed the next day.  Now we ae dealing with a few things before we leave again.  Kris is going to look at the properties - he had 4 appointments set for tomorrow.  While he has no ranch knowledge, he wi ll look at the houses to see whether they are in shape to rent out for the year or 2 before we move back there.  Says he will do Facetime tomorrow while at the properties.  I am sending him a list of questions for the brokers about the properties.

Very disappointed , but we ate our sandwiches on the 7 hour roundtrip drive and tried to pretend it was just a leisurely Sunday drive and picnic.   No traffic and the weather was clear.  It could have been worse.


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## Ridgetop

We were planning to get out and trim feet today but were on the phone withWe are writing an offer on the RR property.  Yes, freight trains come through every day but the property is good and will do for what we want.  We can always buy another ranch after selling our California house.  This will get us to Texas and allow us to start moving our ranch equipment back.  Hopefully we will get a good response from the seller.

Supposed to be 85 degrees tomorrow.  Just right for running the corral of young sheep through the chute and squeeze for pedicures.    Also will pull the 3 month old lambs off their moms and castrate 4-5 ram lambs. They will be raised for locker lambs. 2 weeks ago one 3 month old ram lamb was 72.4 lb, and the other was 64.2 lbs. If the 3 month old lambs are to big to band, we will keep them in with the mature rams. The next 2 rams at 10 weeks weighed 64.2 and 58.6 lbs. Group after that at The next 2 at 8 weeks weigh 48.8 and 51.6 lbs. Last ram lamb at 6 weeks weighs 42.0 lbs. Might need bigger bands.  

We need to run the next pregnant yearling ewe into the jugs the end of the week since she is due on the 19th.  Still waiting on hugely pregnant 7088 to lamb in the barn.  Need to do shots and docking of the twin ewelings born last Monday.  I might also pull the ewes I put down with the rams to breed back up on the field to build them up.  They haven't marked yet and they are a bit thin after nursing their huge lambs.  Need to flush the ewes for about a month.  2 other ewes from the creep can join them and I will  wean their lambs too and start flushing them as well.  We really need more pastures and pens to separate out the different bands of sheep.  

Just wrote out the list of keeper sheep we have - no ram lambs or wethers, just breeding rams, mature ewes, yearlings and ewe lambs.  *WE HAVE 30 SHEEP! *  
3 rams (one is 5 years old now and I need to shop for his possible replacement this year), 14 ewes (bred or with lambs on them), 5 yearling ewes (to be bred this spring), 6 fall ewe lambs, and 2 spring lambs - so far. That doesn't include the 7 spring and fall ram lambs destined for slaughter or the auction. 

The numbers creep up on you!  Not all of them are top quality, but I figure if we are moving to Texas I might as well keep them for another year at this point.  I was planning to sell or butcher a couple young ewes but realized that in another couple months I can breed them.  I have 7 ram lambs to wether.  if they are too large, I will have to keep them with the adult rams until slaughter time in February.   Need to make another slaughter appointment.

OK, so you will know that I am not some sort of human encyclopedia, I looked this all up.  In Texas the Ag assist or exemption for property taxes figures how much usable farm land you have and assigns a certain number of animal units per acre.  An animal unit is how many large animals can graze the pasture without damaging it.  In other words the carry load of the pastures.  

Cows are 1 AU.  Sheep are 5-7 AU depending on weight and goats are 8-9 AU.  First you have to find out your AU stocking rate per acre.  If you can only graze 10 cows on 40 acres then your AU rate is 1:4 acres.  That would be 5-7 sheep to every 4 acres.  Some land can only carry 1 AU per 25 acres so you would have to adjust the stocking rate to show 5-7 sheep per 25 acres.  You have to do the math to make sure you are carrying the right amount of AU or you don't get the full exemption.  Too many and you overgraze your pasture and/or have to feed hay.  The good rancher has to be proficient at math, as well as animal husbandry, vet science, mechanics, etc., etc.  Don't forget telling the future to be sure to sell when the market is high and buy when the market is low.    Right, that's when . . . .


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## Ridgetop

Beautiful Rika is starting to show her age at almost 9 years old.  I offered her to my daughter if she gets too old to work here comfortably.  DD1 said she would gladly take her.  I wonder though would Rika be happy without the sheep and other dogs?  It might be like dumping her into an old folks home waiting to die.  Maybe it would be better to just let her keep working until she dies on the job or we give her a gentle release.  I hate waking up and realizing how my 4 legged loved ones have aged without me noticing.   Well not time to do anything abut it yet, except to notify Erick that we will be looking for another Anatolian this year.  Sooner than i expected but better do it while Rika is still around to oversee the training,

Plan to work sheep this morning.  The other day when we weighed in the barn with its dirt floor amid clouds of dust swirling up into or noses and eyes, I told DS1 that when we move we are going to put the scale and squeeze inside a building with concrete floors.  We can use our old stall mats if we need to underneath.  We have about 6 or more stacked on the field.  Or we could use them if we put the jugs inside a concrete floored building.  They would insulate the floors in the winter for the lambs.  They were expensive to buy back when I bought them, more now so they will have to go with us.  Not to mention the large water troughs, feeders, etc.  5 large storage boxes of miscellaneous horse tack - not including saddles, bridles, saddle pads, horse winter blankets, summer sheets, shipping boots etc. I will have to sort through everything and give a lot to my DDIL.  

I am starting to compile a list of everything we have to bring with us for the livestock.  Farmerjan's moving problems have made me worry about our move to Texas.  And she just lives a mile or two away from her new place!  Getting worried ad we haven't even found our ranch yet!

Then there are the 36x30" rabbit cages  - at least a dozen of them, some need to be taken apart and folded flat for shipping, others are still in the packing cases.  Chains and hooks to hang them.  Carry cages and show cage sorters. Not to mention the several large storage containers of feeders, cage parts and tools.  More boxes of water system parts, nest boxes, tattoo equipment - rabbit and goat, etc.   I am allergic to poultry dust so rabbits will be our small animals instead of poultry.  Next on the list are the large storage boxes of hot wire parts, wire, standoffs, gate latches, etc.   We'll need those in Texas!  I have now emptied about 3' of shelves, and 3' of shed space.   The shed is 20' long.  It is the first shed and there is still the tool shed, loft, and barn.  Not counting the acres of stored corral equipment, feeders, etc.  At my age I might be dead before we even get it loaded on the trucks there is so much equipment!  But the cost to rebuy would be astronomical!  I realize now why farms often look like they have a junk pile behind the barn.  Those are all building materials the farmer might need and doesn't want to have to buy again.  We have lots of those and most of them have to go to Texas with us.  

DH is still champing at the bit to be on the road to Texas to view properties.  Our suitcase is still packed and sitting in the truck.  Maybe we can both get haircuts when we get back there.  LOL

Agent and friend Kris went to look at the ranches we had appointments to view yesterday.  2 of the 4 were very suitable.  

Stupid program just erased 3 paragraphs of descriptions!!!  Won't let me go back far enough to recall deleted portions!  I may have to go back to doing everything in Word and cutting and pasting!   What happened to the redo icon?


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## Baymule

Maybe you can give Rika weaned lambs to watch. She might not take to retirement, give her something to do. Better for her to be happy. 

You have a lot of stuff to move, but like you said, to replace it would be ridiculous! $$$$$ Hey! I know! There is a train track by your new-farm-to-be. Load everything up on a train car, it ought to hold everything! LOL LOL


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## Ridgetop

Submitted an offer on the 77 acre train track property with 2 houses.  If we decide we don't like living there, when we sell our California house we can buy another ranch without a train track.  LOL  _If_ we get it, eventually we will install dual pane windows in both houses and put up privacy/sound baffle walls and tall shrubbery between tracks and houses to help diffuse noise.

Family decided that all the woods at the back of the property offered more scope for walks, trails, hunting, etc. when grandchildren come out, in addition to ranching.  We will have to get a hog trap though.  And 2 more Anatolians.  

Just have to wait to see if our offer goes through or if they say no.  Probably won't know anything till Monday.  If it isn't accepted, there will be something else later.  Can't stew over it.    

7088 is huffing and puffing in her pen.  I wish she would hurry up.  Those babies seem to be playing tag all over her stomach.  Never seen lambs or kids in a late term pregnancy with such a huge belly moving about so much!   Maybe they have given up on being born normally and have decided to tunnel out!  LOL



Baymule said:


> Maybe you can give Rika weaned lambs to watch. She might not take to retirement, give her something to do. Better for her to be happy.



You are right, I will give Rika the newborns.  She is very good with them and nervous first time mothers.  I have to call the vet tomorrow to see about some pain killers for her  She had this neck thing before and the vet said it seemed to be a pinched nerve sort of thing.  He gave her pain meds and it went away after about 2 weeks.  Now she is crying like last time.  Went to check her and she cried when I squeezed her neck so probably the same thing.  She is still working though.  Saw her hurrying out to the pasture, crying as she went.  Sounded like me when my back or knee is hurting and I exclaim "OW OW OW OW OW OW with every step.  (It doesn't get me any sympathy since DH can't hear me anyway.)  LOL  I just looked up pain killers for dogs and I can give her 5mg-10mg buffered aspirin per lb. of body weight.  I will try that until I can get a prescription from the vet.  She will get better faster with a pain killer.  Maybe the vet can give her a muscle relaxer too.  I might have some glucosamine in the cabinet.  It said on line that glucosamine helps dogs with arthritis.  Worth a try for my precious Rika.


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## Baymule

Poor Rika. I do hope she gets some relief. Our Paris is 12 years old, still refuses to come in the house, stays in her beloved back yard and side pasture that goes up to the back of the sheep barn and cozies up in her dog house stuffed with hay. She runs, barks at neighbors, trucks and the horses. She is instant death on snakes, or anything else that is stupid enough to enter her world. She will ask to go in with the sheep, after about an hour, she is done and wants her back yard again. LOL LOL So our old girls still have something to give and need something to do.


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## farmerjan

It sounds to me that if you pack the stuff in the pods, they get picked up and moved..   So, just keep filling them up and then let someone else do the move.  Yeah, it has been a PITA for me, and maybe being 4 miles away is actually a bad thing.... but I am glad to be able to do things as I want to.  Just wish I didn't ache so, cuz I would be moved in by now.  I just cannot do all the packing, loading, unloading,  carrying stuff so much.  And, this is probably not going to be my forever place as the traffic is nerve wracking for me.  Want to be back off the road somewhere that I don't see or hear the traffic . Or have to deal with the neighbors being able to see what I am doing.  Fences are going to be on the list of priorities.....
I used to live right across the road from a RR track so I can tell you that at first it will be noticeable... but after a little while, you actually get to know the time by the when the train comes through.  It becomes a familiar background noise.  I was near the road crossing  so did have to put up with the whistles..... even that you learn to sorta tune out but not being close to a crossing is better.  And some RR engineers are more considerate than others as far as how many times and for HOW LONG they pull that cord.  
I agree that it is hard to not take stuff you might need.  Plus the cost of lumber has skyrocketed in the last 6-9 months.. It is not going to get better and not going to get cheaper.  So, the cost of moving may have to be weighed against the replacement cost;  which is going to be very high.   
One other thing I might suggest.  The cost of gas and diesel is going up.  I got 100 gal of diesel for the tank at the new house in Oct.  1.78 / gallon.  I got 100 gal for the other house about 2 weeks ago.  It was 2.18 / gal.  It has gone up again here.  If there are tanks there, consider getting them filled ASAP.  The democratic incoming administration is SOOOO VERY ANTI-PETROLEUM ;  ANTI -FOSSIL fuels... so it is going to continue to go up.  How they think that they are going to create all the electricity they are going to need to power all the electric everything there is .....is totally beyond me.  Coal and fossil fuels create something like 75 % of the electricity in this country. Solar will never b e able to do it, and they are so against anything they consider "bad " for the environment, hydro isn't going to go over big because that means damning up some rivers.  That is actually the most consistent form of renewable energy.... rivers run 24/7  not like the sun or the wind.  And both of them have their place.  But if they start getting so off the wall, fuel will go up to double or triple what it is costing now.  So to start out with full tanks and to keep them full so that the "adding" to them is not quite so painful until we see what this world is going to come to.  
This comparison is NOT TO SCALE.....
I am not against the idea of less pollution and more electric powered stuff..... but, from a farmers perspective.... if our current tractors are worth say 100,000 today..... and a new electric model costs 200,000, but because the our current one runs on diesel, the value to turn it in on a new one is only 10,000 for the scrap metal.... Who in HE// can afford to buy a new one that we will never be able to pay for?????   Not taking in account that it will cost how much for a new battery to keep it running, how much discharge and recharging can it take.... and lots of things I know I have not even imagined..... And if @Bruce has to plug in the electric vehicles to recharge, then what will it take to recharge a tractor like that....# of hours to recharge and at what cost to the farmer.  
One thing to think about..... all the custom harvesters that travel to do all the grain harvesting.... often they run 12-24 hours at a time in order to get the crop harvested in a timely matter.  How in the he// are these guys going to operate if the stupid tractor/combine/trucks to haul the crops  all all "PLUGGED IN  to recharge" ?????? Or if they get special permits to use the fossil fuels, the cost will be so high that they won't be able to afford the fuel to do it.... and if they do manage that, what is that going to mean in costs passed on down to the consumer?????  So that new talk of $15 per hour minimum wage is going to mean nothing as it won't begin to buy the equivalent of what $8 per hour minimum wage is buying now with the cost of food being as cheap as it is. 
Understand too that many of new combines, with all the GPS and electronic monitoring stuff run in the 200-500,000 range.... EACH..... so the money figures I used above were just to try to put some of it in perspective in a comparison..... Our 4wd John Deere tractor cost over 100,000 new.... we bought it used and got a good price due to the friend that set it up before he died and the stuff was not as well maintained as it should have been and the appraisals weren't as high as they might have been.... and we are making payments to the widow as per the set up deal..... But when a smaller one is in the range of 50-100,000 now.... it makes you wonder..... 
And we are supposed to support more and more people crossing into this country......I for one am not willing to work my a$$ off for the rest of my life to stay in perpetual debt.  It comes to a point where many farmers are saying the same thing.  And the younger generation is overall too lazy to work for farming wages, in less than perfectly climate controlled conditions with scheduled coffee breaks and lunch time and an 8 hour maximum day.  

Okay, sorry, I got on a soap box.  

But my thoughts were for you and for anyone actually, that has fuel storage to get theirs filled up NOW.... it is not going to get any cheaper with the way things are going. I am going to get the 500 gal tank here at the new house filled now even though I am not presently using it for a furnace..... we can use it in the tractors.....but mostly as an insurance against future cost increases.  Put some additive in it to help preserve it for longer "shelf life".....hedging against the inevitable price increases coming. Even propane will go up.  
And where they think that the farmers are going to get the money for things like the commercial poultry houses that raise all the chicken/turkey in this country, which are all heated with propane fired heat....I will never know......


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> This is the 3rd tailgate DH has replaced on our truck.


Does that perhaps suggest putting things in the bed could be handled differently?


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## Ridgetop

Possibly, but these newer tailgates are not as sturdy as the older models - and this is a 1999 truck!  Anyway, we will use the old red tailgate for a while.  Not going to paint it since it may go the way of the last ones, so why spend money painting it pretty?!

Having to raise our offer on the property since they are getting multiple offers.   Buyer's nightmare - sellers' dance of joy! LOL Not going to worry since the RR track _is_ a drawback and once our Yelm property closes we will be in better shape to buy immediately.  1031 has time imitations, but the sellers wont be scared off by having to wait for our escrow closure.

Got to work outside with sheep today - try to castrate some lambs.  Already very hot - going to be high 80's.  DS1 says he wants ti do hoof trimming first and then as we run those through chute where he can catch and castrate the ram lambs in that pen.   Then we wi run the breeding en into the catch en and take care of them.  

One thing weighing lambs in ur barn has taught us is tht in the new ranch we are going to put the scale and squeeze inside a building with a concrete floor to cut down on dust!  We can use the stall mats if necessary under the squeeze and scale.  We are tired of choking on dust while working on the sheep.     We can hose out the interior to clean out manure and urine.


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## Bruce

I like that last thought. The floor of my ancient barn is dirt. When the 2 alpacas decide they should pee and poop inside I feel like I'm digging to China to get the wet out.


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## Ridgetop

Another reason to bring (expensive to buy new) rubber stall mats to Texas.  

Just finished trimming the ewes in the large corral and castrating 2-month old ram lambs.   This evening we will do another set of rams and separate the 3-month olds from their mothers.  They are really big now so no need to let them pull moms down by nursing,  Oh Goody!  a week of screaming sheep as they wean.   

They go to the butcher February 10.  Then the next batch weans - more screaming    and next butcher date March 12.  

Here is a Ridgetop tip for you.  When you buy a squeeze and it is ADJUSTABLE know where it adjusts!  Hint:  Maybe even try it out first in all positions.   While trying to trim lambs in the squeeze while they struggled and attempted to squeeze out, DH and DS1 were discussing ways to confine the smaller lambs.  Hobbles were mentioned as well as constructing a top bar to keep them in the bottom half of the squeeze.  Just as the last lamb approached the squeeze, DS1 noticed the holes in the bottom bar that would allow the squeeze gate to be adjusted in 2 closer positions. easily making the squeeze much narrower for smaller lambs!   
  Anyone feeling stupid?!

One or two of the ewes had really overgrown feet.  I am noting their tag numbers to decide if they get to go to Texas where the ground will be softer and their feet will grow even more.  Also Blue 11, one of our home bred ewes has produced a third teat on her filling udder.  She is due to lamb soon and if I don't like her lamb she will go t the auction eventually too,  She did not shed at all this year either so she already had one strike against her.  Nice big ewe though so she should do well at the auction.  

I have been looking into Kiko goats as a possible addition to livestock for the ranch  I will start with 1 buck and 3 doe kids and disbud all their doe kids.  That way they can go in with the sheep to forage.  I HATE HORNS!  And some of those Kiko bucks have a horn spread of up to 3 feet!!!  

I called the Extension agent today and talked to him about soil condition and testing.  I also discussed what type of livestock we planned to run and he said the cattle and goats were a real good combination.  You run the cattle through the pasture first, then the goats to get all the weeds the cattle won't touch.  When adding sheep, you run the cattle to eat the long grass, the sheep will eat it shorter, then the goats to get all the weedy growth.  By rotating your pastures that way, you can keep them healthy and weed free.  County Extension will give you the soil bags to take samples.  You send the samples to Texas & M for a breakdown of your soil to tell you where it is lacking in which nutrients.  Once you know that you can begin to fertilize or treat it correctly,  He said they would also identify the type of hay currently growing on any pastures so I will do that as well.  Then they would discuss with you whether that is a good grass/hay or whether we should overseed or replant eventually.  They will come out to the farm as well.  Next he transferred me to the 4-H advisor and that gentleman was very receptive to our offer to be leaders and assist.   Sounds like we would make acquaintances very quickly.  

Getting excited about moving even though we will be moving away from the grandchildren.  Talking about moving up the departure date if we can get this house sold sooner.  Still a  year away though at least by the time we get the fencing done.  DH said we could live in the 5th wheel for a few months and keep our belongings in storage if necessary.


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## Ridgetop

Vaccinated and docked 7041's twin ewes yesterday.  We will weigh them along with the rest of the creep lambs on Monday.  Grandchildren have the day off for MLK Day.  They wil be coming to clean the barn and we will weigh and castrate.  Also might separate a couple of the larger ram lambs from their mamas.  Need to start weaning the larger lambs earlier to get their mamas back into condition.  Checked 7088 and she was getting closer.  Very friendly - kept wanting her neck rubbed.  My ewes  get very loving and friendly just before they lamb, even the wilder field ewes.  One of the signs that they will lamb in a day or two.  Vulva getting puffier, so I decided to rake out her jug instead of waiting for the grandkids to clean it Monday.  Just in case she lambed before Tuesday which I figured as the final date for her to lamb. I didn't want her lambing in the poo.  

That is one nice thing about lambing ewes out on grass, they choose a nice clean area.  Lambing in confined jugs, the jugs are not as clean as you would like.  One practice we can change when we move is to have the heavily pregnant/due ewes in a smaller pasture where they can drop their lambs on grass, then we can collect the lambs and move the ewe into a jug.  I read about an interesting system that a couple of small flock owners (30 ewes) use.  They have a large barn with jugs lining the walls.  The main part is open and the floor bedded with straw.  As the ewes lamb, the shepherd removes them from the open area and transfers them to one of the jugs.  This is a great system for cold winter areas where the ewes often lamb while snow is still n the ground.

Anyway, 7088 lambed during the afternoon yesterday.  DD1 and DGD1 were both over.  DD1 wanted to come over with her videos, watch The Closer with us, and hand out.  DH is on a Closer binge.  DD1 and DDIL2 did puzzles while watching The Closer.  DGD1 brought her new Christmas bike and rode it around the yard and on the field.   She went in the barn to check the 6 day old lambs and came running up to tell us that there was a new lamb in the barn.  After telling us all about how she discovered the mama cleaning it off, she went back to see it again and came running right back all excited that there were now two lambs!!!   

7088 gave us twin ewe lambs.  Where 7041's ewe lambs are both hair lambs, both 7088's ewe lambs have wooly coats fading into hair coats on their necks, shoulders, and thighs.  Will have to see how well they shed out.  7088's should be complete shedders.  Both lambs healthy and strong  Will weigh them today.  Easy lambing with no trouble, efficient, quiet and fast.  These are my original ewes - love them.  I now have ewe lambs out of them by all 3 rams.  Their lambs will make a good foundation flock.

Promised DGD1 she could help weigh them.  She is our farm girl.  DS2 will man the scale readout and gate, but DGD1 loves to herd the lambs and even capture them and put them in the scale  She is getting better at it than her brothers.  🤫  Maybe we will sneak her off to Texas so she can grow up to be a regular little Texas cowgirl.  Sneaky grandma promised her a pony  DGD1 is thinking about it.  LOL

DGD1 asked to spend the night and we said ok  She is going out to feed with grandpa now.


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## Ridgetop

Well, back from a whirlwind turnaround trip to Texas to look at the ranch on which we put an offer.  We hit snow and sleet in AZ and it lasted into NM.  Then heavy rain into TX.  On the way home we took the southern route through El Paso and there was snow throughout NM and into AZ.  Seeing snow on the cactus and mesquite was a sight I have never seen before.  LOL

Did the inspection on the property - it was the 77 acre property with 2 houses and the train tracks 100' from the old house.  Yes, the trains do go past several times a day and since there is a crossing right there at CR2320 (the house is on the corner of the train tracks and 2320) the whistle shrieks each time it passes. 
Loved the current welded pipe fencing which we could stretch woven wire on to make separate pastures.  Adding a few other sections of fencing and gates would have given us abut 6 small pastures that would work for the sheep when we first moved back, allowing us time to fence larger pastures.  The smaller pastures around the barns would have given us good breeding enclosures, lambing pasture, and close up pastures for the new moms and lambs before they were turned out into the larger pastures.

The inspection showed that the 1977 built house was not too bad, it is livable but needs septic work (the tank area outside the house puddled after 20 minutes water drainage).  There are some electrical panel problems, too ad DH did not like the house itself.  It could all be fixed and remodeled after we move back there.  

*BUT* the old farmhouse that is currently rented is about to collapse.  Foundations were bad, joists appeared to be partially rotted causing the floors to slope, septic puddled after 20 minutes water drain test, and plumbing was not in the best shape - inspector suggested replumbing.  Worst problem was the electric panel that had all sorts of problems which were just waiting to start a fire.  The inspector couldn't get into the attic crawlspace because the tenant had too much junk piled in the way, and oh yes!  The tenant was heating the house with portable open flame gas heaters.  Can anyone say fire hazard!  Since the windows had been painted shut and there was no ventilation it would be a choice between the tenant asphyxiating or burning to death in a house fire.

Before you suggest that eviction is the answer, let me tell you that this tenant had grown up in this small town, had been a friend of the owner's family, grew up working with the owner, he had been injured in a work related accident requiring 15 surgeries, is 100% disabled, his wife had left him because of it  (for the owner of the business) and taken his kids.  He is very well liked and his 86 year old father still lived in town. To live in this small town ourselves, we could *not* evict him.  Even though the inspector and the owner said that the house should be bulldozed, that would not be an option if we ever wanted anyone to even speak to us.  Besides, *we* liked the tenant too.  He had been in the cow raising business and had worked in his dad's custom hay cutting business.  He would have been a great asset to us getting started in this town on this property with his hay experience.  Also if we came to CA to visit our grandchildren he might watch the livestock and feed the dogs.  We were considering buying a large mobile home, putting it on the property and moving him into it.

Checked in town at the assessor's office about AU requirements for the ag exemptions.  Also found that there was a good livestock auction and feed store about 10 minutes away.  In the town 15vminutes away were a Lowes, Walmart, Smart N Final, good hospital, Ross, and Catholic church.  All the stuff we needed.

After the inspection  while we were trying to decide if we should look at other properties to make our decision about the amount of work and money required on the property, the agents on our sale called. They were the buyers as well and first the agent kept talking about having a conference call to "discuss renegotiating" the sale. When I asked if they were cancelling he insisted no, they just wanted to "renegotiate". The agent said that they couldn't make it work out financially since they couldn't get *17* houses on the property!  17 houses???  Where did that number come from?!  The agent had set the price based on being able to get 12 houses on the property.  The planning department had allowed 14 houses, but now they were dropping out because they couldn't get 17 houses!  We set a date and time when our TX broker would be present on the call.  He read at the sale contract and felt that the sale was improper since the listing/selling agent and broker were also the buying agent and broker *and* the purchasers as well.  Big ethics problem.  

We looked at the listing they had put out and it listed the property as a tear down for development instead of listing the 2 BR/1B house that had been completely renovated 4 years ago with all new appliances, HVAC, plumbing, flooring, etc., etc., and a new well pump 2 years ago!!!  No photos of the interior, just aerial shots of the old barns looking like they were about to fall down!    

During the conference call they not pleased to hear that our TX broker was on the phone with us.  I wonder why!  They immediately backpedaled about wanting to renegotiate and  said that they could not make it work financially.  They kept going on abut it and when I said to just cancel the sale they seemed surprised. I told them that they could certainly cancel and when the listing ran out the end of March we would list it with another broker who would advertise it correctly.   The broker was shocked to hear that we were going to list with someone else and also that the listing was a 6 month listing instead of 12 months.  I had made sure that it was only listed for 6 months when the agent wanted 12  but I should have listed it for only 3 months.   My bad.   I told them that they had not listed it right and should have listed it as a completely renovated cottage with everything new 4 years ago and a new well pump 2 years ago.  We would get another broker who would list it correctly.

Than I complained about their management of the rental.  The tenant had put a washer and dryer on the porch and just run the drain water out into the front yard.  The management company had seen it during one of their inspections and done nothing about it!  The agent kept whining that they couldn't make the tenant responsible for anything because of Covid.  Yadayada.  I told them that if they couldn't evict they could have called the Health 'Department and had the tenants cited by the city.  The broker finally admitted that yes, they could have done that.  Then she said that during Covid our property was the* only* one they were managing that did not pay their rent!  Like we were to blame!  Also the tenant had left a lot of trash all over the yard when they left.  

They are so fired!  I said they should have put pix of the interior with the new kitchen and bathroom on the listing.  I said I would send them some and emailed them some good ones.  They have now listed the house as a cute cottage on 3.5 acres.  I think they were trying to screw us since I have looked at all the houses in the surrounding neighborhood are showing values of mid to high $300Ks and the houses are older on small lots.  

*I AM ABSOLUTELY SPITTING TACKS OVER THIS.  FROM THE WAY THE AGENT WAS TALKING ABOUT 'RENEGOTIATING" THE CONTRACT WE KNOW THEY WANTED TO TRY TO MAKE US LOWER THE PRICE TO THEM AS BUYERS.   The only reason they didn't mention renegotiating was because our broker was on the conference call.   I think they thought we were under the gun with buying another property and figured they could pressure us.  Think again A&*^%**es!*

Anyway, that takes the pressure off on deciding what to do about our lovely ranch with the falling down little rental house that would probably have caught fire and killed the good ol' boy living there.  Since the place was overrun with feral hogs in the woods, and required 8' deer fencing around the front of the property on the train track side to protect the LGDs, it is probably for the best.   

The Yelm property will eventually sell and we can buy a ranch.  In the meantime DH, DS1, and I will go up to Washington.  We will clean up the property, remove our antique stove and pot belly stove, and remove everything else that we had locked in the bunkhouse.  I thought we removed all the old papers MJ kept that were my grandfather's, but we may have missed some.  That way we can sell the house with the outbuildings "as is" and not have to go back.  The management company had rented the property for $1100 but had admitted just before Covid that the right amount would be $1400 or more.  We had wanted to rent to a military family since Yelm is right outside Fort Lewis which is a joint army/air force base.  If it doesn't sell we will rent to a military family.  Our TX broker is going to find us an agent and vet him for us now.  We told him to get someone in Olympia which is only 20 minutes away and the state capitol. 

Enough of that complaining!  The day after we left 2 ewes lambed.  Blue 11 produced a nice little hairy ewe lamb in the night fold.   DGS1 was told to lock up the sheep for the night and apparently, in spite of being in a highly gifted school, cannot count.  180234 did not come in and no one went looking for her.  She lambed outside on the hill at night in gale force winds around 60+ mph.  The dogs were with her but the lamb, a very large 13+ lb. ram did not survive.  Next morning while feeding DS1 was surprised to find her behind him as he got hay flakes from the shed.  He went looking and found Bubba still guarding the dead lamb.  It was stiff so had died the previous night.  Bubba was reluctant to give it up.  The ewe is back in the main field and will go in with the ram again with the next group of ewes in another couple months.

The rest of the ewes in with the ram seem to have been marked, although the marking was very faint on 2 of them.  Moyboy was wearing a cold weather crayon which should have marked better in cool weather. The hot weather crayons are made to hold up better in hot weather, but the cold and mild weather crayons don't seem to do the job as well no matter what temperature it is.  DS1 changed the crayon and the 4th ewe marked, so we will watch to see if the others remark.  If not, DS1 wrote the dates down on the calendar so we are ok.  We can wait to put the next group of ewes in with a ram until we get back from Washington.  DD2 and FSIL will stay here to feed and watch the sheep while we are in WA since DDIL2 is back in San Diego with DS2.  It will have to be a fast trip since DD2 is due the middle of March.  We will leave around February 6 or 7 and plan to be gone about 2 weeks.

While we were in TX we were able to get down to Leander to visit with Erick.  He has bred a bitch for the first time in 2 years (due to his health problems).  We had told him that we wanted another bitch puppy since darling Rika is starting to show her age.  Bubba is 5 already! and we have given up on getting papers on Angel.  Due to club politics there is still a reluctance to allow her sire (a Turkish import) to be registered.  i am going to have Angel spayed next month.  Continuing to pay kennel board in hopes of getting her registered is ridiculous.  She is 2 and 1/2 years old now, and by the time the Board makes a decision she will be too old to breed!  If we decide to have a litter of puppies we can breed the new bitch when she is 3.  I m still ambivalent about breeding, although Erick will take all the puppies at  10-12 weeks old to sort as to abilities and train.  If we breed the new dog we will keep a puppy from that litter - one that Erick chooses for us.  So much easier that way!    Anyway, time t get another puppy so Perfect Rika can have a paw in training her.  Angel is working perfectly and had taken over a lot of Rika's guardian duties.  She on night patrol and is now the first one into the gully when danger approaches.  Bubba is her backup.  

Went out tonight and sorted the ewes and lambs out as to which ewelings will be kept, which ewes are open to be bred, which wethers will be raised for locker lambs for customers and ourselves, and which will go to the auction for sale.  I have 5 wethers and only 4 slaughter reservations, and one eweling that I dont particularly care for, so we'll take a couple to the auction next week if the weather is good.  I have to call and check prices.  

Tomorrow we will sling weigh in the barn, vaccinate the 3 youngest lambs, dock them, and vaccinate their mamas.  We will also weigh the older lambs and sort them.  Some will be large enough to be weaned and I might select a couple to go to the auction as well.  That will make room in the creep for these next 3 ewes and 5 lambs to be transferred over next week.

DS1 and I discussed setting up the new corrals, and building a couple of new shelters for the sheep on the field.  He is considering how to do it.  

It has started raining and we are supposed to get heavy rain for several days.  Maybe we will get some forage after all.


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## Mike CHS

After all of that, I am truly happy that I will never have to move again.


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## Baymule

Y'all were here and we couldn't go meet y'all because we were so sick. 

I was so unhappy about that. Oh well, we will see y'all next time you come.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

That is awful about the realtor/broker being so shady! That is wonderful the Texas realtor is going to help vet your new one, he should have an incentive to help you sell higher so you can afford more house in Texas. I think there's something you can sign that revokes the realtor/broker relationship so they can't try to claim the commission.

We got our house for a steal because the listing realtor didn't list it right and the seller didn't know permit info about her own house.


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## Ridgetop

Moving will be a breeze after we finally sell Yelm, find TX, and set up the ranch in the 2 years after finalizing the deal.  The hardest part will be finding the property in the 45 day timeline after the Yelm sale goes through.  We have to identify the property we plan to buy  We can identify up to 3 properties so if one doesn't qualify (on inspection, etc.) we will have 2 others on which to proceed.  

This cost us $1,000 between the inspection and the cancellation fee (tx requirement) not to mention the entire trip back to TX, gas, motels, time, meals, etc.  GOOD part was seeing our friends and getting our Texas FIX!  Less than a week there and DH said I was starting to drawl.  LOL  Not pure Texan yet, but give me a couple years back there!


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## Ridgetop

Forgot to say that when we returned home I found that DS1 had gone to the hardware store, bought drywall and patched the open holes in the walls ad ceiling where the old HVAC vents had been removed when we installed a new HVAC system 2 years ago.  Our friend and contractor was supposed to patch them, but was finishing his house remodeling before moving to Arizona.  Now he has put his house on the market so we gave up on him. I had planned to do it myself, and was overjoyed to find the holes patched,  He shoved insulation into the ceiling before patching too!  
 

Such a wonderful son!  I forgive him the hours of excruciating labor it took to deliver him into this world.    (At least till next time I want to guilt him into something!  LOL)

We have some other areas to patch since this was the 3rd system we installed and some of the old vents are no longer connected to anything.  The walls and ceilings looked like they had chicken pox!  We want to remove the old useless vents, patch them, and then I will repaint the house getting ready for selling in several years.  Also it has been about 12 years since I last painted it and it needs to be repainted.  Two rooms were repainted and I still have some of the paint so will just touch up the patches.  

I have decided not to plant rosebushes again - remember the ground squirrel fiasco of 2020?  I think we will install fake grass in the area where we tried to plant the ill fated garden.  I will plant the tomatoes and squash in the rose planters instead.  That way, when we get ready to put this house on the market after ur TX move, we will just have to plant shrubs in those planters.   It will be much easier than trying to clean up and plant attractive stuff in the larger garden area from last summer.  Besides, I feel as though that area is cursed.


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## Baymule

When we had a furniture store, a lady came in and bought fake decorator trees. Real wood branches and tree trunks with silk leaves. She "planted" them in her flower beds in front of her house. When the sun faded the green leaves, she spray painted them. We drove by just to look and believe it on not, they looked pretty good!


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## Mini Horses

Used to be a house in an old neighborhood that always "planted"  plastic flowers in the yard.  New each year.      hey they were always on bloom!


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## Ridgetop

Did that for a 4th of July party one year.  Looked very realistic.  One year I hung baskets of silk red geraniums from the horseshoe hooks over the barn windows along the driveway.  They looked wonderful (until the winter gales blew them off!  L

Might do it again when staging the house to sell!   

In the meantime,  growing the vegetable garden in the raised flower bed at the end of the lawn will look good and be easier to work on without the problem of the dogs liking to lay in the soft soil, digging out beds for themselves which scatter fine earth all over the patio on that side of the house, and the artificial grass will loo very nice and manicured for when we sell.  At the end of the season when the plants all die in the raised beds, we can plant a winter garden for the brassicas and peas.  The raised tubs can be moved and cut to half sand and half earth for beets and carrots.  And since we did not drill holes in all of them, the still usable ones will be stacked for removal to the Texas ranch.  You can never have too many cattle/horse troughs in Texas.  Or might give some to my DDIL in Nipomo.  Either way, we didn't buy them for the garden project so no $$ loss by not using them.  Besides I think the plant roots probably baked in them during the summer.  Or boiled/steamed the roots when we watered them.  Either way, our tub gardens were a failure last summer - part of the Great Garden Fiasco of 2020.  

Actually now that I think of it, there is a large store specializing in fake plants and flowers about 5 miles away.  Last time DH and I were there, they had great sheets of greenery designed to look like hedges to be draped over boxes or backdrops  It just occurred to me that we could buy some of those greenery sheets  (not cheap) and attach them to the chain link fence to look like a large hedge between the house yard and the livestock field!  Instant beautification!  All you would see from the patio ad yard would be 5' high faux manicured hedges with a view of the mountains over them!   No upkeep except to wash them off occasionally with the hose!   

Just have to fence off animal access to that fence to avoid the sheep eating the artificial greenery!  Don't want them to chew holes in it!  

DS1 covering up those holes in the walls and ceilings through the house (left from the removal of the old HVAC vents and runs) has really resulted in keeping the house much warmer!  I didn't realize how much heat we were losing!  Or probably AC as well!  There were sheets of plastic taped over the holes but now with the insulation and drywall the HVAC keeps the house warm at 65 degrees!  I used to turn the temp down to 67 degrees at night but now I am waking up during the night feeling too warm and having to turn it to 64 degrees!  I wonder if the HVAC will be even more efficient when we remove the vent that are no longer hooked to a system.  Can't wait to get those done now.  

DS1 had to buy several thicknesses of drywall because since the house was originally built in 1954 it as been added on and remodeled by several families - the original family, their daughter and SIL, and ourselves.  DH uses 5/8" drywall, whole the other people used 1/2".  And parts of the original dining room had paneling covered with 1/2" or 1/4" drywall.  At least one ceiling is old wire lathe and wallboard.  DS1 had a hard time getting the patches to be even but he managed it.  Ridgetop training!  LOL

We will have to plan out our trip to Yelm.  We are not taking the 5th wheel, and originally were not taking the stock trailer either.  We were going to rent a U-Haul to bring back the items but now we will have to take the stock trailer since we have to bring some tools and cleaning supplies as well as yard tools with us to clean up the property for listing with a new broker.  (Unless the current one manages to se it in the next month).  

After looking at the property values of pieces around the property, they range from old houses on .43 acre to old houses on .53 acres.  The new subdivision built in 2002 has 6100 sf lots and the houses are 3/2 and are all valued over $350,000!  We might raise the price to $425,000 in order to be able to drop the price to $400,000 instead of having offers below $400,000 coming in.  We will discuss it with our new broker.

The current broker sent us the cancellation notice, asking us to sign and return it, but when I read it (I read everything before signing) there was a paragraph binding us to paying them their *full* commission if the property was sold to anyone they mentioned it to!  Sneaky trick!   Since the contract only required them to notify us that the sale was cancelled, I didn't sign it.  The agent then called and asked if we got it and I told him we received it.  Strangely he did not ask me to docu-sign and return the notice.  LOL  Always I read through anything before signing!  I ignore the tapping feet - even when they want to wheel me into the operating room, i read the releases! I am the bane of traveling notaries who can't understand why I want to read every document before signing and "take up their valuable time".  Once, half way through a loan document I noticed that the interest was .3% over the quoted interest rate, stopped the signing process, and sent her away until the mortgage company produced documents with the correct rate and terms.  When they tell you they will "fix it in the office" I never agree.  

Today I will go out to the Connexes and get out the boxes of baby quilts, sheets, gowns, blankets, etc. that I kept. The girls are not sure they will have baby showers due to Covid so they want all these items.  I will also go up into the workshop loft and bring down the baby equipment stored up there.  There is a lovely large antique bassinet I need to sew a skirt and liner for to give to DD2.  The small wooden portacrib for DDIL2 already has a good skirt, bumper pad, etc. that I made for DGS1.  Also get down the baby swing (cradle type), jumperoo, and other equipment that I saved, thank goodness.  Need to wash all that bedding.  The baby jail panels can wait to be scrubbed since we won't need them yet.  Then we need to clean out the spare room that was doubling as DDIL2's office and set it up as a nursery.  DDIL2 plans t divide her time between San Diego, here and her parents' house.  DD2 has her own apartment but will probably be here a lot of the time.  IS THERE NO END TO THIS CONTINUAL MOTHERHOOD?!  
At least* I* am not the one pregnant or nursing this time!  The full size cribs that are stored for the girls will stay in storage for a another 6 months until the babies outgrow the bassinets and portacribs. DD1 is giving her crib and changing table to DDIL2. I am giving my crib to DD2. DD1 has the old nursery dresser she will give to DD2 nd we will repaint it white to match the crib. DS1 will make a wooden surround to fit on top of that dresser for DD2. I just wish DS2 and DDIL2vhad a house or large apartment where all this could go since I have other stuff - shelves and toyboxes - I could give them for the babies. Well, I will dispense all this stuff and when they need to store it, they can all rent storage facilities. I am downsizing! Getting ready for my move to Texas!
Or the nursing home, whichever comes first!  

 Each girl has a rocking chair.  DH and I have our TV ears to drown out the babies' screams while we are watching TV.  DH puts his on when the family is loudly playing games at the family room table while I try to lip read what the actors are saying on the screen or go to my room to watch in private.  This upsets the family who want to "bond".  DH is not bothered since he has TV ears and can listen to the show while there s pandemonium all around.  After he loaned me his one evening while the rest were all playing a board game, I made DS1 order me one too.  Aaaaaaah.   😌  The grandchildren are once again welcome to come over and play noisily under our feet.

After another heavy rainstorm most of yesterday the sun is out again.  Supposedly going to have more rain this coming week.  Rain, sun, rain, sun, lots of forage for my sheep.  Last winter we didn't need to feed hay for 6 months!  Wonderful!!!  That reminds me that DH needs to get another couple of loads of hay in before the gas prices go up and stocks run low.  They are already growing lovely fields of alfalfa in Arizona and Imperial Valley. The first cutting will probably be in early May.


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## Ridgetop

Went down last evening and vaccinated and dicked the 3 newest ewe lambs DS1 docked tails, He wanted to dock the previous 2 but I said that he had already done that before we went to Texas. He tried to argue but I pointed out that their tails were missing.  

Today DS1, DH, and I will set up both scales and weigh all the remaining lambs in the creep.  Then we will castrate the ram lambs unless they are heavy enough to be pulled off their mamas and sent to the auction on Wednesday.  I have to call the auction Monday and check prices before deciding to send anything to the auction.  I also have a late spring 2020 ewe lamb that will go to the auction since I am not too keen on her size and shape.   Since we lost out on our Yelm sale and Texas purchase, I will continue to cull ewe lambs to save on the feed bill.   One homebred ewe that just lambed turns out to have an extra teat - I didn't see it there when I checked all the ewe lambs when born.  She will eventually go too.  Her ewe lamb is hairy and has no extra teats so she will stay.  

I need to go back through all the lambs and ewes and cross reference the ones that are throwing hair lambs as opposed to wool lambs  Then another cross reference to those that shed properly vs those that don't.  Once the quarantine is over I will pay my money for a flock appraisal by a trained appraiser/judge.  That will give me information on whether I am going in the right direction with my flock.  I am ok with my breeding schedule every 8-9 months, ok with weight gains, and the feet seem ok since I a only trimming once a year.  I may up trimming to twice a year since several have long toes.  

I don't have trouble right *now* with parasites because of the dryness of our area - arid southern California.  But when we move to Texas I will need to be on a fecal exam routine.  I might as well get started now so when we are in Texas it will be second nature. *I need a high power microscope.  What power is recommended to see the Barber Pole worms and eggs?  *We don't have those horrid things here, but I need one powerful enough to see them eventually. Plus my eyes are aging along with the rest of me!   Even a woman in her prime can use more power in her microscope!  HeeHeeHee!

Got the registrations back on the 2020 ewe lambs.  They were returned because I forgot to mark whether they were ewes or rams on the applications.   I filled out the apps on line but had to circle the sex after printing off the form and forgot to do it before I sent in the apps. At least I remembered the check this time. Oh well, the registrar and I are on first name terms by now!  

I think the 4 ewes in with MoyBoy are all bred but another crayon color change will tell me for sure.  Next to decide which of the remaining ewes will go with which rams. Having multiple rams can be difficult when it comes to deciding who to breed.  I have to go back over my paperwork and assess their offspring before making a decision.  It is hard to see the ear tags in the field too.  I think I am going to order larger scrapie tags.  Mine are the original ones issued by CA and they are TINY!  WE HAVE TO CATCH THE ANIMAL TO READ THE TAG!  I think I will change the numbering system - but I am too cheap not to want to use up all my existing tags first!  The thought of tossing out perfectly good ear tags makes me shudder at the waste!  BUT if we can't even read the numbers, where is the point in using them?

I had DS1 look up paint marking guns using paint balls.  Anyone have experience with them?   The information on them seems to be that they carry quite a sting to the animal. Guaranteed to make our sheep run to us pleading to be zapped!  NOT!  Some of the guns are advertised as "predator control" - if I was shooting a predator I would not use a paint ball gun!   Anyway, we got that idea while I was in the night fold trying to spray the last wether with orange marking paint. While I was chasing it around the pen DS1 waited bored outside the pen holding the other 2 colors.  When we came inside I realized he had whiled away the time by grafitti painting Josie the Mule and the tip of Bubba's tail was bright pink!  CHILDREN!    He tried to pass it off as "overspray" and tried to blame me.  The next day when DH demanded to know why Bubba was walking around with a bright pink tip on his tail DS1 even said I did it!  He couldn't carry it off though since he started laughing.  Two days of rain washed most of it off Josie the Mule, and Bubba's tail carries just a hint of pink now.  

Sunny today but we are supposed to get more rain next week possibly.  The hills are starting to show a tiny hint of green but no real forage yet.  Once it starts to grow it seems to grow about 6" a day though.  Still hoping.


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## Baymule

Paintballs hurt and leave bruises. I think your sheep would grow to hate you if you popped them with paintballs. For predator control, I think that is some "OH don't SHOOT the poor dog that is killing my lambs" sort of bleeding heart idiot thing. Can't SSS with a paintball gun.........BWA-HA-HA-HA! 

I like your DS1 painting efforts, I'm sure that Josie and Bubba were MUCH prettier! I used that purple wound kote on my horse, purple spots! Leopard Appaloosa! Hahaha! 

Welcome to east Texas, the worms are anxiously waiting.........


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## Ridgetop

Yes, Josie and Bubba were very pretty - tomorrow when the grandkids come over I need to hide the spray paint!  I already let DGD1 use the paint to mark one each of the twin lambs so we could tell the difference for weighing before they received their "earrings".   i need to order more 3ml needle/syringe combos from Jeffers.  I wi order more spray paint - if I get a can in blue, I will have all 3 ear tag colors i use to ID the sheep using their sires as different colors.  
Blue is MoyBoy, Orange is Axtel, and Purple/Pink is Lewis.   The paint is water soluble though, so DS1 suggested that we use regular spray paint.  I could do that and use stencils to spray over.  I could stencil the ## of the dams on the lambs' sides with the colors of the rams.  I would have to use green for open ewes and order another color for the slaughter or auction lambs.  

Too complicated?  Maybe.  A lot of my cross referencing ideas are, and then they fall into disuse.  Like the stack of 4"x6" index cards that I entered all the information about my ewes, pedigree, dates bought, breeders, sires used, lambs produced, etc.  Now I just use my calendars.  I probably should take all my old calendars, cut the pages off, and use a 3 ring punch and binder to keep the old ones in  since I have years worth and use them to refer to.  

The ear tags would work except that most of my ewes are not as tame as most of yours.  The animal cracker taming trick did not work since they all spit the crackers out and gave me the evil eye for trying to poison them.  I was going to try the peanut butter filled pretzel balls, but DS2 and DDIL2 found and ate them all before I could.  There as a small family confrontation over those as they tried to pin the blame on DH.  "Mr. Not Me" strikes again.  I will have DS1 get another container of them when he goes to Smart n Final.  I got the originals at Costco before Christmas so they might not have any more.   

Anyway, enough of this shilly-shallying!  It just shows the need for several permanent chutes that would be accessible from various corrals and compass points.   Various catch pens narrowing into chutes are my dream. Actually a full barn of various pens with gates that are exactly the right size to swing open across the alleyways and form chutes for sorting/loading sheep.  Wes and Jane Patton have a huge barn like that.  When we go there I just stand and lust after it.  It only takes one person to move any amount of sheep anywhere they want them to go.  And it is completely covered so working in the barn is dry.  Concrete underfoot so no mud.  Dream on . . . . One day . . . . In Texas . . . .

At this point I have ONE permanent alleyway made with corral panels.  DS1 built the second pen 36" apart from the first.  It made an alleyway between the pens.  The sheep can see through the bars and wire so they can turn around and bottleneck going the wrong direction.  This causes much frustration while working.    It is difficult to chase the sheep into this alleyway from each pen since there is only a sorting gate and the sheep have to turn at right angles to go either way into the chute. Surprisingly, they prefer _not to turn at all _causing more frustration.  This means that the easiest way to get them into the chute is _not_ to use this sorting gate until we want to sort them FROM the chute into the pens on either side of this sorting gate. Confused yet?  

 To get them into the chute from the 2 field pens we must swing one 10' corral panel around and put up portable panels to herd them into the chute. Once we successfully chase the sheep into this chute we must get them into the other places we want them.  (See part above, about turning around and bottlenecking.)  This entails building _another_ portable chute (using the same portable panels from the original portable chute since we don't have enough to keep them all up) that will send them into the barn. Tired yet? 

Once in the barn, we bring down the same portable panels (third time if you are counting) and build _another_ chute, then maneuver them through that chute into the scale or various sorting pens (the jugs). Finally we can do whatever it was we needed to do on the sheep (if we can remember and have the strength) before chasing them all back into their appropriate pens or pastures. Then we go into the house and collapse. or rather the men collapse while asking me what is for dinner. Thank goodness for Stauffer's frozen Lasagna.   Which reminds me, we are out.


In case you are wondering, that is why we rarely weigh our wethers after they are moved to the field pens. We just estimate their weights based on previous ADGs.  We need to work on the sheep today, but after writing all that I am exhausted!!!  May wait until tomorrow when the grandchildren will be here.  Louder, crazier, but like DS1 says - little bodies to run into the gully and chase up the sheep.  

Another cloudy day - yesterday morning it was sunny and chilly, by evening it was cloudy but warmer. Anyone's guess what today will bring.  Just because it is cloudy and looks like rain doesn't mean we get any here in so CA.


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## Baymule

Isn't it funny how men ask what's for supper, like YOU have been in the KITCHEN all day cooking instead of being outside working ALL DAY? Or y'all have been gone all day, walk in the house before you even take your coat off and they want to know what's for supper. What? I just walked in and I don't CARE whats for supper! Go make a sandwich!


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## Ridgetop

I wonder if they think we keep a secret clone hidden in a closet that comes out and does the laundry, cooks, and cleans all their mess.  Not to mention follows them around all day invisibly keeping track of their belongings for that pivotal moment when they cry out in anguish "Where are my glasses/phone/wallet/etc. - I KNOW I left it right here.  Who took it?".


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## thistlebloom

I have my husband trained, sort of. He asks the dreaded dinner question without actually using the words... 'any ideas...?' he'll say. Sometimes even before lunch! Oh yeah, I have ideas!!  But it involves a jail term.


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## B&B Happy goats

thistlebloom said:


> I have my husband trained, sort of. He asks the dreaded dinner question without actually using the words... 'any ideas...?' he'll say. Sometimes even before lunch! Oh yeah, I have ideas!!  But it involves a jail term.


Omg, great minds DO think alike


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## Ridgetop

*Do you think they ever realize how close to the edge they are walking sometimes?*


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## thistlebloom

They love danger!


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## B&B Happy goats

Ridgetop said:


> *Do you think they ever realize how close to the edge they are walking sometimes?*


Mine is absolutely  clueless  on how far he has pushed himself to the edge


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## Ridgetop

So sweet and yet so helpless!  I almost pity mine at times.  They are like newborn babies, two year olds, and teens, all wrapped up in one cuddly brain dead package!  They are lucky that we haven't found a substitute for them.


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> *Do you think they ever realize how close to the edge they are walking sometimes?*


Not unless I tell him.


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## Ridgetop

You guys are too funny!  You keep me sane!


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## Ridgetop

Got the creep lamb lambs weighed today and mamas pulled off all lambs over 60 lbs.  Weight ranged from 60.8 to 68.4, aged 9 weeks to 11 weeks.  Some singles on first fresheners, most twins.   Youngest jug lambs (2-4 weeks) moved from jugs into creep, weighed average of 21 lbs. with one really small lamb at 12.5 lbs.  Possibly misweighed - will recheck next week although she is definitely on the small side.   If she stays this small can I advertise and sell her as a "*rare mini* Dorper"?  lol  One December lamb weighed 47.8 lbs s she and her mother stayed in the creep pen.  

Kept the lambs in the creep pen and turned the ewes out on the field, marked with pink/purple paint and green paint showing open and lambed in November as opposed to those marked with green only, showing them to be open and have lambed September /October.   I will separate the ewes out to go to the different rams this month.  Have to go through the paperwork to see which ones have ewe lambs out of which rams.  

DGS2 is getting better at the weighing.  He stays on the scale but is getting better at pushing the lamb into the scale with his knees.  DGD1 was not allowed to come and weigh lambs (with she loves) because she had not finished her schoolwork.  

Pens cleaned out and will be allowed to dry for another week when DS1 will take all jugs apart.  DS1, grandsons, and DH will scrape the barn floor to get ready for next group of lambing ewes in 4-5 months.  

I have decided to sell my antique carved Chinese daybed and the hand painted Chinese altar table at the consignment store in Palm Springs.  No point keeping them when we need that room for a nursery for DS2's baby.  I love them, but don't need them.  I have too much stuff.  I offered them to DD1 for her office/spare BR but she doesn't like Asian art or furniture.  DDIL2 loves Asian art and furniture but has no house or apartment yet.  Might as well sell them.

Josie the Mule is in trouble.  Apparently she has loosened one side of the hay shed.  She did not pull off the board, just loosened it enough to stick her head inside and eat off the bales of hay!  One bottom bale is almost completely gone.  DS1 caught her the other day.  I told DH we should clear out the Connexes again and see if we could get rid of enough stuff to fit everything inside one Connex.  That would free one up for hay storage.  DH and DS1 didn't think we could empty one full one out although one is not completely full.  We have another Rubbermaid type shed on the driveway about 8'x10' which is full of rubbish.  I think we could empty it and either use it for hay on the driveway, or move some of the Connex stuff into it and get rid of a lot of the other stuff in the Connexes.  It is not rodent proof like the Connexes, but could hold shelves and plastic totes of stuff, and the Christmas boxes which take up about 6-8' of wall shelving storage in one Connex.  I will go out and start pulling out the stuff in it.  There are a lot of suitcases in it, some of which could be donated to Goodwill.  

Anyway, I need to start "decluttering" this place.  I have not given up hope of selling the Yelm property and finding our ranch.   in Texas.  

The ewes that were separated are yelling for their lambs.  The lambs left behind in the creep didn't seem to miss their moms.  They were all crowded into the creep gobbling hay.  Once the next go round for the ewes in front passes, I will pull those ewes out onto the field and mark their lambing dates on the calendar, sort out a couple of ewes in good condition and put them with a ram.  The late spring lambs from 2020 will be bred this summer.  Next Wednesday I take the 4 heaviest wether lambs to the butcher.  The following Wednesday I will take a load of lambs to the auction.  Then I will need to check which lambs will make weight for the March butcher date or book April.


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## thistlebloom

Haha Josie! She's clever, if she had pulled a board off someone probably would have noticed it sooner, by just loosening it enough to get her head in she could score almost a whole bale before getting caught!


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## Ridgetop

Absolutely!  She is a pistol!


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## Ridgetop

Ewes that we pulled the lambs off are not happy.  Most likely because their udders are full.  The udders look very pretty - I would not have been ashamed of these udders on our dairy goats when they were showing.  Next time we pull lambs, I might try to milk a couple of the ewes for the first day or two.  Doesn't hurt to have extra milk in the freezer.  The lambs don't seem to miss their moms at all.

We need to leave for Yelm next week.  Squatters got into the house and luckily another agent went to show the property and caught them.  Called the police and they were arrested and went to jail.  Broken window in door to fix.  I am considering having a burglar alarm installed with monitoring company.  

DH has an appointment for his first Covid vaccine on Tuesday.  I can't get mine yet.  We have an appointment t bring in 4 lambs to the butcher on Wednesday.  I forgot that that is the same day as the auction  I wanted to get a bunch of lambs off to the sale yard since they are big, I don't want to pay for their hay, and a check always comes in handy.  i think we will weigh on Tuesday and sort out lambs for the sale yard.  We will load the 4 for the butcher first and close the in the front trailer compartment, then weigh and sort the sale yard lambs into the rear trailer compartment.  Drop the lambs off at the sale yard first since the auction starts at noon 2-3 hour round trip, then drive the same amount of time round trip to drop off the lambs at the butcher.  A full day, but it gets them off the property and frees up a lot of hay!  The auction check should be waiting when we return from Yelm!  

Then we need to wash out the trailer and load our tools, cleaning supplies,  etc. for Yelm.  Two days up, inflatable mattresses and sleeping bags, do the clean up work and repairs, arrange installation of the monitored burglar alarm, take lots of junk to the dump  Then clean up the house, reload our stuff for CA, and return home.  I am considering contacting Fort Lewis ad seeing if anyone wants a short term month to month rental.  Or DS1 might stay up there to watch the place until we sell.

DD2 is having problems with Doofus.  His truck is not working right - overheating.  So he has not gone to work for the past month!!!   According to her he "thinks he knows what is wrong nd can fix it" but hasn't done so.  She is considering whether to break up with him.  They are out of money.  I put my foot down and said they would not get any more money from us.  DH is arguing abut it with me.  He went to the Ford show with DD2 to drop off the truck.  DD2 says she wants to know what is wrong with it and how much it will cost  I think Doofus hopes we will pay to have it repaired.  Not happening.  She wants to stay in her lovely apartment so i told DH she can file for welfare if he is not supporting them since they have not married yet.  Not sure what is going to happen.  DD2 said she wants to stay at the house full time while we are away without Doofus and let him see what it will be like without her.  His stepmother suggested this move.  I told her fine but she is not to allow him in the house.  More arguments with DH are looming I can see.   He is too loving with his children. Can't talk about DD2 and Doofus anymore. I am gritting my teeth so hard it hurts. Won't say what I would like to do to Doofus in case this is ever used as evidence in court!!! At least we don't have to worry about a divorce! And she can wear her wedding dress for her next marriage or rather her first one with a good man. The Flower Girl Dresses can be redone for our next granddaughters. Luckily I can sew. 

Grandsons came over today and climbed into the tool shed loft to get down the baby equipment I had saved. There is a lovely large antique bassinet - the basket lifts out of the stand to carry around for a baby car bed, and a wooden porta crib with adjustable height mattress.  That has all the bedding that I made for DGS1.  I have to look for the bassinette bedding.  I might make a new skirt for it anyway.  I have a bolt of pretty pink flowered fabric that I saved for years.  I will also get some quilted pink fabric for the liner.  Also had kept a lovely electric swing, Jumparoo, stroller, portable battery operated swing stand that a car seat fits into and another stroller frame that a car seat will fit into.  Next some miscellaneous items - portacribs, play  yards, bouncy beds for infants, and a small high chair, etc.  The years of dust fell off onto my face as DGS1 thrust the items down through the crawlspace.  I began coughing and practically threw up gagging as I tried to cough it out.  Then we went out to the Connexes and got out a number of boxes of infant blankets, sheets, gowns, toys etc., etc.   Not sure we got them all, but we will find out when the girls go through them and decide what they want.  Each girl has a new rocking chair, a full size crib and mattress.  Kassy has her own Jumperoo from a church sale.  DDIL2 has DD1's changing table. Not sure if they are going to have any baby showers, but I have supplied all this stuff as our baby gifts.  I also have several set of baby jail panels which can be used here or spit between them.  Not sure what will happen about baby showers since DD1 and DDIL2 are working and DDIL1 lives 3 hours north.  I may have to hold them myself at my house.  I will wait till we all have our vaccines.  

When I was in the Connexes I noticed that there were a lot of empty spaces on the shelves!  I think we can rearrange the shelves and  free up a lot more area in the Connexes.  Also, there are furniture items that can be removed to empty out the Connexes as well.  I can take a lot of that good furniture to the consignment stores in Palm Springs to be sold, along the the antique carved Chinese bed.  Maybe DS2 and DDIL2 will want to rent a storage unit and take some of the furniture.  I will have to ask them if they want any of it.  

I found the staghorn candelabra and sconces in the shed too.  As well as the new chandelier I bought several years ago for DD1.   Some of those items and the twin medicine cabinets can be kept in case we need them for renovating our ranch in Texas.  For a while at least.  I will move them into the barn loft or into the old milk shed to store, that will open up the space in the Connexes so we can use one for hay storage.  DH was very unhappy when we emptied all the other Connex junk into the second Connex he bought for hay storage!!!

I ordered some farm and sheep flock recordkeeping books.  Have to go through them to see if they will be helpful.


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## farmerjan

Sorry @Ridgetop .... wish I could make it easier for you.  The "doofus" situation is sad... thought maybe he had gotten his sh$t together,  was working and had found a vocation.  They never seem to change their spots.... just cover them up for awhile.

That's a shame about the Yelm property.  Thank goodness that a realtor found it sooner rather than later.  It might be a good move to try to rent it short term if there is not any activity on it.  Hope the damage is not too bad and can easily be repaired.  I am afraid that there will be more and more of that sort of thing with people out of work, and lazy riff raff thinking that they are owed something.


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## Baymule

DD2 is getting a good look at what her life will be like with Doofus. I know you have a way of pointing that out to her, better to find out now than later. Maybe she can move to Texas with y'all and leave him behind. If she wants to stay in the house while y'all are gone to Yelm, to let him see what life is like without her, point out that she can also see what life is like without HIM. Having the electricity on is a bonus, she WILL live to see it cut off is she marries this POS. I know you can't down him to her, what about your DD1 or one of your sons having a heart to heart talk with her?


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## Ridgetop

When they dropped off the truck DH actually told him that he was too old to be acting this way and needs to man up.  Said that knowing his work truck was not operable and then just sitting on it for a month without working was not an option.  Told him he has 1 kid already and another on the way, needs to work to support his family.  Grow up and be a man.  Then Doofus said he had to take the 3 year old daughter to the park with DD2.  

DH came home later and said that DD2 called while they were at the park and said they did not have any money to pay for the inspection to see what was wrong.  DH told her that the shop did not charge for the inspection.  DH made sure that his name was not on the paperwork.  We think that Doofus told her to call to see if we would give them any $$.  Really getting angry about this.

This morning DH and I had another discussion about not paying for the truck ourselves.  We both think that Doofus figures that DD2 will ask us for the $$ to fix it.  Not giving it to them since don't have it for them.  Also not giving it to them after DH already gave DD2 $1000 last year to repair DD2's bad brakes (which only cost $600), and we also gave them $1200 for attorney's fees to fight for partial custody of Doofus' child.  I told DD2 that the $1200 was a combination birthday, Christmas, and wedding present and she wouldn't get anything else.  Then DD2 told us the other day that she had spent all her earnings and savings supporting them and paying his attorney's fees for partial custody of the child.  DD2 is not too swift either sometimes.  Now they have no money to fix the truck and Doofus is not working.  She had said that she got a stimulus check at Christmas and spent it on presents for the 3 year old.  A better gift would have been to fix the truck!  DD2 also said she plans to got back to work as soon as possible after having the baby and is expecting us to watch the baby.  

I will have DS2, DDIL2, DD1, come over while we are gone and check that Doofus is not staying here with DD2.  We told her that she is not allowed to let him in the door.  However, if he comes over with the child in tow, she will let him in to see the little girl.  When we move she will probably come with us.  Without DD2 insisting on partial custody the other baby mama will probably prevail in her suit to remove the child from the state.  He won't have or want to spend $$ on fighting any petition like that with either his 3 year old or the new baby.  If he wants visitation/custody and finds the money to fight her moving, we will leave DD2 behind.  She made her bed, now she must lie in it.  I know this sounds harsh and unfeeling, but anything else is enablement.  Bad for us and for her. Thankfully Covid stopped the wedding.

No chance of rain after all.  The weather patterns changed.  The hills have gotten a little green.  We have decided to take a load of 60-70 lbs. lambs to the auction early Wednesday morning, then drive straight to the butcher with the 100 lbs. lambs the same day.  Long day, but we can remove about 10 mouths from the hay bill.  Also less for DD2 to feed while she is here.

Too many complaints here.  Sorry.


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## thistlebloom

Ridgetop said:


> I know this sounds harsh and unfeeling, but anything else is enablement.


This doesn't sound harsh or unfeeling to me at all. It sounds like tough love. And it's about time they both heard the wake up call.


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## B&B Happy goats

X2


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## High Desert Cowboy

Sorry you’ve gotta suffer with doofus but way to put your foot down about the house.  Sounds like the kind of pest that if he got in you’d never get him out!


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## farmerjan

I have to totally agree with your handling of the situation.  He either needs to get off his A$$ and "man up " as your husband so aptly put it... or DD needs to get her sh$t together and realize that he is not going to be a provider and get on with her life.  VERY SAD for the little 3 yr old,  at least it sounds like she has a mother that can take care of her;  and now the new baby coming.... but you also are right to lay down ground rules and then make her stick to it. 
What ever happened to his getting into the lineman job and supposedly his liking it?  

If there was a tragedy of no one's making, and DD wanted you to watch the baby so she could return to work it would be one thing.  But, you are my age, and starting over raising a child is not what you need to be taking on as a full time job with it being expected. 
Texas is looking better and better I would think.

I can say that for all my not thrilled with the situation with DS and the gf.... she works and pays her bills.... she is not a slouch and as much I am not thrilled.... in that respect he could do alot worse.  She spoils her daughter to the point of ridiculous and the child is growing up thinking she is entitled to be waited on..... and DS says that he has had a few things to say and that there have been some improvements in the daughters attitude.... They have to work it out.  I do not live in that house.  DS is friends with her ex so that helps..... they agree on most of the things  it seems.... and her ex has a daughter from a relationship after the marriage was over and the gf  has the little girl over regularly so she can have a relationship with her half sister.... and she likes DS too.... so they all do things together.  DS wanted a family, so he has a cobbled together one..... plus the sister of gf whose husband died last year.... she has a daughter a year or 2 younger than gf's daughter,  and the little boy that was a baby  when the father died and that kid loves DS..... the sister leaves the kids with DS and gf often,  so DS is like a father figure to him.  GF's parents help out also, so the kids have a real blended family. 
All that said, DS does not "support" gf or her bills.... I am sure that they share costs in some way, but he told me point blank that he pays his bills and she pays hers.... all this was volunteered on the trip to the dr appt the other day.... and I said that if he can make it work then that is what he needs to do.   Maybe given some more time I will get past her reputation, and her treatment of him last year, sneaking around with the former boyfriend  when DS had broken his hip;   that is my problem.   But she is not a leech financially....


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## Baymule

My son is 38, never married, no kids, nothing in sight. I would pee my pants if he brought a girlfriend to meet us. She could be green and pink polka-dotted with 12 fingers and I would swoon with excitement!


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## Ridgetop

DH and I had a long talk about the situation ad decided that DD2 has to decide what to do,  We will not be giving any money to them.  DD2 can return home if she decides to leave him but we don't want him here,  Also we will need to have a talk with her about other stuff too.  For instance she said that she would babysit his 3 year old f he has to work at his part time job.  We need to point out that he will use her love for the child to convince her back.  I told DH that she can't have the child here while they are separated since she has no legal ties to her.  Also I don't want to get sued by the mother for an injury to the child on our property.  The whole situation is very stressful.  

When we move to Texas DD2 can come or not as she wishes.  We won't be inviting Doofus even to visit.  Too bad she wanted to rush the gun and get pregnant.  This pregnancy was not an accident, but planned by both of them.  Now I guess she will find out whether or not he is actually the "good daddy" she thought or whether he was just doing the good daddy stuff DD2 insisted on.  

Anyway, not going to think about this any more - at least for a while!

DH and DS1 are repairing Jose the Mule's hay shed renovation.  I am going to go out and empty the Rubbermaid 8'x10' shed that is full of stuff - a lot of suitcases, but mostly junk.  Then we can move some shelves into it and move some stuff from the Connex into it.  Also stack the suitcases we decide to keep on some of the shelves.  

Next I will go back into the old milk shed and remove the hanging racks which are not space efficient.  They would be better located attached in either the barn loft or the tool shed loft to hold moldings, etc.  Then that will free up  lot of wall space for more shelves to hold stuff from the Connexes.  If I can get enough plastic storage totes out of the Connexes, we might be able to empty one complete unit and use it for hay!     DH will be so happy!

(Back to the DD2 subject we have already decided that if DD2 leaves Doofus and moves out of her apartment -not in her plans- we will pay for 3 months storage for her furniture in a separate storage facility - NOT here.  Then it is up to her.  In case you are wondering, almost all of the furniture and household goods are hers.)  

Anyway, back to the storage shed cleanup.  Some of the stuff in the Connexes belongs to DS2 and we can move it into his 2 Rubbermaid storage sheds.  I won't mention it to him or DDIL2 since they are so busy with work and the new baby coming.   I will move it myself to make it easier on them.   Anyway. I also have another smaller Rubbermaid garden shed 4'x8' with a lot of our older camping gear in it - sleeping bags, tents, folding camp chairs, and the hammocks from the boys' 4-H days, etc.  I will clean that out and offer the gear to our children since DH and I don't "camp" any more - we 5th wheel.  LOL  That will give me n extra shed for other types of storage.  Maybe put shelves in there and store the suitcases there instead of the larger shed.

Just noticed today that B15 - born November 19, 2020 - is looking gorgeous.  Super long, thick and with a leg to die for.  Definitely a keeper.  Both her sire and dam are Hijo sired.  Got a few others down there that warrant some intense consideration too.  Really happy with this fall and spring crop so far.  The ram lambs are also nice meaty animals.  Only one that is weird looking - larger shoulders and super thick but blending into a narrower rear.  Ugh!  He's going t the sale yard.  Will be lots of meat on him but not the shape I am looking for.  Glad he is a ram.  One f the late spring 2020 lambs is going to the sale yard too.  Her sister stays for another few months but this lamb is small and seems short coupled compared to the other late spring crop.  Snowflake is still the best looking of them luckily.  We were worried that she seemed a bit stunted  - her mother was the prolapse ewe and we weaned her early since we wanted to euthanize her poor mama.  She has really grow out well and is super nice.  She is ut of Lewis and the Axtel ewe out of TX lines.  She is the only one out of those TX lines I have since the other ewe died lambing.   Snowflake also knows how to suck up to us by asking for petting so she knows what side her bread is buttered in!  

DS1 found some peanut butter filled pretzel balls for me.  I am going to try them on the ewes.  Since they are salt covered the sheep might like them.   I really want my ewes to be more friendly.  They are super friendly just before lambing, asking to be petted etc. but them they revert to their old ways.  They do seem to love whoever carries their hay . . . .

I have found 2 sections of the baby jail that will work in the barn to help us separate the sheep when we bring them in for weighing etc.  I considered making more pig boards then remembered they were sitting there waiting for the new babies and checked them  They are not very wide, so should do very well in the confined alleyways.  We will use them like the pig boards to place between sheep as they all try to leave the pens.  Separating them off we can get one at a time to get out easier to work with.  If I have a chance I will try to take pix.  However, seeing Baymule's cute pix of all her lambs, I realized that I rarely take pix of mine!    Actually, since they are all white, and hard to tell apart, I could just post the same pix over and over again and no one would know the difference!  

Off to empty a shed!


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> She could be green and pink polka-dotted



She would match your polka dotted sheep!   

But FarmerJan:  I am gad to hear that things seem to be working out better with DS and his gf.  Having a large family of children to mentor is wonderful for him and  they are lucky to have him in their lives.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> We both think that Doofus figures that DD2 will ask us for the $$ to fix it.


Guess he's milked his parents dry and is looking for another source. 



Ridgetop said:


> Now I guess she will find out whether or not he is actually the "good daddy" she thought or whether he was just doing the good daddy stuff DD2 insisted on.


Seems like that is already pretty obvious. A "good daddy" would be working at something, anything, to pay the bills.


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## Baymule

I'm guessing that DD2 knows the opinions of you, DH and your family on Doofus. I'm also guessing that she knows the opinions of even his own family. It might be a wise statement, "_Everybody can't be wrong"_ to say to her, in your "talk" with her. She might be living with this LaLa Land idea that she is going to _change _him and everybody is wrong about him. She's the only one that sees the potential in him of what he could be after she changes him. Yeah, right. 

I'm also guessing that the pregnancy was planned by him so he could latch onto her, using her and the baby to get whatever he could out of you and DH. You have said that she is naive and doesn't get it that people can be not what they pretend to be. So she probably went along with his rosy picture of their little family. 

Time for some real life words.


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## Ridgetop

I think DD2 was the one that wanted to have the "rosy little picture perfect family".  She certainly paid the thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees to obtain visitation and partial custody of his 3 year old.  We all (parents and siblings) told not to chase custody since that would never happen.  Encourage him to be a good daddy presence in his daughter's life but settle for visitation.   She refused to listen.  She loves that 3 year old and wanted for her own.  Lie a ewe who ties to steal another ewe's lamb after losing her own.  She has been trying to get him full custody for years - even when they had no place to live!  She worked several jobs to support them and save the money for their apartment.  After he got a full time job last spring, she immediately started looking for an apartment with 2 BRs so Maysie could have her own room full of toys. DD2 continued working until she got so sick with this pregnancy she had to quit.   Now she is 8 months pregnant, and can't work,  so he has to be the sole support.  It wouldn't surprise us if to learn that he was fired.  DD2 says that the company is keeping the job for him but he hasn't worked in over a month so I don[t believe it.  

At any rate, no money is going to be coming from us to either of them.  We have enough bills of our own and need our money to pay for them.  Also, I was supposed to get new kitchen counters a year or two ago and that never happened.  The new stovetop is still out in the Connex waiting for the new countertops so we can install it.  I plan to install fake grass in the area where we tried to have our garden last summer.  I want to get this place ready to sell once we sell Yelm and buy our ranch.  Lots of stuff to do here to get it looking good enough to go on the market.  All that needs $$.  So no $$ for DD2 or Doofus.  Oh yes, and we need to empty out the one spare BR we have for either DS2's new baby or for DD2 to move back home.  That will entail us moving all her furniture out of her apartment and into a storage facility.  We will have to pay for that.  And they will probably be evicted soon anyway since he is not working.  We won't store any of *his* stuff, but then he had almost nothing anyway.  

Anyway, since the Yelm house is *EMPTY*, we need to bring air mattresses with us as well as towels and some cookware.  I will bring the coffee maker from the trailer, a few pots and pans, a few knives, and we will have to buy all the food we will need at the Walmart in Yelm.  We will be using all paper plates and plastic silverware.  We will also bring some folding camping chairs.  The old kitchen table and chairs are out in the shed so we will move them back in to use.  DS1 is bringing a TV and his machine (?) so we can play movies at night if we want after working all day.  My computer of course, and my travel printer.  Also a whole list of tools for repairs and yard clean up. 

Actually if my sister decides to give us the furniture she said she would, we will go up there first and get it so DH can sleep on his air mattress on a bedframe.  He is worried about getting up off the floor otherwise. LOL   Don't know what will happen there since  my sister is so peculiar, so not too worried about that.  DH can roll around on the floor until he can crawl up on a chair like I will have to do.  

On Tuesday the grandsons are coming over to work in the barn, weigh the lambs, and load the butcher lambs into the front compartment of the trailer.  Then we will chase the field lambs over into the barn and weigh them before loading the ones going to the sale yard.  I considered moving the older ewe lambs off the field into the creep with the tiny lambs and mamas in order to put ewes with all 3 rams.  However I have reconsidered that since I don't want all the ewes to lamb at one time.  I only have 5 barn jugs.   Instead we will just switch the ewes that are breeding now with MoyBoy onto the big field, move MoyBoy into the ram pen with Lewis and put Axtell in a harness in the breeding pen with 4 new ewes.  In another month, we can switch Lewis in with the remaining ewes.  Then put all ewes on the main field with a clean up ram.  We will put all the junior ewe lambs in a separate pen.  We have a lot of ewe lambs this year and I will need to go over them with DS1 and possibly DS2 when he is home.  Both DS1 and DS2 are very judges of lambs and sheep.  Then I will cull out any that we decide we don't want to keep and they can go to the sale yard.  If we don't se Yelm and find a ranch there is no reason to keep al the ewe lambs this year.  We need to cut back on hay with little forage available.

So the trailer will be loaded on Tuesday night.  On Wednesday DH and I will go first to the sale yard and unload.  The auction starts at 12 and we want to be there early.  Then once we have unloaded that group, we will drive up to the butcher and unload the 4 meat wethers.   That should be 10 less mouths to feed while we are in Yelm.  No ewes are due to lamb.  DD2 only has to check for a crayon mark on the ewes with Axtell and write down their # on the calendar.

DH had DD1 come over yesterday to ask her to drop by while we are gone and check that DD2 was not allowing Doofus to hang out at our house.  We told DD2 that she shouldn't even see Maysie during their time apart since he will use her as a ploy to lure DD2 back.  Whether or not she obeys is up in the air.  However DD1 said she would come over with the children and teach from our house while they do other chores in the barn, etc.  She will also hang out with DD2.  

I can't wait to move to TX and leave all this drama behind!!!  I am beginning to question whether even our darling grandchildren are worth this.  I might not even leave a forwarding address!

3 of the newest lambs are definitely hair lambs.  One in particular looks extremely good and will be a definite keeper.  She has the length I like.  One of the 3 month old lambs also looks extremely good and is a keeper too.  Again, a hair lamb and very long through the loin.  I am very happy with the quality of all my lambs this past year.  2 of my 4 home bred ewes lambed and one produced the really nice hair lamb I will keep. The other 2 are bred and will lamb in May or June.  The other home bred ewe produced a single ram lamb that is overly thick through the shoulders and tapers in the rear.  His awkward looking shape may be because he is a super fluffy hair lamb, but I am glad he is going to the sale yard.  We'll see what she gives me next time.


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## Ridgetop

OK!  A lot done by today!  

Yesterday I received my Covid vaccine authorization from UCLA medical so I called to try to get taken at the same time as DH.  His appointment was originally for tonight at 7pm in Santa Monica.  no appointments available but I was able to cancel his and set both of us up for 8:40pm _last night_.  So much better traffic wise and both of us in at the same time, no waiting.  Then I set the appointment for the second shot fr March 2 at 7:00pm.  So Covid vaccinations taken care of.

Next I arranged to have the electricity turned on in Yelm so we could have water (pump).  I realized later that the only lights in the house are in the kitchen, bathroom, and office.  No overhead lights in the bedroom and living room so we will have to go to the thrift store and buy a couple of lamps.  And remember t bring light bulbs.

Made out the list of stuff we need to take, and also a Walmart list for food, cleaning supplies, etc.

Next I arranged for a security system company to come out on Wednesday after we arrive to install the security system on the house.  This will entail keeping the electricity on when we return to California but better than having the place broken into.  The security people will monitor the system and alarms.  A monthly charge, but worth it, considering the management company (also our real estate agent for now) charged me $100.00 to nail a small piece of plywood up over the broken window pane in the door. They will also supply a temporary code for agents who show the house to prospective buyers.

Next we sorted all the lambs and ewes out.  Some of the ewes we just weaned from their lambs are still a bit under condition so we will up their hay.  I decided to wait another 2 weeks to change out the ewes and rams in the breeding pen.  We will switch the crayon on MoyBoy tomorrow for the last time.  Hopefully those ewes are bred.  

We weighed all the lambs.  With no forage the lambs going to slaughter are not heavy enough so we will keep them for another month - I have a slaughter date in March.  With no green forage they are not gaining as fast as I would like (weight ranging 80.8 to 86.8 lbs.) I don't want to grain them a lot.  *OOPS! * just checked their ages and they are barely 4 months old.  I must have miscounted when setting the appointment.  March 12 is next appointment.  Called Kent and cancelled for tomorrow.  Will take them to butcher in March.

Next we weighed and sorted out the older ewe lambs, and just weaned ram lambs. There are 2 late April born ewe lambs (9 months old) that we are not as growthy as the other 4. We decided to take them to the auction.  We have a lot of ewe lambs this year so no need to keep slow growers with wool.  The ram lambs weighed in averaging around 70 lbs.  at barely 3 months so they can go to the sale yard.  Since they are rams they will bring a bit more.  That clears out 6 lambs.  

Next DS1 and I looked at the younger ewe lambs, weighed them, and decided which ones we liked the best.  I trust DS1's opinion - he has experience with lambs.  Although he did say that he was a little old to be participating in another "4-H Judging Day".  DGS2 was delighted to be allowed to mark them with the livestock spray.  Next month we will take the 3 wethers to the butcher, and sort again to see which ewe lambs to sell or keep.  The 4 older ewe lambs wevare keeping will be bred this summer for fall lambs.  Several of the spring lambs look really nice.  I am very pleased with our lamb crop this year.

So a good day's work.  

Now to reheat the ribs I made last night for another meal.  Freeze the leftovers, and figure out what we will be eating for the rest of the week.  I might pack up the fruit and veggies to take to Yelm for us.  Also maybe the frozen ribs, and other frozen meals can go in the cooler.  DH is planning to go to Costco and get roll up sandwiches for the trip, as well as a BBQ chicken to take with us in the cooler.  

Tomorrow we will take the lambs to the auction then pick up 40 bales f hay on the way home.  After unloading the hay, we will clean out the trailer and start loading it with our tools and equipment for our trip to Yelm.

I will throw a load of laundry in tonight so I can finish it off tomorrow.  Then we need to pack our woolies and long undies for Washington.  It will be cold there because it will rain the entire time.  As soon as we arrive we will have to pull some firewood up onto the porch to dry off,  Hopefully there is some in the barn out of the rain.  The heater is nice in the house, but a fire is always a welcome feeling when it is raining.  

DS is bringing a small TV to watch movies.  DH is in the middle of Major Crimes, having finished the entire 7 seasons of The Closer.  We will be bringing the rest of those episodes to watch and some movies too.  

I have been thinking about putting up inexpensive window shades in order to be able to keep people from seeing into the empty house,  That way maybe a light and radio on a timer would help keep out intruders.  I just hope the property sells soon.

The listing agent/broker texted me on Saturday that they needed us to sign the Rescission on the offer in order "to be able to send us the offers that other agents were submitting".   The Rescission had a paragraph guaranteeing we would pay him the entire commission if some other agent sells the property FOR THE NEXT 6 MONTHS AFTER HIS LISTING EXPIRES!!!  His text made it sound like he had other offers to present on the house, right? but first we had to sign the Rescission.  I figured he was phrasing it that way on purpose so I would get excited and sign the Rescission accepting the 3rd paragraph! I had already told him that I would not sign it with that paragraph in it.  I told him AGAIN to remove that paragraph and I would sign the Rescission.  He sent it back with the paragraph crossed out.   I signed it.  he has not presented any other offers so obviously he was phrasing it as a come on!  I no longer trust this agent to be working for us at all. The sad part is that he was highly recommended.  

The listing ends April 1 and we will get another agent.   This time for only 3 months.  The property will be spiffed up and look good.  Sadly with Biden in office jobs are being cut so I am not sure if it will sell.  Time for a Novena.  BTW the Supreme Court has ruled that California cannot forbid the holding of religious services in churches.  They can limit them to 25% of the capacity, but we can go back to church!  

Getting my hair cut and nails done on Friday.  It has been forever and I look terrible. Luckily DH needs new glasses so . . . .


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## Ridgetop

Dropped off the lambs this am at sale yard.  Only a few goats already there at 11:00 am.  Auction is this afternoon.  Off ramp was closed so had to get off further down freeway.  Went through heart f what used to be thriving dairy preserve in Chino.  So sad driving through area and seeing all the empty cowsheds and overgrown milkshed yards. 
Dairy restrictions tightened about 15-20 years ago started to drive out dairies that were in business there for generations.  Most have moved to northern California but even there the restrictions are making it hard on dairy farmers.

DH was telling me that DD1 read scientific article about artificially making food a la Star Trek replicators.  We were discussing the new requirements here in CA that all new cars sold here by 2035 must be electric.  I can envision all those working people with their :energy efficient" electric cars driving home after work and plugging their nifty little plugs in for a recharge.  
                ENERGY GRID GOES DOWN  -  CITY GOES DARK!!!
Do the green energy czars even know where electricity comes from or do they just think it is a clever little receptacle in the wall?  It was an amusing mind picture reminiscent of Christmas Vacation when Griswold's 100 million Christmas house lights finally come on.

So off to the hay dealer.  Arrived at noon right after the gates were locked with a sign saying "Back at 1:30 pm".  DH actually considered sitting there for an hour and a half and waiting for the guy to arrive!    However, since we only live about 15 minutes away cooler consideration prevailed and we returned home to clean out the trailer before picking up hay at 1:30 pm.

DD1 found the inflatable mattresses and the pump.  He filled them to test them for leaks. Nothing worse than going to bed on an inflated mattress and waking up flat on the hard ground.  I have to find 2 sets of double bed sheet to take with us.  We can use sleeping bags as blankets.  DH reminded me to pack some PJs for the motel since we will be sharing a room with DD1.  Don't want to traumatize our son by letting him think his parents actually enjoy bodily contact.  

Washed out the cooler and the tool box to pack the larger tools.  DS1 will get them all packed up and together for loading tomorrow.  The drills, and smaller battery operated tools, etc. all pack in their own storage boxes and clip together on a dolly.  The towels, bedding, etc. will be packed into plastic crates to carry north.   *Got the coffee maker from the camper so I am ready to travel.  * 

Hear DH returning with the hay - the diesel is unmistakable.  Tomorrow we will pack the trailer and our suitcases.  OOPS!  Just remembered that I did not put clothes into washer!  Better run do that now so we will have clean clothes.  

Have been talking to DD1 and 2, and DDIL2 about who will stay at house.  DD2 was sent to bed rest, so I figured she couldn't come.  It turned out not to be because of pregnancy but with a pulled groin muscle which caused abdominal pains.   She is also very anemic and has high blood pressure.  Am trying to arrange overnights between DD1 and DDIL2 (who is coming up for doctor's appointments).  If they can split the overnight stays between them, grandsons can stay here all week to feed.  Still need to discuss with DD1 who doesn't want to stay overnight.  I feel she owes us this, but . . . .

DH found out about the truck.  DD2 told DH the shop said the water pump in the truck had _several _leaks. The Ford dealership wanted $800 to do the job. DD2 and Doofus decided they were being cheated so are picking up the truck. Doofus had replaced the radiator, thermostat, and it turns out had already bought a new water pump before Christmas. He did not bother to change out the water pump because he did not think it was leaking. Then was puzzled when the truck kept overheating. DUH?    

Let's think about this - If you changed out the radiator and thermostat, and the car still overheats, and you already HAVE the new water pump don't you think you should CHANGE IT TOO - JUST IN CASE?!!!        DOOFUS HE IS AND DOOFUS HE WILL STAY!

Green grass is surfacing on the hillsides now.  The sheep were all the way across the gully eating on those steep sides.  Obviously nice fresh green grass over there.   Got to get that laundry in the wash.


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## Baymule

That boy is dumber than a box of rocks. Dirt is smarter than he is, at least dirt is useful for a myriad of things. He's got amoeba brain--ONE CELL and it ain't working. 

Road trip to Yelm! Hey, you got the coffee pot, everything else is secondary.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Went through heart f what used to be thriving dairy preserve in Chino. So sad driving through area and seeing all the empty cowsheds and overgrown milkshed yards.


Yep. I spent the first 2.5 years of my life in Chino. Dad's parents also lived there a couple miles away. Used to be a dairy across the road from them. Of course that was a LONG time ago, both farms and the surrounding area is all cheek by jowl houses now.


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## Ridgetop

Our friends, the Marquez family, had their dairy in Chino.  That is where I used to drive out to pick up our bull calves. Eagle Livestock was a few blocks away - they were the calf people that picked up all the day old calves from the dairies daily.  Our veal project kids all bought 50/50 Angus/Holstein crosses at Eagle for veal calves for our Fair.  They were so nice to the kids.  Closed and empty now.  😥


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## farmerjan

The dairies here are closing down too and the ones that used to help the kids are the smaller family ones that are gone.  Sure, not as big as what you all have out there, with our terrain, many of our dairies are smaller anyway... 
So sad that we are losing the diversity in areas where things like animal waste can be put back into the land and such... BALANCE is what we are losing.


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## Ridgetop

Packing tools, folding chairs, air mattresses & bedding, cookware, cleaning supplies, etc. for trip to Yelm.  Grandsons helping drag  all tool boxes , suitcases, etc. to trailer to be stored.  Anything that I don't want wet like suitcases,  sleeping bags, etc. go in front of stock trainer and are covered in plastic.  Computer, travel printer, jackets, small cooler with travel food, water, and overnight bag goes in cab.  Cooler will be loaded and stored in back of trailer tomorrow.  Chains and padlocks ready to go on trailer to lock gate for trip.  

Heard that they had a heavy snowstorm there (unusual) and are expecting 4" in Olympia - 20 miles away.  DH got chains for the trailer today.  We have chains for the truck plus 4WD.  I will bring extra electric heaters, and DH is loading some firewood since the tenant probably used up everything he could find on the property.  Plus this will be dry.  If we run out we can cut up the wood partitions in the barn.  DS1 had a good idea to bring a box of Duraflame logs.  We can use them to start the fire in the wood stove in the house without messing with kindling and newspapers.  Better bring water too since if the electricity goes out (used to happen during snowstorms) the pump won't work and there is no generator.  Already bringing battery lanterns and DH and I plan to sleep in living room with wood stove and heater. If the power does not come back on we can move the wood cookstove outside and cook on it.  It has to be moved out anyway since we are taking it back to CA with us.  I don't think it will come to that though since we were in Yelm during some bad storms and snow a couple years ago after my aunt died while clearing out the property and no loss of electricity.

DH is at Sunland Produce getting veggies and fruit for trip and those persons staying here who must be bribed by steady supply of food.  Tonight DS1 will do his laundry and pack his stuff for trip.   I will pack cooler and cab of truck.  DH already gassed truck and had all tires checked, extra 5 gallons of diesel is loaded in trailer, along with some additional  ropes and tie downs.  Tomorrow DH will go to Costco to get last of travel supplies - 2 BBQ chickens( 1 stays here for ravenous house sitters who disdain cooking), roll up sandwiches which will carry us through first day of travel, 6 volt batteries for lanterns, and whatever he decides to surprise us with.  I will finish packing overnight case with meds, toiletries, etc. and we will hopefully pull out around 4:00 am.  Planning only one night on the road but depending on weather might have to stop for a second.  

Having planned for any eventuality I can't wait to see what will go wrong on this trip.    It's a Ridgetop thing.

Meant to call auction today to get prices my lambs sold at but too late now.  Check will be waiting when we get  back.  Texted agent to put key lock box on door and text me the code but he said he couldn't because it was snowing up there?   Then he said _we_ could run by to get it because their office was only 10 minutes from the house!   Oh well, if they want to be disobliging we can get in house.  Remember the break in?  I had them board up the broken window and we have our tools so can remove the board easily.  I had not panned to use that bedroom anyway since it will be freezing up there and we will just hang a moving pad over that exterior door and block the gap under the door into the rest of the house with a rolled up towel till it's fixed.  

It rained last night so hopefully we will be getting some green stuff growing for the sheep when we get back. Once back we will sort and relocate different ewes for another breeding cycle.   I have 4 ewes that are in condition again for breeding.  The other 3 need more time and a little grain.  The 4 down in the creep will be not wean their lambs for another couple month o so.  Then they will go into the field pen to gain some condition depending on how they feel to me.  Several of the lambs are really nice and I am extremely happy with them.  

Well, got to go gather up the last items - flashlights, cowboy hats (necessary in rain and snow to keep it out of the neck of my coat), rubber muck boots.  Oh, better make some ice for the cooler too.  Easier than going back out to buy bags.  

Not looking forward to this trip.  It will be cold,  🥶 🌨️ wet, ☔ uncomfortable, 🤢 and depressing.   BRRR!  

Now I get to go make dinner for the family (all 6 of us) again.  DD1 and grandsons spending the night again. Learning to feed.  I am fearful . . . .


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## Baymule

Do be careful on your trip. I know little to nothing about driving in snow and ice. What I DO know is that I don't want to drive in snow and ice. It sounds like y'all are prepared for just about anything. I know this is a working trip, but enjoy yourselves and have a good trip.


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## thistlebloom

Be safe out there on the road. Sounds like you are well stocked for any eventuality. Like a pioneer!


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## farmerjan

Safe Travels, good luck.


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## Ridgetop

Probably will be just like the Donner party!  Better pack extra food just in case.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Drive careful and good luck!


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## Ridgetop

Got my check from the stockyard!  Great prices! - ewes  2 @ $187.50 each - rams 4 @ 195.00 each!!!  Less $6.00 yardage and commission of  $121.50  =  8  Total check $1,033.50!!!  



I will be sending my ram lambs in around that weight (70 lbs.) from now on.  Not too many sheep at the sale apparently - only a few goats when we got there at 11:00 am.  
So glad I didn't hold those ram lambs for slaughter since I got almost the same price as I would get for a 100+ market ready lamb!   DH thought I should keep them back for butchering at 100 lbs. but I didn't want to feed them since I was not sure we would have forage and I have a lot of ewe lambs to raise up for another several months till I can sort them.
😃


😠



Same mail brought tax bill for Yelm - $2,762 for 980 sf house on 3.5 acres.  No income for past year - Thank you Covid!  
Please let it sell soon!!!  😭😢😭😢   New forecast is snow and rain for Yelm.  At least we will be able to find the piles of trash to remove without having to shovel snow off the top of them.  

🥺  What else is in store?


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## thistlebloom

Wow, those are high property taxes!


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## Ridgetop

Yes, another reason to get the property sold.  All taxes in Washington state are high.  They even have a 10% tax on all labor!   Combine that with their horrible liberal governor and


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## farmerjan

I will  not complain about things here even though I cannot get any kind of livestock/ad break on the house on 2 acres.  Taxes AND ins (100,00 on house) are a total of 1475 year.  Will change as taxes change but will not change until the house is reassesed.  If I remember the ins is about 550-600 so the taxes are about 800.  What I am saving from the rent will pay the taxes and ins plus a little.  Definitely a win-win.... Our liberal gov is a jerk, but other taxes aren't so bad.... especially if you eat mostly at home as the restaurant taxes are getting higher.  Total about 10% I think.


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## Ridgetop

We were going to leave for Yelm around 4:00 am BUT spoke to someone in Olympia (20 miles outside Yelm) who said they were digging out from 15" of snow from a bad storm and were expecting another snow storm today.  DH was at Costco so when he got home we discussed it and decided to leave tomorrow.  Hoping that we will hit Yelm after snow and when rain has come to town.  We have several steep mountain passes to go through on way north.  Better safe than sorry.

Decided there was no point in trying to get to Yelm and not being able to find the piles of junk left by the tenant under 18" of snow!  Trailer is packed.  DS1 got 6 Volt batteries which are hard to find.  He thinks the stores may be getting away from them in battery lanterns since he could only find battery lanterns that took D batteries.  The new battery lanterns are LED which are brighter on smaller battery power.  Anyway, we have several lanterns and flashlights now ready to go.  If worst comes to worst, we will be able to heat water on the woodstove for hot tea or something.  I think we might be able to light the kitchen stove top with matches since it runs on propane.  I hope there is still propane in the tank.  The tenant was supposed to keep it filled but since he moved out without cleaning up anything or paying rent for 8 months I just hope he did not run the tank empty.  The only thing that runs off the propane tank is the stove though.  If necessary, there is a good store next to the laundromat with lots of camping goods, farm stuff, etc. so we can pick up a camping stove if necessary.  Can't use the wood cookstove since it has been disconnected from the chimney, and I am afraid it will melt the kitchen vinyl flooring.  No need to cause more expense.

I spoke to 2 different agents yesterday who couldn't talk too much with me since the place is still listed with Remax.  However they both looked up the listing and said we should have no problem selling it for our price.  Apparently property is very hot up there right now.  The Remax agent that currently has the listing had said it would be difficult to move it without being able to put on 17 houses - said they would have to "disclose that problem".     I think they were hoping we would worry and lower the pricel  Actually I am going to relist at $425,000.  We can then accept a lower offer of $400,000.  The two brokers from other agencies also said that us keeping the new refrigerator was normal where the previous listing broker said it would be harder to sell without it.  AND when I told them that the previous agent and broker were the selling/buying agents/brokers and buying the property themselves, both agents were shocked.  When I told them that the broker said it was illegal to renegotiate the commission they said outright that was a lie.  We knew it was, but we are going to write a complaint to the WA State Realtor's Board about them.  They did a very shaky thing.  Anyway, I am not worried about the property selling quickly once we change brokers.  

Now, I have to change the installation date for the security system since we are possibly looking at 3 days to get to Yelm depending on the weather.  The appointment is set for Wednesday so better change it to Thursday to be safe.  I am finishing the packing - the new lanterns, flashlights, batteries, food, etc. need to be loaded and the cooler loaded too.  I made extra ice for the cooler but once we get to Oregon I can just scoop snow into it.    If the fridge is not plugged in,  no worry about the food not staying cold enough.  LOL

DD1 and grandsons stayed over for several days to make sure they know how to feed, and put drops in Bubba's bad eye.  DGD1 spent Friday night here too "because she missed us".  Woke up to a cuddly armful in my bed with her face grinning into mine! Today is DSIL's BD so yesterday I helped DGS2 make a cake for his birthday.  DGD1 helped make the frosting.  DGS1 designed the decoration with some type of game insignia they all like to play.  I filled in the insignia then showed 7 year old DGD1 how to decorate the cake using my decorator tubes and pastry bags.  She was excited that she did all the rosettes around the bottom herself.  Lemon cake looks good with lemon frosting and orange decorations.  Then I got out my card box and the kids each chose a birthday card for their dad in which they wrote sweet messages. They are doing a surprise party for him tonight.  He doesn't know abut the cake they made.

DD1 spent the day with DD2.  They had a long talk and today DD1 told us that DD2 has nothing prepared for the baby in spite of her due date being mid March.  She probably doesn't have much money to buy anything either since Doofus hasn't been working.  

_*BTW, Doofus took his truck over to his friend, the mechanic, who put some device on it and told Doofus that he just needed a new radiator cap.*_ Doofus did not replace it when he replaced the radiator.  So he is picked up his ladders and is going back to work tonight.  He apparently had been working a second job part time stocking shelves at Smart N Final for a couple weeks.  He told DH that DD2 filled out the application for him then he went to the interview.  What a loser! - he needs her to fill out the application for him to apply for a job to feed his family?  Apparently they have reconciled now that he is back to work.  

_*Next DD1 told us that DD2 expected Daddy to pay for the truck inspection ($150) to find out what was wrong.  She was shocked when he didn't do it.  *_DH and I knew that was why she called DH and said they didn't have the money for the inspection after dropping off the truck at the shop! She said she was also surprised not to get any Christmas gifts after we gave her $1200 for the custody attorney fees for Doofus' daughter. She said she didn't realize that the money was for Christmas, her birthday, and wedding gift even though I kept saying it over and over.  
I love the girl but maybe she _deserves _Doofus.  No, no one deserves that!   

Anyway, I told DD1 that she and I would have to go shopping for DD2 when I return.  I have a crib and bassinet for her, as well as several boxes of cotton baby gowns, blankets, crib sheets, and a Snugli, that I will go through and wash.  She has no carseat, but wants a $1500 stroller that she and Doofus picked out at a fancy baby store!   These two have no sense! Anyway, DD1 and I decided we will get her a car seat and stroller that _we _will choose, NOT the $1500 import, and will get the stuff she needs together. I.e. diapers, etc. DD1 has a lot of baby clothes from DGD1 packed away and is getting them out for DD2 to go through. Almost everything I got for DD1 I bought with my grandmother at yard sales. Most of the good stuff I got for my grandchildren I got at the Thrift Store on Senior Tuesday and on Craigslist. No need to waste money on an overpriced stroller when you might not be able to pay your rent because Doofus is so carefree about working! At any rate when I come back DD1 and I will arrange to do some baby stuff gathering and shopping. DD2 has few friends for a shower, and a lot of our relatives are dead now, or live out of town. Besides, I am not sure about the protocol of holding the baby shower with extended relatives now that the wedding has been cancelled. Doofus' side of the family isn't doing anything. Also I just found out that DD2 left all the porta crib bedding and mattress in Big Bear when they brought their other stuff down. I had given it to her to use for Doofus' daughter up their and I want it back for DDIL2. DD2 doesn't seem too worried about it since "she is not due for an other month or so". Sadly DD2 is all about DD2. I hope Doofus' dad and step mother will bring the items down from Big Bear when they come down after DD2's baby arrives. I am not a happy camper just now between DD2 and the Yelm property.  

Anyway, packing up my computer now for the trip to Yelm.


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## farmerjan

It is past time for you to move to Texas and for her to have to grow up, and she will either sink or swim.   You can't spend the rest of your life being her bail out.  JUST my opinion... take it with a grain, or a desert full,  of salt....

Read on one of my cattle forums that there are 2 major highways closed in Oregon due to massive snow and wind and extreme cold temps.  And more snow coming there today or tomorrow?  

Be safe and smart about traveling there.  And yes, the real estate agents are not only being unprofessional, they are actually doing things illegally.... you need to get out of it ASAP .... and you might have grounds to terminate the contract since they are not acting in your best interest as the retaining/selling agent.  But I think that you said the contract was 6 months and up in March.... just want to see you get out of it and get it sold in a proper manner....
Sorry to say, but I would doubt that there is propane in the tank;  the "squatters" would not have left anything for you....


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> but we are going to write a complaint to the WA State Realtor's Board about them.


Oh yeah. And I agree with Jan, given their failure to follow the rules of real estate sales I suspect you could tell them to pound sand and get one of the other realtors ASAP.


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## Finnie

I hope you are safe on your trip to Yelm.


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## Ridgetop

So we delayed our trip to Yelm for an extra day to allow for the snow storm that raged through Oregon and Washington.  14" in Yelm but raining for a day so hoped it would wash away.  Trip to Yelm took 2 days but mostly dry until second day when we hit rain.  Snow mostly melted off roads although still large drifts along side of freeway.

Arrived in Yelm around 6:30 pm on Tuesday to find mountains of garbage and junk in the front yard, mountains of garbage in the back yard, discarded clothes laying all over the house from the break in.  The door in the rear bedroom was missing a pane of glass and had a piece of plywood nailed over it.  A box spring was left in the bedroom, a sofa in the living room, and junk and trash scattered over the floors. It could have been worse though and rapidly became worse.

Needing the bathroom DS1 found the toilet full of unflushed feces.  Flushing did no good and we discovered that the water was not working.  DH checked the electric panel which was ok, so he went out to check the pump and see if the water was turned off.

A scream of rage brought DS1 and I running to find DH in the pump shed with his flashlight pointed at a hole in the floor.  *THE ENTIRE WELL PUMP ASSEMBLY, TANK, PIPING, AND ALL ELECTRIC WIRING FROM HOUSE TO PUMP HAD BEEN REMOVED!
*
*
More investigation in the dark showed that the2 room shed had been broken into as well and my antique wood stove looked like it was missing  as well as the table and 4 chairs from the dining area that we had locked in the shed!  

No water, no bathroom, off to a motel in Lacey - 20 minutes away.







*


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## Ridgetop

Next morning we went to Home Depot to buy giant garbage bags, cleaning stuff, rubber gloves, disinfectant, and 15 gallons of water! Then returned to the house and took an inventory.  DS1 poured water into the toilet to flush it.  I called the plumber who promised an emergency call the next day.  The glass guy couldn't come out until 2 days later for the door.  I started cleaning the house - throwing all the trash, clothing, etc. into garbage bags.  Then I cleaned and wiped out all the cabinets with Pinesol.  They were actually pretty clean, so not too disgusting.  Cleaned off and sanitized the countertops. Picked up all the broken glass in the bedroom and vacuumed that floor  Removed a lot of broken blinds to the dump pile.  Cleaned and sanitized the bathroom.  Took 2 days since we had to leave when it got dark.  Only the kitchen and office have overhead lights, and it gets dark early in Yelm.  

While I was cleaning the house DS1 and DH were bagging all the garbage into large heavy duty yard bags using a rake and shovel.  Most of the stuff was household trash.  A lot was  garbage bags already that had just been tossed into the yard.

Front  Back 

  Pump shed but where is pump??? Just  a hole in the ground!!!  Plumbers said they had never seen someone steal the entire thing, including the casings into the ground to reach the water level!!! They had to replace 52' to the water.  After pump was replaced the electrician said that ALL the wiring was missing, including the shed light, wiring into attic to panel, shutoff box, etc.!!!

*   $8376.35 for pump, piping, etc.      $6730.97 for replacement of electrical wiring        and panel*
 

When the electrician gave DH the bid I thought he would have a stroke!  😤😠🤬  Wort part - electrician cant get to job for another 3 days!!!  Stuck paying for motel for another 3 days!  $$$$$$$$   

So after I was finished with the house I was able to work outside.  While DS1 went to the dump 20 minutes away to unload, DH and I started on the 2 room bunkhouse.  This had been locked with a hasp and padlock, completely removed by tenant.  I had screwed the slider shut too, again tenant removed screws and opened the door.  Someone had been living in there, our tools, dining room set, and other things were missing.  Big mess.  DH and I spent hours cleaning the first room and hauling out debris, wood etc. until DS1 returned and we loaded the truck for the dump again.  So far $350 in dump fees and only 1/3 finished!   

     $$$$$$$$$$


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## Ridgetop

Had to post since couldn't load any more pix.

The one good thing was that we showed the house after we had the house clean, and most of the front yard emptied up.  They wrote a full price offer BUT we had to tell them to check on zoning since they have 3 small children and ponies for them.  One child has Down's syndrome.  We just couldn't close on the offer if they can't keep their horses on the property.    Worst part is they wanted to close by March 19!  

We have another showing tomorrow.  The good part is that the house looks good, and everyone is telling us that our price is fair and houses are at a premium in the Yelm area - none to be had - so that is good news for a quick sale.      Please, please, please . . . .

Next project - load the truck and another trip to the dump first thing in the am.  Then finish the second room in the bunkhouse and on to the barn.  
 These pix don't show the 10 junk cabinets the tenant dumped in the barn along with all the remodeling refuse from his reno jobs.  Also another mountain of garbage bags of household trash from the past year or so he lived there.  The management company is blaming not dealing with this problem on Covid.  I told them they should have called the city health department and reported him as a health hazard.  Since being up here I have heard from several people that our Remax broker and agent (also our management company) do not have a very good reputation.  Not surprising.

DH and I are so tired and sore that we go to the motel, shower, and collapse.  We are very out of shape and agreed that if we kept doing this for another year we would be either completely back in shape - or dead.   We feel very old and have to sit down to rest our knees every few hours.  Thank God for DS1 who is a tower of strength for us and does most of the hard work.  In fact we have to go to Home Depot tomorrow am to buy a mattock and sharp shooter shovel so he can dig the trench for the electrical conduit from the house to the pump shed.  The electrician said he would knock $500 off the bid if DS1 dug the ditch.  DS1 offered to do it to save the money for us.

DH comes home to the motel, showers, and falls asleep immediately.  Poor fellow this is not work he is used to anymore.   🥰

Here is part of the barn debris - note the sofa that was apparently being used by people living there.  I recognized the sofa as belonging to the tenant from earlier pix of the house interior.  Giant tires were in the barn, lots of other tires were also left all over the property.  DS1 thinks the tenant was stealing them for the rims.  The tires were slit in such a way as to be able to remove the rims but the tires were in good condition treadwise.  We can dispose of 5 tires per day at the dump.

  Portions of a car dumped behind the old barn.  There are also 2 engine blocks in the barn, along with other car parts laying around.  So far we have found a dryer, stove top, several microwaves, a large TV, and other assorted large appliances.  This is not normal rubbish left after a tenant vacates!!!

DH mentioned possibly renting the house out again!  After I stopped screaming in anguish he admitted that maybe we should just sell.  After receiving the electrician's quote (when he could speak again) I asked how he felt about getting another tenant.  He gave me a LOOK!  I think that meant "NO, WE ARE DEFINITELY SELLING!"  

Another day tomorrow - where is my bottle of aspirin?!


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## Mini Horses

So sorry for that huge mess.  Did the realtors never inspect the property while "managing"?   We sent pics to our owners every six months and would never have allowed this!!   Of course, with Covid many were under non- evict regs and tenants went wild.   As you can see.   

I'm thinking I'd approach the brokers with bills and threats.....they are obligated to do better.   And, would insist that the contracts were cancelled immediately.  They would be answering to State authorities I mine.   Real estate mgmt for 20 yrs and this is just way beyond any I have seen.


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## Baymule

You need to sue those terrible realtors and try to get their license pulled. I’m so angry that they did this to you. I hope they are not getting a commission from the sale!


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## Finnie

Ridgetop said:


> Arrived in Yelm around 6:30 pm on Tuesday to find mountains of garbage and junk in the front yard, mountains of garbage in the back yard, discarded clothes laying all over the house from the break in.  The door in the rear bedroom was missing a pane of glass and had a piece of plywood nailed over it.  A box spring was left in the bedroom, a sofa in the living room, and junk and trash scattered over the floors. It could have been worse though and rapidly became worse.
> 
> Needing the bathroom DS1 found the toilet full of unflushed feces.  Flushing did no good and we discovered that the water was not working.  DH checked the electric panel which was ok, so he went out to check the pump and see if the water was turned off.
> 
> A scream of rage brought DS1 and I running to find DH in the pump shed with his flashlight pointed at a hole in the floor.  *THE ENTIRE WELL PUMP ASSEMBLY, TANK, PIPING, AND ALL ELECTRIC WIRING FROM HOUSE TO PUMP HAD BEEN REMOVED!
> *
> 
> *More investigation in the dark showed that the2 room shed had been broken into as well and my antique wood stove looked like it was missing  as well as the table and 4 chairs from the dining area that we had locked in the shed!
> 
> No water, no bathroom, off to a motel in Lacey - 20 minutes away.*


This is absolutely terrible. Would there be any way to press criminal charges on the tenant? Breech of contract on the management company? Is there insurance that can cover some of these losses?

No wonder the realtor was not getting any offers on the property. 😡


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## farmerjan

I have nothing more to say than what @Baymule  and @Mini Horses  have said.... except that I would get a lawyer and do whatever I could to tear apart the broker.  Also, REMAX is a national name.... I would contact the national headquarters, and see if there are any thing they can do..... because if you start spreading it that REMAX was the broker/agent it will reflect on the national chain standing and such.  It would seem to me that the top brass in the company would want to help "smooth things over" so as to not reflect on the "name brand" so to speak.  

I would definitely sue the broker for negligence with the management.... as @Mini Horses  said, there are things that they should have been doing, Covid  is NO EXCUSE. Doesn't take much effort to go our and take pictures in the wide open air and then go through the legal channels.


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## Bruce

I'm not sure I could have even started cleaning up that mess! I hope you can get back at least some money from the management company. What a disaster.



Ridgetop said:


> including the casings into the ground to reach the water level!!!


 How did they pull 52' of casing out of the ground? That would take heavy equipment. Are there any houses around where the residents would have seen this happening?


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## Ridgetop

OK 3rd day at the dump aka Yelm house.  The house is clean, the front yard is clean, the rear yard is clean except for the pile for the metal yard which will be the last trip we take. The little 2 room bunkhouse is completely emptied and clean, and the large barn is in progress.  (It is a BIG barn with 3 bays that each fit 2 cars tandem.)  The farthest bay has been cleaned except the sofa in the back.  The center bay has been cleaned 1/3 of the way back.  Another 2 runs to the dump today removed all the bags of trash we raked and shoveled up today, including one full truck load of junk wood and another 5 tires (total of 15 taken to dump so far). Tomorrow we will finish the center bay, remove the sofa, start in raking and shoveling up the last bay.  We have another load of 6 doors, lumber, plywood, and large base cabinets to take to the dump along with whatever trash bags we fill with raked up junk and trash tomorrow.  We fit the bags into the cabinets and stack more bags on the top of the load and tie them down.  We also have several large pieces of wet carpet left laying around on the ground to remove.

GUESS WHAT?!  We found some funny looking things in the barn.  At the same time they reminded me of something but I could not figure out what.  DH said someone told him what they were but he couldn't remember.  While raking and shoveling up debris I kept looking at them and finally light dawned!  They are the old cattle stanchions from the original barn!!!  They have to be about 100 years old.  They are somewhat rusty, but I have decided to keep them.  If nothing else, they will be a conversation piece to hang on a wall.  LOL  They are rusty but seem to be complete - other than the missing barn partitions.   No wonder they looked familiar - they looked like giant goat stanchion headpieces on steroids!

Our dedicated pile of scrap metal grows larger everyday as we locate more and more metal mixed in with the trash scattered around the property.  That won't cost us to dump at the metal scrapyard though, and they will take all of it. There are 2 car engines (causing DH worry about lifting them), a riding lawnmower, a regular gas lawn mower, a motorized wheelchair assembly, parts of a car chassis behind the large barn, a washer or dryer, and a huge amount of car parts like mufflers, etc.  That load will fill the stock trailer.  We figure we will have to use the stock trailer to haul it off since the engine blocks are heavy and we can't get them inti the pickup.  DH and DS1 think they will be able to push them up a ramp into the trailer or pull them up using a come along.  Oh yes, then we have to dump the ramps along with the second couch left in the living room.  LOL

So far we received an offer on the house, but are countering.  First we want the buyer to double check whether they can keep their children's ponies on the property. We don't want to take advantage of a young family with 3 little kids if they can't.  This offer is for more than list price, but this is because they want us to pay their closing costs.  By bidding more on the house and having us pay their costs they can finance their closing costs and keep their extra cash.  The closing costs are actually several hundred dollars _more_ than the additional amount they are offering _and_ our agent and broker (whom we hate) will get a larger commission since the purchase price will be larger.  Between the additional commission and the additional $$ on the buyers' costs their offer will net us $2,000 less on the sale.  We are trying to decide if taking $2000 less is worth closing the sale by March 19 which is when they want to close. We don't think they will be able to keep horses on the property though so I don't think their offer _will_ actually close.  Is $2000 worth the hassle of keeping the house in the market longer?  I think I will have my agent specify that we will have the option to take additional or back up offers during this process.

Today another buyer came to look at the property.  Two people came but she is the buyer, not sure if mom and son, sister/brother, both are serving.  She is stationed at Ft. Lewis while he expects to be deployed back to Korea in another 6 months.  She wants to buy VA which might be a problem without a garage since VA financing requires covered parking. The barn qualifies as covered parking though.  And since the loft only covers 2 bays the 3rd bay is tall enough for RV parking as well.  She is the buyer and loved the privacy of the property.  She said she loves quirky little old houses so hopefully she will make an offer.  She only has 2 cats which means no livestock consideration if she submits an offer.    DH told her he was willing to sell VA which means paying points, but we support our military so that's ok.  Won't know till tomorrow or later if she will make an offer.  

I am afraid DH and I may have to come back up here and stay at the house until it sells. In spite of the security system, I am getting paranoid about leaving the house empty.  Of course, with the Covid lock down there is no necessity for us to remain in CA right now. Other than DD2 having her baby in mid March, Oh yes, and DDIL2 having her baby in mid April.  Neither of them are not prepared.  I am not worried about DDIL2 since she has a mom and 5 sisters.  DD1 is getting worried abut DD2 not being prepared for the baby and saying she hasn't any money to buy stuff.  On the other hand, she has chosen NEW baby furniture even though I have a crib and mattress for her.  I am NOT going to buy all her baby stuff - I have baby clothes for her that are used but if they were good enough for my kids they are good enough for my grandkids.  Besides they are only new until you wash them the first time!  LOL  Also crib pads, sheets, blankets, etc.  She has decided she wants diaper service, not disposables.  That would be fine if she planned to use cloth diapers and wash them like I did, but she wants the service.  In between complaining that she does not have anything ready for the baby, she complains to DD1 that she doesn't have any money.  Doofus' truck is working now so he is back to work and everything is rosy again between them.  DD2 complains to DD1 who complains to me.  Maybe coming back to Yelm, away from my daughters, would be better than I think.  

Coming back up here would entail bringing some furniture, mattresses, etc. to live here.  I suppose I could check out rental furniture.  That would take more $$$ though. The sale to the couple with 3 children would be perfect since escrow would close March 19.  Then we would have 45 days to find, identify, and enter escrow on a ranch in TX.  With cash in hand we could ask for a fast close on that escrow.  On the other hand if we did have to come back up here I would paint the bedroom which needs repainting.  If necessary we could also add Ikea closets in the bedrooms. Not that I _want_ to spend the money, but if we relist we will raise the price so I might do the work.  

Well, another day of exhausting labor awaits tomorrow.  Slow but sure, a few loads at a time, everything will get cleaned up.  All it takes is a few years off our lives and a lot of money.  Hopefully our insurance will pay for all the stolen and damaged stuff except the $1000 deductible.  Oh yeah, and insurance won't cover the $1000+ in dump fees.  Or our labor.  Or our pain.  😓😩  LOL  

Found my aspirin bottle.  Taking 3.


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## Baymule

I hope the family with 3 kids can keep their ponies there.


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## Ridgetop

So do I, but worried about zoning.    They sent us pix of their family with a letter.  Very sweet family and would love living on property.


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## Bruce

If the second person liked the privacy and it has a barn as big as it does, how many acres and why would it be zoned to not allow horses?


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## Ridgetop

The city of Yelm incorporated the acreage next door, our property, plus several other properties in order to extend the city lines.  This was to allow the acreage next door to be converted to a housing development.  DS1 found where you can keep 3 pygmy goats (2 or 3 wethers or does) and 6 chickens or ducks - no mention of horses.  We really don't want this couple (and their small children) to buy the property without making sure they can have their 4 horses on the property.  I know it sounds crazy when there are horse keeping properties on the other side of the housing development!  We countered their offer with another one requiring them to check the zoning.  They wanted to drop the price if the appraisal came back lower and we refused that,  We have received a counter offer from the potential buyers now offering to come up with another $7000 to cover any lower appraisal up to that amount.  

It may become a moot point anyway, since we are expecting another offer to come in.  We had a 3rd showing today - a young woman who does flipping and rentals.  She was thrilled with the shape of the house, and also discussed with me the potential for adding a bathroom to the 2 room bunkhouse and converting that into a 1 BR rental.  She also said she could rent out both barns to people looking for storage and enclosed places to work on cars, etc.  She also liked the potential for subdividing.  We will see what her offer is since DH told her we already had an offer for $412,000.  

The closing time and ability to get the loan, etc. will come into play here too.  I won't respond to the first buyers' counter offer until we see the next offer.  

I am surprised that we have been up here barely 5 days and 3 different buyers have come to view the property!  Does that seem as if the agent and broker were trying to keep our property off the market until *they *could buy it?  Seems fishy to me.   DH and I will come back to stay here if necessary to watch the place until it sells.  DS1 reminded me that we have extra furniture in the Connexes that we can bring up to use while we stay here.  We will just camp out.

In the meantime, we have been getting a lot done at the property.  The house is clean and looks good.  Luckily there was no destruction to the house except the rear door window.   Here are some pix of the house.

Bathroom   Took these pix after finishing reno for MJ. Other than the mirrors and shower curtain being removed by tenant, it is in great condition.
 Dining area 

(with MJ's antique wood burning stove - still works)   kitchen is the same - no damage.  The  wooden dining room set was locked in the bunkhouse building which was broken into by the tenant.  We also had tools and other belongings locked in there which have disappeared as well.  I did find the extra leftover carpeting from when we had the new carpets installed.  I kept it since it is enough to redo the hallway if we did remodeling to install a washer/dryer OR changed closets around.  I also found the extra vinyl planks from the new kitchen floor.  I always keep at least half a box of planks in case I have to replace damaged planks.
 Living room  This room is in good shape too.   
 Office  and bedroom are good and all carpet is nice and clean - in great shape.  Not even in need of cleaning!  What is crazy is that the house was well taken care of while the yard was completely filled with trash!  The tenants never had trash pick up for any of their household debris - just bagged it and tossed the bags in the yard!!!

Got to post this and do more pix on next post.


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## Ridgetop

Now pix of the cleaned areas  Dirt areas are where the 4' high pile of garbage was in the front of the house. This is the view from the front windows to the street. This is the view from the front windows across the driveway toward the field.Very pretty, very private. Again the dirt areas are where the garbage bags covered the front yard. 

 Front of the house showing garbage finally gone.  Rear area of house and around root cellar is clear now.

   The bunkhouse is clear of junk. Note the antique 100 year old linoleum "carpet" on the floor of the main room. Crazy paint on walls!   The second half of the bunkhouse has a concrete floor.  
 One bay in big barn completely cleaned. 48' deep x 15' w.   Second bay almost cleared.  Showing old cabinets still in back of barn.  Stuff still on top of loft.  

Third bay almost cleared.  Cabinets removed, but still more stuff to remove and take to dump.  We have gotten rid of most of the rotting junk wood now, 10 old cabinets, 5 sets of bifold closet doors from the top of the loft, old kitchen sink, plywood, etc. 

While we were showing the 3rd potential buyer the property, DS1 rushed home from his second trip to the dump and quickly loaded one last load to try to get it to the dump before they closed at 4:45 pm.  The last of the junk wood, the last of 17 tires, hazardous waste, TV, and miscellaneous trash in garbage bags.  To the accompaniment of DS1 shouting to get in the car, DH and I jumped in the truck.  We roared down the road on the 20 mile trip to the dump arriving at exactly 4:47 pm - just as they locked the gate! Tomorrow we will go to the dump first on the way to the property.  I will rake and shovel up the final loads of stuff from the barn into garbage bags while DH and DS1 load the metal into the trailer or truck.  We are not sure whether it will take 1 or 2 trips to the metal yard to get rid of everything.

Tomorrow the electrician returns to replace the stolen wires, box, light, etc.  DS1 dug the trench for the electrician where he wanted it.  DS1 arranged to dig the trench in return for a $500 reduction in the bill.  Hopefully he will get most or all of the work done tomorrow.  The glass man returns on Wednesday or Thursday to replace the glass and repair the rear door.  Hopefully we will have everything finished by Friday since we have to return home by March 1.  We have to get our second Covid shots on March 2.  Then we might have to return to Yelm to guard the house even though we have a security system.  Can't face having to do this clean up again later!

At least everyone who has come to look at the property loves it.  I used to love it too, but now it has become just a worry about who will break in next and destroy the property.


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## Baymule

3 offers already! What a surprise! And yet those CRIMINAL REMAX realtors never showed it once?? Really?? Thieves. Liars. Trying to steal your property after they let it get in horrible condition and did NOTHING. Report them to REMAX, the state board, everybody you can think of. Don’t stop until their license is revoked.


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## farmerjan

A


Baymule said:


> 3 offers already! What a surprise! And yet those CRIMINAL REMAX realtors never showed it once?? Really?? Thieves. Liars. Trying to steal your property after they let it get in horrible condition and did NOTHING. Report them to REMAX, the state board, everybody you can think of. Don’t stop until their license is revoked.


Agree   You may be tired out from all this, and just want to be done, but you HAVE to go after them and make them pay for this so that they cannot do this to some other unsuspecting person.  

Totally amazing that this place "all of a sudden"  is so desireable.... I would go after the real estate company for misrepresentation of the place too.... Really, Remax has a good reputation here, you need to make sure that the national Remax company knows about this so that they can make it a real issue.... I agree that this local group needs to lose their license...


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## thistlebloom

That's a cute house! I love the kitchen stove. I can appreciate all your hard work, you guys are amazing. 
Our first house must have been lived in by your tenants relatives, it was horrendous. 
We filled the biggest roll off dumpsters twice, and made more than a hundred trips to the dump with the pickups. But all that sweat equity was worth it for us, we bought the house fairly cheaply because of it's condition, and it was in a great location.

Sounds like selling it will be easy, maybe you can get a bidding war going!


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## Bruce

Maybe people are looking now that they know the property isn't actually an illegal landfill  I'm glad that at least the interior of the house wasn't badly damaged.



Ridgetop said:


> Note the antique 100 year old linoleum "carpet" on the floor of the main room.


It may not be linoleum. The room that we are using as a laundry room had been a bathroom until the people we bought from bought the place in 1999. During the renovation (due to lots of rot they sellers chose not to disclose) I removed layers of flooring in that room. Originally it was part of the house with a porch, the floor slopes down in 2 directions! There were 3 layers of wood floor, the top was oak, below that was a lot of shimming made of pretty much anything whoever put it in could find. Below that was another pile of shimming. Below that was the original wood floor with several layers of stuff that looked like linoleum but on the backside it is an Armstrong product. In ALL CAPS it says "NOT LINOLEUM". I guess they were trying to suggest it was better stuff. I've found it was popular in the 1920's



Regarding the "antique" woodstove. More likely "Vintage". From my reading I'd be pretty careful using it.
Schrader wood stove link


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## Mike CHS

Bruce - I have renovated several houses but I don't remember ever seeing that many layers of anything.


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## Ridgetop

Mike CHS said:


> Bruce - I have renovated several houses but I don't remember ever seeing that many layers of anything.


Actually this Yelm house had about 5 layers of carpets and lino in it when we renoed it 5 years ago for MJ.  I think people just laid down new lino and carpets over the old.  The layers of carpets were just nailed down - no wall to wall tack strips.

My major find!

100 year old cattle stanchions!     
 
Taking them home with me.  Along with the old wood cook stove and broken bits of my lovely old wood stove  . Our neighbor has a metal shop and hopefully he can make new parts to replace the broken ones. Otherwise, maybe I can find another place that can do the job. The person who would have been able to do it here (a friend of my aunt's) is 92, and no longer in good health.   Not doing that work anymore.  I will call and schedule a visit with their current welder to see if the stove can even be fixed, otherwise?

Anyway another day has passed and the electric is now complete.  The pump is working and we drained the lines for several hours this afternoon.   So we will be moving into the Yelm property tomorrow morning.  We will turn on the water to the house when we get there tomorrow am, and will turn on the electric water heater so that we can all take showers by tomorrow night.  Frozen food in the fridge and freezer to finally have a decent meal.  We will have to eat off plates in our laps since the dining set we planned to use for a week or two was one of the items stolen.    DS1 changed the locks on the pump house and we put a sensor on that door as well with the security system.  

Today DS1 and DH took a load to the metal scrap yard.  They took the 2 engines.  Firt, they had to go buy  hoist.  They thought maybe a "come along" might do the job, but then they found a hoist at Harbor Freight which they decided would be much better. They hooked the hoist onto a beam in the barn and hoisted the 2 engine blocks into the pick up bed.

 One loaded - one to go!  
 Now you see it  Now you don't! One pile of metal that was dumped in the barn loaded and taken to the scrap yard. More still to go including the riding lawn mower, the invalid scooter, and another truck load of metal scrap from the back lawn. 

The barn has now gotten 2 bays cleaned along with 1 1/2 bales of VERY old alfalfa (30 years!) and a rotted pallet it was on.  Junk gets into all the old straw ad hay so I had to rake and shovel it into lawn/leaf bags since the junk and trash mixed in it had to be removed.  We still have a section of barn that came down (possibly a divider wall?) that we are going to pull apart and take to the dump.  DS1 and DH discussed whether they could reattach it, but decided just to scrap the whole thing.  

We are not removing any of the very old wire fencing since the couple buying the house are young and why should we prevent them from enjoying the pleasure of renovating this 100 year old farm property?!  We are old,   and there is a farm waiting to be found in TX for which we will need our remaining strength! 

i measured this barn today.  The main barn building is 36' x 36' but there is another section along the back that is 12' x 24'.  
You can see this side is 12' x 48' and open all the way back.


  The central bay is also 12' x 48', but the rear 12' is partitioned off and goes side to side across the back of the barn.  This side faces the house.
  This side faces pasture at the rear of the property.
 This is the last bay of the barn and is 12' x 36'.  Already looking better after having hauled off 5 loads of garbage and cabinets.  Still another couple loads to go but definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!


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## Baymule

What a difference! It sure is looking good.


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## Ridgetop

Lots of work but a big difference.  Usually we feel really great doing all this work but now we are just _*tired*_.  It is depressing having to do this over and over.  

I signed the last counter offer on the property.   

The family with the 3 small children are buying the property.  😄 Every time I corresponded with the agents I told them to make sure that the buyers check to see that they can have their horses there. It is in the contract that _they need to verify all zoning.  _Oddly the contract also has a paragraph requiring the buyer _to investigate the neighborhood and surrounding area of any property they are purchasing._  I have not seen that requirement in any other sales contract.  The agent assures us that they did.        

DH is happy that a family with young children will enjoy the property.  There is a small housing tract next door which should have lots of children for them to play with.  I really hope they have a good life there.  As we clean the property, we are doing just a little more to make sure it looks good when they arrive.  They will have to put in fences and stalls, but that will be "fun" work for them.  The house is in move in condition.  It is small, but it's 180 sf larger than where they are living now.  It should be fine until they decide to add on a master bedroom and bath.  The living room and dining area are very large so will be suitable for a family.  They are getting a good property with everything really in good shape.  The well pump is brand new.  Everything else is only about 5 years old - split system HVAC, 5 year old remodeled kitchen and bathroom, sewer line, carpet and flooring, newly overhauled Shrade cast iron stove.  In the future they can sub-divide the property or build a larger house and rent the little one for income.  

The sale is expected to close March 19  since the family has to be up here at their new jobs then.  I hope it goes through and they have a good life here.  I am extremely glad that the end is in sight.  DH loves this property and is sad to sell but is fed up with the problems we have had over the past year.  In addition, what he likes about the property can't be enjoyed with a tenant in residence.  We can't keep it vacant and use it as a vacation home since we would arrive to find it burgled and vandalized consistently!  And without MJ living there it isn't the same for us anyway.  

A few more loads to the dump over the next couple of days and we will be finished!


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## Baymule

This makes me so happy. I know how much y’all love this property but it doesn’t suit your needs now. Having a family buy it that is going to love it as much as you do is a blessing. Happy for the buyers too.


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## farmerjan

I am so glad that there looks to be a GOOD end in sight.  Both for you and for them.  It is sad, but as you said, it won't work for what you want to do with the sheep, and really, the taxes and all there would probably be bad for you down the road.  You need to be in a more tax and farm friendly place.  
The fact that it was showed and was sold so quick is one more indication that the realtor was not acting in your best interest for all that time.  I know you will be glad to be done with the worry, and the aggravations.... but I would still go after that real estate company.  
Having the ins cover some of the loss is small compensation for the horrendous condition you found it in and the work you had to do to get it into some sort of decent shape.  And to lose the family "heirloom" things you had put away for safe keeping..... 
But it is done.  I hope that things go smooth and the closing happens...... 

Time to make a RELAXING trip to look at property in Texas.....


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Is there any possibility of checking out the local goodwill or other similar businesses to see if your stolen furniture is there?


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## Bruce

Mike CHS said:


> Bruce - I have renovated several houses but I don't remember ever seeing that many layers of anything.


Could be due to the house being at least 160 years old?


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## Ridgetop

The sale is off.   Young couple with 3 children were unable to get variance for their horses. In all the offers _I told my agent to tell the other agent to check on the horse keeping.   _The other agent checked on her own.  She told us that our agent _never_ mentioned the possibility of not allowing horses on the property!    

I have fired the Remax group!  

After seeing the garbage (not just mess) but actually bags of household garbage accumulated over the past 12 months, it was obvious that our agent/management company were not even watching the property.  While Covid may have been a factor in not evicting the tenants when they refused to pay rent, certainly Remax could have called Department of Sanitation and had the tenant fined over the trash and dumping gray water (illegally) in the yard.    Final count - 18 loads to trash dump and 4 to metal yard with 2 engine blocks, a chassis, a car roof, and lots of miscellaneous metal parts.

Yelm Glass came to replace the window glass and astounded us by saying that he had been called out to give an estimate on the SAME WINDOW *4 months earlier*!!!   He was not given the go ahead to repair.  This is the window that the management company claimed was due to the "break in" just 2 weeks before we arrived!  LIARS!  In addition, when I had them change the locks, they did board up the broken window.  Why change the lock and leave a great big hole in the window above the lock?!!!  They also did not change the lock on the pump shed which may have contributed to that theft.  DH is now convinced that while the house was in the 60 day discovery phase with the agent and broker as buyers that _they_ might have taken the pump figuring they were buying it anyway.  Then when they backed out they couldn't admit they had taken it.  

Final straw was Remax sending me an email stating that they had pumped the septic and it needed $5,000 or more in repairs and they had a guy coming in March to do the work!  They sent me an email in December saying that they would have to pump the septic for the sale and I specifically forbade the pumping.  I specifically told them NOT to pump the septic _until we were in escrow_ since it has to be pumped with a certain time period and I have a company I use.  They replied that they would let me know first.  Then they just send me an email that they had it pumped right after I told them not to do so and the cost was $750!  The guy they hired was twice what A+ charges!  Then because the septic is cracked, they want their guy to fix it for another $5,000,00!.  I cancelled that PDQ!  My guy is doing it for $3300.00.  In addition their guy is not licensed!  My guy is licensed, guarantees the repairs for 3 years, and his price includes the inspection certificate required by the County and State for a sale.  The other company would have charged another $400 to have it inspected by a certified licensed guy!  

The broker is sending me a cancellation of the contract tomorrow.  I will immediately list for only 3 months with another agent.  I have one in mind and have talked to him about his strategy.  He believes that advertising the house as a "cozy cabin in the woods" will draw people from California or Seattle that want to move from cities, can work from home, and want to be close enough to a town for conveniences.  With new well pump, new electric to the pump, and a repaired upgraded septic, along with all the other new stuff - kitchen, bathroom, flooring, it is desirable.  Also all the large outbuildings - barns, 2 room bunkhouse, etc. are plusses for people that want to run home businesses, need lots of storage, or for hobbies.  He says he will price it at $419,000 and we can come down to $400K.  Apparently homes are so hard to come by in the area that it should sell quickly.  

DH will be going back up to Yelm almost immediately to watch the property.  I installed cordless shades on all the windows.  DS1 got timer and a cheap lamp which he programmed to turn on and off in the living room.  We have the security system installed so hopefully any unauthorized entry to house or pump shed will be recognized and we can sent the police.  But I am so nervous about tweakers or thieves breaking in and vandalizing the house that I have to take a tranquilizer to sleep at night!  I won't be able to go back with DH since DD2 is getting very worried about having her first baby.  She is due anytime from the 17th to the 25th.  I hope to be able to send my grandson with DH.  He has been getting in a lot of trouble with his mom and dad  for playing games on the internet - even during school time on line. He can do his on line school work with a "hot spot" and there is not internet or cable at the house. Maybe he can help DH keep the house clean, and also empty the small shed that we told them we would not empty. It will give him something to do, and life without internet or cable will be an effective punishment. DH will take the hot spot away after lessons, and DGS1 will be required to email his parents copies of this school work.  DD1 is exhausted trying to teach herself and looking after the 13 nd 10 year olds who are acting up on the computers.  Sending the older boy with DH would take off some of the stress for her but she does not want to send him.  She says he will just watch TV and play on the internet.  Not possible since they are not hooked up to the Yelm house and DH and DGS1 will be camping out in the house.

DS1 and I are going to use psychology on DD1 by telling her that DH is old and has been falling down so it is a safety thing to send DGS1 with him until after DD2's baby is born and I can get up there.   

DDIL2's baby is not due until mid April, but she has her mother here and plans to stay with them when she gets close since DS2 is working in San Diego.  He is trying to get transferred up here closer to home for the birth.

DD2 is becoming more and more worried about not being prepared for the baby's arrival.  DD1 is also worried about that so I have told DD1 and DD2 that once I am home, we will go shopping for the items DD2 will need for herself, and the newborn,  NOT fancy clothes, but diapers, nursing pads, etc.  I also need to make the bassinette sheets, and skirt.  I have a lot of baby gowns that will do just fine, and just need to wash them, along with the other crib sheets, blankets, etc.  There is a terrific private used baby and toddler sale as well called Kids' Consignment.  Great stuff in new condition very reasonable. Everything that doesn't sell goes for half price on the final day.  

I would rather be in Yelm protecting the property until it sells but my mommy duties call me.  This is not because I would rather camp out in a vacant house in an area I hate instead of being with my baby while she produces her baby, but I am so nervous about returning to find major vandalization instead of just major clean up.  

Once the baby Is born and DD2 can handle everything on her own, I will fly up to join DH at the house.   I will paint the bedroom then too, since it needs it as well as any other little stuff to perk up the house if necessary.  Not too  much needs to be done so it will be mainly to keep me from going crazy!  LOL

I wonder if I could learn to knit?


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## Baymule

I will pray constantly that no vandals break in while y’all are gone. I’m so glad you fired REMAX. What awful people. I pray for a quick sale so you can move on and close a chapter in your book of life.


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## farmerjan

Should've fired them when you walked on the property the first day looking at that mess and vandalism.  I hope you go after them and ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to pay them any sort of commission or fees or anything.  You have  pictures and all..... copies of the offer they made to try to buy it cheaper from you with the idea of more units.... they are SOOO FAR out of their authority and ethical practices..... PLEASE DO NOT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH THIS.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Please document everything, especially where the third party (window guy) contradicts what the broker told you (hopefully he put the quote in writing?? Can you get a copy?) That is just horrible and despicable how they acted. I recommend writing a letter to the ethics board with copies of the backup because that is just extremely inexcusable behavior and they should be punished for it.

I hope you find a new buyer once you get it relisted and everything goes smoothly.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> DS1 and I are going to use psychology on DD1 by telling her that DH is old and has been falling down so it is a safety thing to send DGS1 with him until after DD2's baby is born and I can get up there.


Plus IIRC you said he doesn't hear well. He could use DGS1 as a "hearing ear kid".


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Plus IIRC you said he doesn't hear well. He could use DGS1 as a "hearing ear kid".


Unfortunately it did not work.  Instead DD1 tried to tell DH that he needs to give up his car keys and stop driving!  She thinks we are way too old to do _anything_ - one reason she thinks we should not move to Texas and our ranch, but should go into a small apartment! And wait to die I suppose! She is sweet but is completely unrealistic about aging. 

Finally home yesterday around 4:30 pm.  For some reason we seem to make better time coming south than going up to Yelm.  And that includes a stop in Live Oak to pick up the 5 hay baskets I ordered for the jugs.  I think it is because on the road up there is a large empty expanse with no motels right about the Shasta mountains and Oregon border which means you have to stop earlier than you want to or drive the mountains in the dark.  Not as comfortable with DH's night vision starting to be a problem.  Also, the head lights on our truck for some reason seem to point at the ground and not in front, unless we put on the brights.  DH has replaced them but the angle is wrong.  He is talking about putting on after market 4-wheeling headlights.

My bad knee is aching and seems to want to collapse.   Probably overdid with 2 weeks of dawn to dusk junk clean up.  DH can hardly walk and says he might have to have his other knee replaced.  He had it worse since he and DS1 were loading car engines (with a hoist, but still heavy lifting getting the engine blocks under the beam and hoist), a car chassis, and an entire car roof.  blankety blank tenants!

DDIL2 is staying up here with us until she has her baby around April 7.  The baby was not moving as much as the doctor thought it should, so she has to go in 2x weekly and drink icy beverages to make him move while they ultrasound her.  She will stay with her mom and dad when it is time to go to the hospital.  This is their first grandchild so I am happy for them to have the experience.  She has a lot of her baby stuff already.  Still need DD2 to bring all the bedding for the wooden portacrib back from Big Bear this week so I can wash it and make sure everything is ok for DDIL2.  

DD2 is high maintenance.  After saying that she would be just fine with Doofus, she watched a video of a woman giving birth.  Now she wants her mommy to be with her *in the delivery room*!  Pretty sure the hospital won't even allow us to go in the hospital with her.  She will be lucky if they allow Doofus in.  However we'll have to see since we will have had our Covid vaccinations by then.  DD1 and I will make a list of what she needs personally and for the newborn and take her shopping.  She better have her credit card.  DD1 is getting more worried about DD2's lack of preparation than DD2 is.  

Next Saturday is the Kids Consignment sale.  This is a consignment sale of baby and toddler clothes, furniture, equipment, toys, etc.  DDIL2 got a spot in the opening pre-sale on-line showing.  DD1, DDIL2 and I will all sit around the computer and mark whatever we want as DDIL's purchases.  Then we will give her the money and I will go in the truck to pick up whatever we get.  

I shopped at this sale for DD1 and got loads of new and nearly new high end stuff.  Not sure DD2 is smart enough to recognize the value of "pre-owned" baby items.  That is her look out.  She currently has NOTHING!  And is due March 17-25.  Oh well, lots of babies' first cradles are cardboard boxes.

On a happier note, they have their hearing today for full custody of Maysie, Doofus' 3 year old.  The psychological evaluation was yesterday with the child, both parents and DD2.  Apparently, Maysie clung to DD2 and Doofus, ignoring her mother, and asking to please go home with them.  In a surprise move, the birth mother has now stated that she wants to move to Pennsylvania(?) instead of the first two states she originally told the judge she was moving to.  She still does not have a job in any state or in California.  Nor does she have any job experience in anything, never having worked before.  Her reason for moving to the new state is to be "near family".  In November she was moving to Maryland "to get a job".  Two years ago she was moving to Oregon.  The evaluator told DD2 privately that since the mother did not seem to have a viable plan as to moving, working, etc., that it might not be in the child's best interests to let her move with the mother.  However, the judge will make the decision and the mother's attorney might be more persuasive.  We will know tonight when DD2 calls us either elated   or depressed .  This custody stuff is taking so much of her emotional time that she is not thinking about the new baby! 

Spent 4 hours - yes, I said 4 hours - gathering and downloading the photos, receipts, police report, etc. and sending it to the insurance company claim box only to have it come back saying it was too long to fit???!!!  What?!!!    I guess I will have to submit the claim in pieces!  

Next, DS1 wanted a grocery list, DH wanted me to go through some mail addressed to me (all junk), I am doing laundry from the trip and the baby stuff I got out of the Connexes before we left, I have to go look for another box or two of blankets and gowns that are missing, and start working on the taxes that I have to do for DH to actually do the taxes!  And it all has to be done NOW!  Also I have to get the bassinette unwrapped, sanitized, and make the skirt, liner, and bedding.  Although those items might be in the missing boxes.  Obviously, I am taking a break to complain about all this.  LOL  

I guess I will post this.  I need to take more breaks later to catch up on everyone's posts.


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## Baymule

You are going to have a nervous breakdown over having grandbabies, preparations for grandbabies, insurance idiots, getting it together for taxes and trying to sell the Yelm property. Y'all need to take a TEXAS vacation. 

As of TODAY, there is no mask mandate in Texas. Businesses can still have a mask mandate if they wish, but there is no state mandate.


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## farmerjan

Baymule said:


> You are going to have a nervous breakdown over having grandbabies, preparations for grandbabies, insurance idiots, getting it together for taxes and trying to sell the Yelm property. Y'all need to take a TEXAS vacation.
> 
> As of TODAY, there is no mask mandate in Texas. Businesses can still have a mask mandate if they wish, but there is no state mandate.


HURAY for common sense and realizing that they need to allow people to make their own decisions.   And to get back to work.  Mostly we just ignore our gov here on the western side of the state.... wear masks where they absolutely require them.... most of the farm stores and all  we don't.


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## Baymule

farmerjan said:


> HURAY for common sense and realizing that they need to allow people to make their own decisions.   And to get back to work.  Mostly we just ignore our gov here on the western side of the state.... wear masks where they absolutely require them.... most of the farm stores and all  we don't.


I didn't hear it all, but I think the level of Covid cases has to stay below a certain number. If cases spike, probably out comes the masks. But overall Texas is open for business.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> DH has replaced them but the angle is wrong. He is talking about putting on after market 4-wheeling headlights.


Maybe better to take it someplace that can set the headlights to legal standard. 

I guess all that cleanup you did in such a short time shows how old and incapable you are. Yep, better move into a small apartment with one 5 pound dog.


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## Ridgetop

We are in our Prime!


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## Baymule

That’s what I’m talking about!! Yeah!!


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## thistlebloom

Ridgetop said:


> For some reason we seem to make better time coming south than going up to Yelm.



I just looked at a map and think I figured out the answer to this! It's all downhill coming home!


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## farmerjan

There are ways to adjust the direction of the beam of headlights.   I had mine done on the truck one time.  Take it to your neighborhood garage and ask them to reset the directional angle of the headlights.  If they are set too high, then the low beams will seem like high beams to oncoming traffic.  
Yeah @thistlebloom .... all downhill on their way home....

Amazing how the "kids" are such knowledgable adults to the point where they can tell the parents that they know better what the parents should do.  I understand that when parents get to the point that their minds are not always cognizant;  but really,  I somehow don't think that sitting in an apt is conducive to good health or aging "gracefully"...

Tell her to stick a sock in it, you are not senile or stupid, yet;  and you will let her know when you reach that point


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## Bruce

thistlebloom said:


> I just looked at a map and think I figured out the answer to this! It's all downhill coming home!


Sometimes you and I think too much alike.


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## Ridgetop

Well, I have now devoted the past 2 days on the computer about the Yelm property.  Ugh!  I can't decide if I am more exhausted by the mental effort or by sitting in front of the computer typing for 10 hours yesterday and today!  I think I am beginning tosee the end though and can now start on the tax info DH needs.

So far I have washed 3 loads of baby clothes and bedding from the Connexes - yes, I did finally find the little gowns and the new soft blankets clearly labeled in plain sight on a top shelf.  I also did one load of our clothes mostly jackets and towels.  

That was in between another full day of correcting the wrong information in the Sellers' Disclosures from Remax, filling out the new Listing Agreement, emails to the new agent, emails to the family that will rent the house for 4 weeks, and sending the final attachment to the insurance company.  Then I had to draw up a Lese Agreement so I scavenged parts of the Remax one, which had a ton of extraneous stuff in it, and wrote a new one.  I had to keep adding stuff that was required, but finally got it done.  Then I had to download the additional print work that the State of Washington (and probably every other state that likes to waste paper and time) makes you submit to tenants or buyers of property about Mold and Lead - about 50 pages.  Finally got that done and in a document that could be attached to the email to the prospective tenants.  Took care of some emergencies on other business too.  Oh yes, and made up grocery lists for dh and DS1 who needed them right now!  

Dh was unable to get hay again today.  Yesterday it was scheduled to come today, today it is scheduled for tomorrow,  This is why I don't like to run down to the last few whisps of alfalfa.  Then we had heavy rain! And a tremendous wind.  DH just came in from feeding and told me that the loud crashing noises we heard during the wind was the old trampoline  that we use in the small fold as a shelter.  Apparently it was picked up and blown out of the pen!!!  DH found it sitting on top of the utility trailer.  The rams were probably very surprised.  

We have one ewe lamb that was 1 lb. lighter than her twin at birth but just isn't growing.  Usually they catch up but she is only half the size of her sister and the other lambs with similar birth dates.  She won't be registered and will go to the auction.  Never had this happen to this extent before.  She grew fine for the first couple weeks then nothing!  Healthy and active but just tiny.  I wonder if I could sell her on Craigslist as a rare "Dwarf Dorper"?!  LOL

My back hurts from sitting at the computer.  Got to go check the laundry and put in another load of towels.  Luckily I have one full suitcase of clean clothes.  I have to put them all away, but at least we got them washed before coming home.  Leftover spaghetti and meatballs tonight.

Oh yes.  DD2 says they won their case.  i am not sure but i think they may have prevailed and gotten custody of Maysie,.  And today DD2 had an ultrasound and was told she could deliver in a week.  She needs to get some stuff ready for that poor baby.  Maybe instead of working on the taxes - SHHH! don't tell DH, I better work on the basinette.


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## Baymule

Wow, you have been busy! A grandbaby coming in a week! Taxes! Baby items! Laundry and a flying trampoline!


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## Ridgetop

Yup!  Ridgetop business as usual!  

Yesterday I finally finished the insurance claim, and the listing stuff.  22 hours at the computer in 2 days!!    I could hardly move last night after I fixed dinner  I finally went to bed just to lay down BUT 2 loads of baby clothes were waiting for me to fold them so . . . .  Finally, after 3 aspirin and laying down DH came in and said "Why did you disappear?  DD1 came over to talk to you!"  I paid no attention to this blatant attempt to make  me fee guilty for deserting them.   I had heard DH, DD1, DS1, and DDIL2 all still discussing politics while I was folding baby clothes.  

So I have already fielded 5 phone calls this am wanting to list the Canal property.  The Remax people dropped it from the MLS listings and everyone wants to grab up a new listing,  I am going with a new guy, Jerry.  I called 7 agents when I was going to fire Remax.  2 called me back.  1 kept calling.  He has the new listing.  He is a go-getter and I have great hopes about this.  In the meantime, the house has been dropped off the MLS and I have already fielded 5 calls from agents wanting to list it!  

DD@ nd Doofus have gotten primary custody of Maysie.  Not sure how this works, but apparently they get her 45% of the time and the mom 55% of the time until she moves.  Then she will get 3 weeks in the summer and alternating holidays.  Doofus still has to pay child support since he is working and she is not.  If the mom does not move out of state the judge will decide if she keeps the chid 555 or if he gives more time to dd2 and Doofus. The whole set up is screwey.  The judge dismissed the mom's claim that she couldn't get a bookkeeping job here, stating there were plenty of jobs. Then the judge asked the mom  if she had looked for a job in the states to which she planned to move.   She said she didn't bother because if she didn't move there is wasn't worth it.  She did say that her sister worked for a company in Pennsylvania and "might hire me part time occasionally".  This did not go over well with the judge who stated that she was not making any attempt to provide a stable home for the child.  He then pointed out that Doofus  had gotten himself out of debt, rented an apartment, and was supporting the child.  And apparently the evaluator was so impressed with DD2 and Doofus that (s)he saw no need to call us.  (S)he did call the mom's parents and they informed him/her that their house was on the market and they were definitely moving out of state.  The mom said "She has to start taking care of her own problems".  Sounds like they are tired of supporting her and paying the attorney bills.  She has never worked and apparently attends junior college and continually changes her field of study.  The grandparents have been raising the child. Strangely, she is engaged to be married in May.  The happy couple was going to move with her parents  and live with them.  Now it seems that there is some friction going on between the mom and the parents.  Now it is unknow what will happen - the baby mom and boyfriend/fiance might move in with the boyfriend's parents and sister instead.  ???  He is 19.  The mom is 22.  He works from home, job unknown. Now our family is speculating as to whether the baby mom might be pregnant again by the new boyfriend. The first pregnancy was blamed on doofus taking advantage of their precious daughter.  Now a second pregnancy might have upset her parents.  That might be what the friction between the baby mom and her own parents is all about.  It might also be why the boyfriend's parents are willing for her and Maysie to move in with them.  Or maybe they are not willing.  Frankly I no longer care.  I have more important things on my plate.

I will be going to the fabric store this morning to get the quilted fabric for the bassinet lining.  I have decided not to put a long skirt on it because DD2 has cats so a short skirt or ruffle will be better to avoid cats climbing on the skirt or just clawing the heck out of it.  I also need to get some plastic lined fabric to make a mattress cover.  DD2 is coming over tomorrow anxious to see it  I told her she could not have it until she brought the wooden porta crib mattress and bedding back for DDIL2.  She and Doofus are going t Big Bear to see his parents today and will bring the items back.   I am serious about not giving the bassinet to her unless I have the porta crib items for DDIL2! I have plenty of cardboard boxes for her baby!  

DD1 has arranged that we will all get together at noon on Saturday shopping at the Kids Consignment on-line.  She said that we can attach the computer to the TV in the family room and be comfortable instead of crouching around the small computer screen.  

Next I will make a list of stuff the girls both need, and DD1 and I will take them shopping t get their layette items - diapers, personal items, nursing pads, baby wash, butt wipes, etc.  I really am too old for this first time grandma thing! I did all this 13 years ago for DD1 and I am tired now.    However, I will escape back to Horrible Yelm and no children or grandchildren after the birth!  

OH NO!  Just got a reminder from my doctor about an appointment this am at 10:30!  I thought it was at 4:00!  Got to go!!!


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## Ridgetop

OMG!  Haven't been on here since Thursday and it is now Wednesday!  ONE WEEK WITHOUT BYH?!   

Well, the week passed in a haze of exhaustion and non-stop sewing.  Had to completely redo the bassinet cover since DD2 apparently DID want *lace, ribbons and pink everything *for her baby girl  THE ONLY BABY EVER BEING BORN APPARENTLY!  Have I every mentioned DD2 is very high maintenance?

However, the liner was already made and that is the most difficult part of any bassinet cover.  Having made 7 of them over the years, take this as truth.  And there are no sewing patterns out there, you just have to wing it yourself.  Also this is a *large* old style bassinet.  Not the size of the old models with the folding legs under them allowing it to be used in the old days as a car bed.  This bassinet is a huge basket that lifts out of it's wicker frame - it is the size of the current side sleepers which everyone seems to be using.  This bassinet has a shelf on the frame which is great for holding baby stuff.  It is pretty as is but making the cover is traditional.

About those "side sleepers".  Both my girls are getting them.  The side sleepers are nothing more than bassinets where the side swings down so instead of getting up to feed the baby sleeping in the bassinet next to the bed, you have to hoick the infant out while laying flat in bed.  I myself have never used anything except the bassinet, so I may be wrong, but I can see several drawbacks to the side sleeper.  First, if you have to get out of bed for any reason, you will have to scramble over your DH to do it.  This is since as a safety feature the side sleeper attaches to the bed with safety straps somehow.  Since it is over 3' long, there is no room for you to get out of bed easily once it is attached.  Next, if you have had a C-section, the sheer muscle contractions of trying to lift the baby from the sleeper from a supine position looks incredibly painful.  I suppose you could just roll the baby over and over until it got to you, but it seems rather hard in the little infant.  Even with just an episiotomy your muscles are often sore from the contractions (not to mention your bottom) and struggling with this seems complicated.  However, I am old fashioned and see nothing wrong with arising from my bed to lift the screaming infant out of its bassinet to be fed.  The side sleepers are advertised as having netting so you can see the baby.  In the "olden days" yiu used a bassinet so the baby was safe from drafts.  As I said I am old fashioned.

That being said, it is customary in our family to have a bassinet.  So I made a cover for DD2.  She plans to put it in her living room for the baby since the side sleeper will be in the bedroom.  As I said with the safety straps attaching it to the bed it needs to be disconnected to move it around.  Anyway, after buying cute fabric instead of frilly pink I was unsettled to find out that DD2 who hates sequins and lace and floral prints wanted all that for her baby girl.  She said the fabric I was using was "cute" in the tone of voice that told me it was NOT. DDIL2 told me later that DD2 had told her she wanted frilly feminine stuff for her baby girl and had gotten everything in pink. Poor choice for a first baby since the next ones will probably be boys. I would warn about future gender issues but that would be politically incorrect and somehow racist or something. Besides according to the Woke generation children should be free to choose their gender from day to day. 

Luckily I had pale pink floral fabric, ribbons, and flowers along with 10 yards of wide lace in my sewing cupboard. I went ahead and made the cover, added lace, then laced pale pink ribbons through the wicker hood, and threaded tiny pale pink flowers in the ribbon.  Made 2 mattress pads and 3 knit sheets.  DD2 loved it. 
Here it is 
  Those peculiar sticking up things are the sprigs of flowers.  They look much better in person since you can recognize them as flowers.

In the meantime, the DD1, DDIL2, DD2, and I attended the Kids consignment sale on line,  DDIL2 had paid for a chance to show early.   We scored. 

DD1 has a budget and got a lot of stuff for both girls as baby gifts.  Best buy was large a FP swing in pink that works on a cord as well as batteries, usually $150+ for $30!  I got 2 high chairs for the house.  One comes apart to become a high chair that can attach to a dining room chair while the bottom becomes a booster for a toddler.  The other is a standard folding kind.  And yes, I need 2 since DD2 will be over here often while DDIL2 has her baby here as well.  Not to mention holiday dinners.  Then DD1 got a Pak & Play, otherwise known as one of those folding net sided porta cribs so she can have the babies at her house.  Got a second one for DDIL2's mom which had the changing platform and bassinet  attachment too - $45!  Although her mom said it is not necessary since she is traditional Filipino and doesn't want it.  DDIL2 said her mom will make a traditional rope hammock for the infant for her house.  DDIL2 will use the Pak N Play when visiting since she doesn't want to have to chase a crawling or toddling baby around her parents' house.  It will also be good for when she and DS2 travel.  DD1 got bathtubs for the girls like she had that she swore were wonderful.  We put 2 of the same one in our cart but someone else stole it from us before we could check out.  Someone also stole the travel swing we dgot, but I realized I had one in the stuff I kept from the older grandchildren.  We went wild and just kept throwing stuff into the cart. Then before checking out we had to go through and get rid of all the duplicates.  Our total went from $2000+ to $996.00!  LOL  I thought that was pretty good considering all the stuff we got - 6 pages of baby gear.  And for about 10% to 30% of what it cost new.  All in excellent condition.  We pick it up next weekend.  DH has been informed he will have to take the truck to get all of it.  Babies need a lot of stuff.  DH and DS1 kept coming in and teasing us because we were having so much fun.

Finished the bassinet and began the cleaning job of the century - cleaning up the sewing mess  Took 2 days. 

Yesterday DH took the bassinet to DD2's apartment  It wouldn't fit in her car and we wouldn't allow Doofus to transport it in his dirty truck bed.  DD2 showed us her new stroller.  It was a gift from Doofus' step mom.  The side sleeper was a gift from someone else. 

Then I saw the nursery.  OMG!     Maysie's toys are everywhere. There is no room for the crib or changing table without completely rearranging the room. I looked in the closet and Maysie's clothes are hanging on only one side. So much wasted space underneath - although filled with Shoe Mountain. DD2 has always liked shoes. That needs to stop. I remember my cousin had the same fanaticism about buying shoes for DD2. While staying with her one time I cleaned out 20 pairs of shoes that either didn't fit anymore or were uncomfortable "but so cute" that DD2 never wore. The other half of the closet had a couple of things on the floor. I told DD2 she needed to get shelves in the closet and use vertical storage to find more space and help keep the mess under control. Maysie has a captain's bed with drawers. They were almost empty! Of course they were, everything was all over the floor.   DD2 was completely overcome by the job.  Not surprising.

I came home and found the old metal shelves that DDIL2 used last summer for her plants.  The plants all died (or were eaten by the squirrels).  These are the old style metal shelves that connect together with bolts and are still in good condition. We have had them for over 30 years.  I will paint the shelves and attach 2 of them together to make one tall shelf to go on the empty side of the closet.  One short shelf will fit under Maysie's dresses.  Vertical storage is needed.  Oh, painted pink of course!    No need to buy new shelves.

I told DD2 that she needs to put the toys up and only allow so many out at one time.  Better for the child and easier for her.  Don't get anything else out until the current ones are all put back in the containers and DD2 can put them up on the shelves.  The lower shelves will make it easy for Maysie to put her toys back herself.  I will also purge the shoes.  I texted DD2 we would be coming over when Maysie is with her birth mom so we don't have to deal with a 3 year old.   She was thrilled.  DD1 and I are collecting bins, and storage boxes to sort the toys into.  DDIL2 asked me if we could use some smaller pink storage boxes like you would store videos or something in.   Grabbed them right up.  I also found some folding crates that I bought for the trailer several years ago and don't use.  They were just folded up and sitting on a shelf in my office.  Put one in DDIL2's nursery (more on that later). 

First set back occurred this am.  Couldn't paint the shelves since it started raining and hailing in massive quantities. Started to clear up then clouds rolled in again.  Hopefully it will clear enough tomorrow or Friday to do the spray painting.  In the meantime, I will disassemble the shelving units and reassemble them in the configuration I need. So that is underway now. 

Then DDIL2 started cleaning her office/spare room.  It was filled with stuff since she had stopped using it.  DS1 disassembled the opium bed and moved it out into the hallway.  Would have moved it straight to the Connex but he hurt his foot cleaning corrals with the grandsons.  So it sits in the hallway for 2 days while I cleaned the BR around it.  Still there - remember the hailstorm today?  However we will move everything out to the Connex tomorrow and bring in a large trunk to transfer the toys into in the family room.  Even if it continues to rain, DH and DS1 remembered that DS2's truck has a tonneau cover.  They will use that and hopefully everything will stay dry.   Anyway, sorted through the mountain of games.  DD2 took some of the easier ones home since she and Doofus play games with Maysie now.   20% of them gone.  Next I had to put the "collector" games away.  Luckily the top shelf in the closet was empty - you know the one.  It is the shelf that is almost impossible to access so either it holds stuff that you have not seen in 15 years, or is empty.  In this case case, there was only a plastic bin on the shelf.  After putting the games we don't play, but that I am forbidden to dispose of up there I retrieved the plastic bin to see what was stored in it  surprise!  It held empty folding cloth bins that were exactly what DDIL2 needed for baby clothes on the shelves from which we had removed all the games!  Still half the games remained, so I sorted out some for the grandchildren and the rest go to good Will.  Some of them never opened  That is what happens when your family has no clue what to get you for Christmas.  DD1 may not want them since she herself has about 100 games but too bad.  She gave most of them to us she can have them back.  Some of them the kids will enjoy and she can use them to keep them off video games.  Finished cleaning out the closet, removed and repacked several dozen glass canning jars to remove to the milking shed and store.  With those shelves empty I was able to put away the games we decided to keep on some of the shelves, leaving quite a few shelves in the closet for baby gear storage.  This will be the nursery.  

Next, I emptied off the table that had been in use for DDIL as a desk.  Took off the TV equipment from the back of it and disconnected the video game equipment.  Moved out the table, vacuumed and rolled up the carpet, then cleaned the floors.  After DH finished using the power washer on the tile floors DS1 carried out the carpet and we put it down in the family room.  Also moved out the table to the family room.  Had to do a little rearranging but not much.  The toddler toys are overflowing the copper washtub I used for them, but bringing in the big wooden trunk for them will fix that and it will fit under the table nicely.  Moved the washed baby blankets into the old toy box in the nursery.  It will double as a side table for the rocker (wedding gift to DDIL2 from DD1).  Now cleaning the bare laminate floor in preparation for the crib, changing table and possibly the ginormous dresser that DS2 built.  He finished it over Christmas and moved it into their bedroom.  Something has to come out of the bedroom since you can hardly walk into the room.  I don't know how they will fit the side sleeper in the room!  The room is 12' x 12' and currently holds a highboy, huge dresser , double bed, desk, side table, large gun safe, 1 deep set of shelves, and a floor to ceiling bookcase.  Oh yes, and the large desk chair and 2 computers.  No the walls are not made of rubber.  Currently all the baby stuff is also in there.  Stroller, carseat, boxes of diapers, boxes of baby clothes from DD1 and other friends, and more.  I am afraid to enter, not that there is room for more than one person in there!  At least we are now moving the baby stuff out.  I have suggested to DDIL2 that we remove at least one of the dressers and put it in the baby nursery.  She is beginning to look a bit frantic.  However, Friday is her last day at work before beginning maternity leave so that will take some stress off her.  She will be in maternity leave until school starts in August which will be nice.

Anyway, I have to put up the new blind in the nursery - it has been sitting in there for about 10 months.  Also pack away the paintings on the walls so it can revert to a baby space with some sort of wall decals.  I will give 2 of them to DD1 since she really loves them.   I will trade them for the nursery pix she has hanging in her bathroom.  LOL  

Got to go see about dinner.  Sitting here has allowed me to rest my back and knee.  LOL  Time to get back to work.


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## Baymule

I’ve never heard of a side bassinet. I had the kind with the legs on wheels and they didn’t have fold down or peekaboo sides. So just who decided to mess up traditional bassinets? Send them to Gitmo. 
All this preparation ought to produce the most perfect babies ever! However did primitive women cope with raising babies without truckloads of stuff? Heck if I know! 
Soon you will have the rewards of all this getting ready for the Blessed Event.
You did fantastic going to the sale for all that baby gear. Lots of goodies at great prices.


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## Ridgetop

I know, right?!  The "side sleeper bassinet" is fairly new.  Looks silly to me.  But I am not of this young generation.  Plus all the new baby toys have to have batteries to work!  What ever happened to babies making things jingle by rattling them?  I bought a number of toys for $4-5 each.  The usually go for $15-25 in the store.  Silly prices when the baby is just as happy with an empty Cool whip container or a set of plastic measuring spoons.    I kept my Tupperware in a large cupboard out of the way in the kitchen.  When I needed them out of the way I just opened the doors and let them at it.  Kept them from under my feet while I got dinner on the table.  Used to give mine my car keys to hold, but now I don't dare - they might gum the keyless opener contraption into not working.  

Anyway, got most of the stuff into the Connexes.  Took the boxes of canning jars down to the milk shed.  Dealt with the insurance on Yelm - the checks are approved and coming out so we can pay off the credit card we put everything on.  The new agent did a nice spread for the property - look at 8511 Canal road S.E., Yelm, WA on the Keller-Williams site if you want to see the house and property.  Great pix.  Came out yesterday and already have a showing on 
Saturday.   The agent wants us to cancel the people moving into the house since with this Covid if their house fails to close they could claim the right to remain in the property. Now I am worried about that as well as a break in! They have not got a signed lease nor sent any $$ so I could rescind the offer. Considering that since they received the emailed lease over a week ago. DH and I can go up once DD2 has THE ONLY BABY TO EVER BE BORN IN THE WORLD in other words, HERS. They will be going up anyway till 3/22. It would certainly make showing the house easier and keep it cleaner. They have 2 large dogs that they will have to keep inside since they are from southern CA. I will probably go ahead and rescind the offer - just realized the dogs will probably scratch the doors to come into the house. I would have to repaint the doors. 

I need to hang the new blind in the nursery.  I got it a year ago - wooden blind.  Very nice, got it on closeout, very heavy so had to run up and down to the tool shed for anchors, longer screws, etc.  Now too tired to get on ladder and hang blind.  Tomorrow.

Had to cancel the trip t the butcher - truck in the shop.  Totally forgot about needing it.  Kent was ok with cancelling and said he would fit me in somewhere later.  

Washed and disassembled the metal shelves.  Then reassembled them in the right proportions for Maysie's closet. Then spray painted them hot pink.  They turned out a bit darker since the color they were previously painted was a brick red.  still they are PINK!  I was surprised they dried so quickly too since today it was cold and overcast.  It was supposed to rain after noon but just got very dark and felt damp.  However they dried just fine.  I will load the and take them to DD2's on Saturday.  Move the furniture around (DGS1 will do that) and make DD2 sit down to sort out Maysie's toys with the aim of putting them in containers on the shelves.  They child has way too many toys anyway.  For a child that is only with them 3 days a week there is no excuse for the mess.  Mom is not in a good mood and is prepared to come down hard.

I need to clear off my desk now so I can work on the taxes on Yelm, and also for some of our other stuff.  Oh yes, and register 4 ewe lambs.  And do my filing.   I am moving the short bookcase from the nursery into the office to use. It can go in the closet next to my desk and will provide me with extra sorting space for all the files I need to be working on. Time to clean out the office and put more stuff away that shouldn't even be in there. Sort, sort, sort, put away, put away, put away. I feel like my life has become one endless round of preparing for everyone's events and then cleaning up afterwards. Aaaaargh! I think I _will _cancel the short term lease arrangement and go back to Yelm myself.  Even sleeping on the floor in an empty house has its attractions - no children, no grandchildren, just peace and quiet.  

However, having had our vaccinations, and our dear friends having had theirs, we can now go to their homes and play bridge or rummy tile.  😁 Without masks!   We won't even social distance since no one will see us.


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## Baymule

Oh the joys of selling real estate! I hope it sells quickly and that headache is soon gone. Grand babies will soon arrive and you will be all silly with excitement over them. Adorable.


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## Ridgetop

Saturday and the clean up at DD2's place accomplished.  it took DD1,DDIL2, DD2, Doofus, DGS1 and myself to accomplish but we got it done.  

The metal shelves in their vibrant new pon paint were greeted with delight - apparently those 40 year old metal shelves look "so modern" with hot pink gloss paint.  They fit perfectly into the closet on both sides giving plenty of vertical storage. I had Dofus attach them to the closet wall with drywll screws. The plain white plastic bins, buckets, and small round laundry baskets from the dollar store fit on them perfectly.  Of the 5 large drawers in the captain's bed, only 1 has anything in it.  3 year old Maysie's undies and socks are in one, using 3 of the adorable pink boxes as drawer dividers.  Several of the white containers are still empty and there is empty space on the top shelf of the closet.  Since the drawers in the captain's bed do not go all the way back, I talked DD2 into storing some items behind the drawers under the bed frame that she doesn't need out right now.  Some clothes and shoes that no longer fit Maysie but are being kept for Annbelle.  Also some extra pillows that "Maysie loves to cudde with" - DD2 or "Maysie loves to just toss around the room" - Doofus.  Also some Barbie doll and American Doll stuff that Maysie is not allowed to play with.  I couldn't prevail on DD2 to dispose of some of the stiff - plastic makeup set, and some other junk toys.  Eventually DD2 might get rid of them when she needs room for all the new baby junk she will accumulate.  At least now she has drawer space for the baby clothes.  

Rearranged the bedroom so the crib will fit in there and eventually the changing table too.  DD2 says she will keep the changing table in her bedroom.  Not my problem - king size bed, side table, side sleeper, shelves, and changing table.  Luckily neither of them is very large.  I rarely go over anyway due to the horrible parking problem.  Took about 4 hours so good time.  DGS1 helped move stuff and went back and forth with Doofus to the laundry room to bring stuff up.  

Came home and had a rest.  Then got dinnerv in theoven and ran some 3-6 mos. baby clothes through the washer and dryer to get them out of the laundry room.  The new nursery and closet has been emptied, blinds hung, and is now ready for baby furniture to go in.  DS1 and Dh have moved DS2's ginormous dresser that he made back out of their room and into the nursery.  

Next job is picking up the Kids Consignment items in the truck tomorrow afternoon.  Then we will bring them to my house where the girls will sort through them.  DS1 got the crib out of the Connex and it is ready to go to DD2's place with her share of the KC goodies.  The thought of all the stuff leaving my premises is intoxicating!  The baby items will never return since the girls will be having 2nd babies and will have to rent storage facilities for  themselves.   Everything I am giving to dd2 is never coming back anyway.  The wooden mini crib I loaned her came back with 3 broken wheels and a support board pulled out.  This is not the first item that has been "loaned" to her that either came back damaged or not at all.  From now on anything that she gets will be hers to keep!  Not to us and return for repairs and storage!

Got DH's tax stuff done this am before leaving for DD2's nursery overhaul so only a few items left on my list to take care of.   

Next job around here is pulling the ewes out from the ram - should have been done a month or so ago but with all this Yelm and baby stuff it didn't.  Then sort out which ewes go with which ram when.  They need to be divided up so they will lamb a month apart.  The ewes in the creep are almost ready to move onto the field.  Got to get that done before leaving for Yelm again the end of March.  

We decided not to do a short term rental of the Yem house since with the current Covid problem in Washington the governor has again extended the "no need for tenants to pay rent, landlords can starve and lose their property" rule.  I had sent them a prospective lease March 3, but did not hear back from them.  They did not sign and return the lease or send me a check or anything so yesterday I told them we were going to go up and stay ourselves.  Although these people have supposedly bought another property, if their escrow falls through they could conceivably decide to remain in our little house and we wouldn't be able to get them out.  After considering the 2 large dogs they have and our nearly new carpet we don't want to have to clean the carpets.  Also the fact that these dogs are not used to Washington cold and rain they will be scratching at the doors to come inside.  I really don't need to repair and repaint the doors in rainy weather with the house on the market.  We will go up as soon as DD2 has her baby.  DDIL plans to go stay with her parents the last couple weeks until the baby comes.  So we will come back for that and then go up again if necessary.  At least by coming and going to the Yelm house, hopefully no one will notice that it is periodically vacant.   

I will let DD1 know that they can bring over the crib and changing table she has been keeping for them whenever they want.  I know she wants it out of her house.  Next baby stuff to get out will be the large swing.. portable swing for DDIL2, and the baby bouncer.  Not the larger baby jumper, the little bouncer when the baby lays down and kicks.  Looking at all the stuff that is now filling my tool shed, I just hope that when they are finished with this stuff they will rent a storage unit for it all.  Maybe I can give them some of my extra furniture too.


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## Baymule

That's one way, actually TWO ways to get rid of stuff, refurb and give it to expecting DD2 and DDIL for their babies! Brilliant! Back and forth to Yelm, I hope it sells soon.


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## Ridgetop

This morning DD2 showed up and she and DDIL2 are making photo labels for the toy buckets.  This was DDIL2's suggestion.  She is a preschool teacher and uses this in her classroom.  DD2 tool photos and sent them to DDIL who printed them out  They are sitting at the kitchen table laminating them for appocation onto the buckets and bins.  

DD2 is worried about going into labor while Doofus is at work.  If they have Maysie she needs her to get over to DD1's house.  DD1 told her that she and Doofus could drop her off on their way to the hospital.  This wod work of she had enough time, but with a first bby who knows what would happen.  I explained to DD2 that her sister has never actually gone through labor and delivery naturally.  The first tome, she was whisked into the labor room at her last doctor appointment due to high blood pressure and danger to the baby and mother.  The second time ditto.  The 3rd time the doctor just scheduled the C-section.  Since she had not gone through any labor pains, she had no frame of reference.  Also didn't help that DD2 wanted DD1 to go over and just stay with Maysie when they left for the hospital to avoid getting her out of bed in the middle of the night.  I told DD2 to get Mauie's seeping bag ready and her suitcase and talk to her about waking up in the middle of the night for the "Big Adventure" of a new baby.  Then DD2 wanted to know abut how to bring on labor with chili powder, etc.  I told her those were  "old wives' tales" and the baby would come when it was ready.    Nothing harder than the final weeks.  

Anyway, having gne thr9ugh the rooms emptying them and cleaning the house looks nice at the moment.  I do still have to do my bedroom since the suitcases are still packed with clean clothes and just sitting in there.  I wondered why we had so few pairs of undies - then I remembered I packed all the clean clothes in the large suitcase after doing our laundry in WA just before we returned to CA.  LOL  Most of the clothes in the suitcases are long underwear, long sleeve thermals, etc, for Yelm weather.  I guess I should unpack and repack for our next trip to WA.  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Back again.  DH, DS1, and the 3 girls went to pick up the mountain of items we had bought at the Kid Consignment sale  Then they sorted them out.  Doofus came and picket up the stuff for DD2 along with the crib.  

I had bought a rocking elephant for DD2 which cause us all a lot of laughter.  Apparently it has a button in the ear that is supposed to produce an elephant noise.  DS1 came in and made it screech for me.  It sounded like someone being killed in a horror movie.    We kept pushing the button to make it scream then collapsing in hysteria.  While doofus loaded the crib and mattress into his truck, we set up the baby swing to make sure it worked properly.  This was one of the really nice Fisher Price ones that plugs into the wall as well as working on batteries.  It worked perfectly and was a very pretty shade of pink so it was approved by high maintenance DD2.  Just as well since it couldn't go back.  Only cost $30.00 for a $150.00 swing!  That was the bargain of the day.  Doofus finished loading everything and left.  Once Doofus and DD2 had made it home with their treasures, the skies opened and we had torrential rain for a couple days.  

DD1 and DDIL2 playd with the equipment they had bought.  The Pak N Play was in its original box so they opened that up and decided to put it together.  No problem until we tried to figure out the "bassinet", "changing table", and "newborn cuddler" parts.  After about 2 hours of putting t together and taking it apart to move stiff around, we figured it was together properly.  It apparently has a battery operated vibrator with music and "soothing sounds" that can be connected to the large Pak N Play mattress, or to the "cuddler".  Naturally, we couldn't get it back into the box.  DD2 will take it over to her mom's house where is is going to live.  

Yesterday DH and I picked up DD1's crib and changing table for DDIL2.  It is not in as good condition as mine was for DD2, but DD1  was determined that hers should go to DS2 and DDIL2.  Complete with teeth marks where her children had apparently gnawed it.  However, no problem.  *It* came with the bolts to put it together.  DS1, DDIL2, both grandsons, and I were required to hold it in place while bolting it together, Then DS1 realized the front drop down railings were on backwards.  We flipped that around easily.  At least it had all the components.  Unlike the changing table that had no hardware.  It did have torn tape where the hardware might originally have been attached but was missing.  The changing table requires 3/16" dowel pegs and wood screws to assemble so DS1 has gone to Lowes look for the dowel pins.  I had 8, but it needs 16.  Lowes didn't have any dowel pins smaller than 3/8" so he is heading to Michaels and if none then we will use 3/16" dowels to make our own.  He got the screws we need at Lowes.  The changing table also had no changing pad but we had bought one at the Kids Consignment sale.  Once it goes together, the nursery is complete except for the rocking chair.  We agreed that DS2 should have the pleasure of assembling the rocker glider and ottoman when he comes home from San Diego.  It is new - a wedding gift from DD1 to DS2 and DDIL.  DDIL also bought some stick-ons for the nursery wall.  Supposedly they don't damage the walls.  She got 3.  One is a large 6'+ tree with birds and squirrels.  The second is a set of smaller  trees with birds and deer.  The 3rd is a set of colorful dragons.  I told DDIL that we would put one of the deer in the mouth of a dragon since the baby needed to learn about the circle of life.  Much laughter as she said that DD2 had already said the deer were necessary as a food source for the dragons.  We are a sick family.

DDIL and I put the side sleeper together yesterday.  It took us 1.5 hours.  The instructions sucked.  Finally we went on line and watched a video which showed us that we were trying to assemble it upside down.I dd say the instructions sucked.  The pix in the instructions were indecipherable and the written instructions just as bad.  After we removed the entire cover and assembled the sleeper correctly, we realized we did not need to remove the fabric cover.  **

DD2 is waiting to go into labor.  If she doesn't go in today the doctor said she should go to the hospital tomorrow for more tests and possible induction of labor.  Her due date is today so I don't know why the doctor is so determined that the baby comes by tomorrow  On the other hand DD2 is very tiny.  She called the other night late and DH answered the phone.  I was dozing in bed and heard his yell "Is it time? Should I come get you?"  Then DH who never goes faster than a walk these days *ran* down the hallway with the phone!  DD2 was calling me to discuss a small discharge she had had.  Raising livestock is very beneficial to my girls.  She advised that the baby should be coming pretty soon since she had just "lost her mucous plug".   LOL

Anyway we are in baby watch mode.  Doofus has started his paternity leave so he s there to take her to the hospital.  She advised her Daddy that if she called screaming that would be his cue to rush to the hospital. I don't suppose they will let us in but we will go so she knows she has moral support.  

*A NOTE ON THE BEHAVIOR OF RAMS!
I have always said "Don't trust them" and "Never turn your back on them" but do the men in my family ever listen?  NO!*

The other day DS1 came in and said MoyBoy had charged him when he went into the pen.  He attributed it to the fact that he was not carrying hay.  He managed to side step and whacked MoyBy on the nose.  

However, this morning DH WAS carrying hay and MoyBoy charged him.  He caught him from behind, hitting him hard on the back and side of his "good" leg which caused DH to subluxate his bad knee and crash to the ground.  According to DH he lay there for a while calling vainly for help.  Naturally no one heard him down in the front pen, so eventually he managed to pull himself up on the feeder (MoyBoy was now occupied with eating) and hobble out of the pen.  He limped into the house and fell into his recliner from which vantage point he informed us all that if it happened again he would shoot MoyBoy.    He is now sitting in his recliner with his cane.  I have given him Ibuprofen twice, reheated his coffee 3 times, and have just heated up and placed the microwave hot pad on his bad knee for the 3rd time.

MoyBoy is the ram we got as a small lamb and tamed down.  This shows the folly of making rams into "pets".  This is the third time he has charged at the guys.  MoyBoy used to come up for petting and scratching on the field.  I warned them not to encourage that behavior because sooner or later he would begin butting.  They derided and laughed at me.  Now they see that I was right.  The other rams are not friendly, nor are they as apt to try to butt.  

I have made "Ram Suppressors".  
  These are made out of left over pieces of closet poles.  I suppose I should have made them out of 2" PVC pipes, but I had these pieces in the shed.  I just drilled a hole in one end for a hay rope to go through to hang on the ram pen gates.  When I showed them to DH, the man who threatened to shoot MoyBoy, he said "They are awfully heavy, I don't want to hurt him."   ???

I don't think they will hurt the rams since just waving them at them should  put the rams off any idea of butting us. I have not been butted, but then I never turn my back on any ram no matter how old.  I sort of look at them as lions and tigers, ready to spring at a moment's notice!  Tonight DH and I will move MoyBoy out of his pen into another.  He has been in the front pen for about 6 months and is probably getting pretty territorial abut it.  That is why I Iike to move rams around.

I put the corned beef brisket in the Instapot for tonight's St. Patrick's Day dinner.  I have to go peel some potatoes and carrots to go in later.  I also thawed a pumpkin pie left over from Christmas.  We really need to empty our freezers a bit.  We have 3 lambs to go in them!  I also need to run a couple of the ewes with older lambs in the creep onto the field so I can wean their lambs.  Time for Axtel to go un the front pen and do his duty with a selection of ewes.  These sheep are turning into a job to keep bred instead of a hobby!


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## Baymule

So sorry that your DH got rammed. That had to HURT!


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## farmerjan

My DS is selling  a couple of less than nice heifers that could hurt you..... he does not make pets out of any of his rams EVER...... sorry that your DH got hurt.   

Do your kids have any idea how good you are to them????? I don't think they even begin to really appreciate all you do.   

Any news on the Yelm property yet?????


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## Ridgetop

He had a lovely day reclining and occasionally letting out loud groans when he noticed I was in the room.  I kept bringing him hot coffee, ibuprofen, and a hot pack for his knee.  Whenever he got up he leaned pitifully on his cane. He enjoyed himself.  

DS1 moved MoyBoy back in with the other 2 rams in the small pen.  Tomorrow we will move Axtell into the front breeding pen and put his harness and crayon on him.   I still have to go back over through the ewes and figure out who goes in with him.  

Right now I am putting the changing table together with DDIL2.  DS1 got us the screws but they were not the right size and didn't work.  The changing table wobbled badly.  l  I had to use size 10's and drill out the holes in the sode boards larger.  Back and forth to the tool shed for the right bits and drivers.  Finally got it partially constructed and the drill battery ran out of juice!   AARGH!     Plugged it in to charge while we had dinner.  It is charging now and should be ok in another 15-20 minutes.  

I will be glad when the nursery furniture is back together.  DDIL has all her baby stuff washed and folded into drawers and bins.  Net thing to do will be applying the stick on trees and dragons on the walls.  Sadly DDIL2 has forbidden me from attaching a deer carcass in the dragon mouth.


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## Baymule

No deer carcass? What a disappointment. 

Glad your DH is convalescing in such comfort and with such good care. Haha


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## Bruce

Probably figures a deer wouldn't be much food for a dragon, have you suggested a moose?


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## Ridgetop

Good idea!  I will down load some pictures of moose and when no one is looking stick them in the dragon's mouth then wait to see how long it takes for anyone to notice the feeding frenzy! 

DD2 went into the hospital yesterday and they have been monitoring her,  Her contractions were so mild she couldn't feel them.   I wondered why they put her in hospital but then she told me she has been leaking placental fluid.  The doctor didn't tell her that was why they put her in hospital, but my friend and I agreed that was why the reason since leaking like that can be dangerous.  I didn't say anything since I didn't want her to worry. 

As everyone knows from my Ridgetop posts, our family never does anything normally.  DS1 texted to DD2 (in early labor in the hospital), his siblings, and siblings in law, and ourselves, a photo of himself 160' feet in the air working on the tower lines (those huge metal electric lines).  I told him not to fall off because he was needed to put the rocking chair together.  After some back and forth texting we received a photo of someone laying face down on the ground with a hard hat, saying "Oops! I fell, have DS1 put the high chair chair together".  More back and forth joking while the children all agreed that Mom would still make him to put together the rocking chair before driving him to the hospital!

This is a deserved reputation!  When DS1 was 8 he and his sister and their father went out on their new ponies.  DH did not listen to DD1 telling him to tighten the girth and when the horses started cantering his saddle slipped and off he went  The  ponies spooked and dumped DD1 and DS1 riding double.  The ponies then disappeared into heavy brush in the hills behind our house.  This was before extensive brush clearing was required so naturally the brush was head high.  I saw the whole thing and when the sad trio showed up at the door I handed them halters and told them "Never come back without your horse!"  Then I locked them out of the house.  This was a hard lesson in "Never let go of the reins" but needed to be learned.  I could not go because our 4 and 2 year olds were in bed asleep.

Next morning DS1 kept complaining about bad pain in his arm so I took him to the doctor where it was discovered he had a green stick fracture.  He went into a cast.  This story, along with the story of DS3 falling from his skate board and fracturing his navicular bone (yes, humans do have this bone somewhere around the base of the thumb), is still told as a warning of my bad mothering skills.  In the case of the fractured navicular, I told DS3 "You're fine - I will just massage it and it will feel better".  His screams of pain as I forcefully rubbed the broken joint caused another trip to the doctor and another cast.  
Where was Social Services when they were needed?  

Although we did not find the horses before pitch darkness caused them to abandon our search, next day neighbors out riding found the horses completely trapped in heavy brush, unable to move and brought them home.  We had up notices and were still looking for the horses so they were returned quickly.  Their children became riding friends of ours too.  

Back to the siblings texting, DD2 sent photos of delicious food she was stoking away.  Apparently that hospital has a good chef because DD2 said it was excellent.  DD1 and DDIL1 complained they were not allowed to eat.  I remembered that all women of my generation were subjected to enemas and denied even water while in labor. Times have changed.  

Went to put the ram in the breeding pen and select the ewes that were to go in with him but OOPS!  DH had absentmindedly turned the ewes all out on the field.  We can't turn the ram out with them since there are some younger ones that I am holding back from breeding yet.  DS1 said it is ok we will do it tomorrow,  He prefers to do it in the am anyway since he can separate them easier as they go out through the gate.  I will have about 20 ewes to breed this year.  About half will be first fresheners.

Got to do some business work now.


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## Finnie

2 1/2 days with no update. I’m guessing she’s busy with that new grandbaby 🤔


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## Baymule




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## Ridgetop

So right Finnie!  
Finally have some time to sit down and catch up.  

So after 3 days in bed in hospital being monitored, DD2 tried to have baby but the cord was firmly around Annabel's neck and kept pulling her back inside.  Finally doctor decided to do C-section.  By then my poor daughter was exhausted and when they tried to give her the baby she passed out.  So Doofus took the baby and sent us a picture.   Annabel was born on March 20.  6 lb. 10 ounces.  Everyone always wants pix so here they are.

  Annabel came out looking very grumpy and remained looking like that for several days!    My beautiful daughter with her daughter.    Annabel at 1 week old not grumpy anymore.

Naturally we couldn't visit in the hospital.  No photos of Doofus with baby.  DD2 has a lot but I did not download them.  Any guesses why?

While DD2 was in hospital I made her some girly dribble bibs.  When DGS2 was little we would go through about 6 bibs a day and at least one complete change of clothing.  He drained like a leaky hose!  DS2 was like that too. The bibs are adorable, and very girly with lace as requested by DD2 for her little princess.  Oddly enough, DD2 never liked wearing lace or sparkles but is determined to thrust her girls into lace, pink, and sparkles!  They will probably grow up complete tomboys when they are old enough to choose.

Also while DD2 spent a week in hospital (before and after C-section) DDIL2 was busy getting the nursery finished.  She was due 3 weeks after DD2.  She put the wall art up and then decided she needed more clouds and dragons.  Ordered them and got them up.
  Take note of the dragon over the crib - that brown thing in the dragon's claws is a deer. DDIL decided DS2 would get a kick out of it after all. LOL I continued sewing the dribble bibs, and made a dust ruffe for the crib. I also made a knit crib sheet, 2 knit sheets for the side sleeper and a pad for it, then a knit sheet for the Pak N Play.  The dust ruffle is not necessary, but enables you to store stuff under the crib without the nursery looking junky.   I made them for my cribs and for DD1's crib too.  Nice finishing touch with the crib bumpers to match.  This time we had bought the crib bumpers in the Kid's Consignment sale.  It is polka dots with animals on it.  I had some polka dot fabric that looked enough like the bumper to match so used it for the dust ruffle.   I used to make appliqued crib quilts which I sold at boutiques.  I have 2 quilts left that I never finished quilting - one in green gingham with ducks and the polka dot fabric and one in green gingham with bunnies and a floral fabric.  I have enough polka dot fabric left to make a bias binding for the quilt. I will make the quilts up for Robert and Annabel for Christmas.  (This will also get them out of my sewing boxes and out of my house - heh heh heh.  Working on decluttering the closets too.  Luckily making 36 dribble bibs (for both babies) has used up a lot of the flannel I was storing!)  

While DD2 was in hospital her siblings all kept up a group text with her joking and giving advice (DD1 and DDIL1 who had both had C sections, and me on nursing).  I was kept busy cooking for her and Doofus for when she came home.  DH went over to visit DD2 and take her the first batch of food I made for them.  2 spaghetti and meatballs dinners, 2 chicken enchilada meals, 1 gallon Ziploc bag of tomato soup, 1 gallon Ziploc bag of turkey soup, and 1 gallon Ziploc bag of chicken and dumplings.  
  DH with his newest grandchild.  Can you tell how delighted he is?   was too exhausted to go.  Just as well, DH was there holding that precious baby for 4 hours!  LOL

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I continued sewing and cooking.  As soon as I thought I was done and put away the sewing machine other mending projects popped up.  First, mending DS1's pants, then sewing the crib dust ruffle, then got the sheep sorted and in with the ram.  Next weighed the lambs and sorted out  3 older lambs that needed to join the flock after being weaned.  One was not weaned so sent her out too - plenty big enough (all of them 70-80 lbs.) - and kept the ewe in the creep to gain a little condition.  2nd vaccinations for the small lambs in the creep that are not so small anymore -40-50 lbs.  Almost ready to wean them too.  

4 of the 5 ewes in with the ram for breeding immediately marked.  They are due for August lambing.  In 2 moths I will sort out another group to breed.  5 Spring yearlings will also need to be bred in May or June.  Not enough rain this year for forage so are feeding a bale a day in alfalfa.  Luckily it has not been high over this winter.  I would lie to buy another ram but don't want to feed any more since I have 4 lovely ewe lambs to add to the flock bringing us to 35+ ewes.  Really need the place in Yelm to sell so we can buy or ranch in TX and begin our move.  

Anyway, DDIL was having contractions for 2 days, but Braxton-Hicks not true labor.  Wednesday she and I went to visit DD2 and Annabel at home.  I didn't get to hold Annabel much since Doofus hogged her.  
Gave DD2 the first set of dribble bibs which she loved and a box of chocolates for depression.   Heard all about the labor and hospital stay and learned that the OB had yelled at DD2 because the nurse gave her an epidural!  She said she didn't tell me about it because she was afraid I would come down and give the OB some of Bay's Texas whup ass!  A wise child.  It did explain why she was crying on the phone when she called me from the hospital.   I don't think she had very good OB care.  

On Thursday she had a doctor's appointment and had lost her mucous plug so DH drove her to the doctor.  The OB/Gyn sent her immediately to the hospital for an emergency C-section since the baby was in a crosswise position and she was leaking placental fluid heavily.   His little hand was actually in the cervix,  Terrible birth position and no hope of a normal birth.  We all tried to get hold of DS1 who was still working 3 hours away in Dan Diego area since her due date was not for another 2 weeks.  He was working in the mountains and no signal!!!  
DDIL2 was able to call his foreman who drove up to tell him to go home immediately.  He called DDIL2 and talked to her OB who said they couldn't wait for him but had to get the baby out immediately.  Naturally it took him 5 hours for the 3 hour drive since there was an accident and then Cal Trans work on the freeway. Then baby Robert was born and nursing while he kicked his heels downstairs in the waiting room for an hour before they administered a Covid test, then another half hour while they read it, before he finally got to DDIL2 and Robert.  We kept track of everything that was happening on the sibling text thread.  They might keep it going since it is a good way to keep in touch with each other.

Luckily, we had worked out a plan.  DH stayed with DDIL2 until her mother arrived.  Then he left so she could go in with DDIL2.  *THE HOSPITAL TOLD MARLENE THAT THEY ONLY WOULD DO ONE COVID TEST FOR AN ACCOPANYING PERSON FOR DDIL2 AND THEY HAD GIVEN IT TO DH SO HE COULD GO IN WITH HER!!!  *DH had arranged that she would go in when she arrived to be with her daughter until DS2 arrived. He made sure that they would be able to give her the Covid test otherwise he would never have left DDIL2 alone. I texted DS2 and DDIL2 about the problem and finally the nurse gave Marlene the test and she was with DDIL2 during the birth. I was ready to go down to the hospital and give someone else some of Bay's Texas whup ass !   However everything turned out fine thanks to the Good Lord!  

  S1 and DH   Proud parents of Robert Leon (named after DH's dad and DDIL2's grandfather who passed away last year from Covid)  Apparently Robert sleeps with his mouth wide open like his father!  LOL

So with 2 grandbabies less than 1 week apart, I continued my meal making and sewing spree at home.  

Since DDIL2 had not expected to have the baby for another week or 2 I finished up the nursery, putting stuff away.  She had actually had that prelabor energy surge the day before going into the hospital and had done almost everything.  Just had to move the side sleeper into their room, and move some stuff out of the nursery.  Then DS1 put the rocking chair together for DDIL2 - with many jokes on the group text line about DS2's negligence.  I disassembled the car seat and washed that pad along with the crib sheets, and additional baby laundry DDIL2 had not finished before going to the hospital.  I also stripped her bed and washed the bedding before replacing it so it would be nice when she comes home.  Then came the tricky part reassembling the car seat pads and straps.    Luckily the new carseats do not require the seat belts to be completely removed from the buckles in order to do this,  Instead they just hook into a tricky little gadget in the back which makes removing and laundering the covers easier.  It did allow for much joking about having to use duct tape to attach the baby into the carseat!  .  Then once the car seat was totally reassembled DS2 and DDIL2 wanted me to put the cushiony strap protectors on the straps.  I thought they velcroed on but NO!  I had to remove the straps AGAIN and thread them through the protectors.  Not as easy.  

DH delivered the car seat to the hospital, delivered the Pak N Play to Marlene, returned some stuff to DD1's house and dropped off some stuff at Good Will.  More stuff was moved to the tool shed, including the stroller toddler seat which I bagged first.  With the rocking chair box out of the closet there was room for the stroller to fit.  That made a big dent in the stuff sitting around.  

The sewing machine had again been put away and I was cooking more meals for DD2 - 2 meals of Burgundy meatballs, 1 meal of BBQ chicken, and 1 meal of Spanish rice.  This was in between cooking for all of us, babysitting the older 3 grandchildren while DD1 and DSIL went on a "date night".  Net I had to reassemble y Fisher Price Rain Forest swing.  Since I had completely disassembled it in order to store it back in the original box, this was a job.   Next I realized when putting stuff away that I had forgotten to re hem DH's overalls.  They had worn through on the bottoms of the hem.  I removed the hem and cut off the extra bits and sewed then up.  Next I remembered to go get the second pair and do them too.  Then I decided to make nursing covers for DD2 and DDIL2 (used in public since a regular cotton swaddle blanket is not good enough these days.  I whipped up 2 covers apiece and added ribbons, lace etc.  However DD1 came over with the children for their date night and looked at them.  She said that the new covers had a stiffened wire in the front to make a half circle so the mom can look down the gaping neckline and see the baby's head.  I went into my sewing Notions Box and found the corset stiffeners from my grandmother's old sewing stuff along with hat wire.  Yes, I save all that old stuff - it always comes in handy eventually.  I redid the necklines on the nursing tops so they had the half circle.  Apparently those are the kinds in demand.  The good thing is it got rid of more fabric from my closet.  The bad part is that I had to make the pattern, then rip out several times when I realized I had  out the straps in the wrong places, etc.  Finally done with those, I hemmed up the remnants into swaddling blankets.  With the sewing done I put the machine away again.  *WRONG!  *Forgot that when the branch came down during the last storm onto the pergolas on the patio, it tore the canvas shade cover.

*Oh, did I forget to mention the giant branch that crashed down during the last storm?  *Landed on the pergola, broke DH's birdbath, broke one of the boards in the pergola, and punched a hole through the cover.  DS1 and DH cut up the leafy branches that were covering the "lawn" and threw them to the sheep who gobbled them up happily.  This was several weeks ago.  Yesterday, DS1 armed with the chainsaw and a new chain, along with Miguel and his chain saw sawed up and removed the remaining 15' of huge limb laying on top of the pergola.  They discovered that the limb had suffered from some rot in the crotch which obviously weakened.  The length - 25' - added to the weight.  

Back to the subject, DS1 brought the cover in and put it through the wash machine so I could mend the tear.  The tear was not bad at all, It was a square 3 sided tear which fit back together perfectly.  However it would be difficult to stitch back together.  I would have to apply a patch.  Back to the Notions Box.  Found some large Iron On denim patches.  After putting that patch on and ironing it down, I got some unbleached muslin and folded it into a thick patch which I applied over the iron on patch.  Then I stitched through all the layers many times to strengthen the patch.  Now it can go up on the pergola after DS1 replaces the broken beam.

With that done I could finally wash the bouncer seat, large Fisher Price swing seat, traveling swing seat, Porta crib sheets and pad which I would need for Easter when the family will be here for dinner.  (First I washed the washing machine   with a pack of washer sanitizer since the pergola topper was so dirty.)  While that was happening, I emptied and rearranged the hall linen closet to find space for the blankets that I removed from the spare room now the nursery.  Then I rearranged the office cabinets to fit in some of the extra nursery over flow.  Reassembled the baby equipment, bagged it up to keep it clean till needed, and fit it into the closet.

DS2 and DDIL 2 are coming home today.  Everything i ready for baby except the side sleeper whchneeds to be attached to the bed soehow and heght adjusted.  DS2 can handle that.  Now I just need to take care of more accounting business for our taxes, update my sheep records, plan out breedings, clear out the living room and dining room, find a spot to put all of the remaining stuff, vacuum the family room, sweep the entire house dust and clean, etc.   am malig Stouffers Lasagna tonight since it is easy and I am exhausted.

I need a vacation!


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## farmerjan

Congratulations on the new grand babies and thankful that all went well with both,   considering.   
You are right, you need a vacation....

You have been busy.  I sure hope that one day the "kids" will look back and appreciate things because they aren't learning to do the things that you are doing for them.  All the sewing and such.... I just don't understand that the kids nowadays just don't have any clue how to do so much that we grew up learning to do as young teens.... and they don't want to learn as they get older either to become more independent or capable of doing stuff.  
I see it with DS 's GF and her sister that I just did the hemming on the coveralls for the car racing... taking up the sleeves to be more comfortable, and hemming up the pants legs.... It is beyond me to know that there are more that "CAN'T"  than those that "CAN"..... 
And I am by no means a "professional" seamstress.... but to just do simple hand sewing either.... so many can't even sew on a button...

Again, congrats to all the family members....


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## Ridgetop

Thanks!
DS2 and DDIL got home with the baby.  He is so tiny.  At 6 lbs. 14 ounces he is smaller even that DD1 at 7 lbs. 2 ounces.  His father was 8 lbs. plus and his uncles were well over 9 lbs.  He is long for that weight - 20".  I got to hold him for a while then passed him off to Grandpa who was chafing at the bit.  

I had found y old rocking chair in the Connex 2 days ago.  Today DS1 and DS2 brought it in for me to clean.  the cushion covers are in the wash, and the chair will go in the family room so DDIL2 can sit out there with him.  Our sofa and recliners are too deep for a woman with stitches.

That is so true.  My DD1 took sewing in 4-H but her husband does their mending!  He is frugal and patches the kids clothes.  With so much coming from China, India, and Malaysia it is cheaper to replace a lot of the clothing than it is to repair it.  Our younger boys also took sewing and cooking, and our middle boy used what he learned in the military sewing in his insignias.

Uh oh!  Trouble just arrived in the shape of the 3 older grandchildren coming to see their new cousin.  Gotta go.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Congratulations! I hope you get some time to relax a little bit after all you accomplished! Your new grandbabies are adorable and I love the mural.


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## Baymule

Congratulations on the two new grand babies. They are of course, gorgeous and sweet. Love babies! Dunno WHY they have to turn into teenagers! LOL

You have been a whirlwind of activity. Make that a tornado of activity. Have you slept at all? Stopped to eat, drink, go potty, breathe, anything besides sew, cook, clean and prepare for babies? And it's not over now, it's just getting started. 

No pictures of Doofus huh? We know about that picture of him that you had enlarged and use for a dart board on the back of your closet door.........   

Glad that you didn't have to open up a six back of Texas Whup A$$ on anybody. With all that you had going on, the frustration level must have been in the stratosphere and venting all that on one person would have made the 5 O'Clock news. 

Have a Happy Easter and enjoy your family.


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## Ridgetop

That is why my daughter didn't tell me about it till she got home.  

Baby Robert cried all night long after too much stimulation when he came home.  DD1 and her 3 kids came over around 3:00 pm and were here till 11:00 pm.  Naturally they stayed for dinner.  Lucky I put in a large Stouffers lasagna which could be cut into 9 good sized portions.  Made a large salad and at the last minute did some rolls too since so many people.  DS1 almost in tears since no second helpings available.  As soon as dinner was finished and the dishes in the dishwasher, DSIL arrived to see baby.  Hadn't eaten.  Luckily I had a good sized portion of spaghetti in the fridge that I heated up for him.  No roll, but he got the rest of the salad.   At 10:00 pm he left taking DGD1 home to bed.  

After we ate. DD1 wanted to discuss where to have Easter dinner.  I made the mistake of mentioning that we had enough baby gear at our house for 2 infants and it might be easier on DDIL not to leave.  DD1 and DS1 started a discussion of what food to have - ham. But DD1 said they should have 2 meats since there are so many of us and DS3 and his family of 4 might come down.   DH volunteered prime rib - I was too far away to slap him upside the head.  He has no idea of what prime rib costs.   I kept saying that I had a whole leg of lamb in the freezer but as usual these days, I was ignored.  Not surprising on DS1's part since lamb in not special in this house.  After telling me she needed to discuss Easter with me several times, DD1 rushed off to play with the baby again.  I went to my room to lay down since I was exhausted and my back hurt.  Then I sent out a group text asking where everyone wanted to have dinner.  Both new moms voted on our house since - you guessed it! - we have plenty of baby gear and no one had to schlep anything along with them.  Then I said I would make a leg of lamb with gravy and baked potatoes, purchased cheesecake and tiramisu (both in my freezer).  I assigned frozen peas to DD1, rolls to DD2 who is still healing from her C section, pepper poppers to DS2 ( he makes these anyway for all family gatherings so might as well) and wine to DS3 and family if they come.  I have plenty of wine so if they don't come no problem.  Then I turned on my TV program and relaxed, thinking I had everything taken care of.

As DD1 was leaving, she came in and said she wanted to discuss Easter but I had left.  She seemed to think that i should have sat and waited for her to come in a couple hours and discuss this at her convenience!  She was upset because I had set out the menu - no ham!  I told her I was exhausted and wanted an easy holiday.  She tried to play the guilt card by saying DGD1 wanted to set the table with her grandmother,  I was pretty tired and annoyed that I had to pause my show to listen to this.  I told her to go ahead and plan it at her house.  She said she wanted to discuss it with me.  I pointed out we _were _discussing it.  She said she wanted to discuss it an hour previously in the kitchen.   ???  I told her that my back hurt and I had to lay down and we could discuss it now.  She stormed out of the room.  I turned the TV back on.

Enter stage left - DS1 asking why no ham for Easter.  He was joined by DD1 who returned, emboldened by backup. I told her she could have it at her house and I would notify everyone.  NO!  She did not want to have it at her house because she would have to clean the house and set her table, etc.  It would be easier to have it at MY house (so I could do all that work!).  They wanted ham and another meat.  DD1 said she was really hungry for prime rib.  I pointed out the cost of prime rib and said I would not pay for it.  DS1 said he did not see why we could not have 2 hams.  DD1 said DSIL would make asparagus.  DS1 said Ugh he hated asparagus.  DD1 said DS2 had asked for it.  Then they agreed that they would have corn pudding and green bean casserole (traditional).  I suggested that we just have corn pudding for DS1 and DS2 could have the asparagus and we do without the third vegetable.  I was shouted down.  

I really need to remember to lock my bedroom door.

After much loud discussion over my recumbent body the entire menu was changed.  We are having either 2 hams or ham and lamb, 3 vegetable dishes, rolls, potatoes au gratin instead of baked potatoes.  Both ovens and the turkey roaster will be used.  I have to make a ham glaze and gravy for the lamb.  DD2 and Doofus will bring desert.  DS2 and DDIL will supply drinks.   And instead of a relaxing Easter  with minimal work and fuss, DD1 and DSIL will be making all the vegetable side dishes at my house in my kitchen using my utensils and bowls which I get to load into my dishwasher for the *2 hour "energy saving" cycle *which means that I will have to unload and put away all the dishes before we can load it again with the dinner dishes.  Since they won't all fit with the cooking utensils, I will have to do a third load before gong to bed that night.  I have been assigned to set the table with DGD1 who wants to "help".  DD1 said her roses are blooming and I can come over and get them.  I told her to cut them herself and bring them to me with DGD1.  If she wanted to order everything around herself, why "discuss it" with me?  


A soon as dinner is over I am going to my room to "lie down".  I am taking a bottle of wine.  This time I will lock the door.

This morning DS1 and DH left for San Diego to bring a bunch of DS1's stuff home.  He received his notice to relocate to Moorpark which is closer so he will be back living at home.  Cooking for 5 adults again.  DS1 woke me up to tell me that the baby had cried all night and I was to watch him today so DDIL2 could get some sleep since she was up all night with him.  Can anyone say "over stimulation" on his first day home?  I warn these kids but they ever listen,  Are they frozen in teenage mode?  Eventually they say "you warned e Mom" but do they listen in time?  I just hope I am never in a life or death situation with them.  We'll all be dead because you now that a good mom never saves just herself.  I wonder what it would be like to be a bad mom?  

Today I have to make chicken enchiladas in bulk.  Bought all the ingredients already so can't put it off or the chickens will turn.  

I want to go to Texas.  Without most of my children.  This may be why many women drink.  Heavily.


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## Finnie

Ridgetop said:


> We kept track of everything that was happening on the sibling text thread. They might keep it going since it is a good way to keep in touch with each other.


That’s what we did when my second grandchild was being born. There are 11 people in it. He is 3 now, and it is still going, and two more grandchildren have been born since then. We get lots of baby photos this way, plus share jokes and other information with each other. It’s really wonderful.

I hope your family appreciates all you do. 😍


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## Baymule

Sounds like it will be a lovely Easter. How come no mention of the Easter egg hunt? I don't think you have enough to do and should be boiling and dying eggs! LOL


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## Ridgetop

Of course there will be an Easter egg hunt - with plastic eggs.  Bubba does not need to find and eat real ones.  Or even worse, NOT find and eat real ones until they are very very nasty!

Taught DD2 how to use her Instapot today.  Delivered the last batch of premade meals to her as well.  Annabel is 10 days old today.  DS2 went with me to see his newest niece.  She is starting to look more like her mother Thank God!  DD2 is a lovely girl.  
DS2 brought home a truck load of stuff including a lot of food.  I told him to store the canned stuff in the trailer and put the dry stuff inside.  On the way home from seeing DGD2 DS2 went grocery shopping.  Apparently he is on a diet.  DDIL2 only gained 10 lbs. with this pregnancy but he gained all the sympathy weight.  LOL  Tomorrow I really need to get both boys out to help me rearrange boxes in the Connexes.  Most of the shelves in the middle of the Connexes are empty!  We need to go through the boxes and remove anything that can go to Salvation Army, then rearrange everything back on the shelves so there are no empty spaces.  I might even be able to get some of the shelves out to put in the Rubbermaid shed in the driveway.  Then I can put my suitcases up on those shelves and the shed will be less crowded.  I hop to get this done while DS2 is home since both sons can help me empty the Connexes, then rearrange the contents.  

I have decided to go through my linen closet in the next few weeks and remove all my linen tablecloths and napkins and sort them out.  If any of the children want them, they can have them since I am getting too old to deal with ironing linens for holiday tables.  Actually I am not that old, just have too many linen tablecloths in varying sizes.  Don't need all of them so will give most to my children, keeping only a few for large family dinners.

Now that I think about it, I need to go through all my cupboards and closets and rearrange them.  I already did the office and nursery so that just leaves the bathroom cabinets, hall closet, 2 huge hall cabinets, and laundry room cabinets and shelves.  Not to mention all the kitchen cabinets although those are pretty well arranged right now.  I do have other cabinets that are doubling as pantry storage though.

Yesterday I redid my flock information onto index cards with color coding so I don't put the young ewes with their fathers.  I also made 2 sets of month dividers - one for breeding and one set for lambing dates.  Once the ewes are bred and removed from the ram I put their cards into the month divider that they will be due to lamb.  Ewes that have already lambed are divided into creep dividers and weaning/field dividers.  Hopefully this will make it easier for me to pull the ewes that are due to be bred and assign a ram to them.  Also keep track of which ewes are due in each month.  Still working out the kinks since I breed several times a year.

Today I lowered the price on the Yelm property since more properties are coming on the market now that the Yelm water problem has been sorted out.  I resent that Remax did such a bad job advertising the property when it was first put on the market in October.  They really screwed us over since at that time there were few properties on the market.  However, I discussed the property with our new realtor and he did some more comparisons.  The comparisons showed us to be the highest priced property of this type and size at this time so we decided to lower the price.  I really want to dispose of the property.  

Got to catch up on reading everyone's threads.


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## Ridgetop

I made 44 fat chicken enchiladas yesterday and froze them on trays.  This morning I bagged them.  Doing it this way is better since I just remove the frozen enchiladas (I use the extra large flour tortillas and make them burrito style) put them in the pan and make the sauce when I put them in the oven.  

Our two freezers are totally FULL!  Lucky we did not take the lambs to the butcher.  DDIL2 wants one for her family.  I asked her mother if she wanted the innards and DDIL said "Of course" at the same time as her mom said "No"!  LOL They are Filipino and make some sort of special soup or stew with the intestines.  Marlene said that Jun (her husband) gets gout and can't eat it any more.  She also said she was through cleaning intestines - too much work!  LOL  They will take the heart and liver though.  One lamb will go to the neighbor and we will keep the 3rd.  By the time they are butchered the end of April and we pick them up I will have cooked 2 hams and the whole leg of lamb (for DH's birthday on 4/10) so will have some room in the freezer.  _*We can't buy any more meat for another 2 months!  And no more prepared food either!*_


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## Mike CHS

We have the same freezer space problem and we have three large freezers.


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## Ridgetop

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!


DS2 got home from San Diego with a truckload of stuff from their apartment.  He also gave a 30 day notice.  He found out that he will be working in Moorpark which is 30 -40 minutes away so will be staying here with DDIL2 and little DGS5.  Luckily he has a great nursery.  LOL

DDIL's mother has been coming over and bringing her special Filipino soup for DDIL2.  DS2 is on a diet so is making his own meals.  Too many cooks in the kitchen and too much clutter on the counters.  DS2 bought himself a rice cooker and it was on the counter so I rearranged the cabinet and put t away.  He was angry because he had made rice in it last night _*and the rice was still in the cooker!*_  ???  I told him he should cook the rice and then put it in a smaller container in the fridge,  No, he wants to cook small amounts every meal and leave the giant rice cooker on the counter!   I am not sure how I will make Easter dinner.  This is the same son that will be using the counters tomorrow to make his "pepper poppers".  I plan to get the leg of lamb and ham prepped by tomorrow so they will just go into the roaster and oven and I will not need to be in the kitchen while DD1 is prepping her casseroles.  She and DS2 will have to fight for the counter space.  Mama will be laying down in her room with a glass of wine, a book, and a locked door.  
DS1 brought in several boxes of food for me to find space for in the cupboards *and freezers!!!   *
I spent yesterday cleaning out al the pantry cupboards and food storage areas in the kitchen, laundry room, and hallway.  Then I moved on to the freezers.  One of them had a lot of frost built up so I removed the frost in order to get the baskets out.  Then I removed the baskets to see what was in the bins underneath.  After completely rearranging all the food in the 2 freezers, I was able to fit in DS2's frozen food.  D1 and I located 1 ham.  I hoped there might be 2, but DS1 said just to make the whole leg of lamb as well which gave us more space when I removed it today.  Last night DD1 showed up with her children.  She had gone to the grocery and carried in a large box of food she will prepare on Easter Sunday in my kitchen.  Also several casserole dishes in which to prepare it.  

After I thought I was finished with all the grocery rearrangement, cabinet cleaning, etc.  I found that DS2 had placed a large box of assorted spices thoughtfully on the kitchen counter.  So I spent another few hours emptying all his spices into mine.  DS2's truck with all the other boxes of their belongings is still sitting in the driveway waiting to be unloaded and put away in their storage shed.  DS1 complained to me that he needs to take the trash down tomorrow and the truck is blocking him.  I told him that if it was still in his way tomorrow to pull it out onto the field and leave it there for DS2 to deal with.  

Got a call today that we have an offer on the Yelm property.  It is an FHA offer which our agent Jerry doesn't like.  They are offering $5,000 higher but want us pay $5,000 of their closing costs.  We don't like that since it means we pay commission on the $5,000 in closing costs in addition to paying the costs. FHA sales often demand that you do a lot of repair work to the property and their appraisals are notorious for coming in lower.  I told Jerry we won't lower the price any more no matter what the appraisal comes in at. We have done all the repairs and clean up we are going to do.  The FHA offer also stated that they are  doing some sort of WA State Bond too.  We looked it up and it looks like the WWA State bond is another company guaranteeing the loan.  Also what we read it seems like we would be adding a 3rd person to the contract in the person of the bond issuer.  Sounds complicated and we don't like complicated.  Not sure so have asked Jerry to clarify.  There offer is only good for today - another rush that I don't like since it usually means they want to scare you into accepting something that you won't like later.  We'll see what Jerry says.  He is not pushing us to accept this offer.

Today and tomorrow 2 more agents are showing the property.  Jerry said that they got 35 hits on the property when the ad came out at the higher price and _145 hits when it came out at the lowered price._ He thinks we will get more offers. Hopefully we can sell soon.  

I decided not to clean the entire house since with DS2 moving his stuff in and out it is impossible.  Instead we will clean off the patio and put out the cushions.  The temperatures have been in the high 80's so no problem with the weather.

Got to go make the ham glaze and put the fish into the oven for dinner.


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## Ridgetop

OK!  Got out the leg of lamb (whole one) and the ham yesterday which has given me some more space in the freezers.  Tonight we will have fish sticks (found in freezer) and salad since I don't cook a full meal on holiday eves. Then I cleaned the fridges out and rearranged everything so the ham and leg of lamb can fit in them.   Don't want to poison the entire family with E. Coli!  LOL  

DS1 got the roaster down and unpacked for tomorrow,  I emptied and washed out the coolers to put the drinks in on patio with ice.  They are currently chilling in fridges.  DS1 has run an errand and will pick up ice for the coolers while he is out.  Wanted to go to church tomorrow but will watch on tv with 2 newborns for Easter.  

DS3 and family are coming tomorrow for Easter.  We will have dinner early so they can drive back up to Nipomo (3 hour drive).  First time all family is together since DS2' wedding.   Grandchildren will eat outside on patio table and we will lock up the dogs.  I will set up my porta crib in office for Anabel and bring up the battery operated swing that the car seat fits into for her as well.  DS1 said he will put the new trampoline together today with DH so they have stuff to do while we all visit.  We will set up the patio with the cushions on furniture.  He cleaned it yesterday.  Might even put the Little Tykes roller coaster together for the 3 year old.  She will just follow the others anyway.  First holiday with all *8* grandchildren (step granddaughter *must* be included in this number ).  

It will Ridgetop style  - wild and loud!   

Got an offer on Yelm and countered this morning.  Just a few items to clear up so hopefully they will accept and we can start on their inspections, etc.    Lowered the price so getting a little less than we hoped, but got an offer at full price right away.  At least if it goes through we can move on to finding a place in TX.  Whether we ever get moved there or not, having an operating ranch will enable us to combine our ranch expenses here with those on the ranch in TX for taxes.  

We will sell our hay crop until we can move there with our flock.  This will enable us to cull more aggressively but not to the point that we have to sell *all *our good ewe lambs. I want to keep a good foundation flock out of the best producers and mothers. Eventually I will buy another ram from Paul Lewis. The next ram will be chosen for low birth weight, fast growth, high muscle, etc. for better lamb sale potential. Paul Lewis' flock is enrolled in Lambplan. He submits the paperwork of the results expected from the ram he is selling as they are calculated and published by Lambplan. Great way to get a ram that will hopefully throw the results you want. His bloodlines all go well with my foundation ewes so I am hoping to continue production of good fast growing heavily muscled market lambs. I like to sell at 3 months around 50 lbs. and seem to get good prices. At that age I don't have to castrate or wean, just load them in the trailer and off they go. 

DGD1 is supposed to come over today to help set the table for Easter dinner.  DD1 wants her to learn how to do it.  DD1 never wanted to bother so she has decided that her daughter should.  I have extra Easter decorations to put on the table along with fake decorated Easter eggs on sticks to put in the flower arrangement bowl.  I guess I will have her do a separate small one for the children's table too.  Luckily DH bought 6 chocolate Easter bunnies for the grandchildren - newborns don't need any.  So we are set to continue as "good" grandparents.  Not sure is DGS1 wants to eat with the other kids or at the adult table.  He is 13 and sometimes they want the kudos of being at the adult table.  I'll have to check.


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## Baymule

Sounds like a fun weekend with family. A lot of preparation but so worth it. How awesome to have ALL your children and grandchildren together. Savor the moment.


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## Ridgetop

Wonderful!  

Except DS2 decided to throw out a fever last night and start throwing up.  * *My kids are supposed to be over the habit of getting sick on holidays.

"
DGD1 came over and helped me set the Easter table and decorate it.  Her mom brought roses and we used a pink tablecloth (apparently I had bought 2 and stitched them together to make one large enough for our table.  She folded the napkins into "boats".  They were supposed to be simple cones but hers were lopsided so I adjusted mine to match and they look like sailboats.  Table is set with the "good stuff" - silver, crystal, etc.  Then we arranged the roses and baby's breath in the long glass vase and she added the fancy fake decorated eggs on sticks.  For a final touch she set out the miniature rabbit family and fake decorated eggs (no sticks) around the centerpiece.  As she says "Ooooh!  It's sooo beeyootiful!

Now she is down with DS1 "helping" him assemble the trampoline we bought 18 months ago.  We were going to put it up last year but with Covid the kids were not coming over so decided to wait.  Since there will be 6 children here able to u se it tomorrow, DS1 decided it would be a nice surprise for them.


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## Baymule

Have a Happy Easter today, my friend.


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## farmerjan

Hope that your Easter was easier and quieter and more peaceful that expected.....


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## Ridgetop

Cray and hectic as always at Ridgetop but wouldn't have it any other way!  I hope everyone else had a great Easter too.

I don't like to post pix of family on public forums- I don't do Facebook - but here is a picture of everyone except DS2 who was in bed with a case of food poisoning from some bad chicken.  He is on a diet, has lost 26 lbs. and preps chicken ahead of time and stores it in the fridge.  When he was in bed for the second day, I tossed the plastic containers of his chicken into the freezer.  Yesterday I got them out and threw them away.  Since they were frozen, I simply ran hot water on the bottoms of the containers and popped out the raw frozen chicken.  The chicken breast cubes were not too bad, but the thigh meat, even though still frozen solid, STANK!  He said in future he will just freeze the individual portions and thaw them right before cooking.  He missed all of Easter with the family.    

DGD1 came over to help decorate the table for Easter and here is a picture of her and the table.




She was very proud of her artistic efforts decorating.  After we were done she went down to help DS1 set up the trampoline.  We ad purchased it 18 months before but with the Covid wanted to put t up since the kids were not coming over.  DS1 decided this was a good time to set it up for all the children since everyone would be here for Easter.  It was a big hit! 

Dinner was delicious. Ham was excellent and leg of lamb cooked in portable roaster was perfect.  All the side dishes were ready at the same time.  DS2 was not able to make his trademark Pepper Poppers but he had made them the week before and frozen them ready to go in the hot air popper.  His previous ones had melted the cream cheese out so he was trying a new way of doing them.  DS1 got the frozen poppers out and DDIL1 cooked them.  The new recipe worked perfectly and but apparently we ran out before everyone got enough.  Babies were passed to and fro like hot potatoes.  DD1 ad DDIL1 got their "baby fixes" although they agreed it wasn't enough time.  The cousins ran around like banshees, from one activity to another.  Lots of joking, laughing, and family stories.

After dinner DD1 wanted to get everyone together for a family picture.  Although DS2 couldn't tear himself away from the porcelain phone the rest of us obediently trooped out for the photo.  Although there are no roses blooming behind us (thank you ground squirrels) the hills are a nice backdrop.  DD1 has decreed that we need to have family pictures any time we are all together.  DSIL1 has a stand and timer on his camera so could get back into the shot in time.  Anyway, here we all are:



L-R back Doofus (future DSIL2), DD2 Kassy, me with Annabel, DH Marv with Robert, DDIL2 Kathleen, DS1 Rick, DS3 Andy, DDIL1 Katie, DD1 Stephanie, DSIL1 Nelson
L-R front DGS3 Jim-9, DGD2 Maysie-3 (Doofus' daughter/Kassy's  stepdaughter), DGD1 Elizabeth 7, DGS4 Luke 6, DGS2 Daniel 10, DGS1 David 13  
Bathroom out of sight - DS2 Carl - puking




Same people but with addition of Rika who wandered up and was captured by grandsons to be in picture.   LOL
I just love this picture.  The other 2 dogs were locked up since Bubba gets too worried when the children play and scream thinking something is wrong.  The children ate outside at the picnic table so the dogs had to be locked up since Bubba and Angel have no table manners.



  DH and I with all grandchildren except Robert who was screaming to be fed and left with his mom.



  Me and my girls with Robert as well - screaming to be fed but you can't tell.  LOL

All the children agreed that this was the best Easter ever.  DGSs3 and 4 did not want to go home when it was time to leave.  Everyone decided to have another family get together for Thanksgiving at DS3's place in Nipomo.  The kids also are planning a short camp out at DS3's place this summer when everyone can camp in tents and we will go to Pismo Beach for a beach campfire and cookout.  This will be a good holiday to remember if and when disagreements arise between the siblings.  LOL

DS3 is thinking about buying some ranch property in Texas but needs to be near Ft. Worth/Dallas for the electrical work. He is planning on hay fields and grazing land where he can move his stuff over a period of time like we are planning. He figures he can eventually put a prefab on it. I told him to get something with an old place that he can renovate since then he will have existing septic, water, and electric. Some counties are changing their requirements for septic and Ag exemption. Happy that he is considering it and once we are there we can look around for him or manage the hay cutting. DS3 is still flying his Trump flag to the delight of his neighbors, and it has been joined by a flag that reads "Don't blame me I voted for Trump!" 

Rika went to the vet yesterday.  She has been crying in pain with her neck.  2 years ago the same thing happened and we took her in where t was decided that she had suffered some sort of injury.  She was on pain meds for a couple weeks and then was fine.  We couldn't get an appointment for a week, and during that time it died down but we wanted to make sure she was ok  The vet said she showed no symptoms when he palpated her neck and head and had a full range of motion.  He gave her a pain shot and a prescription for pain meds.  He felt it might be that the injury from 2 years ago was giving her trouble with arthritis now that she was older.  It was particularly bad when we had a cold spell several weeks ago.  Now that we have pain meds for her we are happier since we were all dreading being told she had something incurable that would require euthanizing her.  She is our darling.  

Sadly, we will not be getting a puppy in June.  The special AI breeding did not take and Erick is worried that there is something wrong with either the bitch or the semen.  He s going to have some tests done since he only has a couple straws left of that particular stud.   Hopefully it won't be the semen.  He has 2 other bitches that he plans to breed though, and another couple that he would like to breed next year that are terrific guardian dogs, so we will be getting a puppy regardless.  Since all his dogs are excellent I am not worried about not getting one from the special litter.  Angel will be getting spayed this month.  That will take away the temptation to breed her to Bubba.  She is an excellent Anatolian and guardian, but I really don't want to breed her without papers.  The Anatolian Society has been kicking their heels over the registration of the import sire and by the time she can be registered she will be too old to breed!  Since it costs us between $600-800 to board her for 3 weeks when she comes in season, I want out from under that bi annual cost.  Plus I am down a guardian for 3 weeks!  With more and more ewes lambing here, I need my guardians working.  Bubba doesn't seem interested in her until she is standing ready, and Erick said that his father and grandfather were like that too.  They would ignore a bitch in season until she was ripe.  However, if I were to rely on that and wait to whisk Angel off to the boarding kennel, I would end up boarding her for a week or 2 and then having a litter of puppies a month later!  lol   Anyway, getting a puppy later will give us an opportunity to travel to Texas when we pick her up eventually.  

On Yelm, our agent texted us later Easter Saturday that there was another surprise showing so he held off sending the counter offer back until after those people saw the property.  Then he sent the counter in and the buyers accepted it.  We are in escrow with the Yelm property!  If the Yelm sale goes through we will be coming to Texas as soon as the back up periods have passed, just before it closes.  One more trip to Yelm then to Texas.  Probably in May.    Hopefully we will be able to find something in Texas.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> DGD1 came over to help decorate the table for Easter


Way fancier than our table!!!

Lovely family


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## farmerjan

The table was very nice.  Kudos to the grand daughter.  

WONDERFUL on the Yelm property.  Hope it goes through for you.  I get the feeling that you are "past it" and ready to move forward.  

Nice family picture.  We used to do that but it has pretty much died off with so many spread out.  No grand children here, my sister's son & dil have a little girl.   Family has split apart and I am not into it as much as I used to be because of the lack of "farming" blood anymore.  Sometimes wish I could find a young couple that would be interested in "carrying on" with the nurse cows and such...  but I guess that will die off with me because even though DS is glad to take advantage of my one good dispositioned one now, not his thing.

Would be great to make the trip to Tx before it gets too terribly hot for the summer.... and maybe find what you want.  At least you would be going to a state that is still red although the cities are gathering all the stupids from blue states.


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## Ridgetop

Thank you.  Family tradition to have fancy tables for holidays.  My grandmother used to decorate her tables according to each holiday.  When I married and started having the family dinners she came over to make sure that they wee decorated properly!  LOL  My children get upset now if the table is not decorated and set with the good silver, china, and crystal.  We put out crystal glassware for the grandchildren too and use the antique silver children's tableware sets from my uncles.  It is good that they have to be careful and use nice things on special holidays.  Seems like no one wants to mess around with that much work anymore, so I hope my grandchildren remember the special meals at Grandma's using "the good stuff".  DGD1 was very excited about the finished table so I foresee a tradition of helping Grandma set the holiday table from now on.  

I used to wash everything by hand but a friend told me several years ago that she decided to just put her grandmother's crystal in the dishwasher.  She had inherited tons of crystal from her grandmother, mother, and mother-in-law, but had no children.  She decided just to use it and enjoy it.  If it broke in the dishwasher, that was ok since at least she had the pleasure of using it.  I started doing that 2 years ago.  Now the only stuff I wash by hand anymore is the sterling silver.  I count the pieces like my grandmother taught me after a couple of her pieces went down the garbage disposal!  Our children delighted in telling each other (and any guests) that it was to make sure no one stole the silver!


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## Ridgetop

Lasagna in the oven.  Sent the required docs for the well in Yelm to the agent for the buyers.  I think I got everything they wanted.  I have everything about the repairs, renovation and all the bills for everything, so will be happy to scan and send them too if needed.  I finally got the pump house key off to the agent for the inspection.  I am not sure when that will happen.   Or if there will by anything we will have to do to the house.  I told Agent Jerry that we would sweep the roof and gutters, and I could replace the stolen antique knob with a reproduction knob assembly.  Found one cheap on Amazon for $30.00+

After telling me last week that she couldn't even discuss or think about a wedding, yesterday DD2 told me that she thought we were going ahead with her wedding on June 19!    I am not sure that we can do it then since the venue refunded our money when they were closed down.  I will have to check to see if they are still planning on having inside dining, etc.,  then send them another deposit check.  Besides I would rather do it later in the year since we will be in Texas looking for our ranch as of May 12 through the end of June if this escrow closes.  We only have 45 days to identify 3 properties or lose out on the 1031 advantages.  If will be pushing it but we can't go ahead with a 1031 purchase until this one closes.  Not sure what properties are available now either.  The77 acres on the tracks is off market but that doesn't mean it sold  We might still be able to make an offer but maybe a bit less due to the condition of the small house and the amount we would have to spend to make it safe for the tenant.  Also we are coming with $20,000 less to spend.  On the other hand, maybe we will just buy a smaller property and not cash out as much of our savings to make up the difference.   I better send an email to the venue to see what dates they have open.   The wedding dress is hanging behind the door of the office along with the Maid of Honor's dress.  The flower girl dresses are in the closet.  Everything is made that needs to be done.  Just the new invitations to send out and the flowers to order.  I even have the menu list in the folder.  

Oh well, at least my ewes are breeding.  Good sheepies!


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## Ridgetop

Just heard from our agent that the buyers in Yelm are not asking us t do anything on the house!  

We just have to get through the appraisal and closing.  Then out to Texas and our new ranch..  Hope we can find something.

Had an appointment at the vet this am for a pre-op with Angel to be spayed.  We have given up hope of obtaining papers on her sire and I really don't want to breed her without a registration.  Finally, spending $700+ every 6 months to board her in the kennel is ridiculous.  Erick said he may have another litter this summer so we might be getting a puppy after all. She will be registered and can be bred to Bubba if we decide to have a litter.

Tomorrow is DH's birthday.  He will be 78.  Is that too old for us to relocate to a ranch?  I am starting to worry about my perception of "prime of life".  However, if we don't sell the CA property, DS2 and DDIL2 can stay here ad we can decide if moving is for us.  After all, we can sell off the sheep here and just pay for brush clearance.   

Got to make a pineapple upside down cake for DH.  The children will be coming over tomorrow evening for a BBQ.  DH went shopping and splurged on steaks.  I won't tell you the price since I would not have paid what he did.  On the other hand he *is* worth it.


DS2's paternity leave is over and he goes back Sunday to San Diego to work for another 2 weeks before being transferred to Moorpark.  That location is only a 20-30 minute drive from us so he will be back living at home.  While he is gone DDIL2 and little Robert will be going to stay with her family.  He finally got his Covid vaccination so his wife will now let him see the baby.  She wouldn't allow him to come over before.  We teased him by sending messages that DH was whispering constantly that DH was the favorite grandfather.  Then I told Marlene that it was obvious to us that *she* was using that as an excuse to keep the baby away from him so she teach Robert "I'm the favorite". LOL I am very glad that they are going to have the baby for 2 whole weeks. Maybe Robert will learn to sleep through the night during those 2 weeks . . . . 

One of the lambs has torn out her ear tag.  Not the way they normally do with a ragged hole either, she has torn the entire ear into 2 dangling strips!  Not sure how to attach another tag. At least she did it before I registered her with the old tag number!  DS1 and I are considering waiting to put in the larger ear tags until the lambs join the main flock on the field.  We think they may be tearing them out on the creep gate.  We can use the tiny scrapie tags to tell them apart when we weigh them until then.  If I put in a different number, I have to reregister as a corrected registration.

I just counted the ewes.  We have 28 ewes and ewe lambs now. 20 of them will be breeding and lambing before the end of the year!!!  Last May's 4 lambs will be bred this summer as first fresheners.  We are breeding 5 ewes at a time because of the number of jugs.  We may have to build a creep in the large sheep pen in order to fit all the lambs into a feeding station to let them eat properly.  Probably need to add another feeder when we head to Yelm.  I better order it!  I will also be taking a lot more to the auction every month or so.  So far I have 4 due in June, 5 due in August, The FFs + 2 ewes in October, and more divided up for every 2 months through the end of the year when I will start breeding some of these all over again.  Better get to Texas fast!!!  LOL


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## farmerjan

I don't know when it is "too old" to  buy a ranch.  How does he feel about it?  How do you feel about staying in California????   The taxes and such in Texas are going to be better... maybe a smaller place and not as many sheep and breeding for the optimal market there???? 
Happy Birthday to DH !!!!

I know getting these knees are a priority, and then I am going to seriously think about the next few years for me.... wanting someplace that is much more remote than here.... I will deal with it, the price was/is right.... but the traffic and only 2 acres won't keep me happy... and if things keep up the way they are then moving out of Va may be the best thing for me.  Tenn and even KY are much more farmer oriented... NC mountains are pretty... I really liked the Smokies when I was there.  Not going "north" as I don't want all that winter....
Get moved. get things here done, upstairs ceilings done and such, get the heat situation done, and then the KNEES..... go from there. 

So glad that there isn't anything that is required by you for the Yelm property.  You've had to do and redo enough.


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## Ridgetop

DH goes from "We have to move immediately!" to "I don't know if I want to do all that work."  to "Why aren't you packing?!"

With regards to the sheep, DH feeds in the am which would not be required on pasture for most of the year.  DH also goes and picks up the hay.  DS1 feeds in the evenings, unloads and stacks the hay, builds/repairs the fences, catches the rams and puts the harnesses on, changes the crayons, and separates the sheep for me.  I could do it alone with better and permanent pens and chutes, which we don't have room for here.  He does the weighing now, but I _can _weigh the lambs myself in both the hanging scale and the freestanding scale. I take longer because I have to set up a portable chute but I can do it. He doesn't want to use chutes so it takes longer but he has the grandchildren help. They run the sheep and lambs into the main barn and we lock then in the jugs, then sort them out to weigh and run them back into the creep pen or the large pen. Sometimes I think I take less time by myself than when we have the grandchildren "help" us. They are getting better at catching the lambs though. DGD1 is actually the best because she just jumps in and wrestles with them.  DGS1 is ok but likes to argue and discuss as the lamb dashes past him and out the open gate!   DGS2 hates to touch the sheep, but I have given him a pig board and taught him to use it.  He uses it to block the lambs so his brother can grab them and push them into the scale.  Now that he understands to brace it with his knee and move it to keep the lamb from getting past he has more confidence, hops in to block lambs, and does better.  No use screaming at him to grab a lamb with his hands when I can get a better job from him with the pig boards.  I keep track of the weights, do the paperwork, decide when and to which ram to breed, and chose lambs for the auction.  DH drives the truck and we visit on the hour log trip.  DS1 and I both look the ewe lambs and yearlings over and decide which are worth keeping.  He and DS2 are good at judging them.  

I could never live in an apartment, condo, or even a small city lot anymore.  We love living on acreage, so we really have no choice but to buy a larger property.  We could stay here, but it keeps getting built up more and more and with the political situation the quality of life will soon be untenable.  I am even wondering if eventually we would have to leave Texas and move to the Dakotas or something.   BRRRRRR!

We might as well go while we can though since if we become unable to fend for ourselves then we can look at buying a condo.


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## Baymule

You are not too old until you die, then it’s too late to worry about it.

Congratulations on the Yelp property, guess I’d better look around...... you mentioned a smaller property, what’s the lowest acreage you would consider?

Lovely family pictures. Looks like a good time was had by all. How wonderful to have everyone together.


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## Ridgetop

Thank you for starting to look.  I haven't seen much on line.  Two properties we looked are off market, not sold but pulled from market.  Another that Marv liked sold 2 weeks ago.  This time, hopefully, we will be able to get something.

Probably 35-40 acres would be smallest because unless we have 25 or more acres in hay we won't be able to get anyone to cut & bale for us.  I will need hayfields and also rotational pasture for the sheep to graze.  More acres would be better, but too many Texas properties are being cut into smaller pieces for higher prices.  Love Houston county, Elkhart or Grapeland area.  Hope I don[t have to look in another state since my heart belongs to Texas.

Marv's birthday today.  Everyone came by.  First DD1 said she and her family would not be over till 8pm since kids a had scout stuff and birthday parties with friends.    DH upset since whole family had discussed his birthday part on Easter Sunday.  Told DS2 to throw their steaks into freezer.  Then had idea to invite DDIL2's parents over since her dad had not seen Robert yet.  They accepted.  Then DD1 called back that she would be there at 4pm with a potato casserole!   What?!  OK out came steaks again and we cut them smaller to feed everyone.  DGS2 nd DGD1 came with DD1.  DD2 came over nd said that Doofus couldn't come.  Then he showed up.  DSIL came over after we finished dinner but luckily we had some leftovers for him.  Crazy but it worked.  Pineapple Upside down cake for DH.  Complaints that there were not 78 candles on it but told everyone I couldn't get a permit from the fire department for that much open flame.  DH blew out the candles before we could sing so DD1 lit them again and made him wait till she could take photos.  Loud and fun dinner and evening.  

Checking and rearranging my breedings to try to have lambs born every month so I can take a load to the auction every month starting in December.  If I don't like some of the ewes I can take them too.  Really want to try to make a go of this with lamb sales.  I have enough ewes now to be able to string them out and have lambs every month.  I have a small area that can be fenced off for an additional creep, and will set up a creep pen in the large field so I can move the lambs out to the large field sooner.


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## Baymule

Happy birthday to your DH! I know everyone had a great time. 78! Sounds like a great age for adventure! What else to do? Sit in a rocking chair and wait to die? Don’t think so! I’ll get to looking around.

We got good news. DD thinks job in Oklahoma went to someone else. Maybe she isn’t happy but we sure are! LOL LOL


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## farmerjan

@Ridgetop  you may want to rethink the lambing every month due to demand for lambs.  Not saying I don't agree with a more steady supply, but it makes no sense to have lambs to sell in March that bring premium price, lambs in April that bring a good price, and lambs in May when there is little demand and the price tanks.  Not saying it will, but just something to think about.  I know with the cattle, we don't sell in June-Sept because everyone that wanted "grass cattle" have got them, and too many farmers are too busy in planting then in hay making to be fooling with it.  I realize that the lamb market is a little different... but something to think about.  Texas markets may be  a little different, but again, with the extreme heat in the summer, the lambs aren't going to grow and you will have alot in them in feed/grass etc., that might not prove to be practical, especially if the demand is down at that time.  
I know up here they are more seasonal.... and having lambs for the different ethnic holidays drives the prices.


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## Ridgetop

You are right.  I will have to adjust my lambing and sales in Texas to when the demand is better and prices higher. Here late fall and winter prices are not so good, so I am breeding to have all my auction lambs available from December through May.  Fall ewe lambs will be retained and fall ram lambs will go to the butcher.  I will have to change around as necessary to suit the market when we relocate.  I will have some 3 month old lambs in October (4 ewes lambing in June) and then some more in December (5 ewes lambing in August).  Then all the rest will follow in monthly rushes.  A lot will be first fresheners so probably singles.


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## Baymule

We weaned all lambs except for twin ewe lambs that were only a month old, last weekend. I'm getting my ewes back in condition to breed, shooting for the January-February auction market. That's when prices are the highest here. I've always bred for February lambs so they could hit the early spring grass at weaning, then raised them to slaughter size. Since I no longer bother with slaughter, selling meat, I'm going to breed for the best auction prices.


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## Bruce

I learned about one of the ridiculous California regulations last night during our weekly family Zoom call. My sister is having some work done on her house. Next up? The pre-tape drywall inspection. DRYWALL INSPECTION? WTF???? Apparently they have to make sure enough nails/screws were used  I wonder if they later have to inspect it to make sure enough tape and mud were used as well


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Bruce said:


> I learned about one of the ridiculous California regulations last night during our weekly family Zoom call. My sister is having some work done on her house. Next up? The pre-tape drywall inspection. DRYWALL INSPECTION? WTF???? Apparently they have to make sure enough nails/screws were used  I wonder if they later have to inspect it to make sure enough tape and mud were used as well


That sounds ridiculous, but there's probably a backstory to it that might give it more context. Probably also would depend on if the work is being done with permits or diy. 

Hubby is repairing our house now and not messing with permits or inspections.


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## Ridgetop

Since we are familiar with California codes, all _our_ building is done that way - although we don't often get inspections.  *Technically here is Los Angeles any work costing over $500.00 requires a permit!!! *That rule has been around since forever and takes no heed to the fact that $500 is nothing in building anymore.  Most repairs also require permits here too.  Ridiculous until you remember that a lot of so-called "contractors" here don't bother to have a license, insurance, or build according to code!  We find that doing it ourselves is safer faster, and a better job!  
Oh yeah!  and no permits or inspections if we can avoid it.  SSHHH!


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## Ridgetop

Well, the agent asked about the electrical in the Yelm house.  Apparently, the "house inspector was concerned about the electrical wiring".  The buyers "were concerned about no heaters in the bedrooms".  I told him that we had run plug in electric heaters in there for years and that you could add another room onto the split system.

I pulled all the paperwork, bills, and permits on the electric panel from all the years we had upgraded for the HVAC, the pump, and the RV outlet on the porch.  (I keep all paperwork on all repairs, etc.)  I told him that if the buyer's inspector had noticed the knob and tube wiring in the attic, _*he had not properly inspected it or tested it*_ since it had been completely disconnected over 30 years ago when my aunt had all new electrical installed in the house. 

The electrical panel had been upgraded, inspected and permitted when the new electric hot water heater was put in around 2012. (?)  She also had the house roofed around that time.

Since then, the electrical had also been inspected when we put in the HVAC in 2015.  That electrician first thought the K & T was the existing wiring in use, and we would have to rewire the house.      I would have done it but MJ told him that she had the house rewired when she bought it.  .  After telling him to check again because the K & T had been disconnected but not physically removed from the attic, he again checked and said that it was definitely dead. The new panel was upgraded then for the HVAC, permitted, inspected, and signed off. 

Next inspection was in 2016 when DH had the RV plug added to the exterior of the house and another breaker installed.

Last inspection was just last February 2021 when we had the new pump  installed with new wiring.  Again an upgrade on the panel and a subpanel in the pump shed, another inspection and sign off on that permit.
What I don't understand is that these were all supplied to the agent for the inspector - who obviously paid no attention to them!!!  

Not going to worry.  Haven't slept well for the past week or so.  I fall asleep watching tv, stagger into the bedroom and into bed and instantly I'm wide awake worrying about finding a ranch.  Last night I took a tranquilizer and got the first good night's sleep. 

For some reason the agent also asked if we had turned the damages over to our insurance company.  I told him that yes and been reimbursed for the pump and electrical less our deductible.  Personal property was disallowed.  No idea why that was something to tell the buyers, but maybe they were hoping they could make a claim on our insurance themselves!  

Anyway the agent seemed very pleased with all the information and paperwork I sent him so hopefully it will close. Only 28 days to go.    I did tell our agent that since the K & T wring was considered an antique now, I would remove the ceramic tubes myself from the attic when we return to Yelm.  There are some in the bunkhouse too.  Maybe I can sell them to antique dealers, or on consignment.  Every little bit helps.  I would have to look at the way they attach since they might be useful in running hot wires on the ranch!  LOL  

Finishing up our tax info and my annual financial filing on the NNNs.  What a hassle since I have to pull paperwork and replace the figures from last year with the ones from this year and then add and subtract everything.  Then I have to send a copy of our tax return to RBFCU to back up everything.  Oh well, doing business requires lots of paperwork  Wait till we run the ranch!  I cant wait to find out what else I have to fill out for the government!

Spring is here now.  Overcast as our May weather usually is.  I wanted to turn out the lambs from the creep but DS1 wants to keep them for another few weeks and turn out the ewes instead.  OK, he is managing the day to day work now to I give him his say.

I also have to choose which additional ewes I want to move down with the ram that is breeding.  The 5 ewes seem to all be bred, but I will leave them in there for another week.  I will add a couple of others though to get a head start on fall lambing.  This is the best time to breed since I don't want lambs coming while I'm in Texas other than 3rd timers.  FFs need me here just in case.  Tht way we can


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## Ridgetop

On April 7 the buyers sent a document stating that they accepted the inspection without requirements, but wanted to inspect the pumphouse.  After they inspected all the *new stuff with permits *they had questions.  I answered the questions and our agent 
sent the answers to their agent.  *Now the buyers have a "wish list".*

They are asking us* ". . .  to have licensed and bonded electricians add capacity to electrical panel in the house to accommodate additional heat supply in bedrooms; add 220V outlet in hallway closet; run power line from meter to bunkhouse and repair electrical panel; run power line from meter to loafing shed and connect previous wiring to new connections."

!!!!!!!  WHAT?  !!!!!!!*

First, the existing split system HVAC will accommodate the installation of another duct through the wall into the bedroom from the existing system.  When we installed the heating system we made sure that the system and electrical panel would carry it.

Second, installing a 220 V outlet in the hall closet so they can install a washing machine and dryer is not my problem since there is not a laundry room there now.  

*Third, demanding that we spend upwards of $40,000 to upgrade the electrical panel to handle 2 other buildings, installing a new panel in the bunkhouse and requiring us to rewire all the electrical in the bunkhouse and the barn is really out of line!*

I sent our denial to the agent.  I pointed out that they had accepted the inspection of everything except the pump house.  There was nothing in the pump house to require any upgrades on the panel.  There is already wiring for a 220 V outlet on the porch (although I know they think they will just put the washer and dryer in the hall closet but don't want to pay to have the electrical run.

Next I pointed out that the bunkhouse and "loafing shed" (the newer three sided barn) were sold "as is" and that the fact that 15 years ago my aunt had electricity there made no difference to "As Is".  I think that we would almost have to double the panel size in order to completely rewire both structures, as well as installing a completely new panel in the bunkhouse.  Since the city codes are now in effect for that property, the cost - based on what they charged to run wires 40' through the house attic to the pumphouse and install a sub panel for the pump ($7,000), we estimate it would cost around $40,000!  The electrician also said that the service had to be put underground.  

DH wanted to cancel the sale right then, but I told him we would just refuse to do this work which is not necessary to occupy the house.  The addition of the additional heating duct on the split system would be about $2,000-3,000.  If they insist on the work being done, I will cancel the sale although I told the agent that if we did the work we would raise the price of the house by $50,000 to pay us for our time.

Actually, if we don't sell it we will go up to the house and move in for a while.  Probably add a laundry into the hall closet which is adjacent to the bathroom and in close proximity to the hot water heater.  The other hall closet will also be torn out and half of it opened into the small bedroom to provide a closet there.  That will leave about a deep 4' wide hall closet for linens, etc.  Then we will enclose the hot water heater into the hall closet and make it a small laundry room.  We will add the second duct into the back bedroom and add some IKEA closets in that room.  These are all things I wanted to do before for my aunt but ran out of time.

Then we will rebuild the bunk house into a second little house that can be rented.   Split system heating system, small 3/4 bathroom, kitchenette, and bedroom.  with the way rentals are going in Yelm we will be able to rent that for $1200+ and the other house for $1800+.  If we get really aggressive we can repair the old enclosed barn and rent it out for storage.  There are a lot of military in Yelm.  

If we were to decide to stay in WA   DH could fix up the open barn for rabbits and get a good rabbitry going there.  Rabbits are quiet and no one would know since we would fence it for our Anatolians who would keep everyone out.

Does this sound like I am trying to make lemonade from lemons or just very peeved at these buyers!!!  I guess they think we are so anxious to sell that they can hold us up like bandits.  Probably liberals!  Wanting everything for nothing and not wanting to do any work for it.  Next they will probably want us to fence the entire 4 acres!  Add on a few rooms!  Put in a pool!    


Our agent is going t call me this afternoon to discuss these totally unreasonable demands - oh, sorry!  Wish List.     I have a Wish List too!


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

That is crazy! I bet they think you already put an offer in somewhere and were trying to squeeze you into doing the work so you didn't lose the sale. If they have already signed off on the inspections you definitely don't have to agree to their "wish list". You might want to ask your agent, but I believe if they have accepted the inspections and are past a certain point, if they back out now you get their deposit. Stick firm. Either they want it or they don't.


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## Ridgetop

I spoke to our agent and he says that their agent is going crazy with them.  Apparently they got a good report on the inspection and the inspector said that the electrical panel would handle the whole house, the bunkhouse and the barn (loafing shed).  

So what is the problem?  They wanted the inspector to guarantee that they could do everything with the panel and although he said it looked fine, they were worried.  Our agent said it appears that these people have no knowledge of electricity.  The inspector told them if they were that worried about the electric panel they could hire an electrician to look at the panel.  That panicked them and first they wanted to cancel the contract but their agent and our agent suggested instead to ask for some things to keep the escrow open while getting an electrician out to look at the panel.  Their agent is getting the company we had for the HVAC installation come out.  She has a good relationship with them and says they are very good so she will trust them.  Since they are the ones that upgraded the panel in the first place, they ought to be able to approve it.

DH as ready to cancel himself, but has decided to see what happens.  Personally I don't think they are very smart about a lot of stuff.  None of the plumbing or electric are older than 6 years.  The septic has just been repaired and at 1200 gallons is certified for a 3 bedroom house  That means that we could drain another bathroom into it making the bunkhouse reno into a second little house a go.  DH was worried we would have to dig another but we could just connect the bunkhouse bathroom to it.  

DH remembered that there is a circuit in the main panel that is connected to wiring that exits the attic at the old damaged weather head where the storm brought a limb down on the wires.  That line brought electricity   to the bunkhouse and barn.   That line is dead ended where it was disconnected from the weather head but could be reconnected easily.  

Like I said if we have to keep the property, we will fix up the bunkhouse into a 1 BR house for rental.  It won't take a lot for us to do it since we will only have to hire an electrician to hook up the wires from the supply to the bunkhouse.  DH and I will run the wires in the bunkhouse ourselves since we will pull off all the wallboard.  We will need to install insulation and new windows anyway.  We can put up the drywall ourselves and DH can tape it and mud it.  We will have DS1 come up for a few weeks while we work on the kitchen and bathroom installation.  

Hoping to close on this sale but still annoyed!  Glad I refused to read their "please let us have your cute house" letter because I am pretty annoyed with them right now.  Our agent thinks that the electrician's inspection and ok of the panel will convince them to go ahead with the sale.

Even madder about the City incorporating the property!  If we could have had our sheep there it would have been a great little place for us.

Other than the constant rain.

And being so close to my sister.

And the horrible liberal politics.


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## Ridgetop

BTW, our agent is still showing the house to prospective buyers so is someone else wants to put in an offer, those people will have t either close or back our and we will go ahead with the next offer.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Ridgetop said:


> BTW, our agent is still showing the house to prospective buyers so is someone else wants to put in an offer, those people will have t either close or back our and we will go ahead with the next offer.


Good. Maybe the knowledge that others are interested and probably will make offers will light a fire under their tails and they'll stop being idiots. They should have just asked for additional inspections instead of being stupid about upgrades. I'll bet it's their first house.


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## Baymule

You can’t fix stupid. And what’s worse—they breed and make more.


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## SA Farm

Baymule said:


> You can’t fix stupid. And what’s worse—they breed and make more.


Ever seen the movie Idiocracy? It’s supposed to be a comedy, but it scares me because I can actually see it being far too accurate about the future of mankind 😱


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## Baymule

No haven’t seen it. Just going to Walmart is enough for me. LOL


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> !!!!!!! WHAT? !!!!!!!


 Just tell them you'll do it all, adding the actual cost to the price of the house plus 50% for your work as the general contractor. And No, you WON'T hold a second mortgage on the house so they can afford it.



Ridgetop said:


> although I know they think they will just put the washer and dryer in the hall closet but don't want to pay to have the electrical run


They forgot to require you also run water and a drain to the closet.


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## farmerjan

I would tell them NO.....Period...... EXCLAMATION POINT.....!!!!!!!! You agreed to the inspection, we are not doing anything more.  If this no longer suits you, find something else.  If the agent is still showing, then let it go.  And make sure that agent understands that YOU WILL NOT  do any other work on it since it meets all codes.  END OF DISCUSSION......
What do they not understand about AS IS ??????


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## Ridgetop

Both agents are tearing out their hair over these buyers.  Luckily our buyer has never stopped showing the house.

If they back out we have decided that when the listing ends we will move in to the house temporarily.  The hall closets will come out.  1/2 of the deep closet with shelves will become a closet for the small bedroom.  The other half will become a new hall closet for storage and linens. A large Ikea closet will be added to the large bedroom.  The hall walk in closet will become a laundry closet, enclose the hot water heater, and be a utility closet.  We will add dual pane windows.  These will be easy since the original antique windows lift out of their frames with a pin.  I already have a buyer for the windows.

Next we will move on to the bunkhouse.  Since learning that the septic system is large enough to handle a 3 BR house, we will attach the bunkhouse to it.  It is so old we will not bother with a permit for that.  We will run a water line from the pump to the bunkhouse and install a small hot water heater for the bathroom and kitchenette which we can carve out of one of bunkhouse rooms. Running electric to it will not be difficult - we will run the wires underground with the water line - and DH and I can wire the house ourselves.  He will install a new panel.  The "repair" permit, electrician, and inspector will only be needed to sign the electric off legally.  Dual pane windows and a new front door will complete this new 1 BR house.    

Now the property will have 2 good rentals highly improved for such small properties, improvements in the dual pane windows, and addition of a laundry room, etc.  We will put it back on the market for a much higher price.  If it doesn't sell, we will rent out both houses and consider a lot split to sell the vacant land.  Either way it will work.  

However, I hope it sells to these idiots without any more bother once they had had their electrical inspection.

Next item, Doofus has the opportunity to go to Oregon/Washington with his company for 4-6 weeks to work.  They will pay him a lot extra, and pay for his lodging.  I think they are sending a crew.  He wants us to tow his truck up for him next week if we are going.  Kassy will be staying here.  We weren't planning to go so soon, but DH wants to detour into Idaho and visit his sister and brother in law outside Coeur d'Alene.  I guess we will do it nd instead of going straight to the Yelm property go first to Coeur d'Alene for a visit.  That way we are not dragging a refrigerator with us!  LOL  Then we will go back and check out Yelm, and if the sale has gone through finish removing any of our property from Yelm.  Doofus is on his own to get back since we will be in TEXAS!!!.


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## Ridgetop

Today the wind came whistling in very strong.  Every now and then large bangs could be heard making me wonder if another branch had fallen down.  Then a large shrub blew down.  It had been at the corner of the house for 25 years without any problem  I went out and pulled it up and found that the main tap foot had been completely chewed off!  Ground squirrels at work.  I pulled out the dead rosebushes and did some weeding while I was outside.  Beautiful day other than the strong gusty wind.

DH was weeding the "garden" on the other side f the house.  He is moving the dirt out of our failed trough planters and putting it in the failed "rose garden".  I decided to plant tomatoes in the narrow bed and squash in the round bed.  They are the only things that survived although the ground squirrels ate all the produce.  However we have ur trusty Squirrelinator and Ratinator traps so can make a start on pest eradication earlier.  I am also looking into getting one of those electrified garden netting fences with the tiny mesh to go around the vegetables,  I am looking forward to going out in the morning and finding tiny ground squirrel corpses hanging from the fences.  

Of all the stuff that DDIL2 planted only some of the Rosemary bushes survived and one tiny Lavender plant.  I am going to plant some more Lavender and some yellow Marigolds in that bed.  They seem t survive, along with Plumbago which spreads itself.  I like the Plumbago plants since they are always covered with blue flowers, are hardy, and survive in spite of the enormous dog caves dug out beneath them.  I wish I could get the Lantana to remain but in spite of its drought resistance it doesn't seem to thrive.  I used to spend lots of time caring for my yard and garden at the old house but that soil was excellent and here in spite of 35 years of tilling in manure, adding soil amendments and planter mix, nothing seems to stay healthy for long.  I guess I just need to stick with the stuff that seems to go native.  

Went to DD1's house yesterday and finally got the border up on DGD1's walls.  Had it almost a year.  Then hung her pictures on the walls and DD1 and I put up the stick on fairies and butterflies.  Had a good time with her helping me.  Surprising how helpful an interested 7 year old can be and how satisfying it is to do stuff for a child whose favorite words are 'It's sooo beeyootiful!" in a thrilled tone.  LOL

One of these days she won't be so excited that I am doing this for her but for now . . . .    Then she and her DGS2 begged e t stay for a while and watch them swim with "Larry".  Not a friend, he is an inflatable floating dragon DS1 gave DGS2 for his birthday last year.  Only a 10 year old could name a dragon "Larry" 🥰.  LOL
I sent a pair of little china boudoir lamps over last night for her room.  I had forgotten to take them to her when I went over with the border ladder, wallpaper supplies hammer, tacks, et. etc.  I need to call and see if she got them set up in the room.  

Hope to hear next week about the Yelm property and the electrician's inspection.  We will not be towing Doofus up after all.  He discussed it with DH and DH told him that it would cost him more to rent a trailer and tow the truck up than it would be to drive up.  He needed to go up sooner than we wanted to go anyway.  Also if these buyers back out of the sale, we won't go up at all.  I need to check with the agent if we get to keep their earnest money if the electrician okays the electrical and they still change their minds.  Best scenario is that the electrician tells them they have nothing to worry abut and they go ahead with the sale.  DH said that they might ask the electrician for a bid on doing the extra work to run electricity to the bunkhouse and barn and then back out.  Have to wait and see.  Like I said, if we can't sell we will convert the bunkhouse into a second rental, change the closets around, put in  laundry connections, and raise the price $100,000.00!   LOL


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## Baymule

I hope Idiot Buyer's go through with the sale and close with no more idiot demands. But if not, y’all are prepared with Plan B.


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## Ridgetop

Our agent sent us a counter but I returned it telling him to rewrite it with my own wording. 

His wording was:
". . . buyer proposes the following alternative modifications or repairs described below:  Cost of restoring electrical power to the bunkhouse per appropriate code and to the acceptance of all parties".

To me this read as though we agreed to install the electrical power to the bunkhouse, after which the buyers could either accept or reject the work, leaving us swallowing the cost of the electrical installation.  " . . . to the acceptance of all parties." sounded as though the acceptance or rejection would be made after the work was finished. 

I told him to redo it reading:

" . . . buyer proposes the following alternative modification . . . " (delete repairs since this is not a repair)  " . . . buyers will obtain an estimate of cost of restoring electrical power to the bunkhouse per appropriate code and submit same to sellers for their approval or rejection of estimate." 

Another buyer came through the property, and their agent asked about a lower price verbally.  I told our agent to follow up on this and tell them to submit their highest offer.  I am getting really annoyed at the others and if we could get  definite quick sale, would take a bit less.  DH is fit to be tied over the buyers and their demands at this point.

I suggested to DH that we could move into the house and live there for a year thus converting it to our primary residence.  I figure that since the property didn't draw any rent for most of last year, and it has been empty for 4 months of this year, we can move into it and claim it as our residence as of part of last year.  Then when we sell, we can avoid capital gains taxes.  It means no 1031 ranch, but you do what you have to do. 

If we do this, we can decide if we want to run electricity to the bunkhouse, insulate, and drywall it for a living space or just leave it.  I will have to cut back the sheep flock before I go but DS1 can manage it.  We could come home to CA for most of the winter, see our grandchildren, and travel in our 5th wheel while claiming Yelm as our primary residence.  Can you tell that I am starting to go insane over this house sale?!    😵🤪

Grandkids are here and DH and DS1 are putting them to work.  They are emptying our failed trough planters and transferring the good soil into the old failed rose beds.  These beds will be used for tomatoes.  The tomato bushes did very well last year, they were about 8 feet tall and extremely thick and bushy.  We just didn't get any tomatoes off them, and the tomatoes that did set were stolen by ground squirrels.  I think I used the wrong amendment in the soil.  Instead of producing bushes that set flowers and fruit the plants went to foliage.  Probably too much blood meal.  At any rate since it doesn't look like we are getting to Texas any time soon to buy anything, we might as well plant tomatoes.  

DH had a really good thought too about us being able to go to DS3's house for Thanksgiving and staying for an extra day.  He suggested our gardener could feed the sheep and dogs.  They know him and like him so would let him in.  He really doesn't do much here since we don't have any grass, and mainly DH kept him on when we sold the apartment building because at the time he needed the work.  He does our neighbors on both sides, so it wouldn't be a problem and we would pay him.  Too bad we can't take him to Texas with us.  LOL  

Got to go move sheep.


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## Finnie

I think those buyers are a little confused about what “as is” means 🤷🏼‍♀️


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## farmerjan

I have to disagree with you @Finnie  ( not being nasty    ),   that the buyers are "confused"..... they are not willing to accept the terms of the sale, they are not paying attention to the details, and are thinking they are entitled to more from the sellers since they, as buyers, are doing the sellers a BIG FAVOR by offering to buy the property.  I'm thinking that they feel like oh, we really need this and that to be done if we are to consider buying this property which is nice but not quite what we want... but if you do this and this we will grace you with our approval and bestow our favor on you and give you money for this property.  
From what @Ridgetop said , BOTH the real estate agents are pulling their hair out.... God bless them both.  

I would never be able to live in a country where they bargain for everything.... I am for some bargaining, but to respect the other person who has put forth a contract or agreement or a price on something that they feel is  fair.  If I believe that it is a fair price, I will do very little bargaining.  I believe in paying a person what they are asking if it is a fair and honest price.... I will not insult them with a low offer or with ridiculous demands.   If I am looking at something that belongs to someone, that they are offering for sale, or trade, or whatever;   I need to do my homework first to determine what is a fair value... and not to try to undermine what a person wants for their product if they have priced it fairly.  

If you want to buy something for less, then make an offer... don't try to put "conditions" on the offer you are countering with.   
Hopefully @Ridgetop  will get an offer from the other interested people, and it will be decent enough they can get out  of the other situation, get it sold and be done.
I heard today that there is talk that they want to make it illegal for a  landlord to do anything to someone who has not paid rent, such as the moratorium they put on it with the pandemic.... for 2 years ???? WHAT ????  I only caught a little snippet on the radio... have got to try to find some info.... but if there is something like that.... WHY  on God's green earth would anyone want to be a landlord in the future????? HOW would you manage to pay for things if there is no rent coming in for properties that you specifically have to generate income?   It is all nuts.


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## Ridgetop

Just took  3 wethers to my butcher - later than normal because had to cancel original date and reschedule my butcher date.  My butcher said if we weren't long term customers we wouldn't have gotten in for another 4 months.  Next time we have ram lambs, I will have to schedule a date 4 months in advance just in case.

Kent also said that he is having people bringing in everything from as far away as 150 miles!  He also said that most of the people coming in to have steers and hogs butchered are not raisers but city buyers.  Apparently even some people from West LA (near Beverly Hills, Westwood, Santa Monica, etc. - high priced areas) are apparently just driving out of town, and buying steers our of a pasture.  They buy 800-900 lb. steers and the rancher delivers them in to Kent.  *Most of the buyers are liberals! * Then they stand there taking selfies with their steers as they are unloaded! LOL 

When they go in the office to tell Kent how to cut their beef, they pull out a sheet of paper they downloaded from the internet of special cuts they want.    Kent says Saturdays are a madhouse with these wacky libs wanting all these special cuts. He said that he takes the list from them and tears it up. Then he asks the rancher who has delivered the steers what the weight is. Kent figures the slaughter weight out at .56% of the total weight and tells the customers that that is the hanging weight. THEN he gives them the approximate poundage yield. They are shocked and they say "but that's a huge steer" (800-900 lbs.) and he has to tell them "No that is a _small_ steer."
He says he would get a bigger laugh out of it if they weren't so stupid and time wasting. We were there for 20 minutes - 10 minutes to off load the 3 wethers and 10 minutes to give him the information about my 2 buyers and my cutting instructions.  He said these people that are buying animals and bringing them in to be butchered take almost an hour each to deal with in explaining the cuts - not counting the offloading time that the rancher handles - Oh yes! and the selfies!  

Told Kent that DS3 had bought a calf to raise for beef.  He asked how large and I told him about 500 lbs.   Agreed that he was going to be feeding it for over a year before it was large enough to slaughter.  We both had a good laugh at that.  DS3 pans to feed it on the grass on his 5 acres - that will last about a month or 2.  Then comes feeding it on hay - forever.  LOL  agreed that he needs to grain it probably starting in another couple months in order to keep it growing and putting on muscle.  I am wondering if he needs to feed calf or steer starter or if he could cut that more expensive grain with barleycorn.  He lives about 40 minutes from a good feed mill that makes its own grain mixtures under its own label.  He can go up once a month and buy the starter mix for the calf, switching to other mixes as the calf grows.  Kent and I agreed that DS3 would have been better off just buying the finished steer - Kent has a source that finishes out beef to top quality around 1600 lbs.  Like I told Kent, DS3 just wanted to do this with his kids to have some fun.  He can afford to pay for hay and grain for the pleasure of raising his own steer.   DH suggested we do the same thing, and "graze" it on our 6 acres.  After I stopped laughing, I asked him what he planned to graze it on since he had just mentioned that he would not have to do any fire clearance this year since the sheep had completely cleared off the entire property!  DH said it was just a thought!  

It has been overcast for the past 2 days and the weather forecast said rain on Monday.  Probably a light rain - not enough to produce any good forage. 

Well, an update on the Yelm sale -

Jerry and the other agent have suggested getting the electrician's estimate of what it would cost to add circuits to the panel and what it would cost to replace the damaged weather head on the house and run new wires to the bunkhouse.  DH and I won't pay for this, but said go ahead and get the estimate but we won't pay for the estimate.  Washington State charges for anyone to come give an estimate on any work!  Our agent said he would pay the $69.00 estimate fee and was able to get the electrician to come out yesterday afternoon.   This morning he told me that the electrician had to cancel and can't get out till June.  No problems for us since I was not going to pay to run more electrical to the bunkhouse and barn, or update the panel not to mention the permit fees etc.  I told DH I would not even split the cost with the buyer since we had lowered the price of the house $20,000 already.  The only reason these buyers are asking for new electrical stuff and rewiring the bunkhouse is that they don't want to pay for the work themselves.  Those buildings were offered without electrical though so why are they even asking?  The price is low to reflect that.

However, Jerry was pretty upbeat since he told me that we have another very interested potential buyer, and a couple of other agents wanting to show the property.  This is apparently the time of year when buyers appear.  The new buyer's agent(s) wanted to know if we would take a full price offer if they didn't ask for an inspection.  I told Jerry that getting an inspection was not a problem for us since we have had 2 inspections and everything passed, but if the buyer didn't want an inspection that was up to him.  This buyer wants to use the barns as shop buildings and came out this afternoon to look the place over, triggering the alarm system.

No problem.  I told Jerry to try to get an offer from this buyer and we would go with him since the other buyer keeps asking us to give them more costly stuff on the deal.  Jerry said he would but there was a small problem with this buyer.  He is a cash buyer up to $400,000.  BUT the problem is that he apparently has 2 agents and they are fighting over who gets to represent him.  Jerry says that would not be our problem, but they need to decide who will write the offer!  As long as somebody writes the offer and it is acceptable, we will take it and be done with this. 

Hopefully we will get another offer and can write off those really aggravating buyers.

In the meantime, DS1 has gone up to Reno to visit his college friend.  His friend is thwing himself a 40thro birthday party.  DS1 took off today in our car since his old car is not very reliable.  When we finally move to Texas 
we will trade it in on a used truck for DS1 since a second truck will be more useful on the ranch.

Tomorrow Angel goes in for her operation.  No puppies in her future.  Only useful guarding duties and a savings of $1400.00 per year in boarding kennel fees.     After the operation comes the effort of keeping her confined for 2 weeks!  DS1 feels that by putting her in the 5' x 12' jug in the barn she will be ok.  I certainly hope so but if not, with this overcast weather and rain on Monday and Tuesday, hopefully if we have to lock her in the stock trailer it will be cool enough.  Although the vet said to "keep her quiet" and don't let her "run around"    for *2 weeks*, I figure 10 days ought to do it. 

Gotta go feed sheep.


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## farmerjan

Hope the potential new buyer will come up with the paperwork and you can be done and out of it.   Told you to tell those other stupid idiots to take a hike and stuff it.... 

Sorry about Angel not getting to be a breeder... but if you can get another registered pup from that friend down the road, then that is probably best.  

DS3 steer is big enough to go on a stocker type ration... doesn't need any starter... Go with the local feed mill, get decent fresh feed.... yes he needs to keep gaining at a somewhat consistent rate.... feed a little grain right along starting now... and then he won't get scours or an acid stomach if/when the grass runs out.  If he feeds some hay now, along, then the grass will last longer too.   Halter break him to a rope and they can tie him out in the yard if someone is around too.... or..... take 4 or 6 corral panels,  they are 10 or 12 ft long...( like they use for catch pens not cattle panels of welded wire) and make a pen and slide it along the grass and move it a couple times a day out on the lawn so the steer can graze that way.  like a chicken tractor... he will never have to mow his lawn again either.... like using 4 "gates" wired together to make a square pen....


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## Ridgetop

I will tell DS3 to do that.  He can get a 16% feed at Templeton Mill.  He is planning to feed a little hay along with letting the calf graze the grass.  The grass won't last long.  Although he has 5 acres, almost half of it is taken up by an arena and horse corrals, the house, several connexes, etc.  And is is annual grass during the winter/spring only.  We used to feed our animals hay early, then turn out onto grass so they didn't over eat grass when they were not used to it.  

With the cost of wood now, when we look for a ranch property in Texas, we will have to make sure to check out the fencing and usable posts.  We want to extend the height of any exterior fencing for the guardian dogs so fencing will be a major expense.  Originally I had planned to fence the entire exterior of any property we buy 6' high using tall heavy T posts, but now I have decided to only fence the exterior of the sheep pastures. I can leave the hayfields fenced with any existing 3-5 strand wire.  The interior sheep pasture fences will be shorter because I want the dogs to be able to travel between the different pastures.   I will have to keep the rams away from the ewe pastures and use pipe corral with wire.


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## Baymule

Our friend and neighbor (we have a gate between our properties for easier access) just bought a sawmill and is working the kinks out of it now. So if you need lumber and have trees on the property you buy........... Just something to keep in mind.


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## Ridgetop

Excellent news!  Thanks.


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## Ridgetop

Well, we have dispensed with those demanding buyers.  They signed a rescission and we were glad to get rid of them.  We were about to rescind the contract ourselves.  Apparently they expected us to offer to give them $4,000 towards restoring power to the bunkhouse. 

Our agent said that he expects the new offer to come in as soon as the new buyer decides which agent he will use.  LOL  I am not worried - we are better out of it with those other people who I am sure would have been trouble all through escrow and even after! 

Angel did not get her "procedure" today after all.  Apparently there was a mix up at the vet and they put her on the calendar for Monday instead of today, and forgot to tell me of the change  in dates.  On the way home we passed Lowes and stopped.  DH gassed the car at Costco and I bought some tomatoes, squash, mint, and some hardy flowers - 2 lantana, 2 lavender, and some marigolds.  I don't know if they will survive the ground squirrels, but I figure I should try.  Tomorrow I will level the extra soil DH put in the beds and plant the tomatoes.  I just have to remember where I put my tall tomato cages.  I pulled out the dead tomato plants last winter but am not sure where I put all the cages and wire supports.  I plan to plant the lantana near the plumbago for a nice contrast with the blue flowers.  The marigolds will go in the small bed with the rosemary and the lavender.  

There is a long flower bed between the patio and along the house which I would like to remove and concrete.  Nothing will grow there and concreting it would allow me to put chairs closer to the house.  I have mentioned it repeatedly to DH but he is conveniently deaf.   It currently is lined with weed cloth and has wood chips and mulch in it but it takes up a stretch all along the house that is over 2' deep that could be used better if it was concreted.  I wonder if I could get some bags of Redimix and do it in 24" squares myself.  Probably.  I need to get out and get stuff done instead of being lazy and depressed.  

DS2 and DDIL2 will be back the end of the month.  Hard to believe that the babies are now a month old!  Their mamas have reported that they have to put away the "Newborn" size baby clothes.  Robert has apparently found that he has a thumb and is sucking it.  Annabel is refusing to sleep unless she is being held.


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## Baymule

Angel doesn’t have to be registered to have a very fine litter of puppies. With her genetics, you might reconsider spaying her. The most important thing about LGDs is that they do their job. I know you set great store in purebred Anatolians, registered, papered proof of where they came from, high quality dogs. But then you neuter and spay, they aren’t breeding dogs anyway. Even though Angel isn’t registered, she has everything it takes to be a top notch LGD. Just my opinion, for whatever it’s worth, and that might not amount to much. For me, her abilities count for more than a registration piece of paper. You have far more knowledge and expertise in LGDs than I do and I respect your decision. But I just had to throw that out there. Ok I’ll shut up now.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Mother's day is coming up, can you heavily hint/voluntold your son's/husband that you want the area concreted in to make a sitting area?


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## Ridgetop

*Baymule:  I always respect your opinion.  *

I agree that Angel would produce excellent guardian dogs.  And we would love to have puppies from Angel and Bubba, but I can get wonderful dogs from my friend who bred Rika Bubba, and Angel's mother.  The price I pay for them has nothing to do with their _registration papers,_ but everything to do with their guarding background.  My friend, Erick, knows all their generations of ability, x-rays and tests them for medical/genetic problems, gives them early training, and is my backup and go-to guy for behavior problems.  That is what I pay for.  (Although he would help anyone with behavior problems in Anatolians or other guardian breeds.)

The main thing for me now is that raising a litter of good guardian  puppies is *EXPENSIVE.  *By the time I have Angel x-rayed, feed her during pregnancy, feed her during lactation, feed the growing litter, it will cost me as much as the check I will write to Erick!  And with his experience he can judge how the puppies will turn out, what their guardian abilities will be, choose the right puppy for me, and begin the puppy's training himself.  

*AND THE HARDEST PART OF BREEDING DOGS IS FINDING GOOD BUYERS FOR MY PUPPIES!  *In good livestock homes.  With people that actually know how to train livestock guardian dogs properly, understand all their peculiar behaviors, and not punish them for behaviors that the owners don't understand.  Here in Southern California there are not so many people wanting LGDs so you have to weed out the people that want a pet from those wanting a working dog.  And most people don't listen to your instructions on care and training. They think Anatolians are just big sweet dogs that can be trained like any other dog.  Then they come back and complain or the dog bites someone and is put down because the owners were not willing to learn about this breed and their total protectiveness.  I guess I am just over protective of any puppy I sell.  I have a policy to take back any dog I breed.  Here in So CA I can only have a certain number of dogs on the property which makes keeping extra puppies and any returned dogs difficult.

Oh yes, and while it is not that important since we have a small place and 2 other trained Anatolians, she will be out of commission during a month of her late pregnancy and early lactation.  Plus I will have to keep Rika away from Angel's whelping box area to avoid any fights.  Bubba is less important in this regard since most Anatolian bitches will allow male Anatolians to "babysit" older pups.  Surprisingly, male Anatolians like puppies and are very gentle with them, allowing them to crawl all over them, play with them. etc.  In fact, male Anatolians are gentler and more patient with puppies than the pups own mothers! LOL  She would whelp in the barn and my lambing jugs will be full around the time she would need a whelping area.

When we move to Texas, I promised Erick that I will do occasional breeding.  He will take the pups at 3 months to place them  He has a waiting list for pups and the huge weight of responsibility for proper placement will be off my shoulders.  

Back to the Yelm property.  Yesterday evening at 7:27 pm we cancelled with that horrible buyer and this morning at 9:18 am received a full price offer, no inspection (of course it has already passed 2 inspections), and a closing date of May 24.  Another buyer is coming out tomorrow to look as well.  Our agent, Jerry is asking if they want to come out and possibly submit a backup offer.  We will accept this offer - "A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush" after all.  While a bidding war would be nice (pure unadulterated greed on my part showing here!) I am happy with the full price offer and being able to finish the business.  Hope it goes through.  

DS1 left Thursday for Reno to enjoy a visit with his college buddy.  DS2 and DDIL2 are both gone.  We did have to pick up the grandkids from school on Thursday and Friday and keep them until around 6pm.  They did their homework, then went and played.  The house has been very quiet without everyone here.  No huge meals to prepare and cleanup after.  I have realized we can get by with a much smaller house when we move to Texas.  Although we will miss our kids and grandkids, we won't need a huge house for entertaining everyone (or for housing everyone).  I mentioned that to DH and he was not too happy about a smaller house, but he doesn't clean so . . .  .  A nice large living room, sizeable kitchen with a large dining area, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and laundry room would be plenty.   The 3rd bedroom would be used as an office.  We could install a Murphy bed if necessary for guests.  The house is so quiet and peaceful with everyone gone.      I really didn't realize how much noise and confusion there was here all the time!  Right now we have 5 bedrooms - all occupied, a 20 x 20 family room, large kitchen with eating area, and another formal living room and dining room which is seldom used but has all my valuable fragile heirloom stuff in it, the large laundry/utility room with 2 freezers, large refrigerator, and storage.  I would like to give lots of those items to my children now  but they don't seem to be that interested.  I wanted to give my DD1 some antique needlepoint pictures  and the framed Dresden 3D picture that my grandmother had in her room all my life but she declined.  "Not her style".  7 year old DGD1 loved them and they went up in her room  If they break, at least DGD1 loves them now and is enjoying them.  I told DH that we could store a bunch of our stuff if necessary until DS2 and DDIL2  have their own place.  Some of my lovely things I will take to the consignment store in Palm Springs.   Most of the paintings, and a lot of my favorite items will come with me to Texas eventually.   

Heading out to plant my tomatoes.  Asked DH, without much hope, if he knew where the tomato cages were and HE DID!  I will go out and get them in the ground this weekend so when (IF) we actually get rain on Monday they will get a nice soaking.   I have to space them properly since sometimes I put them too close and then I have a hard time getting into the bushes for picking.  I was able to get my favorites this year - Better Boy.  Also got a couple Big Boy and 2 other beefsteak type that I put in the cart before finding the Better Boys.  Mostly got Crookneck squash sets.  Only one set of zuchini plants.  The Crookneck come on earlier then finish sooner.  They are our favorites.  If we have to go to Texas for the month of June, I suppose we will miss most of the Crookneck squash,  but the tomatoes and zuchini will go on through August and September.   DDIL2 will pick them and water.  If she can't, DH asked Miguel to do it and he will.  

Just remembered - stopped my planting work to look on line for a garden electric fence!  Forgot all about it when I saw the offer on Yelm.


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## farmerjan

So glad that you are done with the idiots on the Yelm property... and have another offer in hand.  Sure, let them show it to the backup people.... Maybe have a bidding war if you don't commit to the full price offer yet.... but I understand the bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush.   Sure hope one of them goes through.... and to be done.  

I get the puppy thing, and with you going to be moving, you are better off to get one from Eric, then if all goes well, be able to raise a few for him to sell in the future... That sounds more practical at this point.  

Keeping my fingers crossed for a closing...


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## Ridgetop

Thanks, Farmerjan!  
Hopefully you will finally get finished moving soon!


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## Baymule

I didn’t think about the tribulations of finding qualified buyers for the puppies in your location. I see your point. I got called out for saying city idiots on another thread, but it’s the truth. You certainly have more than your share of those. I guess if they don’t live in a city, they are dumb rednecks. LOL LOL Either sub group of humans wouldn’t know what to do with an Anatolian. And you are limited to the number of dogs you can have? On 5 acres? Gheesh.

I spay and neuter because I don’t want to raise puppies. But then, my dogs are nowhere near the dogs you have. I recognize that and don’t add to the backyard breeders churning out puppies.

I have great respect for Eric, have never met the man, but would like to someday. If he has offered to take puppies and place them for you, that’s a deal.

How wonderful to get rid of the first set of buyers with their outlandish demands. Now you have a real buyer that knows how to buy a house and knows the value of the house and property. @farmerjan you said IDIOTS! Ummmm I’m telling on you!  Nah! Nah! Nah! Nah! 

Speaking of calling names, a certain failed presidential candidate called me (as a certain group of people) deplorable along with a string of other names. Recently the very President himself called Texans (that would be me again) yes, he called us Neanderthals. Do I complain, whine or mumbly mouth about name calling? No. Why? Because......

I am PROUD TO BE A DEPLORABLE NEANDERTHAL


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## Ridgetop

ME TOO!  and I have a coffee mug that says so!


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## Ridgetop

Well yesterday I managed to get out and plant 3 tomatoes and 3 hills of crookneck.  First I had to climb into the raised planter bed and shovel the pile of dirt around to even it out.  Luckily DH had thoughtfully moved the mounting block over next to the raised bed.  Then I had to keep getting out of the planter, to get all the items I forgot to bring with me.  A trowel, bone meal, wooden matches, and of course the plants.  I can't keep these items handy because of the dogs, particularly Angel who likes to eat strange items.  Although, I admit, eating a bag of blood meal and another of bone meal is within the realms of probability since that is what they are made of.  Eating the plants is not good though, and something had eaten one of the squash plants.  I put 3 matches into the planting hole on my tomatoes.  A long time ago I was told to do it this way, so I still do although I think the bone meal that I use gives them enough phosphorus.  It is a lucky charm.  The matches were tricky to find since zo could not remember exactly where I had hidden them.  DH likes to chew the end of matches so we hide the wooden matches from him to avoid having to pick up chewed matches all over the house.  After a fruitless hunt throughout all the kitchen cabinets, I finally found them in the dining room buffet.  ???  Once I got the tomatoes planted, I had to get the "collars" - pieces of plastic bender board that I put around them to help hold the water around the plants.  So out of the raised planter bed, down the mounting block and off to find the "collars" in the garden shed.  Next I had to bring over the tomato cages.  These are large rolls of 6" x 6" concrete wire that I have made into 4' high tomato cages.  I still have 3 that Daddy made me years ago that are heavier wire and 5' high.  Since these tomatoes were going into the raised planter bed I decided that the 4' cages would do.  I still have another 3 tomatoes to plant in the narrow bed along with the 2 zuchini plants so I decided to keep the taller cages for those.  After bringing them from the field and over to the raised bed in the front lawn area, I needed to find the stakes that I use to anchor them into the ground.  I use plastic edging stakes and tent stakes.  Having found those, I returned to the raised bed and climbed up again, knelt down to push in the stakes around the bottom of the cages, only to stagger to my feet and climb out of the planter to get a hammer since the ground was hard to push the stakes into.  

Still with me?  This planting of 3 tomatoes took about 2 hours.    Most of the extra time was due to having to kneel down, get up, and climb in and out of the raised planter bed.  On the mounting block.

Next I planted the 3 hills of squash.  I already had the collars out of the shed but, of course, had to get down from the planter bed to bring them over to the squash hills.  This time I brought all 3 at once.  Then climbed back in.  But wait, after placing the collars around the plants I decided to make cages around the squash hills.  If the dogs decided to leap into the raised bed, over the guard railings, to dig up the plants they would be foiled.  

Back to the area where DH had stored the tomato cages and get the pieces of wire caging we had used for the ill-fated horse trough gardens.  For this, I needed the cage pliers and cage clips or hog rings.  We had used them last spring when making the cages for the horse troughs, but where had they gone?  Another hour was spent looking for them.  I never found them, although I am sure that I boxed them up and put them in a secure place!  I did find an old roll of green garden wire which I decided to use to attach the ends of the panels together.  In order  to made these pieces of wire fit around the squash, I had to fold the wire panels in half.  Cutting them apart would have made them too small and I would have had to attach the panels together anyway.  Laying the panel flat on the lawn I tried to bend it in half.  Not happening.  OK, I was not beaten, tired, but not beaten.  Lifting the 2" x 12" board that DH had placed on top of the raised bed wall (he used it to wheel the wheelbarrows full of soil up and into the bed) I slid the panel under  it.   Kneeling on the board I pulled the panel up and over the board forming a nice straight fold.  Much easier with the board holding the wire panel down.  Three more times and I had the sides of 3 triangular cages for the squash hills.  Now I just needed 3 more sides.  I had to cut apart some panels for those, so another trip down the stairs to the tool shed for the bolt cutters.  Then I decided I might need some pliers and a small wire cutter so went back into the laundry room for those.   After cutting the panels apart I could finally crawl up into the raised bed and wire the sides of the cages together.   Yes, I said CRAWL.  Remember I am .  By now I was no longer feeling in the "prime of life".  LOL

I wired the cages together and situated them.  But not done yet.  Now I had to water the plants in with Vitamin B.  Like an idiot I toted the large watering can from the other side of the patio filled with water and Vita B to the raised bed,  climbed in, and watered  plant #1.  I repeated this 6 times.  1 can each, climbing in and out each time to refill the watering can.  After doing all that work, I realized that I had a water source in the raised bed.  Can anyone say "STUPID!"?     I connected it up and gave the entire bed a good watering.  Although it was supposed to rain today, you can never trust the blackest clouds that float over the Valley.  

Next I should have planted the 2 lantanas, 2 lavenders, and the small 6 packs of marigolds too, but while putting away my equipment and tools I noticed that I was staggering and unable to walk in a straight line.  Unfortunately it was* not* due to imbibing adult beverages.  I also noticed that my bad knee kept trying to collapse.  I decided to stop for the day and take a shower instead.  I was shocked to see that it was now 6:00 pm!  I had taken 7 hours to do that little bit of planting!  Of course, most of the time was wandering around fetching tools and climbing in and out of a 3' high raised planter.  

This morning DS1 and I took Angel to her "procedure".  She jumped into the car but Bubba kept trying to shove her aside and get in himself!  If anyone has a ginormous male dog that wont load in the car, just take him to the vet and have his sperm collected about 8 times.  DS1 says when we say "vet" Bubba hears "sex worker"!  

When we returned, I went right out and took down the protective garden fence around the flower bed where the lavender was to go.  l  I had originally bought the lantana for the front hillside, but decided to put it in that flower bed too.  It is under an eave so doesn't get much water without irrigation and I have to put in drought tolerant plants.  There were already a couple small Spanish lavenders and a rosemary hanging on.  I stuck the lantanas and lavenders in the vacant spots and then planted most of the marigolds in front.  Next, I decided to plant the large gallon sweet mint in a planter and put the last 5 marigolds around it.  Then I put the fencing back and once again, watered everything with the watering can and Vita B solution.  Since the hose is right next to this bed it was not a problem.  Once everything was watered in with the Vita B, I set the sprinkler on very low and watered in the entire bed.  


Now for the disappointing part.  I went to water the tomatoes again and ONE OF THE LARGEST TOMATO PLANTS HAD BEEN NIBBLED!   AAARGH!!!   This evening when he feeds he is going to set up the Squirrelinator in the raised bed.   Tomatoes are a member of the Deadly Nightshade family which is why their leaves, stems and *raw* green tomatoes are poisonous.  I am hoping that somewhere a ground squirrel is in his nest clutching his furry tummy and writhing in fatal torment.   DS1 says don't bet on it.

DS1 is on his way to pick up Angel.  He is also picking up a bale of shavings to spread in the jug to make a nice clean surface for her with her incision.   The vet is sending home some mild tranquilizers to give her if she tries too hard to get out of the barn.   Hopefully she will be ok.  If necessary, we can put 1 or 2 of the lambs from the creep into the jugs next to her to keep her calm.

I spoke to my friend/2nd mother yesterday as I was recuperating from my labors.  She will be 90 in May.  I complained that I was exhausted after only planting 6 sets of plants.  I said I could remember going with the truck, filling the bed with plants, and having them all in by suppertime.  I blamed the Covid pandemic for making me so weak.  She laughed hysterically and said "No, you are just older.  And it goes down hill from here!"  Sooo uplifting!

On Yelm:
Today escrow should have opened.  The buyer has asked for a 30 day escrow.      God willing, by the end of May we should be heading for Texas.


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## Baymule

That’s a LOT of work for 3 tomato plants and 3 hills of squash. Sore, tired muscles, to add insult to injury, a tomato plant is attacked by a squirrel.  Hopefully you get the rewards of your labors, better get that squirrelinator set up!

what’s that B vitamins for?

YES! Close on Yelm!


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## Ridgetop

Vitamin B is just a liquid plant starter.  Encourages root growth, and gives the plant a boost after being transplanted.  My mom used to swear by it and she could break a dry twig off a dead tree, stick it in the ground, and in the morning a 6 foot tree would be standing there!  Amazing what she could do with cuttings in a garden.  I used to have the "thumb of death" but much better now. 

And yes, it was TOO MUCH work.  But you now how it is, spring comes and the urge to plant something is strong.  I need to stay away from nurseries and the garden department in the spring!  Tried to buy the electric garden net again this year and the first opportunity to order will be May 28.  Out of stock till then.  Can't order now - have to get on a list and be notified of when it comes in to order.  I forgot to order it last winter, or maybe I was telling myself I wasn't going to plant anything.

I was at Hobby Lobby and the artificial lavender plants looked so real I was tempted to buy some and just stick them in the garden bed.  They were half price which was about the same price as the live plants I bought to feed the ground squirrels.  LOL


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## HomeOnTheRange

Congrats on Yelm!!  I might have missed it, but where in Texas are you looking/moving?  The Bay area?

I wish I could write like you and others on BYH.  I get a reply out and I run out of words...  Been lurking here for over 4 years now and keep telling myself I should start a journal at some point...  Really like yours @Ridgetop


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## farmerjan

Not hard to just keep a running one sided conversation..... @Ridgetop  is real good at it, and I tend to run on at the mouth sometimes.... The worst part is a couple of times I have accidently erased  part or all of it when I hit the wrong key or something... so I often will post it and then try to write more so I don't lose a whole page.....


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## farmerjan

@Ridgetop , I didn't know about Vit B for the plants.... maybe should give some to the piece of rose that I transplanted.... How much ????  Maybe the peach trees too ????
Sure hope that all goes good with the escrow on Yelm.... I know you have got to be READY to be DONE.....


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## Baymule

HomeOnTheRange said:


> Congrats on Yelm!!  I might have missed it, but where in Texas are you looking/moving?  The Bay area?
> 
> I wish I could write like you and others on BYH.  I get a reply out and I run out of words...  Been lurking here for over 4 years now and keep telling myself I should start a journal at some point...  Really like your @Ridgetop


Start your journal! I bet you have more to say than you think. We all live scattered across the country, in different parts of the world. What may be mundane to you, is intensely interesting to someone else. For instance, ground squirrels-I don’t have those pests, reading about @Ridgetop’s battle makes me glad I don’t have that problem. I say go for it!


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## Ridgetop

Thanks folks!  

But the real reason for these long posts is that I have what one uncle described as diarrhea of the mouth.  All the Ridgetop family have it - family conversation get louder and louder as we all talk at once!  I am surprised we  don't get complaints for noise pollution at family get togethers!    Because I was a legal secretary for years before DS1 was born I also type very very fast -100 wpm.  So now I have diarrhea of the fingers.    I often think I have typed too much but figure that most people just stop reading half way through anyway so . . . . 

*Farmerjan: * I have also had problems with suddenly losing a lot of text.  Unlike Word there is no way to recapture the lost text by going back.  Same on regular emails.  On long posts, for a while, I was typing them on Word then cutting and pasting them onto this site.   This was particularly so if I was trying to give information that was long or intricate.


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## Ridgetop

Definitely Vitamin B1 might help.  When starting cuttings my mother also told me to use Rootone which is a powder with growth stuff in it.  (Hormones?)   It encourages root growth.  Maybe that would have been good for the rose cutting.  I don't know whether you can find a Vitamin B1 solution.  Last time I looked I couldn't find the old brand.  I was at Lowes, not a nursery so maybe that was why.  I ended up buying Miracle Gro Planting and Transplant Solution which I don't think is as good.   The Vitamin B solution is supposed to prevent shock in transplanting.  

*SUCCESS! * Just looked it up on Amazon and they have a 1 gallon bottle of Liquid B1 transplanting solution for $23.15 and free shipping on Prime.  I am ordering a bottle since the Miracle Gro is just a nitrogen base fertilizer.  The Vitamin B1 works perfectly.  You dilute it in water and pour it around the roots after transplanting.  

If the rose is struggling and you can find a small jar of Rootone powder (or bag - haven't bought any in years since our Ph factor here is 9!) You can try digging it up and sprinkling the powder over the roots so it clings.  I used to dip the ends of the cuttings in water then in the powder before planting.  They all took and grew.  And as I say I used to have ""the thumb of death".  That changed after I subscribed to Organic Gardening for about 5 years, and got a bunch of books to read about soil health.  Now of course with our highly toxic soil, I have hardly been able to grow anything for 30 years.  

I stopped DH from pulling up the pepper tree upstarts and the elderberry upstarts since they actually survive in our soil.  Anywhere else that we want to plant we have to remove the sol and replace it with half and half mix.  One of the reasons we grow in containers.  He is currently building a retaining wall behind the tool shed.  No ne except the sheep and dogs can see it  Once it s done he informed me he would *buy *dirt to fill it in and I could make a garden there!  

Has he not learned that we are surrounded by serial ground squirrel plant murderers?  Yes, another tomato was attacked last night.  The trap will be placed in position and baited today.  I am considering using the Ratinator as well.  Although the electro netting is out of stock at Premier until May, maybe I could get a charger and run a wire to the ornamental metal garden fencing and just electrify it.  I will start looking on the internet for other electrified small space netting.  Death to the garden predators!  I might be forced to buy some kingsnakes and release them into the garden.  Unfortunately the dogs hate snakes and will kill them.  $$$ down the drain.  Ferrets?  Probably the same thing.  Buy a ferret for the grandkids and have them bring them over and put them down the ground squirrel holes then take them home again?  English children used to keep ferrets for hunting rabbits.  But could they catch them again?  The traditional way of hunting rabbits with ferrets is to put nets around the rabbit holes then put the ferret down the hole.  The rabbits run out into the nets and you bop them over the head.  The ferrets come out and you can catch them too.  This was 60 years ago and I am not sure whether this is allowed in England anymore since they have barred a lot of stuff.  Unfortunately I am not sure where those pesky ground squirrel burrows are.  That is another problem.

Anyway, escrow on the Yelm property is supposed to open this morning.  I will put the 1031 people in touch with them and fill out the papers asap.  I hope it goes through so we can get on with the rest of our lives.

I wrote to my brother about helping my sister move in the fridge that we offered her.  He said "NO", since he is taking care of his 10 rentals, doing the yardwork on 2 of them, and building his retirement home on several acres and putting in the fencing, fruit trees, and bushes there.  This is *in addition* to his full time job with Boeing.  He wrote me yesterday explaining that he had gone to help her a year ago while Covid masks were in force.  She asked him to help her clear out a lot of garbage to the dump so he spent an entire day with her.  He said that after driving 1 1/2 hours to get there, then spending the day while she "sorted" through her junk he finally lost it after she took 2 hours to decide that she couldn't throw away a small rusted out garbage can, pulled it off his truck, and replaced it in the "keep" pile!  Then she was upset that he "shouted at her and was so mean"!  His wife has forbidden him to help her anymore.  It is a shame, but she has alienated her whole family except those members who live far away, only talk to her on the phone, and don't see what she is really like.  He agrees that she has become a textbook "hoarder".  We all live n fear that she will die and when they finally find her we will have to assemble to empty her house.  My youngest brother said we should just let them bull doze it, but she has all my grandmother's and mother's valuable items, including their good jewelry.  My family will have to be the ones to go up and pick through the rubbish, since neither of her brothers will speak to her anymore, and there is only one other niece - who also won't speak to her..  She is a year younger than I am but in her present depressed, self-pitying frame of mind, who knows what will happen?  Her last test was - first  "I don't want your help because you are too old", second "I know you won't have time for me", and third "nothing really matters very much".  While this would have sent most people rushing up to get her medicated before she jumped off a bridge, she talks like this all the time for sympathy.  It has become "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" for this family.

Back to more enjoyable subjects.  How do I find people's threads when they don't come up on my email or the latest posts portion?  I have marked a bunch of people as "Follow" but I can't find them and don't get notices of their posts.  

Angel is home with a shaved tummy and a cone head.  The vet has given us tranquilizers to try to keep her quiet because she hates being confined.  DS1 just came in and said that she had inverted her cone somehow.  He replaced it properly.  I will go down shortly and move a couple lambs into the jugs next to her to see if this will help her settle down.  I don't have any lambing ewes which would keep her content.  These lambs are older and were being weaned so are still in the creep pen.  I will move them so she can talk to them through the bars.

DS2 will be coming home the end of the week.  Then he will be rejoined by DDIL2 and little Robert.   5 adults to feed again and a baby.   According to the news we have heard Robert has started spitting up.  His worried new mother has taken him to the doctor to check up about this perfectly normal baby activity.  Some of my children and grandchildren seemed to view spitting up as a hobby.  DGS2 specialized in projectile spitting up with a grin on his face as he targeted people across the room.  Oh well, if he gets colic - been there, done that.  Actually since both DH and I have TV earphones, we won't even hear it.     Oh, sorry, do I seem like an unnatural grandmother? Not rushing to wrest the screaming baby from the ineffectual parents' arms and rocking him for hours during his colic attacks?    Nope, unless desperate parents really need me, I will allow them to deal on their own.  Like I said, been there, done that!  

I told DH that I am longing for a trip in the 5th wheel.  We won't be taking it to Yelm.  We will take our air mattress, sheets and blankest, towels, and some camping chairs.  That is all we will need while we are there.  Oh and the duffel bag of Coffee maker, pans coffee, paper plates, etc.  And toilet paper.  If we bring home the nice exterior mahogany door stored in the old barn, and the fridge they will ride home in the truck bed.  IF, which is doubtful,  my sister unearths my grandmother's bedroom set, we will rent a U-Haul to bring everything home.  Not holding my breath.

IF, and I am hopeful, the Yelm escrow closes in 27 days, we will be immediately leaving for Texas.
On the way back we will detour north to Idaho to visit DH's sister and her husband.  Maybe we can take a trip further north into the Dakotas nd Montana.  I really want to travel up there and see that part of the country.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Are you looking at BYH on a phone or the computer? There should be a 'Watched Threads' link, it's just accessed differently on phone vs computer. Once there you should see a list of all the threads you have watched, sorted with most recent posts towards the top. If the title is bold it means there's a response you haven't read yet. 

On my phone I click the menu button (three horizontal lines), then under Forums, Watched, there is the link for Watched Threads. 

Haven't been on BYH on the computer in a while as the internet at home is lousy right now, hopefully someone else will chip in how to get there.


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## Ridgetop

HomeOnTheRange:  Sorry I forgot to answer your question, I kept writing this post and having to leave to do stuff. We like east Texas.   As desert dwellers here we want water.  We are planning on the Piney Woods near Elkhart, Crockett, Grapeland, etc.  We like that area.  Less people than Dallas-Ft. Worth.  Austin is a big NO - even our friend down there says too many liberals coming in and changing it.  Houston is too muggy.  Tyler was a choice but it is really growing there with a lot of retirees moving in since the medical facilities are so good.  If worst comes to worst, we can look in south eastern OK.  But I think we will find something in Texas.  Prices are way up though over what they were when we started looking 2-3 years ago.  Our Yelm, WA, property manager (the evil ones from the dark side that totally let our tenant screw up our property and other things) talked us out of selling then by telling us that no one was buying anything in the area due tp problems with water.  I think even then they had an eye for buying our property to develop.  Developers were stopped from putting in homes, but our property has its own well and I think now that we could have sold it back then for the same price as we are under contract.  We trusted that real estate guy which was our mistake.  The new guy we have is excellent and we are under contract now.

We really like the Piney Woods area - good water, hayfields which we plan to fertilize and hire to have cut and baled. We are looking for around 50 acres, with house, well, barn, pond, and some cattle pens, with existing hayfield(s).  If we have enough wooded acres we can expand into meat goats which are bringing more $$$ than lambs.  We will have to do some additional high perimeter fencing for the guardian dogs.  We will be doing other improvements before moving back there with our sheep.  The 4 acres in Yelm 30 miles from Olympia, WA, is being sold to finance buying the ranch before selling our 6 acres here.  Originally, we thought we could take the sheep up to Yelm and stay there.  Plenty of grass on the acreage, good well, 2 good barns and other outbuildings.  Plus the small house that we had totally rebuilt for my aunt 5 years ago.  Then we found out it had been incorporated into the City of Yelm.  No livestock allowed.    

Anyway, we need to find and buy the ranch, then get it ready before being able to transfer our 30 head of Dorper sheep, Josie The Mule, and 3 Anatolian LGDs to the new property.  It is really impossible to move from an operating ranch to another ranch which is not set up for the livestock you are bringing (our sheep vs TX cattle fencing).  Not to mention moving all your equipment to the new place.  We will take a year or 2 to go out for a month or more at a time to fence, build or repair barns/sheds if necessary, then  sell or rent our current house and move to TX.   Many of the smaller properties on the market need some repairs on fencing and sheds so we need to do all that.  Once we are there, we will do whatever renovations and remodeling we want to do to the house. Of course, these are only our PLANS and we know what God does with man's plans!     Trying to get there before Biden changes the tax laws and the government takes all our money!


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## Ridgetop

Larsen Poultry Ranch:  I can read emails on my phone but have trouble logging in to reply so  only use the computer. The text is bigger too for these old - Ooops, in the prime - eyes.    I have forgotten my password (so many passwords for so many things and they tell you to have different ones for everything) but it is saved on my computer.  So easier for me that way.  

I went way back in some of the threads or whatever and found some of the ones I wanted.  I also looked at the Just posted line.  Keeping up with all my BYH friends is hard because I want to see what EVERYONE is saying and there are not enough hours in the day!


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## HomeOnTheRange

Ridgetop said:


> As desert dwellers here we want water. We are planning on the Piney Woods near Elkhart, Crockett, Grapeland, etc. We like that area. Less people than Dallas-Ft. Worth.


I know the feeling of wanting water!!  I would love to not have to worry about it every single year.  We have been told that there will be no irritation water as of the middle/end of July, which means a lot of people are going to lose their fields.

Have you tried chewing gum for the ground squirrels?  Just get some Juicy Fruit gum, chew it for just a few seconds to get it into "gum" form and leave it out by their area.  Will take a pack or so, but it does get rid of them.


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## Mike CHS

farmerjan said:


> Not hard to just keep a running one sided conversation..... @Ridgetop  is real good at it, and I tend to run on at the mouth sometimes.... The worst part is a couple of times I have accidently erased  part or all of it when I hit the wrong key or something... so I often will post it and then try to write more so I don't lose a whole page.....



When you lose text while typing in threads, you can hit CTRL z and it will restore the text that disappeared.  That only works though if you actually see the text disappear.  If you continue typing a bit after it goes away, it doesn't work.  A lot of times I'll be typing a response while I'm actually watching TV so I often don't see the text go away.


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## Ridgetop

Thank You Mike!  I will try it.  

Water is everything.  2 years ago I considered Utah where we have a friend who raises hay and sheep.  He said he would cut and bale the hay on any property we bought within a certain distance from him.  Then early last fall when I talked to him again he said that they did not get the winter snow they usually did and the reservoirs had run out of water mid summer.  No grazing left.  No final cuttings of hay.  Really bad so I decided not to pursue a Utah ranch.

Water is the only thing I really worry about with a ranch.  30 years ago my uncle who was a rodeo rider and cattleman told me that wherever I went to make sure I had water rights.  No water - no ranch.  First thing  always ask is there a well and second thing is how many GPM.  It is surprising how many ranch real estate agents have no idea what GPM means!


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## Ridgetop

I will get the chewing gum and try it.  We set out the baited traps today.  I hope we catch some of the critters tonight.   am not sure if they are nocturnal or diurnal, but we caught a lot of them last year during the day.  But by then we were seeing 10 or more running around boldly in front of us!


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## Baymule

Water is everything. East Texas has plenty, but we have had our droughts too. I guess no place can be perfect. Right now I’m looking out at our yard, white and crimson clover is blooming, tall rye grass, mixed weeds, great sheep grazing. I’ve been letting the ewe lambs out in the yard, today it will be Ringo and his girls. The pasture they have been grazing needs a rest. When the clovers die back, we’ll mow it all down. The clover stubble adds humus to our beach sand. Supposed to rain today, I’ll leave their gate open so they can go back to their barn. I’ll be processing the 13 chickens we slaughtered yesterday. 
Yes, green. East Texas is lush and green. I sowed 25 pounds of giant Bermuda grass seed on the pipeline, there are tiny green dots. The rain over the next couple of days will help it. The real test will be August when the devil and his kingdom of fire has a rival for heat! Haha!


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## Ridgetop

Droughts and floods are all part of nature.  But living in a desert climate means that you have to be very careful about water.  We used to have plenty of water in the San Fernando Valley, but  our lovely citrus and walnut orchards have all gone to be paved over for business buildings.  All the large horse properties have been bought and large apartments build there.  There are only small pockets like Shadow Hills, etc. remaining in horse properties and only because we are steep and the soil is bad.  They are even trying to build multiple houses on these steep hillsides.  We need to move.

This morning I went to see if there were any ground squirrels in the trap  NO! and they had dug a burrow under the trap to eat the grain which with which DS1 had baited the trap!     There was not enough open ground to place a sheet of plywood underneath it  We will cut a small piece of plywood and rebait the trap.  In the meantime, another tomato has been severely mauled and one hill of squash has been mutilated.

DS1 and DH had a discussion of the best way to fix the problem.   DS1 is looking for a sonic sound rodent repellent on the internet.  I will cut the bottoms off some 5 gallon buckets and place them over the remaining plants.  Hopefully this will work.  

DDIL2 AND BABY ROBERT ARRIVED!!!  She had to get some larger size clothes for him - well over 9 lbs. now.  They were here for 2 hours and then left.  I went to DD2's home to apply the stick on roses over the crib.  Got there around 2 pm.  Between laying out the design, applying the roses, and feeding Baby Annabel we did not leave until 6pm. DGD1 was doing her homework slowly so I told her if she finished in time she could go with me to see Maysie and Annabel.  ZOOOOOM!  Homework done!

Home again, I immediately went to get my buckets cut off and install them.  After doing the first one I went to see how it would work.   * OMG!!!*  *ALL *the squash were *GONE*!  Daylight crime spree!  This morning I had 2 complete hills now none.  The squash were completely eaten to the ground.  Luckily I plant deep so they still had half a leaf or so underground.   I cut off the bucket bottoms and put them over the plants, then I wedged sticks around the bottom to hopefully keep them from falling over if the rascals tried to climb them or go under.  If that doesn.t work, I will drill holes about an inch from the bottom and use wire to attach them to some heavy spikes.  I also went down to the shed and found a metal "privacy panel" from the old rabbitry - a piece of tin 30" x 24" to put under the Squirrelinator.  Hopefully the bait will not be reachable and we will catch some of the miserable creatures this time.  It is possible that rabbits are also to blame so if we don't catch any squirrels, I will borrow my friend's Havahart live trap and use it.  Don't let the description of "live" trap fool you as to my intentions!   👹


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## Baymule

We don’t have ground squirrels. Just saying. We have alligators but they mostly stay in the rivers, lakes and swampy areas. So far, on our sand hill, it has not been attractive to alligators.   They don’t eat gardens anyway. Livestock,dogs, children or anything else they can catch, yes. Gardens, no.


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## Ridgetop

Maybe a pet alligator would catch the ground squirrels?


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## Ridgetop

So Angel, after being partially sedated since Monday, has now decided to jump out of the lambing jugs.  42" high. Then she jumps out of the barn gate - 42".  DS1 caught her and after the 3rd time (when he didn't even make it to the house from the barn) brought her inside.  Apparently keeping lambs in the pens next to her didn't work.  We put up the baby gates and are keeping her in the hall and laundry room.  It has a clear view into the family room and tile floors.  Then DS1 gave her another tranq and she is sleeping.  The dose of Ace she gets is very small, not even enough to make her woozy.  He asked if she could run loose but it is only 3 days since her operation and the vet said keep her quiet for 14 days.  We might shorten that to 7-10 if we live that long.

The buckets were still in place over the plants (r what is left of them) this am.  We forgot to bait the Squirrelinator last night so nothing in it.  It is possible that a rabbit somehow got into the raised planter but they don't really jump that high.  

DH got another load of hay yesterday - $15.00/bale alfalfa.  I wanted him to stock up when it was $11.00 but see remarks about men on farmerjan's journal.  LOL  Texas and its pastures are calling.

Talked to DS3 the other day and he said he is feeding his calf 4 lb. steer grower daily.  He could only get the FFA mixture at 14% but he will keep the calf on that ration for at least another 8 months before changing to finisher.  He will increase the amount as the calf grows.

DS1 and DH have decided to clean the house in anticipation of Baby Robert returning home.  They both came in and looked at me as they said "We should clean the house" expectantly.  They were not pleased when I told them to get on with it and kept reading.  LOL  I _am_ working on my bedroom which I realize has been used as a dumping ground since we set up the nursery.  Also lots of plastic bins sitting in the office that I had sorted and emptied which need to be put in plastic bags and taken down to the sheds to store.   DS2's wedding gown and Maid of Honor's gown are still hanging on the back of the office door.  I am going to hang them in the nursery closet.

Speaking of the wedding gown, I have contacted the venue many time times and not gotten any response.  I will try another couple times then will have t look around for another venue.  DD2 has asked to have it delayed to the end of the summer since she is still recovering from the C-section.  That will fit in with our schedule of selling Yelm and buying in TX.  I do have to sew up the christening gowns for Baby Robert and Baby Annabel.  I have the fabric and patterns, just need the time to do it.  

Well back to cleaning the bedroom and office.

The sonic repeller arrived today.  DS1 is installing it now.


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## Baymule

Poor Angel, she doesn’t understand rest. Hope y’all survive it!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I suggested to DH that we could move into the house and live there for a year thus converting it to our primary residence. I figure that since the property didn't draw any rent for most of last year, and it has been empty for 4 months of this year, we can move into it and claim it as our residence as of part of last year. Then when we sell, we can avoid capital gains taxes. It means no 1031 ranch, but you do what you have to do.


Doesn't work that way. It has to be your primary residence for 3 of the last 5 years. Those 5 years would start when you move in and change your address to the Yelm property. You can't claim a property you own is your primary if you didn't physically live there at least 50%+ each year and it wasn't listed as your primary. That would be called tax fraud. 



Ridgetop said:


> Trying to get there before Biden changes the tax laws and the government takes all our money!


He doesn't want all our money, just a bit more of it. And then only if we make more than $400K a year. Don't know about anyone else here but that amount isn't even close to visible from my annual income.


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## farmerjan

@Bruce ......Except for the increase in the corporate taxes that is being proposed, so that will raise the price of whatever they are producing, which will cause us to pay more so will be less in the pocket.  And the $400K a year is for a couple, so is $200K for a single.... way beyond anything I will ever see.... but they are also pushing the $15/hr minimum wage, so then the price of everything that is produced will go up to cover the increase in the minimum wage, so everything will cost more..... and you will see state and local taxes go up to make up for the increase in wages to workers, and less income from  decreased business at local places.... so the "government will take all our money " just like @Ridgetop  said.  They are talking changing the capital gains taxes and it will affect every single farmer if some of what has been talked about is put into effect. 
" He doesn't want all our money, just a little bit more  of it"...... to throw at stupid government programs that are not working, to pay for the total disaster at the southern border wall, to give more and more money "FREE" to undocumented/illegals, coming across the border that are not even quarantined when they test positive for this covid crap... to build more "housing " for homeless when they can't even manage their own cities;  and can't/won't keep the idiots from destroying their cities and burning things down.... and to keep talking about how racist we are when us "white supremacists" are the ones paying for all this....
And the overall talk is that the dollar will continue to be devalued, so the money you have will be worth less, so it will take more to buy things...... 
Look at the history of Venezuela......look at the timeline of the last 30 years....


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## Ridgetop

Is the $400K or $200K he plans to raise taxes on the net or the gross income?  

Self employed persons and small businesses could gross more than $200K-$400K but net considerably less.  Small business taxes are going up too as well as corporate taxes.  While it sounds great to say that corporations are big business and should pay for everything, most people with 401K accounts or IRA accounts, or any kind of retirement accounts have it invested in stocks - corporations.   When the government says such and such corporation makes $$$$$$$$ they are talking abut the gross income, not the net.  And taxing away profits will hurt retired people that live on their retirement savings.  People work for profit and if there is no profit, why bother to work for nothing?


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## Baymule

Tax the rich...... appeals to envy, greed and jealousy. Take it from “them and give it to me because they have too much and I deserve more”.  Destined to fail. Companies don’t have to stay here, nor do the wealthy. They can go somewhere else and take their money and jobs with them.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> Take it from “them and give it to me because they have too much and I deserve more”.



Unfortunately, that is the mind set that is being taught in this country.  When it became "racist" to teach or even speak the words "word hard and you'll get ahead", take from others and give to me became a rallying point.

This sort of thought process is not limited to any political party.  Once it is taught to children it becomes universal.  You can see the results in the screaming mobs of college kids that don't truly understand what they are  demanding.


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## Ridgetop

Angel has become an unwilling house dog for the past 24 hours.  I have notified DDIL2 to stay at her folks' home for another several days since Angel s confined to the tied hallways and laundry room.  At night when we sit and watch TV she is allowed to come in the FR.  We have to walk her on a leash to potty.   She wants to be outside, but keeps jumping out of the barn and we don't want her to tear open her stitches.  The vet gave us mild Ace Promazine tabs to give to her occasionally to keep her calm.  Or as DS1 says "drugged up".  I am hoping we can et her out next Tuesday which will be 7-8 days.  Not the full 14, but?????  We will have to see.  Annoying for DH because he can't get over baby gates - no body can since I had to attach them high in the doorways.  A baby could actually crawl under!  LOL

There was a mountain lion attack across the boulevard 3 days ago.  It killed the dog of a long time friend.  50-60 lb. pit bull cross.  Other sightings of a cougar on that side of the boulevard as well in the past week have been reported. Right after the big fires a couple years ago, the tagged old male cougar that was known to be living on that side of the boulevard was found dead.  We knew that another would eventually take over his territory.  Looks like  one has moved in.

A number of coyote attacks have also been reported in the past week or two killing small to medium dogs in their own yards while owners tried to come and rescue them. Lots of missing cats reported too.  One person whose dog was attacked in her yard which was fenced with high chain link wanted to know what to do about it.  
she was shocked that coyotes would jump the fence.  Told her that coyotes can clear 6' from a standing position.   Also Animal Control will do nothing about it.  They used to bring out live traps 25 years ago and then kill the coyotes they caught.  Animal rights protestors made them stop and relocate the coyotes, possums, and raccoons.   Now they won't do anything about attacks, even cougars are not chased unless they come back many times and attack people.   

With no rain there is no forage and thus no small prey animals for predators.  Dry winters mean lots of cats and small dogs will go missing.  However, also smaller coyote litters, but that doesn't provide the amount of prey needed for the pups born a couple years ago when we had heavy rain and a lot of growth.  They will get desperate towards the late summer and fall.  

Hopefully Angel will be back on the job before the coyotes and cougar decide to try for our sheep.  It will need all 3 of the LGDs to warn off a cougar.  Coyotes just become play toys.  

DS2 just arrived home!  He was not supposed to get back until tomorrow.  He has his next step test tomorrow in the apprentice program.  He graduates in October(?) to full journeyman.  Once he is a journeyman he goes onto a different set of books.  No guaranteed work like when he is in apprenticeship, but can move anywhere with his union ticket.

!!! DD2 just showed up!  This is Grand Central Station for my children.  Nice to see them, but . . . .


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## Baymule

Coyotes and cougars here too, but we can shoot them. Not sure if cougars are on the protected list, but if attacking livestock, it’s game on.


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## Ridgetop

Switched out the ground squirrel trap for the rat trap yesterday and ds1 set up the Sonic Repeller.  Caught a big rat last night.  Looked dead in the trap but I didn't want to remove it since I would have to climb up into the raised bed.  So just turned on the sprinkler for the vegetables.  It was 95-100 degrees the past several days so they needed water.  Came in and told DS1 that it looked like the Spnoc thig had killed the rat.  Later he took Angel out and told me that the rat was alive but pretty annoyed at being wet!  LOL  I'm glad I didn't reach in and try to take the "dead" carcass out!  Tonight DS1 will turn off the Sonic and we will see if we catch any more rats in there.   The Sonic is supposed to drive the away so  want to try to catch and kill as many as possible.  

It makes sense that it was rats since they can go in and out of the squirrel cage easily and all the bait was eaten out of the Squirrelinator.  Also, the ground squirrels are much larger and might have been able to push over the pails.  Next tomato and squash plantings I put in, I will put pails over them too.  

I am sewing again.  Have to make the christening gown for the babies.  I will be gone the entire month of June probably so will make Annabel's larger since she will probably not be christened until the end of summer.  Robert is probably being baptized the end of May.  Otherwise he will be baptized in July when we return since his other grandmother is going to the Philippines to visit relatives in June.  A little larger doesn't hurt anyway since it is just for the ceremony and then photos.   But tradition to make the fancy formal gown.  DD! has a complete set of gown, coat bonnet, stole, and blanket but these will not be that extreme.  Just the long gown with lace, etc. for each baby.  The ne I used was too old after my children.  In fact, I was worried it wouldn't hold up for them!   My great grandmother made it of very fine lawn, it went through 4 generations.  I still have it but it is so sheer now that any baby would put their little fist or foot through it!

Angel is still in the house.  She has not pottied in the house at all. Yesterday we closed off the gates to the front lawn and patio area and turned her loose under supervision so she could get a bit of exercise.  Bubba and Rika kept trying to get through the gate to play with her so we brought her inside.  She got a little run this am too.  She will continue to be taken out for short periods of time until we can turn her loose.  She tries to go out every time we go out though so I know she wants to go run.  Tomorrow will be 1 week since her operation and she is doing well.  Hopefully she can go out in the front for longer periods this week. She only has to be confined for 14 days but I think 12 might be ok.  Thank goodness this will be all we need to do.  With the coyotes and possible cougar from now till the end of the year, we need her on duty.

DH shockedme yesterday.  We have t go to Washington and he wants t see his sister's new house outside Coeur D'Alene


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## Ridgetop

Oops!  Accidently posted that.   The rest was that the Western States Dorper Specialty is being held in 
reno this year instead of northern CA.  I was not planning on going, or buying anything, but DH suddenly said that we should go to the show and then to his sister's!!  ?!?!?!?!  I was shocked however, I would lie to go and see some of our acquaintances, see the judging, and go to the seminar.  Also there is a general meeting and membership dinner which is always fun.  So I have to make reservations in Reno, and then pack to go to Yelm.  
I will have to be careful not to bid on anything.  LOL

The sale looks to be a go.  Only 3 weeks till escrow closes.


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## Baymule

I’m glad Angel is recovering so well. Poor girl just wants to go outside and play! All in due time.

Dorper sale! Not bid or buy? Who are you kidding? Do you really expect us to believe that? LOL LOL Then you’ll have to take your new sheep home before you go to Yelm, but it will be worth it.

Now I need you to stash a likely ram lamb in your truck when you come to Texas! LOL  I have 7 ewe lambs that would love to meet him!


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## Ridgetop

No ram lambs for another several months.  All last lambs were ewes!  However, I can bring one back another time since once we get our ranch we will be coming back at least twice a year!  
DH asked if I panned t buy anything and I said no  He said that we actually could do with another ram.  It was a shock.  I do want another ram but I am waiting for the June and October on line sales.  If I do buy at Reno I will have to arrange for it to be transported to ca and then pick it up between our return from Yelm and departure for Texas.

Angel has been staying in the front yard all day for the past 2 days.  We bring her in at night.  I think I might turn her loose on Friday or Saturday even though it would only be 12 days.  She learned that as long as she is in the Cone of Shame she can't get through the triangle opening in the wooden gate to the front pasture.  

DDIL2 and Baby Robert have returned home.  I finished Robert's christening gown but realized that I don't have any snaps and don't want to bother making buttonholes for it.  I still have the second gown to make for DD2's daughter so will get snaps for both eventually.  All the hand work is done so just the snaps to apply and maybe some fancy beading if I feel like doing it.  

Got to make dinner.


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## Ridgetop

It looks like the Yelm escrow will not close on 5/24.  The buyer's appraiser came out and said they wouldn't loan on the property because "there was no heat source"!   What?!  My agent was flabbergasted.  He is trying to find another appraiser who will recognize a split system HVAC unit.  Appraisers usually get the square footage of the house by measuring on the outside.  Either this guy did not do this, or failed to see the large condenser sitting on the concrete pad next to the side of the house.  He also missed the large white unit in the wall of the living room even though it stands out against the dark wood paneling.  A short extension is ok since DH plans to visit his sister in Idaho for several days at their place and they want to take us out in the boat.  Depending on the weather that will be nice.

I have contacted several of my Dorper friends and they are going to be exhibiting in Reno.  One of them said he can arrange transport back to CA for any of the sheep I am (not) going to buy.  LOL  The friend from Utah said they have had* NO RAIN OR SNOWPACK THIS WINTER!    The cisterns and reservoirs are only at 10%.  *


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## Ridgetop

I posted that because my bold function stuck.  He said that all the ranchers were in terrible trouble,  He is only irrigating one or 2 fields.  He has let the others go dry and dying.  Luckily he is a butcher and has a kill and cut operation.  He said he had stopped taking reservations since he was booked 18 months out!  Told him what my butcher had said about people coming in with printouts of the cuts they want and he laughed.  He said he had a few like that - the lists of cuts were all from one section of the animal and he had to explain that the animal only had so many legs, etc.    I have to get out and get photos of the lambs I have gotten out of his ewes and ram for him  He is anxious to see how they have developed.  I would like his comments.  

Anyway, yesterday we tried to get reservations in Reno and the Nugget Casino was where the sheep people had gotten a special rate.  Tried to make the reservations and the clerk had no idea what the special code meant.  So DS1 got us the cheapest reservations available (military vet) at the Nugget (DH wanted Best Western but their rates were higher).  Late that night I got a call that the manager had found the code and to call back.  I waited to call until the manager's shift began and made reservations for 3 nights.  The final charge was less than the 2 nights we had reserved for so we cancelled that reservation.  These casino/resort paces add on $35/night "resort charge".  The sheep people had gotten that reduced or removed since we will all be at the livestock barns most of the time.  The hot tubs are all closed which would be the only item DH and I would want to use.  We don't want to gamble and it will be too cold for us to swim.  Apparently the only time you don't have to wear your mask is when you are IN the pool.  So 3 nights for less than the original 2 nights.   

We will have to spend another night on the road going up to Coeur D'Alene since it is 850 miles north.  Then straight west across eastern Washington to Yelm.  I wonder if we would have time to visit Angel's breeder in Mesa, Idaho.  She is just north of Boise and we could stop in on our way north to Coeur D'Alene.  She runs a B & B as well as her sheep, Anatolian dogs, and goats.  If the Yelm escrow is extended we will have time.   Have to have DH get on the computer and check the route and mileage.

On the way back we will have to stop and pick up another field feeder - already ordered.  I am considering getting a 5 head show rail stand.  It is a stand where you can lock 5 animals side by side in head rails.  They stand next to each other, so you can go over them to check conformation, width, thickness of leg and loin. It is easier to get a feel of them locked in the head rails instead of chasing them around in a corral or trying to grab them in a jug.  You can also judge them against each other for conformation.  I think it would help us/me to judge which ewes to send to auction and which to keep as breeders.  So far I have not sent too many to auction but now I am getting so many that I am considering selling off some.  The last 5 ewes that lambed had nothing but ewes!  We have been averaging 50% but lately we are getting more ewes than ram lambs so some of the ewe lambs will have to start going to auction.  

Yesterday was DGS2's 11th birthday.  He received a basic model phone from his parents.  The whole family (except the Nipomo ones) all went over for cake, ice cream and presents.  I told the family that DH was surprising  me by taking me to the sheep show in reno.  They were not impressed and made unkind remarks about going to sheep shows.  I pointed t that it was the western States annual specialty and there would be a seminar on Sunday morning.  Still not impressed, I brought out the big guns and mentioned the Saturday night general meeting and membership dinner.  DD1 wanted to knw which gown and jewelry I would be wearing while DD2 howled with laughter at her sister's witticisms.  These children have no appreciation for the finer experiences of life.

DGS2's children's party is this weekend.  DD1 said they would be late coming over on Sunday.   ??? I forgot it was Mother' Day this Sunday.   When I said I might be busy DD1 and DD2 got very upset so I had to tell them I would stay home for them. Oh goody, I get to cook Mother's Day dinner for the family to celebrate MY special day!   The daughters and DDIL are mothers too but maybe I can get the fathers to BBQ.

I laid out and cut the 2nd Christening gown today  This pattern is simpler and doesn't require lining.   This time I checked the pattern before cutting and chose the one with the easier pattern.  They all look the same anyway, but the last one had a more difficult bodice and sleeve opening.  We have promised Robert this is the last time he will have to wear a dress no matter _what_ future politics decide.  I got the snaps yesterday, and some new beading needles so I can add some embellishments.  I figure that I can fancy it up with beads since he is too young to know better and the next one to wear it might be a girl.  LOL

Baby Robert is home and has a very bad temper when he poops.  He will be laying in his swing happily, then all of a sudden his face gets contorted with rage, turns red, and he screams loudly until you pick him up and change him.  Very recognizable screams when poopy instead of just wanting food.  LOL  

Well, I need to try to get the baby gown made up so I can clean off the table for Sunday dinner.  Half my kitchen counter is now hidden under baby stuff.  There is a baby bottle sterilizer, warmer, and half a dozen other pieces of equipment that I don't recognize, but have to do with baby care.  I just put bottles and nipples in the dishwasher and not many of those since I nursed my kids.  Apparently the thing to do now is to not only nurse but also to pump your milk for storage.  This requires a lot more equipment.  And storage.  My kitchen has suddenly become too small.  I hate having stuff sitting on the counters but now I just try not to go into the kitchen.  The living room is full of DS2's stuff from his apartment in San Diego. The family room is full of baby equipment - swings, floor pad, and DS2s tax statements that DDIL2 spread out to sort on the floor.  Outside on the patio is the play yard so he can lay in the sun for vitamin D.  I must have been a very bad mother not to supply all those things for _my_ babies!

Oh well, I can live with it.  But I am beginning to really look forward to our road trip to the sheep show!


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## Bruce

That is amazing and seriously sad, the appraiser should lose his license (if they license such people).


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Bruce said:


> That is amazing and seriously sad, the appraiser should lose his license (if they license such people).


The first appraiser I had on my first house said there was a dishwasher. There was no dishwasher and no space for one. Sometimes they are just going too fast, or don't pay attention. You'd assume he was being escorted around by the realtor though, who could have answered questions..


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## Bruce

Have to wonder why they think they should get paid if they can't even figure out the basics.


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## Ridgetop

Crazy, right?  According to the real estate agent, so many properties are being bought that they are bringing in appraisers from outside areas.  Not a reasonable excuse for the appraiser not to know what he was doing!

Well, Mother's Day is over.  DD1 came by early in the morning with the children to bring me a Mother's Day gift and lots of hugs. Both Baby Robert and Baby Anabel were at our house.  




All dressed up in outfits that may not fit them next week.  Robert is already 10 lb. 6 ou.  Annabel is 9 lbs. +  About the same weight as a couple of newborn lambs!   

We had a quiet dinner with the kids, then DD2 went home early with Annabel.  Robert and his mommy went to bed (to get up for the 2 am feeding.  DH and I collapsed to watch TV before bed.  I had done housework, laundry, sewed the last of the christening gowns, made dinner and cleaned it up.  I was pooped.  I did get lovely flowers from the children.  

Then got some terrible news from my dear friend that is a second mother to me.  Her cancer is back.  She turns 80 this month.  Her granddaughter is getting married in October and she hopes to make it to the wedding.  She has just bought her wedding outfit.  At least she has seen 2 great granddaughters - her grandson's children.  Both of them look like her dead daughter (his mother).  If she goes, we are afraid her significant other will not be long behind.  He is not doing well either and his prostate cancer has also returned.  It is the circle of life no matter how sad.  Her life may be close to ending, but Annabel and Robert are just beginning.  

Too sad to write any more.  I will go sew some matching bonnets for the christening gowns.


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## Baymule

Sounds like a real nice Mother’s Day. Love the babies picture! They are adorable and perfect.
I’m sorry about your friend. You have talked about her before and I know you love her. Make the most of it while you can.


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## farmerjan

The babies are adorable.... and growing so fast.....  where was it in the mother's day designation that said the "senior mother" had to do all the work????  

Sorry about your friend.   Hoping and praying that she will make the next 6 months in fairly good shape to be able to go to and enjoy the wedding.  
Yes it is the circle of life, but it is still very sad for those that are left behind.... 
I am facing that with my parents, and the total "loss" of the mom that I grew up with with the complete dementia/alzheimers... and my father  starting to have some of that dementia and the effects of the stroke and his total devotion to my mom that will be the end of him in short order... he is back to saying that it isn't worth sticking around when she goes,  and he can't drive and what is the point of living.....plus some of his imaginations of things there that are not happening.....


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Adorable pics of the babies   

I'm so sorry about your friend


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## Ridgetop

It is what it is.  

She is in very bad shape right now but from a reaction to the Covid vaccine.  He doctor told her she should get it for protection but she now has a painful rash on her hands, arms, and back.  Joint and muscle aches that are immobilizing.  She can't go back on the cancer drugs until this reaction subsidizes  She said the doctor told her the cancer appeared in her lymph nodes and doesn't seem to be progressing very fast so they can wait for her to feel better from these reactions to start the cancer drugs again.  At any rate, I am praying for her.  She is hoping to feel better by tomorrow so we can get in a couple hours of bridge before we leave on Friday.  I hope by the time we return in 2 weeks she will be feeling better.

I am packing today for our 2 week trip via Reno and Idaho to Yelm.  DH has decided to pull the stock trailer after realizing that we have to take a lot more baggage than we thought.  Our clothes will fit in one suitcase but we also have to take an inflatable bed, lawn chairs, a card table and 2 folding chairs for eating and the computer.  Also a very large wheeled duffel bag with our coffee maker, kitchen pts and paper goods for the kitchen.  Also bath towels and mat, kitchen towels, cleaning stuff and the vacuum.  I forgot that we removed everything when we came home.  Probably should have left some of that stuff there when we left the TV.    Duh !  Checking the weather and it will be warm in Reno but there will be a dip in the temperature when we hit Idaho and on into Yelm.  50's and 60's.  I will have to remove some of the tank tops and put in sweat shirts and T's.   

Our friend in Idaho asked me to see if I can pick up a nice ram for her reasonably.  I don't have anything for her but since we have decided to bring the trailer, might be able to pick up something.  I will check on the minimum bid and call her from the show.  I can take pix of some of the animals and will check with her to make sure what her max bid is.  She can also bid by phone since the show will be on line.  At first we just figured we would put the ram in a large dog crate, but since we have to take the trailer, this works out better.  She wants a black head ram preferably.  I will see what is available.  I prefer the white head Dorpers for temperament and think they look more meaty, but we'll see what I can get in her price range.  Debra is Angel's breeder.  She runs a B & B and doesn't have any guests right now.  She used to sell her lamb and chevre at the Farmers' Markets but they were stopped due to Covid.   She culled a lot of her older animals last year to get out from under the winter feed bill and now wants to upgrade her stock.  I would take her a couple of my ewe lambs and yearlings, but they would have to be kept in the trailer for 4 days which I won't do unless traveling.  I will check to see if she would like me to pick up a ewe for her as well.  Otherwise I can sell her a couple of my young ewes later for less.  It would mean another trip up to Idaho, but we can go visit DH's sister again.  I will figure the cost of transport into the sale prices.  If sheep don't sell at the sale, less well known owners will sometimes sell the animal cheaper afterwards to avoid returning home with it.  I picked up an excellent ewe like that 2 years ago from Travis.  I had bought 2 others and a ram from him so he offered her to me first.  He had a high reserve on her since he planned to keep her.  She is a beautiful ewe. 

Took photos of my lambs out of the ram I bought from Travis.  He wants to see what the ram produced.  I also got some pix of the lambs our of his ewes.  Unfortunately, the ear tags are not very readable on most of the pixs.  I am having some trouble figuring out the individual animals!  LOL  I think I can get them sorted.  The orange ear tags are all sired by that ram so no problem there.  Most of my ewes are all Glenn Land bloodlines.  

Looking forward to this trip now.  DH and DS1 will hitch the trailer this evening and we can load all the stuff in it.  Only thing to go in the truck will be suitcase and small cooler.  I am taking bread, ham, etc. to make sandwiches in the motel for the sheep show.  Don't like paying show prices for food.  Coffee in the am can be bought from the committee.   I might volunteer to go in early and help at the coffee table on Sunday morning as long as I am free for the seminar at 9:00 am.

Well, got to have DH try on his shorts and slacks to see if they fit him.  Covid weight gain -  more dangerous than the disease!  I go through this every time we go on a trip.  He won't try on unless I stand over him.


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## Ridgetop

OK.  DH tried on all his pants.  3 new pairs that I bought for the cruise last year, still with tags on them, are now 2 sizes too small!   ALL DRESSING ROOMS ARE STILL CLOSED!   So I have to find some pants, hopefully in his size, schlep them home, force him to try them on and then return them.    He fit into 2 pairs, both barely but one better than the other. packed that. Next the shorts. All but 4 pairs were way too small. They all fit last year (as did the slacks) when we went on our last cruise but not now! It is laughable and annoying to watch him hold the button side and button hole side 4" apart and tell me that they almost fit.   I put all the too small sizes in boxes under the bed in case he loses weight.   Oh well, more to love! and_ I_ am not the sylph like creature I was when we married either.   

So I pulled out some of the warm weather shirts and put in long sleeved shirts and thermal shirts for DH to wear under his overalls.  I bought him 2 pair in a much larger size and they fit him fine.  I need to order him  another couple of pairs instead of jeans since he doesn't out grow them as quickly.  He also finds them more comfortable to wear.  I also pulled out some of the nicer collared knit shirts that I had packed for him, and some of my nicer tos too, since I remembered that we were not going out anywhere.  He has 2 nice sport shirts and his slacks for the membership dinner (to which we all wore jeans last year) and in case we go out to dinner with his sister.  Hopefully not.  OH!  Got to remember to bring her some lamb.   Large suitcase packed, and just the small case with our toiletries, shoes, meds, etc. to do Thursday night.  I still have to collect all the other stuff we have to take to Yelm.  Oh and I need to toss in a water bucket in case we get a ram for Debra.  The seller will give me some hay.  

Our stock trailer has 3 compartments from when we showed dairy goats.  When we bought it from WW they had to order it  and we found out that we could order 2 interior gates both with slide gates, which we did.  It has been invaluable to have the 3 compartments and the 2 interior slide gates for loading and unloading livestock without having to open the big swing gates..  The front compartment is where I pack all our equipment and luggage.  That is where we used to pack the show equipment and feed.  Then 2 large rear compartments for the goats.  Now the sheep.  Last year we were able to out our sheep in the front and load a small breed yearling bull in the rear compartment.  Then we chain and padlock the gates shut so no one can get in while we travel.  Love my stock trailer!

Better make a list.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Are you driving up 80? Wave hi as you come through Auburn if you are. I hope the trip is uneventful.


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## Baymule

You always go through this clothing thing for your DH, it’s like a game with no rules! Haha! So easy to gain weight, so hard to lose it!
There is no such thing for y’all to take a simple trip. LOL


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## Ridgetop

I know.  Next rime we shop and I see dress pants several sizes too big, I will just buy then and put them away.  He has several pairs of good suspenders.  Shirts are less of a problem since XXXXL are easier to come by.  He has a wardrobe of "just for cruising" and "just for vacations" clothing because everything he has develops coffee stains food stains, grease stains or tears from working.  Years ago, after returning from church, he went out and worked on the car in his best shirt and pants!!!  At the time he only had 1 church suit.  This is not a man who particularly cares what he wears and for special occasions expects me to magically produce properly fitting clothing.    It is a good thing I love him dearly because otherwise . . . ?   

However, he is a loving husband, wonderful father, adoring grandfather, good friend, and all around great guy so I just pretreat all his clothes before washing and hide his good stuff where he can't find it for daily use.  

Now I just need to convince him to let me trim his hair and beard since he looks like an old trapper emerging from a winter snowed in up in the Rockies.

The trailer is hitched but there is a small problem.   Apparently DH had the hitch replaced with one that will let the trailer ride level instead of on a slant.  The truck is 4W drive so the trailer always tilted up in front.  This was fine with me when hauling animals since the urine ran out the back instead of pooling and causing damage to the floorboards.  Now that it is "fixed", the safety chin is too short to allow the truck and trailer to make any turns.  I need to find several clevises to lengthen the safety chain.  DH asked me where they are  so I have to go into the milk shed and unpack the rabbit equipment where I put them.  Luckily, I know where I stored them when I reorganized the tool shed.  I also have to find the chains we use on the trailer to lock it.  Last time DH tossed them into the barn where they disappeared under the hay bales.  I swear if anything happens to me DH is in trouble.  After 50 years of marriage he finally stopped asking me where his underwear lives!  If he makes me really mad, I can move it to a different drawer and completely throw him!  

So I have my list of what to pack and with the trailer in the driveway we can load.  I asked DS1 to change the crayon on Axtell since I noticed yesterday that the 2 yearling ewes are coming into season.  When we get back we will remove Axtell, wait 2 weeks, then put  Lewis in the breeding pen with the next lot of ewes.  DS1 will also turn out the weaned lambs in the barn.  Their mommas have dried off.  He wants to give the creep pen a good cleaning while we are gone.  

Gotta get going.  DH already came in and told me I had no time to be on the computer since "we" need to load.  
 Also promised to go play bridge with Lois at noon. Then have a haircut at 3:00 pm. Lots to do.


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## Ridgetop

Sorry Larsen!  We will be taking the 395 to Bishop and then Reno I think.  I leave that up to DH and just reax and enjoy the ride.  He won't let me drive since he enjoys driving so we put on Country music and if we can find it the Oldies channel and sing along as we drive.  We keep the windows closed to avoid causing accidents!


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Ridgetop said:


> Sorry Larsen!  We will be taking the 395 to Bishop and then Reno I think.  I leave that up to DH and just reax and enjoy the ride.  He won't let me drive since he enjoys driving so we put on Country music and if we can find it the Oldies channel and sing along as we drive.  We keep the windows closed to avoid causing accidents!


Bummer! I hope you get the chains figured out and have a safe drive.

The chains should always be properly attached, it can save lives or at the very least help mitigate a bad situation. My brother was pulling a camp trailer home from Donner, going up and over the pass on 80 headed west when the trailer came off the hitch. He was able to get as far over as he could and get the truck and trailer stopped so he could fix it, the only thing keeping that trailer still attached to the truck was the safety chains. It was scary, probably more so for him and dad in the truck than for mom and I in the van driving behind, but no one got injured and he didn't damage the trailer. This was maybe 10+ years ago before they widened a bunch of the area, so we were basically stopped halfway in the slow lane as there was no shoulder.


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## Ridgetop

We got the chains fixed.  All ok.


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## Ridgetop

Left early Friday am and made really good time to Big Pine so we stopped to visit with friends for a couple hours.  Got into the livestock showgrounds and dropped our trailer before heading over to the hotel.  

NO MASKS NEEDED  IF VACCINATED!!!     

Checked in, unpacked, ate cold lasagna and salad - brought from home expecting a microwave but no MW.  Probably in order to discourage people from eating inexpensive take out in hotel rooms instead of eating in the high priced resort restaurants.  Then made sandwiches for Saturday.  There is a fridge in the room so unpacked the ice chest just leaving bottled water in ice chest.  

Saturday went over and looked at entries and what breeders had come to the show.  Then back to the stands to watch the show.  Temperature dropped, thunder and lightening, rain and wind for a couple hours.  DH had gone to 7/11 to get coffee since the coffee person had not shown up to make the exhibitors'  coffee.  Lots of donuts - no coffee!  Went over and got m y bidder number early - no line.  Very small white Dorper entry but I picked out some animals to bid on.  I know, I know  . . . . I said I wouldn't bid but .

Made notes on the animals being shown and picked out some nice black head Dorpers for my friend that I wanted to bid on.  Talked to some breeders abut their bloodlines (I don't know black head lines) and did some other visiting. DS1's friend came by with his wife and picked up the pumpkin pie I brought to them.   They really enjoyed the show and seeing how it was run and what the judge was looking for.   When the show ended we went back to the hotel for 2 hours before heading over to the meeting and dinner at a Basque restaurant.  Then home to bed.  

Up early Sunday morning and $^*@*!  The room safe that I had locked my wallet and checkbooks into would not open!!!  I had checked it before putting my stuff in it but now not opening.  I called the front desk ad told them to send someone pronto but they did not know how long it would take!  GRRRR!  Luckily I had my drivers' license and a credit card out and with me so after 10 minutes we left since I could use my credit card.   Attended the Seminar and DH left during the exhibitor meeting to get more coffee.  

The sale was good, white Dorpers went extremely high.  I bid on a few to increase the prices for my Utah friends.  I was outbid until I started the bidding on a very nice young ram and ended up with a terrific ram at the minimum bid of $400!  OOPS!  Oh well, he is very nice and will bring in a bottom line of different genetics.  

Black head rams were up next and I had my list ready.  Naturally the Grand Champion went high but the Reserve Champion bidding stumbled a bit so I put in a bid for my friend.  It was not one of the rams I planned to bid on, and I really figured I couldn't get any of the champions or reserves since her budget was $600 maximum.  I ended up getting him for what i thought was  a bid of $600.  When I went to pay, I found out that I got him for $500!!!  OMG!  Gorgeous little fellow - I hadn't been able to take my eyes off him the day before in the show ring.   When the other 2 I was really interested in (8th and 11th in line) they went for $1100 and $1000!  SCORE!!!

I talked to the breeder and told him that I never expected to get that ram for that price for my friend.  He said that he had forgotten to put a reserve on that ram and would have taken him home.  He is out of a top ewe that the breeder paid $3500 for and a top producing ram.  Debra is thrilled.  Then after the show ended she called and asked me to get her a couple of ewes too!  WHAT?    I had asked if she wanted any ewes and she said she couldn't afford any, then right after the auction ended her friend said he would go halves on them.  Too bad they didn't decide on that before the auction. I could have gotten them a couple of nice ones.  So ran back to the barn to see if anyone had ewes that didn't sell but no luck.  A couple ewes that didn't sell I didn't want tongue) and any others were gone.  Then while loading my white Dorper ram in Patton's trailer (they are taking him with them to their place in northern California till I come back south and pick him up)  Jane Patton said that one of their black head ewes did not sell.  A bit high priced for Debra at $800, but with the $100 she saved on the ram and the ewe's bloodlines totally worth it.  I told Jane I would take the ewe and she gave me the papers then went to find Wes to load the ewe into our trailer.   Wes came over and said that the black head *had* sold and that they only had a white ewe left. So I gave him back the papers. 

Oh well.    I will give Debra the sign in for info on the upcoming on line sale in June.  She will have to pay transport, but Juan Casas will have some of his good black heads in the sale along with Wes Patton and a couple other very good breeders.  Hopefully she will be able to find something nice.  At least she has a terrific ram - that is half her flock there!  

Back to the hotel around 12:30 pm and realized that we could have left right after the sale and made it to Winnemucca!  Came back and DH is taking a nap while the ram is in our trailer with water in the parking lot. Tomorrow I will give him half a flake of hay in the am.  We will have to stop and buy some alfalfa since Debra has none up there and needs to transfer him onto pellet and timothy.  

We also have to find a best Buy before leaving Reno since I forgot my computer cable to charge the computer!  DUH!!!  Don't know how  managed I that but will need to buy one since the battery will not last for another week.  Like DS1 said, might as well have a spare but really dumb of me.


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## Baymule

Sounds like y'all are having a great time. New ram huh? Wasn't going to buy anything.......


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## Ridgetop

I* rebooted and fixed my computer all by myself!    Hope it stays fixed.    *



Ridgetop said:


> I will have to be careful not to bid on anything. LOL





Baymule said:


> Dorper sale! Not bid or buy? Who are you kidding? Do you really expect us to believe that? LOL LOL Then you’ll have to take your new sheep home before you go to Yelm, but it will be worth it.



MY FAMOUS LAST WORDS!   Baymule - you know me so well!  Next time I will have to duct tape my arm to my side.   No, I would probably use my superhuman bidding strength to rip free and wave my paddle madly around!  

My new ram went home to northern CA with a breeder friend and we will pick him up on the way home.  Hope we will have room in the trailer since we will also have the ducklings that DS1's college roommate and friend for 20+ years gave us.  He wouldn't take "no" for an answer so these ducklings have gone from Reno through Idaho and are now in WA.   Not sure what breed they are, he and his wife incubated the eggs.  They are a large breed.  The black one looks to be developing the curly tail feathers which would mean it's a male.  They are still too young to sex physically.  We picked up extra feed at TSC in Yelm, and a heavy china dish for water.  



We had some adventures in Idaho.  My friend said there was no alfalfa available anywhere in her area.  Her new ram was fed on alfalfa and she needed some to transfer him to the new feed.  All the barns were empty although the first cutting had started on several ranches.   Too early for this season's hay.  Stopped for gas and asked the man at the next pump if he had any idea where we could buy some alfalfa.

SCORE!  He and his wife had sold their house and had 5 bales left they didn't want!  We followed them out of town and bought them for our friend.  The wife gave me a collapsible travel dog pen for the ducklings.  Then when we were on the road DH told me that there were 5 rolls of woven fencing the owner was leaving behind!    If I had known I would have offered to buy them too!   Oh well.

When we arrived in Mesa, Idaho, Debra asked if the ram was tame.  NO!  However, halter trained for the show.  She had originally planned to put him in a pen in the barn but changed her mind and decided to put him into a wire pen outside with Debra's goat buck.  This pen was larger - about 15' x 30'.   td her the smaller pen might be better but her ram, her decision.  Big mistake since it gave him running room!  I remembered why we put all our newcomers into jugs in the barn for the first week or so.  LOL  I haltered him and Debra wanted to take him out herself, but since "tame" ram to her and "tame" ram to me are different animals, I insisted on holding the rope and doing it myself.  Good thing since I was prepared.  He didn't want to leave the trailer at first, then made a bolt for the great outdoors!   What a rodeo!!!  He twisted and turned, Debra tried to help grab him and finally Marv was able to get hold of the rope too.  With the 3 of us hanging on we put him in the pen.  WOW!  He bounced on all four legs all over like a bucking horse, then ran straight into the far fence, turned and ran back where he leapt into that fence.  He hit every fence in every part and the wire fencing bent out in each location.  Debra had gone in the pen and had to jump to get out of the way.  Then he decided to use the goat house as a runway to bounce off the fencing in more places!!!   More 4 legged stiff hopping - no rider was getting his 8 seconds in that ram!  Debra came out of the pen since she was just upsetting him.  However, next the ram tried to squeeze between the goat house and the fence and got himself wedged in.  Scrambling around he got a leg through the wire fence and stuck there.  OOPS!  Not good.  I had visions of the Reserve Champion ram with a broken leg 15 minutes after delivery!!! Debra went back in and tried to push him backwards but with his leg stuck it didn't work so she came around and pulled the leg free.  Then she pulled the goat house away from the side if the pen to free him.   Was he grateful?  Did he do a Disney and immediately love on her?  NO!  this is real life.  He continued his frenzied running, hopping, and charging into fences.  I restrained myself from dropping to my knees to give thanks to 'God that we have calm White Dorpers instead of those crazy black head Dorpers.  I did give a silent prayer of thanks though.

Luckily by the time we left the next morning he had calmed down considerably and even came  up to the fence for DH to pet him.  He came up to me at the fence later too, but I was in no mood to pet him, having twisted my bad knee and gotten blisters on 2 fingers from rope burn.  However, I cut him some slack considering he had come off his ranch, been taken to a show for 3 days, loaded back into a strange trailer alone (except for a box of cheeping ducklings in the adjacent compartment) for 36 hours, and then traveling to a new location where he was unloaded by 3 shouting people (during the rodeo) and shoved into  pen with a large hairy Nubian buck.

Our friend met us when we arrived and threw herself into my arms sobbing.  She had just gotten a call from her doctor telling her they wanted her to come in for a biopsy.  She was almost hysterical because they could fit her in for 2 weeks.  Later she got more information that this result was fairly routine and the risk of cancer very small.  Hopefully she will get god news when they do the test.

Next day DH, the ducklings - apparently named Gizmo and scrooge McDuck - and I left for Coeur D'Alene and DH's  sister's new place.  It was a lovely Craftsman style, although a 2 story house.  The MBR was on the lower level though so that was good.  They have an acre but it looked much smaller since the lot was shallow and you could see the back fence line close to the house.   Lots of trees and privacy  They said they planned to be snowbirds January through March.  Deer everywhere!  25 mph in the neighborhood due to the risk of deer.  The saying in that neighborhood is "you have either hit a deer or are waiting to hit one!"  Apparently the deer know that they are safe in the neighborhoods so tend to gather there.  They park their fawns in flowerbeds during the day.  LOL

We spent 2 days with them and saw another mutual old friend from ears ago, then headed for Yelm.  Lovely time and are considering a trip in tandem with our RVs to Montana and the Dakotas.  They are anxious to visit us in Texas too.

I had asked to go the southern route along the Columbia River since I had never been that way before and the Dalles are supposed to be lovely.  But DH's computer sent us the "faster way" straight across to Seattle where we hit rush hour traffic and were delayed.    We stopped in Lacey to grocery shop at Walmart and for DH to gas the truck since it was getting late.   Finally, got to the property where I had a bad moment when I couldn't get the door key to work in the house lock!  But since I have at east 15 different keys in that bunch I finally found the right one.  Look at the grass that greeted us!


   Such beautiful grass for my forbidden sheep!!!

 My poor disadvantaged sheep have to live on dirt and stones! No rain for 2 years! No forage for 2 years! 

Hooked up the TV and DVD player DH had ordered for us.  The TV we had wrapped up and locked in the pump shed before leaving in February.  I did it myself!!! Yay!
DH aired up the inflatable mattress.  I brought in and put away the groceries, and unpacked the coffee maker, and the supplies I had previously packed in the large rolling duffel after our last trip knowing we would be coming back up.  *AT WHICH TIME I DISCOVERED THAT I HAD APPARENTLY PACKED SOME OF THE ITEMS IN ANOTHER BIN WHICH HAD BEEN LEFT BEHIND!!!  *

So no sheets, no pillow cases, only half the towels, no bath mat, and missing many of the kitchen items I needed to cook!  We did have the air mattress, several sleeping bags and 2 pillows, our camping chairs, card table, 2 folding chairs, our Texas camping recliners, and the *COFFEE POT 😅 (BUT ONLY ENOUGH COFFEE FOR 4 POTS * 😲 ). We went out yesterday to do errands and shopping for the missing supplies. DH also bought another Stihl weed whacker to cut the grass in the front yard, back yard, around the house, and down the roadway to the barns. I gave some of the clippings to the ducklings who were thrilled. Doing the dishes I discovered that the water in the house was running rather brown so had to evacuate the pipes for 2 hours to clear them. One of the errands was to the Goodwill where I got a frying pan, a heavy china crock for the ducklings' water, a bath mat, 2 coffee mugs, and a small measuring cup. On to the Dollar Store where I bought a covered salad bowl, steak knives, paper cups, and a couple other items which were obviously in the forgotten bin. I did not get the heavy glass drinking glasses since at the time I thought we wouldn't be here long enough to use them. We did have placemats, some paper plates, some plastic cutlery, napkins, 2 bath towels and 2 dish towels, 1 large scrub towel and a couple of sponges for the sink. My cleaning stuff was left behind, along with the other cleaning rags and dish towels. * Luckily* the paper towels and TOILET PAPER ROLLS were in the duffel bag. 😓  Whew!

Seem to be ok for now.  My sister texted she wants the fridge after all, so we planned to bring it to her the day before we leave.  She also will get our remaining firewood.

*THAT WAS YESTERDAY *- this morning our agent called us to say that they are in the process of getting the appraiser but doesn't think they can close on the 24th because *THE BUYER IS IN THE HOSITAL IN A DIABETIC COMA!!! *
  I am beginning to think this property is cursed!!!     Jerry is putting the property back on the market this weekend to see if we can get another offer.  We still have the other buyer under contract but since he is in a coma it doesn't look too good.    I hope he survives since whether he buys it or not I hate to think he might not make it!  Texas is receding farther into the distance . . . .

Might be here longer than we thought but can't stay because we need to pick up our ram and take him home. Now considering leaving more stuff behind since we will have to return.  AGAIN!  

Got to get more weed eater string.  And maybe more gas.  Do men not consider that they will need more of these things than they first get?  Just _very very_ optimistic I suppose.  DH will finish trimming the yard grass, then we will decide about when we need to return.  We _will _need to return so we will leave some stuff here for when we come back.  I will need to buy some locking tubs to store it in.  Coffee pot can stay, cookware, TV, DVD player, string trimmer, brooms, etc.  We will remove some of the items we planned to bring home and if 'sister does not have furniture ready, no harm no foul.  If we come back around the time of the next sale the end of June, we can bring Debra her ewes, then head east along the Oregon border and see the Dalles.  

Sigh . . .


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## Baymule

Your poor sheep. At least rock dust is full of minerals. No wonder you like east Texas so much. The only green you see at home is maybe green paint.

That beautiful GRASS! What a shame.


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## farmerjan

I think that you and I @Ridgetop  are twins.... Murphy's law hits us both to the N th degree!!!!!!

So sorry for the prospective buyer, no matter if he can buy it or not, not going to wish that sort of health problem on anyone.... except maybe the witch that lives next to son's property where the tower is.,... she is starting again, now about his stuff around the barn.....because of the restrictive covenants..... her I would wish something horrific to happen to and not feel any guilt.   Just one nightmare after another..... thinking  an old indian torture;  like staked out on an ant hill..... too bad we don't have fire ants here for that purpose......
 Okay, shut up self....
Hope you have a nice couple of days to just catch up and then a safe trip home.


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## Ridgetop

Maybe Baymule can mail you some "fahr ants" in a ziplock bag!  Or better yet send them directly to the witch in a package that would deposit them all over her when she opened it!  That way you avoid a kidnapping charge when you stake her out!

Yup! This sale is getting more like some sort of crazy comedy movie!  It would be "black humor" except that is now a racist term.  Whatever it is, someone up there must be laughing at us.  We don't have any trouble selling for asking price, but can't seem to close escrow.  Worst comes to worst, we will come up here and put in some more work on the place.  DH says he will run electric to the bunkhouse and barn himself which we can permit.  Then do some cosmetic work on the closets in the hallway, and add an Ikea closet to the main bedroom.  Put in several thousand an put a door in the bunkhouse to make it a workshop with separate tractor shed.  Then raise the price based on having new electric wiring in the bunkhouse with a weatherhead feed  to the barn.  We can do it ourselves and it won't cost much.  Paying someone here in WA is nuts.  Very high labor rates, plus 10% tax on labor and a charge for giving you an estimate!  If we have to move up here for a while I will  make it more welcoming with a little landscaping.

At any rate DH and I are enjoying being on our own without any children.  DD1 texted last night.  She is mad at her sister.  Waiting now for DD2 to text complaining about DD1.   

Baby Annabel rolled over for the first time!  It scared her and she burst out crying on the video.  LOL  
Baby Robert is pushing up and lifting his head.  He was several weeks early and born 5 days later than Annabel so is slower.  Missing the babies but lots of fun with the two of us.   Also much easier on the work load since I only have to fix meals for 2!  Much cheaper too!  Groceries are terribly expensive here in WA. Washington state is famous for its apples but they cost $2.28 lb!  Cheaper in CA!  

I have starting kitting.  it is very calming.  I just knit baby blankets right now.  Thinking of taking a knitting class to learn fancy stitches.  I just know knit and purl.  I even forgot how to cast off!  Had to have DH stop at a Michaels in Idaho to find a knitting book and look up the instructions!    Finished one baby blanket for Annabel and started one for Robert.  DH doesn't like me to read in the car in case he wants to talk to me so I have been knitting instead.  LOL

DH has finished some weed whacking and is now taking a nap.  The weather here was pleasant when we arrived several days ago but has been cloudy ever since and is expected to rain tomorrow.  DH has tried to get the weed whacking done before the rain but only got the front yard and front driveway done.  No rush since we are stuck here for next week.  Trying to get the yard looking nice in case we have to show it next week.  DH said everyone knows that the grass grows here from all the rain and I told him "Yes, but you don't want them to think it will be a lot of work to keep it cut!"  Sheep could keep it nice easily.  And the 2 acre pasture would be easy to section into rotational grazing.    And another 1 1/2 acres behind the barns that could be divided into rotational grazing . . . .  

Just makes me so depressed!  Oh well, got to try to let it go.


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## Baymule

Y’all are on vacation from your kids. LOL LOL 

I have never learned how to knit or crochet. I used to do needlepoint and enjoyed that. But I haven’t done that in many many years. Good for  you on knitting!

One of these days you will happen upon a buyer that has their finances in order and is in good enough health to at least live past signing up at closing. Haha, just call it dark humor, that’s not racist. It just shows our warped personalities.


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## Ridgetop

We had another showing last evening.  The buyers loved the property and house.  However, they have 2 horses.  Had to tell them horses were a no go on this property.  Otherwise we would have sold it in February for $20,000 more.  They said they would look around to see if they could board the horses somewhere but I don't hold out hope of an offer.  Too bad, they were really excited about the property and _loved _the old fashioned feel of the house.  If it doesn't sell and we have to do more work to it, I will plant some flowering shrubs in front of the house when we return to improve the curb appeal.  

DH had gotten a lot of the long grass cut and the yard looked better.  It rained last night so he couldn't do anything this am - had to let it dry out.  This afternoon he got more done around the barn.  Little by little he will get it done.  It has been overcast and gray for the past few days.  It reminds me of why I dont like this place.   

We need to leave this week but have decided to leave some of our stuff here for our return trip.  We will leave the TV and table again, as well as the card table, folding chairs, air mattress (which seems to have sprung a leak), the coffee pot and cooking stuff so we don't have to drag it back and forth.  Can't give the fridge to my sister yet either since we will need it when we come back.

She has also annoyed DH again.  Apparently Trump ruined her life.  ???  Oh well, nothing new there. Someone else has always ruined her life.  She does it to herself but doesn't recognize it.  Can't be bothered with her problems.

We need to get home and sort out the sheep for breeding the next group.  Also have a couple of ewes due in June so need to get home.  Going to use the new ram for the next group.  Also have a couple of ewes due in June.

My friend in Leander, TX, suggested we look around Hamilton, TX.  Not as lush as the Piney Woods area but some water and he said not as expensive yet.  Have to check it out.  One thing it has going for it is the proximity to the Hamilton sheep auction which pays good prices.  TX may price itself out of our budget.


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## Ridgetop

Looked online at Hamilton and not what we are looking for.  Very dry looking and no trees.  Prices not noticeably lower.


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## Baymule

Texas hill country! Back up 40 or 50 years and it was rocky scrub land nobody wanted, mostly large ranches valued at maybe $200 per acre. Large because it took 20-50 acres to support one cow with calf. The developers started cutting up ranches for “the view” and people threw money at them. Now the price is ridiculous and it is still rocky scrub land. Rattlesnakes like it.


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## Ridgetop

Back looking at either Elkhart or north east TX.  If we can afford it by the time e get there.  I realize now that when we first looked we should have put this place on the market.  We would have gotten it sold then.  The agent we inquired about prices with as the one that managed the property and then wanted to buy it themselves.  Probably had an eye on it for themselves even then.  

DH is out weed whacking again before the rain comes in.  Tomorrow is supposed to be mostly dry and we will go back into the old barn and see what is there to salvage.  I told DH we need to look over the wood in the barn (mostly moldings, small lots of hardwood flooring, and cedar bender board slats) to see if there is anything we might be able to use for sheep sheds in CA.  we will be going home with an almost empty trailer so if we can fit the wood in the truck or trailer we might as well take it now.  I really don't think there is much we can use though.  There is a good mahogany door that is reinforced with steel rods that looks in good shape.  We will take that.  MJ bought a bunch of them from a business that closed up in San Diego abut 40 years ago.  We had one on our old house that was torn down for apartments  We took out that door and gave it to my in-laws who were building their retirement home.  They used it as their front door.  It was still in good shape when we sold their place about 4 years ago.  I don't think this one is drilled for a door knob so it would make a good coffee table, adding legs, and with a piece of glass on the top.   For some reason DH also wants some of the old real estate signs with MJ's logo on them.  I will also get the sprouting boxes that are back there.  I think my DDIL1 would like them - she is really into gardening now.  DD1 didn't want the one I brought home for her children thinking it might make a good science project.  DDIL2 took it to her mom instead.  Since we are going to DS3's house with the baby ducks, we will drop off the sprout boxes at the same time.

I am making good time on my second knitted baby blanket.  It is almost done.  This time I switched rows between knit and purl to give the blanket a more variegated look.  Kind of crazy pattern but nice and fun looking.  I am wondering if I can actually do a crocheted edge around them with a contrasting color when I finish.  Without turning them into large bowls or bags  like my crochet usually turns into,  I think I crochet too tight.  I have been making an effort not to knit too tightly.  Actually I discovered that by using larger sized needles than the yarn calls for I avoid having the knitting too tight.  Like the socks I knitted for DH that wouldn't even fit his toes!!!      They barely fit DD2 who is 5' and 98 lbs!   I must just be a very tense and tight knitter!  Probably why kitting relaxes me.  LOL

I have regretted not buying the knitting book here I looked up how to cast off.  It was $22.95 and I didn't think I would do that much knitting to need all the different stitches.  Now, however, I am thinking that I could have practiced those fancy stitches on these baby blankets and learned how to knit properly.  I told DH that we would have to stop at a Michaels or Hobby Lobby on the way home so I can find that book for the trip.  LOL

Maybe I can learn to knit one of those sweaters that beginners knit for their relatives with one sleeve twice as long as the other!  Great Christmas presents!  Heeheehee!  

The person who inquired about the Dorper ram never responded to my reply or to the PM I sent.  I hope they continue to read and correspond with BYH members.  I would have been glad to refer them to other breeders if my rams were not what they needed.

We will be heading home around Friday or Saturday.  Was hoping to go up about 110 miles north to see my brother's place in Arlington, WA.  He and his wife are building their retirement home on a couple acres up there.  If he can get off early Thursday, we will meet them up there, otherwise next time.  They have been putting in fencing and landscaping - fruit trees and asparagus, etc. - while getting the required septic and building permits.  The house is almost finished now, with the interior to be done.  They had some initial problems with the well and septic permission.  Told them they could have bought ours and had the outbuildings and barns done already, as well as the smaller house they could have rented out.  But they wanted to be north of Seattle since their rentals are up in Everett.  Also, they got a very good deal on the property since it was a foreclosure sale.  He is due to retire from Boeing in another couple years.

Looking less like a pasture and more like a house.




DH is cutting around the back barn to open it up for buyers to walk back to look at the structures.  The fields are still tall.  No sense cutting them - 4 acres with a weed whacker?   DH keeps coming in for coffee and asking what I am doing.    Told him taking care of business on the computer.  It has been gray and dismal ever since we got here.  Not to cold and the heater is keeping the house nice and warm but we are lighting a fire in the stove every evening - cheery and nice.  If a builder was to buy this property, I think I would hold back this old Schrader wood stove.  It works so well and really heats up the house.  It is one of the old ones so better made than the newer ones that are not as heavy duty.  When we had this one repaired (rewelded a crack) it took 3 men to lift it and put it in the truck!   The problem with a wood stove though is that they get hot and you forget and set stuff on them.  OOPS!  Nothing melted yet but might just be a matter of time if we used one all the time.  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Well 2 more showings so far - one last evening, another just left, and a third scheduled for this evening at 6:30pm! 

The last 2 did not have horses - thank goodness - and loved the property.  Whether either of them love it enough to buy it remains to be seen.  However, it makes me optimistic about selling soon.   We are scheduled to leave for home on Friday or Saturday.  We need to pick up or ram, drop off the ducklings, and get back to sort out the ewes due to lamb next month. 

DH finished weed whacking a much as is necessary to show the property.  The old barn s littered with a lot of junk.  Mostly just cardboard, cloth left from squatters, and litter.  We decided that it will be no more than a full truck load to take to the dump so we have decided to go ahead and empty put the trash.  We will leave only the different wood that is there.  This old barn has a lean to style section off the main barn where all the wood is stored. There is about a full skid of redwood bender board, lots of old style 1 1/2" wide oak tongue and groove flooring, and more.  No 2 x 4's or other lumber which I would take home.  I did find a whole box of brand new sprouting jar lids.  They fit standard wide mouth canning jars.  I also found the box way up on a shelf which has the cut pieces to make the sprouting jar boxes.  I need to get up on the ladder to get those down.  There used to be some that were made and varnished but they are missing.  I took one home 2 years ago and planned to get those later but they have disappeared.  No problem, with the parts MJ had already cut out, I can put some boxes together myself.  If I decide to do so.  Or not.  Sounds like a job for a scout badge to me.  

I finished my 2nd baby blanket.  It is a nice size and really soft and fluffy.  I started to just to kit/purl (like the first blanket) then switched a couple rows to knit, then switched a couple back, then decided to just randomly switch the rows back and forth between several knit then several purl.  It made an interesting pattern.  Started the 3rd blanket, but the wool I got which seemed nice in the store started to knit like harsh string instead of soft yarn! horrible to touch so not god for babies.  I have decided to return those skeins of yarn and get something else.  Knitting is very relaxing and I like to do it while driving since DH wants to be able to talk to me randomly.  If  am reading, he gets annoyed that I don't respond.  

The information on the June Dorper on lie sale is not up yet.  Naturally I will not be bidding Yes, Bay, I hear you laughing!  I do like to see what is available for sale.  DH has decided that we should take some sheep to the Reno sale next yr.  I told him I would only take ewes since all the ewes seem to sell.  A lot of the rams went home with their owners.  At the minimum bid, even after the entry fee and the auction percentage charged, taking even 3 to sell would pay for our trip.  It means taming them, training them to lead on halter, washing and shearing them before the show, and bringing feed with us, but if I could sell some of them it would also get my herd name out there.  I have good stuff, and my bloodlines were all in the top of the classes (the breeders that placed highest were the 2 breeders my good ewes and rams are from) so I just have to choose good ones to take.  Something to consider.

DH is taking another nap.  He is bored now that the weed whacking is finished.  Nothing to do here while we wait to show the house again.  I guess I will put on the rest of the HBO mini series "The Pacific" that DS1 bought him several years ago.  DH had never watched it, so we brought it to watch up here.  No cable TV here so only DVDs tp watch.  I also brought his collector set of Rogers & Hammerstein musicals.  He loves musicals.  Musicals and war movies, a man of many tastes!  LOL 

Well, got to watch the U.S. Marines advance through the Pacific.  Last night they took Guadalcanal and went on to take some more beaches and other islands.  No water and limited ammo.  Rained through 2 of the DVD discs.  Nasty conditions.  Very depressing.  War really is hell.  DS2 was in Afghanistan.  desert climate, instead of rain they had sand, heat, horrible bugs and bomb booby traps.  No wonder DH and DS2 don't talk about their bad war experiences.  Even though this is all Hollywood, knowing that it is based on the real experiences of our poor men during WWII is very sad.  Seeing what they faced and conquered makes you proud to be American even while you want to cry for them.  And admire them for their courage and determination.  God bless the USA and her military.

It has not been very chilly but we are enjoying lighting a fire in the cast iron stove every night.  I light it just before the agent and buyers arrive so it is cozy and warm.  If I had any frozen loaves f bread dough I would put them in the oven too.  Apparently, baking bread, a fire in the fireplace, and fresh flowers help sell a house.  Unfortunately, we have no furniture so nowhere to place the bouquet of cut flowers, and no frozen bread dough, but the fire we can do.  We love this Schrade cast iron stove!  It is terrific.  You have to remember not to out your hand down on it after it has been burning for a while LOL    but otherwise, it is a wonderful stove.  It really heats up the living room of this house.  Wish we could keep it!

Getting hungry.  I made 6 can chili yesterday and it has been sitting in the fridge blending the flavors.  Going to heat it up with salad for supper tonight.  Only 2-3 more meals here before we have to leave.   Chili twice, and steak once ought to use up the stuff I bought without a trip to the market. 

Clouding up again outside.  I'm going to lay the fire for when the buyers arrive.  Instead of using paper cardboard and (DH's favorite BBQ starter - we use a Duraflame log.  It may be cheating, but it sure beats crouching in front of the fireplace trying to coax the wood to light.  Blowing on cardboard and tinder loses appeal as you age.  Light the Duraflame log and just lay the wood on top and let it catch!  EASY PEASY!  It will be another chore I have to do before we leave though, to clean out the wood stove.  LOL  

I wonder if I can find some frozen bread dough at the Walmart . . . .


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

You could probably buy frozen bread dough, or even cookies to bake at the Walmart. Baking cookies smell helps houses sell too.


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## Baymule

What a nice vacation! Weed whacking, knitting, showing the house, movies and a cozy fire. People pay lots of money for such relaxing vacations! LOL


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## Ridgetop

I will look for some but only a few days left to try that trick.  I wonder if a pot of chili would have the same effect?  LOL

The neighbor came over and told us that the tenant was renting out space for people with a motor home and trailer to live here also renting out the bunkhouse to homeless.  And yet our so-called "management company" did nothing.  The neighbor said the tenant would burn stuff in the field even with dry grass everywhere.  I wish he had called the fire department on them.  He also said that Washington was so liberal now that it wasn't worth living here.  Already knew that but good to hear it from an actual resident.

We are camping out in the house with the barest necessities.  Our little home away from home.  Notice DH's recliner - all the comforts.  
   LOL

The large blue thing on the floor is our comfy bed.  It's height requires us to drop to the floor in order to roll into it.  DH paces a sturdy chair next to his side to enable him to arise in the mornings.  I merely crawl to the nearest sturdy object to haul myself up.   Whoever is in first is treated to a bounce from the other person as they drop into it.  The first time DH fell onto the mattress it bounced me out onto the floor to the hearty amusement of our son who happened to see it.  Very amusing.

 The mattress seems to have sprung a leak.  Now when we wake up we don't worry about rolling off onto the floor, since we are already ON the floor.  At first the air level was just a bit low in the morning.  No problem - DH just aired it up again at night. Then we started noticing it was lot lower in the mornings.  DH continued to air it up but now we considered the possibility of a slow leak.  Since we are older, although STILL IN OUR PRIMES, we occasionally arise at night for a private moment.   Suddenly the departure of DH from the nuptial couch rudely awakened me with a sudden sharp pain in my hip!  What?  Apparently without his mass to distribute the air in the mattress my weight was enough to fall heavily onto the hard floor.  OUCH!  The mattress was almost flat!  Gradually, even with inflating the bed every evening, we noticed that by morning we were sleeping on the ground.  Painfully.  Last night while I communicated with nature I heard the air pump.  DH had decided to inflate the mattress again.  It barely lasted through the rest of the night.  This mattress is apparently a goner.  We will have to buy another one when we return here.   We could use DS1's full size air mattress, but our supposedly "queen" size is barely large enough for us now.  This "queen size" air mattress is actually several inches narrower and shorter than a regular queen size mattress.  Also air mattresses have a fatal flaw.  If one person is heavier than the other, the lighter weight person cannot stay on their side of the mattress.  Instead they are precipitated into the hollow caused by the heavier person.  While this makes for a very close encounter and much cuddling it also causes groundless accusations of mattress and blanket hogging from the heavier person who finds himself perched on the edge of the mattress. 

This mattress was a cheap one and has lasted for several years, including the 2 weeks we were up here cleaning in February.  I suppose the next one will have to be scrutinized for weigh restrictions.  We are not the skinny youngsters we used to be.  Or could it be that they just don't make air mattresses as well as they used to?  I think DH and I prefer that explanation.  

Almost time for the next showing of the house!  Got to run around and turn on all the lights, check for stuff out of place. and clear off the counters.  Not hard since we only have a few items here and are eating on paper plates. Stuff any personal stuff into the bathroom cabinet, check the toilet, etc.   Stoke the fire.  Oh, and put the pot of chili that was warming on the stove into the oven!


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

If you want to try to save the air mattress, you could bring it into a pool to see if you can spot the air bubbles from where it is leaking and patch it. It might be easier to get a new one though.


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## Bruce

Or a couple of quality inflatable camping mattresses so you don't have that "heavier person" problem.

Sounds like you are living in a 12 ring circus!


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## Ridgetop

Computer was down for a day.  Had to reboot again.  And photos sent from my phone are not showing up in e-mails.  

Anyway, had to drive in yesterday to Lacey to real estate office since couldn't get computer e-mail up.  Received 2 offers.  Chose one - higher price and less in escrow fees - and back in escrow again with new closing date of June 28, 2021.  Agent is telling other offer that he is backup.  Both offers were above asking price.  We chose the VA offer but told the agent to find out what the points will be since if too high we will back out of that offer.

Mattress is complete goner - completely flat after only a couple hours last night!  DH re-aired it twice but finally it just stopped holding any air.  DH finally go up and slept in camping recliner, I stayed on floor, we are both exhausted today.  Hope the motel bed tonight is comfortable!  Doesn't help that when cleaning out old barn I had to keep bending over to pick up trash while DH held the garbage bag.  DH can't bend over.  My bad knee won't let me bend the knee so just bent from waist.  Nothing was heavy - mainly light trash and styrofoam for some reason. Squatting means not getting up again so I am in a lot of pain yesterday and today from knee and back of legs. Obviously need more exercise!  But barn looks better for appraisers.

On way home yesterday we ran by Lowes and got a quart of exterior paint (matched to old can) and I touched up places that were chipped or flaking.  After 5 years of wet and freezing weather the house was showing some areas needing touchups on the side that the storms come in from.  Also the plumbers when putting in the new pump had scraped a bunch of places on the house and pump shed.  Had half a bucket of trim paint so painted the area where the window pane was replaced last February.  We left before I could paint it last February, since the window putty had to cure for 2 weeks.  Touched up all those flaking or scraped places on the trim at the same time.  

Packing now.  DH decided not to leave anything except the fridge so we don't have to return unless we want to.  I bought a storage case for the kitchen stuff and coffee maker to leave it here.  Now I will take it but leave all that stuff packed for return if we need to.  I think being here to show the house and tell people the history, and what was done to reno it helped when showing.

We are feeling sort of sad about selling now due to feelings about my aunt.   But we really need to move ahead with selling this property and moving on with our lives.  Being up here with nothing to do has been rather boring.  Shows what retirement is like if you don't have interests or hobbies.  With our sheep we would have been repairing the barns and fixing jugs, etc.  Weed whacking the yard and cleaning the old barn helped, but we are needed at home - sheep to move around and lamb out - and we need to pick up our new ram!

Plan to run by DS3 and drop off the 2 ducklings on the way home.  Apparently, they are Cayuga ducks - will have to look them up when I get home.  They are large ducklings and DDIL1 is excited about having them for the grandchildren.  They have poultry and turkeys which the children love, so these ducklings will fit in well.  

Got most packed last night.  Have to finish now so DH can finish loading the trailer.  Probably won't be back on for a couple days while on the road.  Packed our lunches for 2 days.  Just have to pack up kitchen stuff.  OOPS!  Forgot that we have to make more coffee to fill thermos before packing coffee maker.  DH is making another pot of coffee and I have to roll u sleeping bags, etc.  Gotta go.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Yay! Congrats on the new offers! Hopefully this time it goes smoothly.


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## Bruce

What happened with the original buyer and their diabetic coma?


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## Baymule

Hope everything goes through this time! Y’all really need to close the book on this and start a new chapter. Texas is calling!


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> What happened with the original buyer and their diabetic coma?


I asked our realtor when we were signing the new offer but he had no further information on the man's health.  He did say that the other agent told him that relatives who relayed the health information to that agent said that the man had been making peculiar decisions for some time and there was concern for his mental health.  Hopefully he survived, but we couldn't find out his status.  

My computer was down from last posting to this morning when we got home and I hooked it up with an ethernet cable.  DS1 says he is pretty sure that the wireless card needs to be replaced.  The computer is only 1 year old or less!  

Anyway, left on Saturday and picked up the ram Sunday morning then went on to Nipomo to deliver the ducklings.  They are Cayuga ducks which my daughter-in-law is ecstatic about since they are apparently classified as a "rare breed.  She showed e a picture of them.  The adults have beautiful iridescent green- black plumage.  They are a large breed and lay eggs that vary between beige, gray, and black!  Had a nice evening with DS3 and DDIL1, BBQed 3 of their chickens, Yummy!  Spent the night and then came on home the next afternoon.  

Got the trailer unloaded, trailer mats removed and scrubbed (duck poop is nasty), floorboards scraped and scrubbed, ready for DH to pick up hay tomorrow, our laundry done, most of the luggage unpacked, sleeping bags returned to the 5th wheel, etc.  Still have one suitcase to unpack.  The new ram is in the jug in the barn temporarily.  We need to remove Axtell from the bred ewes and turn the ewes out then separate out the next lot to be bred and turn them into the breeding pen with the new ram.  That is for tomorrow.

Put a frozen lasagna i the oven.  Now that I am home it appears that I am reinstalled as the cook.  Please let the Yelm house close escrow so we can go to Texas in our trailer for a month!  Alone . . . .


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## Ridgetop

DH went to get a load of hay this am.  Just back with empty trailer.    I was afraid this would happen after the holiday weekend.  The hay supplier is not always reliable because he sells out so quickly.  I try to convince DH to keep the sheds full but he likes to wait until we are almost out.  Like now. 

No problem.  Hay guy has plenty but had an appointment so DH has to go back at 4:00 pm.  Unload that then get 2 more trailer loads over the next 2 days.  Takes 3 trailer loads to fi the hay shed and barn storage.  Price was up last time not sure what it will be now  Everyone up north was just starting the first cut the end of May, The barns were empty, and with no water last winter, don't know how many cuts they will get off the fields.  We will need to stock up for the summer and winter too. 

DS1 said area between 2 connexes is full of metal - some of it is pipe corral and the rest is scrap metal to sell at the metal yard.  DS1 needs to get the scrap metal out and sold, then we could put up a roof over that space, put wire on the corral panels that are forming a barrier around it to keep out the sheep, and use it to store hay.  DS1 says the old hay shed won't last much longer before collapsing  Probably the hay stacked to the ceiling inside is what is keeping it up!    

Checking on ewes and #Orage 5 is due tomorrow and looks ready to drop her lamb(s) any time.  She is a first freshener, her lady parts are swollen and wobbling madly as she walks, and she has a cute little udder.  I checked the calendar and her first marking date shows her to be due tomorrow.  Her half sister is also due this month.  I show her as due in 2 weeks but if she bred the same time and the mark did not show, she could lamb sooner.  She is not as obviously ready to go as Orange 5 though.  0439 and 8111 are also due in 2 weeks and are uddering up.  They are 2nd and 3rd timers.  Hopefully they will lamb before we leave for Texas IF Yelm closes.  The next lot are due starting August 12.  

DS1 said we will transfer Axtell out of the breeding corral this evening.  The bred ewes can go out onto the field and we will sort out another lot to go into the breeding pen with the 2 spring yearlings that haven't marked yet.  In 2 weeks we will harness and turn in the new yearling ram to breed those ewes.  I have several young ewes that are being bred for the first time but need to decide if I want him in with them or a more experienced ram.  Need to check the numbers and bloodlines on the next set of ewes to decide.  The spring yearlings can wait anther couple of months and the fall yearlings can wait to be bred thus winter.  Summer lambs won't bring great prices in the fall, but I might take a coupe early spring lambs to the Reno show and auction in May.  

Got the last of the laundry done from the trip and our bedding.  I have to go through the trailer and see what needs to be loaded for our trip to Texas.  Whether the Yelm place closes or not, I need to empty the trailer anyway. I have some Covid food supplies stored there too that need to be brought inside.  Also need to wipe down the interior and vacuum, etc., then empty the belly and reload what we need.  Over the years we have pared down what we used to think was necessary.   Since most every town has a Walmart with groceries, we can travel lighter than when we had to drag along all our feed when camping.  Of course only feeding 2 adults is a lot less stuff to take than when we had 4 children and 2 of their friends to provide for!  I have loading the trailer down to a science although choosing what clothes to take is harder since DH has to try on all his clothes to make sure they fit.  

(BAYMULE:  Let me know if we need to bring the electric shears!)

I also have to phone the campground in Weatherford and see if we can get reservations.  *IF* escrow closes. Although I think we will make them and just cancel if necessary. We don't have to go back to Washington if it closes. 

Got to fold my laundry!


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## Baymule

Take care of all your sheep and lambs, then come on to Texas!


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## Ridgetop

Axtel was not transferred from the breeding pen yesterday evening.    However the ewe and her half sister were cut from the flock and moved into the barn after much effort.  Seriously considering firing DS1 as ranch foreman or even ranch hand since he ignores what I say to do and does it the way he wants to do it which causes much more work and takes much more time.  

"No need to put up the chute panels Mom"   "We can do it tomorrow Mom"    "I can get them into the barn alone Mom"   "Mom! Why aren't you here there wherever I want you to be stopping sheep RIGHT NOW!"    GRRRR!!!     I had already cleaned out the barn, setup the jugs with full hay feeders and water buckets.  Cleverly I had made dinner early in the day so it was all ready to serve.  A good thing too since DS1 started at 6:00 pm to move the sheep ad we didn't sit down to eat until 9:00 pm!    I didn't eat until later since I wanted a shower first and didn't particularly want to eat with my ranch hands who had pissed me off.  I would have had them draw their pay and sent them down the road except they don't get paid and DH lives here with me.  If I seriously wanted to get rid of DH, I would have to pack everything for him and drive him somewhere!    Good thing I love him.  

What would have taken 15 minutes to set up the chutes and half an hour sorting with the chutes in place now takes 2 hours of chasing sheep.  I am so getting permanent chutes and alleys set up when we move.  Then I can move the sheep by myself.  Almost.  But at least it won't take 2 hours of running in the dust.  It just shows that being too lazy to set up chutes and get ready beforehand causes more work in the long run!  

Planted the last 3 tomatoes that I was planning to put in the long raised bed after DH moved the rest of the planter dirt into it.  Not in the long planter of course, since the dirt never got moved either before we left by DH or by DS1 while we were gone.  Instead I planted them in the 3 empty spots in the first planter bed with the other tomatoes.  They survived with their bottomless buckets around them however the last squash struggling bravely when we left has disappeared.  Possibly not enough sun in the bucket fence?  Or?  At any rate I am left with 2 straggly zuchini plants to find a place for.  This is absolutely the last garden I plant here.  I will wait till we get to Texas.  although with the worthless ranch hands and garden assistants I have, that golf course condo in Palm springs is looking better and better.

Seriously considering having DS1 come with us to help set up everything then having him return home.  He is a lot of fun and great sense of humor but also seriously annoying when he ignores my instructions.  Maybe in Texas it will be better with the proper tools and fencing to work with.

The on line Dorper sale is up today.  However, not too much on offer.  Most people must have gone to the Reno show and auction.  There are a couple of back head ewes and fall ewe lambs that Debra should be interested in.   However, I am getting confused abut her.  First she wants to switch to high end breeding stock, then she has no money, then she does, then she wants to buy at the sale, now she is surprised when I tell her that Fullblood black head Dorpers might go for $700 and up since the breeders with stock to sell are the best name breeders around.   I told her better to spend her budget on 1 or 2 _*excellent *_animals than on several mediocre animals elsewhere since if she is serious about breeding up she will be keeping all the ewe lambs for several years.  Not sure she understands the process.  She already has a flock of poor quality mixed breed ewes that she has kept for meat production.  She can translate them into a Percentage/Pureblood flock in about 4 years using her new ram but she didn't seem to understand what I was telling her about that either.  Oh well, not my problem.


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## Ridgetop

Orange tag 5 just lambed twin ewes in jug.  DGD1 is ecstatic and helped me weigh the twins.  7.2 and 8.1 lbs.  Marked one with livestock spray until we can tag.  Nice large twins for the size of this first freshener.  No grain was given  I stopped giving grain to pregnant ewes after having to pull some huge lambs last year.  It helped to reduce lamb size and made for easier and unassisted lambing. DGD1 has announced that she will take charge of them and tame them.  Good, she can halter break them so they can go to the Reno show next year.  

Half sister is getting ready but I think has another 2 weeks to go  so might turn her bac ut n field.  There are 2 ther ewes that are getting near their times - also due in 2 weeks or so.  Don't like to move them into the barn too early since the flies are so bad nd it has gotten hot.  I will look for the fly spray and spray the ewe after she asses the afterbirth.  It will help keep the flies from bothering her and the twins.  

Love lambing!


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## Baymule

Sheep chasing! LOL That is so much fun. NOT!!!!
Congratulations on the new lambs, may all your ewes give you twins.


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## Ridgetop

THANKS!!!

But only till the late September/October/November lambs arrive since they will be gong to auction at the right time for the best prices.  Then we need all rams!  LOL  Otherwise, yes all ewe lambs so I can take some of them to Reno.  Better bring some grandchildren to Reno to help show too.


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## farmerjan

I feel like you do about the firing of the ranch/farm hands.... with my DS...  I am not even fighting this year, I am too tuckered out.  Get my knees done and then start doing some things the way I want them done....I'm with you on that... get it set up and then do it myself.


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## Ridgetop

👍   I am woman hear me roar!  I can do anything!  

After I take my pain killers and have a short rest in between chores . . . .


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## Mike CHS

We learned our lesson about feed and pregnant ewes our first lambing.  We literally had huge lambs and had to assist 3 out of the 10 ewes.


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## Ridgetop

Absolutely.  I like the ewes to lamb in jugs since we don't want to climb into that 150' steep gully to retrieve the lambs and ewe.  However, I really don't like to have to pull lambs either.   I have pulled a lot over the years, and it is getting harder on this old body to crawl around on the barn floor pulling lambs!  

With these breeds they don't require the extra nutrition that the wool breeds need.  The Dorsets didn't need as much as our old Hamps and Suffolks and it was a real management change when I went from the Dorsets to the Dorpers.  

Last year my ewes bred back when their lambs were 3 months old, but I have given them a rest this year after they produced in such a short time last year.  With no forage I noticed that they didn't keep condition the way they did the year we had all the rain and great forage.  I also am planning my lambing dates for the best prices when selling the lambs instead of just having a year round crop.  Better returns, better business.

Moving ewes and rams tonight when DGS1 arrives.  DS1 and DS2 will be offloading and stacking hay today.

DS2 does not have to report for work until Monday since there is no work at the moment with his company.  If it keeps up they will send him back to the hall and he will be reassigned to another company.  Apparently his entire crew "dragged up" to work with another company that had more work and more overtime.  He can't drag up since he is still an apprentice and has to stay where he is put until the program reassigns.  No crew except himself and the foreman (if he doesn't drag up) means no work since they need a certain number of men - journeyman, hot apprentice (DS2), cold apprentice (can't work on energized services), groundman, etc.  to put in the power poles and hang the electric wires and transformers.  It is heavy work but DS2 is disgusted with the company because "no shift - no pay".  At least he can spend time with his baby Robert.


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## Ridgetop

DD2 and FSIL came over with Annabel last night.  I had bought one of those baby mittens with the rubber ends for teething for each of the babies.  First thing Annabel did when it was out on her little hand was hit herself in the face with it.  It is now known as Annbel's baby boxing glove!  LOL

FSIL (aka Doofus) helped stack another 2 tons of hay bales with DS1, DS2, and assisted by DGS1.  DGS1 managed to break the PVC water pipe connection going to the barn by dropping a 100+ lb. hay bale onto it and cracking it.   DS1 is at Lowes now getting parts to repair it.  Also getting new faucets for some of the old lines that are leaking.  I suggested he have DGS1 come over to help repair the pipes but he said he couldn't wait for his parents to decide he could come over in a day or two!  DD2 is bringing Maysie and her neighbor over next week to see the new lambs.  

After the hay was stacked FSIL helped DS1 bring up Axtel and move him into the ram pen.  He had a healing abscess that I cleaned up.  Then while dong their introductory "I am the Alpha ram" butting contest Axtell's remaining scur got knocked off  I went back into the house for the Alumashield.  DS1 sprayed the bleeding wound while FSIL crawled under their trampoline shelter to find the scur since DGD1 wanted it.    Then we turned out the bred ewes into the field with the others.  (That reminds me that I need to turn the lambs in the barn onto the field too - then we can clean the creep and that pen.  Tonight we are supposed to sort out the next 3 ewes that are to be bred and turn them in the front pen.  New ram Smlley will go in with them in another week.  Need that time gap to make sure who sires any lambs from Snowflake and P5, who were in with Axtel but did not mark.  Not sure why they did not mark since they looked like they were in season.  However they are barely 1 year old so . . . . 

DS2's remaining apartment stuff is sitting i my living room.  Got everything removed once and the room cleaned and back to normal, then he finished his move out of the San Diego apartment.  Sometimes I think I am an unnatural mother and grandmother to want to live alone.  DH can live with me - most of the time - sometimes I get tired of cleaning up after him too.  I completely understand why my grandmother said she enjoyed living alone after living all her life with her husband, his parents, occasionally her mother, their 4 children and - just when she could see everyone moving out - my divorced mother and 2 babies moved back home!   Even animal mothers drive off their offspring after a time!

No news from the Yelm property so fingers crossed everything is proceeding well.  I did get a call from the alarm company that someone had accessed the pump house.  Couldn't get hold of Jerry at first so told the company to call the police.  They called back to say that the security service they use didn't have anyone in the area to respond to the house and the police would not respond unless someone was physically there on the property to report the trespasser and possible thief!  WHAT???!!!  What good is the alarm system then if someone can break in and unless we are there on the property the police won't come out?!  If I was on the property no one would try to break in!     Anyway about 10 minutes after arguing fruitlessly with the alarm dispatcher Jerry called and said that the buyer and agent were on the property.  He said that someone had removed the paper with the alarm code from the lock box.  AAAAAAGH!  I will be SOOOOO happy to get this property sold.  

Well guess I will go down and turn out the 5 lambs onto the field.  DH fed this am and said that the field e is getting crowded.  We really need that new feeder but couldn't pick it up on our way home.  Remember DH insisting on returning on Memorial weekend?  Yep, they were not home.  So another expensive trip to northern California to pick up the feeders.  Maybe I will order that 5 head stand for judging sheep after all before going up to get the equipment.  Have to look at the bank account.


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## Baymule

Some animal mothers eat their young...... Yours are probably too old and tough now to be very tasty.


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## Ridgetop

Yup, but I have an Instapot with pressure cooker function!  If meat gets scarce - who knows!


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## Ridgetop

Last night DS1 sorted out the 5 ewes to be oved and moved 2 into the jugs and the other 3 to the breeding pen. Smalley Ram will join the girls soon.  Cleaned out the  jugs again today.  Soooo much spoiled alfalfa hay!  We are dumping the manure etc. over the cliff now.  Maybe the rotting alfalfa will help build some soil.  Probably not since it has not done anything for the soil over the past 30 years during 20 of which we dumped our manure over the same cliff!  LOL

Talked to DS1 about going through the flock and culling a couple more ewes.  One ewe is still carrying a full coat of wool at almost 2 years old.  She may go to the sale yard even though she is a nice large ewe.  She had a ram lamb in November and is in the breeding pen.  Might lamb her out and send her to the sale in the spring.   I think I am going to have t break down and shear some of these yearlings in order to get a good look at their conformation.

In addition to culling for excess wool, lack of shedding, parasite resistance, lambing ease and twins, now I think i am going to add udder attachments.  The judge in Reno mentioned that as breeders we need to start paying attention to udder strength and attachments and how they hold up from year to year.  Good tight attachments and strong suspensory ligaments are necessary for these ewes to breed, milk heavily, and produce and raise lambs for years. Having raised dairy goats for years, I know what to look for in udders.  There was a 10 year old ewe being offered in the last sale with an exceptional udder.  It looked like the udder on a 2 year old.  She was being sold with her ram lamb still nursing.  I didn't need another ram so did not bid on her but both body and udder were really nice.  She did not look like a 10 year old ewe!  

So having established my cull list, no all I need to do now is to inspect each ewe, yearling, and lamb on the property for "Keep" or "Cull" viability.   Since all of my older ewes and yearling ewes will be bred this fall, I will start culling the ewes in the spring when I take my lambs to the auction.  I would like to reduce the flock size a bit and just keep the very best of what I have bred.  I might even sell some of the older ewes.  One in particular does not seem to give me the quality of lambs that I want.  Whether that is because the rams she was bred to were not a "nick" or because of herself, she will get another chance with Smalley after which I might sell her too depending on the lambs.

Debra was able to get someone to haul her Dorper ewes and lamb north for her.  Paul Lewis is taking them north on the way to Kansas.  We would have done it if she couldn't get anyone, but I really did not fancy another 2-3 day trip each way right now.  Not to mention the expense of 3 nights in a motel.  We will have to go north to pick up our ewe but we also needed to go north to pickup our sheep equipment anyway since they were not around Memorial Day weekend.  

DH was annoyed that I bought another ewe.  That will eat up the last of the Yelm rent money.  I am officially broke  I better start selling lambs.  That reminds me that I have to email our neighbor abut the lamb we took to the butcher for him.  He hasn't paid me for it yet!


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## Ridgetop

Started to post all this on my responses to other posts and then realized that I was not on my own page!  

This morning went out to feed with DH and got side tracked to the barn where I fed the ewe and her twins, the other 3 waiting to lamb, and the new ram Smalley.  Then I raked out and cleaned Smalley's stall.  He was rather nervous with me in his 5' x 10' pen, so I moved his feeder to the end of the pen and was able to finish without him trampling all over the stuff I was trying to shovel out.  Yesterday it "rained" - actually a very heavy drizzle that wet the top of the ground then evaporated.  It did get fairly chilly.  No need for any A/C - wore a sweater and considered turning on the electric fireplace towards evening.  

This afternoon the grandchildren are supposed to help clean out the barn.  I told DS1 that they should rake out and shovel up the creep and pen where the ewes go since I just cleaned the jugs.  That way we can turn out the ewes into the large creep pen until they are due to lamb on the 18th.  If we remove the creep gate they will lamb in the creep instead of on the hill if they come into labor early.  We don't like them confined in the small jugs for too long before they lamb because it gets the jugs wet and mucky before the lambs show up.  Also better for the ewes to get some exercise before lambing.  Once the ewes are in the jugs we can clean out the creep pen again and put down dry stall for the muddy bits.  

DDIL2 has taken baby Robert and gone to stay with her parents for a week.  That way they get their baby fix.  Lolo June is anxious to see his grandson - not only first one but he had 7 daughters and only 1 son so having this boy is a special blessing.  Filipino grandfathers are Lolo and grandmothers are Lola.  They don't differentiate between mother's parents and father's parents like Chinese names for grandparents.  Since DDIL2 chose to call herself Lola Ganda meaning "Grandma Beautiful".  I said I could be "Lola Old" or "Lola Grumpy".   DDIL2 and her mother tossed those names out and tried to find me a better name. However, since DD1's children call me "PauPau" (pronounced PoPo and meaning mother's mother) I said that I would be "Lola PoPo" since that way I would always respond no matter who called me! LOL DD1's children think it is hysterically funny that I am "Granny Granny".

Sheriff Villanuevo, L.A. County Sheriff, is involved in a huge strike against 500 marijuana "farms" located in the Antelope Valley.  This is where  a lot of alfalfa hay is grown, along with other vegetables.  These marijuana farms are cartel owned and run with portable greenhouses.  This strike involves 500 deputies DEA, ICE, and other organizations as they have descended on these farms and are using bulldozers to destroy the greenhouses.  These cartel farms are patrolled by armed cartel members who threaten residents, etc.  The farms are watered by stealing water from the surrounding farms wells and watering systems.  The electricity is probably stolen from power lines as well.  The cartels use illegals they have brought over the border to work them.   This strike was just announced on TV with video of the dozers knocking down these portable greenhouses. The greenhouses are completely filled with huge plants setting buds.  According to the report there are 500 of these farms and each one is worth about $50 million dollars in product!  $50,000,000 X 500 = $250,000,000,000 in marijuana that the cartels will sell  No wonder the liberal dems are trying to tell us that drugs are not coming over the border, the cartels have marijuana farms *here*.  The cartels are apparently not importing the marijuana, they are importing the illegals as slave labor to work these farms!

Villanuevo is also the L. A. Sheriff who said he is loosening gun permit restrictions because the Sheriff's Department and LAPD don't have the manpower to keep the citizens safe in the current political climate and with the current cuts to their budgets.  He said arming the citizens is the only way the citizens will be able to protect themselves!  Guess you know who gets the entire Ridgetop clan's vote for Sheriff.  Go!  Sheriff Villanuevo!

Wild and crazy stuff going on these days!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> No wonder the liberal dems are trying to tell us that drugs are not coming over the border, the cartels have marijuana farms *here*.


And that surprises you? There were pot farms in Cal when I lived there over 40 years ago. There are customers so there is supply. The cocaine and other "small" drugs come over the border, generally right through the legal crossing points. Pot in "financially lucrative" quantity is bulky so they grow it where the customers are.



Ridgetop said:


> Villanuevo is also the L. A. Sheriff who said he is loosening gun permit restrictions


I'm surprised a county sheriff can decide who needs a gun permit. I would think that is dictated at a higher level, like the state.


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## Ridgetop

Sheriff Vallenueva doesn't decide who gets a permit, just loosens up the restrictions on carry permits in the outlying *County* areas.  City still won't give anyone a carry permit other than liberal politicians who want to restrict everyone else from gun ownership.  We are inside the city limits.

Villanueva was back in the news a few days ago.  Now he is removing homeless encampment from sidewalks where they are restricting pedestrian traffic, stealing electricity from businesses, etc.  

Currently in one town the homeless have made a large encampment in a pedestrian tunnel designed for the school children to get under a busy road to go to the elementary school on the other side.  Parents are protesting because the children are not safe walking through the homeless encampment.

Haven't posted in a couple days.  

Another ewe went into labor.  This was the half sister t the ewe with twins.  We kept her in the jug since the morning she would have been turned back out for another week or so, she starting losing her mucous plus.  Her udder was pretty full but didn't seem like she was ready to lamb.  She wasn't interested in eating the next morning so  figured she would lamb that day.   I was gone for the day and DS1 said he didn't like the look of her when I got back so I went down and checked her vulva.  Sure enough there was a large lamb head stuck.  No problem, I started trying to find a foot but the lamb was completely jammed into the pelvis,  She had probably been quietly pushing all day.  The lamb looked dead but you never know.  I lubed up ad tried to get a hand in to pull up the leg.  Couldn't even get my fingers in there let alone my hand!  DS1 came to help hold her while I worked on her.   Finally got one foot up to the vulva and managed to get it out a bit.  DS1 changed laces and pulled on the lamb but no lick.  Got DH to hold the ewe so she couldn't slide back while we pulled.  Kept lubing around the head and finally got one leg and the head out.  The head was the size of a cantaloupe!  Huge.   With one leg and the head out you would think the rest of the lamb could slide particularly with DS1 pulling for all he was worth but nothing.  Called the vet but they were both out of town!  AAARGH!  

Decided if we couldn't get the lamb out we would shoot her when DS2 came home.  His pistol was locked in the gun cabinet and my shotgun would make a mess of her.  As a last ditch effort I mixed some powdered birthing lube in cold water and we splashed it on her vulva and tried to get some inside around the lamb.  Got another foot partially out.  Finally, with DH holding tight to the ewe's hind quarts, DS1 pulling on the head and one foot, me pulling on the other leg, and manipulating the vulva back around the lamb, we got the shoulders through.  Unlike other births, this lamb still was not coming all the way out!!!  The lamb was obviously dead, and his body was so large that he was still stuck tight around the ribs!    More cold water lube and finally DS1 was able to pull him completely out.   *HUGE RAM LAMB! 
16 LBS. - 28" LONG IN THE BODY (EXCLUDING THE TAIL).  *Naturally a single.  She was a first freshener, but is a large ewe so i didn't think she would have any trouble.  Obviously wrong on that score.  

She did not receive any grain during pregnancy so why so big?  This was a ewe that would be removed from the gene pool in the wild or on a large spread.  I am sending her to the auction next week with another yearling ewe and the runty looking ewe lamb.  I had already decided to send her to the auction because she did not shed out at all this year.  The other ewe I am selling did not shed out either and they are being culled.  That ewe had a ram lamb in January that already went to the auction.  I am hoping that the mature ewes bring good money since breeding season for spring lambs is coming up.  

She will be an excellent mother for someone, assuming she twins, since she spent 20 minutes cleaning the dead lamb even though she was exhausted.  I spent that time milking out about a pint of colostrum to put in my freezer.  She had a huge udder like a milk goat.  Of course, she would have needed that much milk for that giant lamb if he had survived!  

I am making a list of the ewes that shed out completely.  They will stay.  Those carrying less than 25% wool will stay.  The others are up to be culled unless they are exceptional ewes.   With 30 ewes and ewe lambs, we need to cull heavily for the characteristics we want to keep in the flock.  Shedding is one that I really want to be strict on.  I can't do much about parasite control since at this time we don't have any problems.  However, I will order a FAMACHA chart and p9ssiby start pulling random samples.  However we don't have Barber Pole here so . . . . 

The next 2 ewes will lamb around Father's Day weekend.  They are currently out in the hillside pen attached to the creep.  Smalley gets his harness and crayon today and get to go from the small jug in the barn out to meet several very attractive girls.  Just like "The Bachelor" on TV, they will vie for his affections.  LOL  We need to dock the twin ewes, and give vaccinations today.  Their mother and grandmother are 2 of my favorites.  Beautiful toplines, good bloodlines, complete shedders.  The granddaughters have given the twins names.  One apiece - Sparkleshine and Fairysparkle.  

Graduations last Friday for DS1's 2 boys.  One graduated into High School, one into Middle School.  Had a disagreement about the difference between Graduations and Culmination.  The older boy "graduated" into HS.  "culminated" into MS.  We informed them that the words were the same meaning for the 2 functions of moving on.  However calling graduation from Middle School "culmination" is wrong.  "Graduation" means going to a higher level, while "culmination" means the ceasing of the activity.  This misuse of vocabulary from school officials is very wrong to el  on the other hand, I was often appalled by the communications sent home from my children's schools that were misspelled, used the wrong syntax or grammar, and needed proof reading!  Instead of asking "who guards the guards', we should be asking "Who educated the teachers"?  Apparently no one!  They are just learning liberalism and critical racism!  No grad nights this year either.  A $$$ savings for their parents at least.    DS1 was invited to DGS2's graduations while DH was invited to DGS1's.  Luckily I was not invited to either, so escaped sitting outside in 100 degree heat and full sun.  Have I mentioned that I *really* don't like school events that must be attended by parents to sit in undersized chairs placed too close together in stifling auditoriums, freezing auditoriums, or hellish outdoor locations, with no visibility? And always being seated on the opposite side to where your child is due to walk or perform? I still have many years ahead of me attending those holiday programs with 2 more infant grandchildren. And possibly more in the future. 

Going up to northern California Monday morning to pick up the feeders and ewe I bought.  Another reason to cull heavily to only the best ewes.  Home Tuesday, auction Wednesday.  The Yelm property is being appraised on Monday so we will know then if the sale is going ahead.  

Finally got a call back from the venue about DD2's wedding.  They gave me 3 dates in September and one in October.  The October one won't work, but 2 in September will be fine.  Just have to contact all my vendors to make sure they are free on that day.  Lots of business paperwork to get through now.


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## Baymule

Wow! A 16 pound lamb! Poor ewe! Too bad that he was dead, but at least you saved the ewe, even if only for auction.

Saying my prayers for the sale on the Yelm property.


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## Mike CHS

Those large lambs are a scary.  We had three 14 pounders with our first lambing and fortunately they were all singles or we would have lost ewes.


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## Ridgetop

I HATE THOSE GINORMOUS LAMBS!!!

Two of my 3 boys were 9 lbs. 5 ounces, and 9 lbs. 14 ounces!  I sympathize with those ewes!  

Up to northern California Monday to pick up a ewe and our feeders.  We got to Wes Patton's and loaded the ewe I had bought .  Then Wes looked over my pedigrees.  I wanted to find out if I seemed to be heading in the right direction with my breeding stock.  He said that I had good stuff and that I seemed to be "cherry picking" his best bloodlines!  That made me feel good.  He had a lot of other information about the different animals in my pedigrees.  One ram he had that was very good, did not seem to shed as well.  I will be weeding out those animals.  He knew a lot about Paul Lewis' animals too and said that Paul had been working with NSIP and Lambplan for 20 years so now people looked for his sheep and bought.  That has brought the prices up very high.  With NSIP and Lambplan you use the numbers to predict what the different rams and ewes will produce depending on what your market is.  It took me a weeks to study the numbers and what they meant.  Even now I have to refer to the information when bidding on a Lewis animal to translate what it means!  LOL  Now that we have a larger group of producing ewes and rams, we will start culling lambs heavily for the characteristics we want.

Still couldn't get hold of the equipment people but DH said we would drive over anyway since it would only be another 10 miles.  Sure enough when we got there the owner was there.  Said that his wife keeps forgetting to clear the old phone messages and she hadn't given him the message we wanted to pick up till that morning.  (Ordered the feeders a couple months ago)  Not surprising she did not get my 3rd message since I couldn't leave any messages till the day before.  I had also emailed them but she must not be picking up those either.  On Tuesday when we drove by the shop the message box was full again!  He has had a lot of problems with workers not cutting or assembling stuff right too, and has a lot of back orders.  I told him that we would take the hanging feeder he had ready and would cancel our order for the 5' double sided feeder if that would help him since we would not be able to get up north for quite a while to pick it up anyway.  That worked out for him.  We loaded the 4' fence hanging feeder with lid.  We will use the new one in the ram pen since it has a lid for rain cover.  We will transfer the one the rams are using into the creep in the barn.  

Back last night and another rodeo to unload the ewe we had picked up.  Adult children don't want to hear your suggestions on easy unloading straight into the barn IF you line up the trailer doors properly.  NO! That would be too easy!  They prefer to chase ewes around the driveway.  I finally let them go at it themselves.  But NO pity for them.  And no dinner.  DH and I ate sandwiches in the car.

DS1 had separated the ewe and lamb from the field into a jug and loaded all 3 this morning.   So up early and off to the auction. Prices are up lately and the auction people thought I might get about $220 apiece for the ewes. Just hope the excessive heat won't keep people home. At least they are not eating our expensive hay. The next 2 ewes are due to lamb Saturday and Monday. Both experienced ewes so no problem hopefully.    I might have to set up a fan in the barn if the heat holds.  It is hard on newborns.

DDIL2 and baby Robert have returned home.  She spent last week at her parent's home.  Robert has learned to smile now.  His smile is just like DS2's!  The baptism is July 4.  This ruins DD1's plans to have a large BBQ at her house with siblings and friends there to swim.  Their plans then called for them to all come to our house to watch fireworks.  I planned to spend July 4 at home packing for Texas.  Now that is all changed.  Many, many texts back and forth about what to do for the Baptismal party and July 4th BBQ. and loaded all 3 this morning.   Then DGD1's July 2 birthday was mentioned.  I did not suggest anything. However DH got into it by asking what they were going to do for our 50th anniversary on July 3.  He wanted a celebration.    I would have taken his phone away had I known what he was doing!  Because a joint party like that is just a party, not specific to anyone or any occasion.  And I wanted to pack the trailer for our trip!  
I don't know what they will decide to do.    A joint birthday, baptism, anniversary, and 4th July party?  All that on ONE cake?  I am going to take a Prozac now.  Or a tranquilizer.  Or both.  With wine.  

Got a call this afternoon from our Yelm agent.  The appraisal came back spot on!  So one hurdle down - can the buyers stay well?  Alive?  Will the escrow close?  Next thrilling installment soon.  The buyers are gong out this week to the property with their agent to discuss remodeling/adding on to the house.  And our insurance company notified us last week that they are *cancelling our insurance in August *since no one is living in the house!  If this escrow does not close we will have to move in until it does.


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## Baymule

There is never a dull moment in your life. Are you sure you want to move away from all that? You might get bored.   

50 year anniversary!  Congratulations!!


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## Ridgetop

There is a Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times"!  It may have been placed on us.   

I do enjoy interesting though.    We might find it boring living away from the 5 children and 8 grandchildren.  We should have moved to Texas when they were younger, but then they wouldn't have met their spouses or had these lovely 8 grandchildren.  We can always come back and live in our 5th wheel on DS3's property in between traveling.  We are not selling our house here yet.

My brother joined BYH.  His name is Tr4ever.  I sent him everyone's names but he only put in Ridgetop so it might not reach everyone.  He needs to put up fencing on his acreage - he and his wife are building their retirement farm in Arlington, WA.  (Even though he lives in Washington state he is not very liberal.)

They already have 2 Pyrenees and he was wondering what kind of fence to build that would contain his dogs in the country.   I didn't have the heart to tell him to get in touch with the contractors that build fencing for prisons!  I did tell him to search for Baymule's fencing posts.  

Once they have moved onto the property he wants to get some sheep, poultry, etc. and will be fencing and building for them too.  Although I can give him some White Dorper stock to start him off, I am wondering if Katahdins would be better, considering the eternal rain in western Washington state.  

He will need guidance from everyone on farm stock and building.  H has already been putting i fruit trees, blueberries, asparagus, strawberries, etc., that are perennials and need at least a year or two to establish.  He owns some rentals and has always done all the repairs etc., so has a good stock of building knowledge, engine repair, gardening, etc.  
This site will give him a lot of friends and support.  I'm so glad he finally joined.

Got to take my shower to go play bridge with our friends ("Mom")  She is finally starting to feel a bit better after terrible reaction to Covid vaccine.  2 of her doctors asked if she wanted to start hospice and she said not yet so hoping she has made up her mind to stick around longer.  Her granddaughter is getting married in October and she bought a new outfit for the wedding.  I told her that she needs to tell the granddaughter to hurry and produce a baby before she goes.  The granddaughter is 32 so . . . .  Both her grandchildren are from her daughter who died of cancer many years ago when the children were young.  At least she is starting to feel better intermittently.  Sometimes that presages the end with a short remission in the cancer symptoms, but I am hoping that she will last a while longer.  

Got the sheep to the auction yesterday and was told the ewes should bring around $200 apiece.  I wrote out their birthdates (9/23/19 and 10/23/19) and that they were ready to breed for fall lambs so hopefully the auctioneer will read that out and it might raise the price a bit.  We were the only sheep although someone was bringing in some Boer goats when we left around 10:45 am.  The sheep and goats don't go through until 1:00 pm so more should be arriving.  I don't like to be the first animals through the auction though since prices usually climb during the auction, drop, then climb again as buyers see there are only a few animals left.  I like to come in towards the middle after the buyers have seen a lot of poor scrawny animals and then mine look awesome!  I will see what they bring.  Then we want to do more culling.  Might as well sell while the prices are high!  If I don't like the price we will bring the next lot in later in the morning to get better auction placing.

Moving Smalley into the breeding pen this evening and the ewes that are due in a day or so into the jugs.


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## Ridgetop

No lambs yet, but one ewe due tomorrow and one on Monday.  Moved them into the jugs last night just in case.  Smalley was outfitted in his harness and walked calmly with DS1 on a halter to the breeding pen.  He got right to work nd this morning one ewe is heavily marked.    Fur more to go.  She might recycle since he is a young buck and has not bred before - semen count may not be viable until next squirt.  But at least he knows what he is there for.  

Temps are high today and also muggy!  Cleaned out the barn that had piles of jug straw and manure waiting for empty barrels.  Fil;ed 2 barrels to be dumped on the hillside.  Cleaned Smalley's jug and moved Orange 5, ewe with 2 lambs, into it.  He was in the 5 x 12 jug which is much larger than the other four 5 x 7's.  The lambs will have more room now that they are 2 weeks old.  We would normally move them into the large outdoor pen with the creep but with only 1 ewe and 2 lambs to occupy it, we feel the temptation is too high to the coyotes.  It makes another area for the dogs to have to patrol heavily.  Cleaned out the ewe's pen partially, and brought another barrel down then had to go up to breakfast.  I'll do the rest of the pen later so it can dry out.

Speaking of coyotes, one was patrolling outside our northern pasture fence and started to yip and howl.  The field sheep were out on the pasture in 2 separate groups grazing among the dumped hay from the pens.  All the dogs ran to the fence line.  The sheep all turned to face the dogs.  Then Josie The Mule ran out of the gully to the top of the hill and stood facing the fence line where the dogs had gone.  Both flocks of sheep ran up and clustered around Josie who was extremely alert - all of them turned to watched the fence line and the dogs.  The dogs were not barking, although the coyote kept yipping.  Then Josie The Mule went to see what was going on.  The sheep stayed where all bunched watching the spot the dogs and Josie had gone to.   Finally Bubba came walking back from the fence line, followed by one Rika.  As he passed them they turned to watch him go by and, reassured by his calm attitude resumed grazing.  Now they are all clustered round Josie the Mule grazing on the top of the hill.  Amazing dogs and mule working together to protect our flock.  Amazing how the sheep respond to danger knowing the dogs will protect them.  They just stayed in one bunch waiting t see what the dogs did.

We had 2 peacocks and 2 peahens on our roof this am.  All juveniles.  I would have chased them into the yard to eat bugs, but the dogs wanted to kill them.  They are strong fliers and are the descendants of Dr. LeBounty's flock, a veterinary who lived about half a mile away.  His wife loved fowl of any kind and many people disposed of their unwanted Easter chicks and ducks by quietly dropping them over her fence at night!  Sadly both LeBounty's are gone now, along with the waterfowl, but the descendant of their original peacocks still delight residents here in the spring during mating season when they display their beautiful tails on our streets.  Their piercing screams during mating season are another story!  It sounds like someone is being painfully murdered!  The 4 on our garage roof were juveniles from this years hatch.  The cocks did not have any adult plumage yet.

Got to put up tomato cages around the last 3 tomato plants that I replaced the squash with when we got back from Yelm.  Those seem to be surviving in their bucket fortresses, so might as well put up the cages before they get too large and sprawling.  We won't get any tomatoes since we will be gone all July but the family can enjoy them.


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## B&B Happy goats

Nice team work you got going with the dogs and mule, absolutely  love it !...peacocks are in the pasture next to us, escaped  from somewhere  and have been a nuisance  for the last four month, NOISY screaming birds going directly into my hearing aide, talk about driving you nuts, oh my gosh...I want to pull their tail feathers and feed them to my dogs, lol


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## Ridgetop

They scream big time during breeding season.  That was about 4-5 months ago here.  Now the juveniles are out and looking for new territory.  Coyotes will probably get most of them even though they are strong flyers.

I am always amazed at the way the dogs work together without seemingly any communication.  Wonderful animals!  Josie The Mule is a great help too,  Mules are able to kill cougars so between the 4 of them, we should avoid visits from the big cats.

0439 lambed last night right on schedule.  Large single ram lamb.  DS1 suggested culling her since she had a single her first time too.  I don't want to since she is a clean shed so I looked up her history a nd she has a set f=of split twins last October.  Since January 13, 2020 she has now produced 4 lambs, single ram 1/13/20; split twins 10/11/20; and another single ram 6/19/21.  No problems lambing.  3 lambings in 18 months means she stays.    She is one of the 2 surviving ewes I have from Travis Blackburn's Axtell flock which has brought in some new bloodlines.  8111 is due tomorrow.  She is huge so hoping for twins.  Her daughter had two pretty ewe lambs on June 3, and is a wonderful mother.  

Smalley bred another ewe yesterday so he is right on the job.  

Baby Annabel is sick so DD2 and family will not be coming to Father's Day dinner.  She offered to send Dominic and DGD2 but  told her to keep them home.  DD1's family is leaving on a camping trip on Wednesday and we are heading to Texas in 2 weeks  We haven't escaped Covid to be felled by a summer cold!  🤧🤒😷

Only 8 days to close of Yelm escrow!  

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!


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## Baymule

Whoop! Closing on Yelm!  Crossing my fingers, toes and eyes, that nothing goes amiss this time!

What is your ETA for Texas?


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## Ridgetop

Here is the recipe I promised to post for Baymule.

*Recipe for Summer Pickles *
These are a bread and butter type pickle made with zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, red bell peppers and onions.

2 medium onions sliced thin
2 sweet red bell peppers sliced thin strips
1 quart zucchini squash sliced about 1/4" thick
1 quart crookneck squash sliced about 1/4" thick

Toss vegetables all together in large bowl, sprinkle with 1/4 cup pickling salt, cover with ice water for 2 hours.  Drain well - do not rinse.

Syrup
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
4 cups white sugar
1 tsp. turmeric
2 tsps. celery seed
1 1/2 tsp. mustard seed
2 tsps. powdered alum
1 cinnamon stick, broken

In a large kettle, bring syrup ingredients to a boil, then simmer 10 minutes.  Add drained squash, onions, and peppers.  Bring pickles to a full boil and IMMEDIATELY remove from heat.   Put in clean hot jars leaving 1/2" headspace.

Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

This recipe will make 4 pints.  I usually put it in the taller 12 ounce jars which will make 7 of these jars.  I like them in the taller jars so you can see the colors.  This is a pretty pickle for gifts too.


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## Ridgetop

IF Yelm closes we will be leaving on July 5 or 6.  I had hoped to leave sooner but we have a baptism on 4th July.  Also DGD1's birthday on July 2.  I have to phone Weatherford Campground and make sure we can get in that week.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Ridgetop said:


> IF Yelm closes we will be leaving on July 5 or 6.  I had hoped to leave sooner but we have a baptism on 4th July.  Also DGD1's birthday on July 2.  I have to phone Weatherford Campground and make sure we can get in that week.


Fingers crossed that Yelm closes!


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## Baymule

Do you have to go to Yelm for the closing?


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## Ridgetop

DISASTER STRIKES!          

Our normal campground in Weatherford where we have stayed every summer for over a  month says they have NO vacancies!!!  All summer!!!  
    We were looking forward to shedding a few Covid lbs. in that pool!


I have to find another campground somewhere for us to stay in our 5th wheel.  Must have hookups and pool.  Going on line to look for something.  Worried that everyone will be going to Texas for summer vacation since it is open and maskless.  I couldn't make any reservations earlier since I had to make sure that Yelm would close, and have never had any problems getting reservations even at the last minute before!  Particularly when you want to stay for a long term stay.

If worst comes to worst Kris, our TX agent and friend, has said we can park on his property.  He put in a lovely pool last year too.  I hate to impose though - always like to stay somewhere on our own.

Better start the search.


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## Ridgetop

SUCCESS!!!   

Found a site in Rusk at the Koa there.  My main requirements were a POOL!  Got to work off this Covid weight.  They have a salt water pool.     Reserved for 2 months although probably will return home prior to September.  

Closer to Bay and BJ, not so close to Erick, or Kris.  But relatively closer to the area in which we will be looking for our ranch.  In the Piney Woods area so we will experience that area.  Loved the Weatherford Campground, so hopefully this one will be lovely too.  Relieved!

8111 has not lambed yet, but her vulva whitish pink and tight, yesterday turned red and loose.  Not long now.  She is big as a house too.  3rd time mom, so no worries.

DD2 is coming over today with DGD2 & 3.  she has a job interview and wants to leave them here.  we are leaving at 11:00 am to play bridge.  She was upset first but DDIL2 and DS1 will be here so no worries.  I will set up the portacrib in my room for Annabel.  It is good for the girls to learn to rely on each other instead of always on mom and dad.  DD1 would have bee thrilled to have the DGDs but they left this morning early on their way to the Grand Canyon on vacation.   Who goes to the Grand Canyon in the summer when _*Arizona is having a heat advisory*_?!  And they have a pool in their back yard!!!  Ever hear of a Staycation?!  However, unless he goes away poor DSIL1 gets calls from his office about work.  He told us that he thinks the reception at GC won't be very good so don't call them.  Maybe that is why they are going there!  LOL

We have temporary custody of Truffle - DS2's Guinea Pig.


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## Ridgetop

Update on lambing.  8111 has nice ram lamb up nursing and a nose poking out.  Closed gate to barn to let her get on with it.  As I left she was laying back down to push.  Hopefully a ewe lamb this time.  

Doing laundry this morning.  With so many people in the house plus a baby it seems that the washer and dryer are never free.  Asserted priority this am.  3 or 4 loads to do, including bedding, towels, etc.  Washing the new pair of overalls I bought in Yelm for DH.  I will have to hem them up too.  Going to take the old pairs that are just a tad too small and add a gusset to them so he can button up the sides.  it is fine to wear them gaping open here at home, but he forgets and leaves to do errands!       One pair I lengthened unsuccessfully using a different denim fabric.  Doesn't look good.  I will cut those off to shorts and use the cut off portions for the gussets in both pairs of overalls.  DH loves his overall "rompers".  Maybe he will start  new trend in Texas!  Summer wear for the farm crowd.    That will give him 2 pair of rompers and 3 pair of proper overalls.  

Going down to check 8111 and iodine cords.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> Do you have to go to Yelm for the closing?


Sorry - No, we will have a traveling notary come to our house to sign all the paperwork.  
we cleaned out all we wanted to take on our last trip and since the buyers asked for the fridge we don't need to go back to deal with that.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Worried that everyone will be going to Texas for summer vacation


I think I'd rather go to TX for a winter vacation than a summer one! Too dang hot in the summer.


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## Ridgetop

So 8111 had split twins, 2nd lamb was a nice ewe lamb.  Iodined cords before left for bridge.  Need to weigh them this evening when I go feed.  Will vaccinate 3 lambs and dock ewe lamb tomorrow.

Got a lot of Bridge Club business work to take care of before we leave for Texas.  Need to send out letters telling membership that we will be back to playing on July 14.  Vaccinated persons and those who have recovered from Covid do not need to wear masks.  No refreshments.  We cannot demand to see verification of vaccination so honor system.  Need to email Board.

Next 3 days will be full - appointments and trip to pick up meat.  Neighbor has not paid me for lamb yet  Wants to pay with some computer type thing (not Pay Pal but similar) but we don't do that and Marv told him last week to just send us a check.  Haven't got it yet.   Cash would work too, but they are liberals and are taking this Covid separation very seriously.  May just have to pick up their meat with ours.  I sent them an email 2 weeks ago and also when we dropped off the lambs a month ago.  No reason for this delay, usually they are really prompt.  However, just saw really nice Australian lamb loin chops at Costco for $7.99 lb.  Lamb is getting cheaper than beef!

This weekend I have to clean 5th wheel and remove the emergency food stored there.   Then empty all storage areas and repack for Texas trip.  Start loading our clothes too.  The more that is done now the less to do over 4th July weekend.  We were going to wait to shoo for groceries until we got to Weatherford, but now that we are going to a KOA in Rusk, we need to make sure that there is a Walmart close by.  I will check on line.  The canned goods and bottled water, etc. can be loaded and carried from here, but fresh veg and fruit needs to be bought on arrival.  

Looks like shopping is at a minimum so since we won't know our way around, we will have to stop and shop on the way in to this location.  Knew where everything was in Weatherford (usual RV place) but this is new area for us so . . . .
We'll figure it out but sad because everything was so close in Weatherford.  Easy to shop since refrigeration is tiny in 5th wheel.  Will need to bring coolers to ice down water and some stuff outside trailer.  New adventures!


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## Baymule

When are you leaving and when is your ETA in Rusk? We get our girls from the 7-17 of July while their parents scamper off to Italy. We also get their 3 dogs. With Paris abandoning her beloved back yard for her new throne, under the south end of the porch, at least we can put them in the back yard for going potty. Would like to see y’all with and without kids. It would be easier to come see y’all and maybe go look at a few properties without bored children. Then y’all could come see us and see our new ewes.


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## Ridgetop

Or bring them to swim in the KOA salt water pool.  Then have burgers.

We plan to be arriving in Rusk around July 8-9 depending on whether we leave July 5 or 6.  I am not sure when Kris will have places lined up for us to look at.  We will have a time crunch with only 30+ days of our 45 day period to find and identify a property.  We have 180 days to finalize purchase but will want to be present for discovery and inspections.

Weighed the twins from 8111.  Hair ewe and wooly ram both weighing in at 9 lbs. each.  No problem lambing.  This is a 3rd time mama, deep bodied with excellent topline, not too tall, but really pretty and giving he that beautiful topline on her lambs.  One of my favorites.

Bubba has changed a lot too from his first earlier years of hysteria over babies to calm behavior around the jugs.  Instead of trying t take the lambs away from me when ai weighed them, he just sniffed and licked the lambs a bit.  I actually put the ram lamb on the ground for him to love on a little and he was very gentle with the baby while I put away the hanging scale.  As a treat he got yummy afterbirth.
  < Him, not me!     Me >  
Anyway, all lambs doing well, first set of twins are losing their tails after banding.  One in pen today.  Will get it this evening when I rake out that pen.  Another treat for Bubba?

4 days to go.


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## Baymule

I still like that 40+ acres with the smallish brick house in Crockett. You could always add on a room. Let me see if I can find the link. BRB


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## Baymule

5104 FM 227 E
					

Come relax in beautiful Grapeland on this 45.71 Acre property, complete with a three bedroom home. The terrain is rolling, and is full of gorgeous hardwood trees. Outdoors is a 40x30 barn, on a slab,




					www.landsoftexas.com


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## Baymule

This place is on Palestine, great house. No pasture, all trees. The money you get for selling timber goes towards a Bull dozer to clean up the mess. We know a guy for that…. Then fence and barns. 









						5104 FM 227 E
					

Come relax in beautiful Grapeland on this 45.71 Acre property, complete with a three bedroom home. The terrain is rolling, and is full of gorgeous hardwood trees. Outdoors is a 40x30 barn, on a slab,




					www.landsoftexas.com


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## Baymule

Bringing the girls to swim would be lots of fun. We’ll definitely do that!
You said you’ll be back to play bridge on the 14th, that doesn’t give you much time to look around here! Can’t they play bridge without y’all? LOL LOL


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## Ridgetop

Actually I think that property in Crockett sold last March.    I definitely was considering it since it was good size for rental and we could redo before moving in.  Then add another BR or more living space.  But I can have Kris look it up. And I still like the 77 acres on the RR tracks.  2/3 wooded 1/3 hay fields and pasture.  I don't think it sold and planned to look it up and possibly make a lower offer due to condition of 2nd house and electrical problems, and possible septic problems on both.   Needed more leach lines.  Would need a complete renovation of kitchen when we move in but could be done.  Enough space in rest of house.  Got to see what is out there.  

I won't be coming back by the 14th for bridge.  I am arranging for the VP and Secretary to deal with reopening.  I just have to send out the letters and have everyone respond to Fred.  We won't be coming back until August sometime.  I have 3 ewes due to lamb August 12, 13, 14 but they are second and third timers so no worries there.  DS1 can handle it.  Other 2 ewes aren't due till end of August.  Next group in November.  I will leave a list of ewes to move in and out of the breeding pen for DS1.  He is capable of doing everything himself except pulling lambs without me.  His hands are too big to get inside.

Trying to close on time but might have a couple day delay.  The title company says they "didn't realize it was a 1031 Exchange".  Must not have read my multiple emails!  They don't have the 1031 paperwork from IPX.  I know that Patrick from IPX emailed them because he sent me a copy.  She was going to arrange to send out the notary tonight but luckily I reminded her of the 1031.  I told her not to bother sending anyone out since I would not sign anything without the 1031 paperwork completed.  Not taking chances with the IRS.  

Swimming with the kids would be great and there is also a nice playground at the KOA.  I will check to see if I have to book the pool during the week for visitors.   Probably not, but you never know with Covid.  Are the granddaughters going to name the new ewes?


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## Baymule

We already named them before we even got them home. BJ came up with Dessa and I came up with Dolly.

Glad y’all aren’t in a hurry to get back, gives you more time to find your farm. Any place you find is going to take work putting in the personal touches that makes it yours. The right place is out there waiting on you.

What’s with title companies anyway? And finance companies too! I know you aren’t financing, thank your lucky stars you only have one incompetent to deal with. The best part is you don’t have to be there for closing.


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## Bruce

How long do you have to buy a new rental for the 1031?


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## Ridgetop

45 days from date of closure of escrow to IDENTIFY and 180 days to complete purchase.  You can identify up to 3 properties but must purchase one of those identified in the 45 day period.  We will be short by about 10-12 days due to not getting to Texas before July 8 or 9.  If we have a problem it will come out of baby Robert's inheritance since we have to be in town for his baptism on July 4!    

DH says we will try to spend the children's inheritance before we go.  🐑🚢🚜🍾🍹😎


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## Ridgetop

Into our coffins that is.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> We already named them before we even got them home. BJ came up with Dessa and I came up with Dolly.


Just as well.  2 of ours, named by granddaughters are Fairysparkle and Sparkleshine.  Why not just Snowy?  

Signing escrow papers tonight at 7:30 pm PDT


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## Baymule

The last one they named is Frimplepants. 

Signing tonight! It’s really real! Yay!!!!


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## Ridgetop

Better to name them yourselves!  LOL


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## farmerjan

Did the papers get signed???? Is it a done deal?????


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## Baymule

Enquiring minds want to know!


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## Ridgetop

Agent Jerry called this am and said that buyers are signing loan docs now.  He suggested that we go ahead and close today to which I replied "YES!"
Apparently these buyers bought the place unseen and only with a video.  No wonder I couldn't place them. Jerry got a call that they wanted to actually look at the property and was surprised, but their agents said that they work mostly with military families this way.  Apparently, they had only seen the property on video.  

Whichever one is military is probably being stationed to Fort Lewis.  I think it is a joint Army Marine Base which would fit with the buyers coming from Seaside, CA.  Seaside has a Naval Postgrad school.  Hope they like the property.  So glad it is going to a military person!  My aunt's first cousin was a navy man and when in San Diego for leave MJ would pick him and his buddies up and they would go bar crawling.  She managed to get them back on ship after visiting all the bars in SD by end of leave!   My (second) cousin was laughing hysterically as he told me this story.  Good times!!!

Anyway, everything on our side is in line to close.  Called IPX this am to find out about how to get the $$$ transferred to them and they said that they don't send instructions for transfer until escrow closes so that works.  Also got some good info about when we move in and convert it from income property to personal residence.  Apparently you have to file a specific form with IRS.

Also trying to decide whether our decision to pay cash then refi is worthwhile, or whether we should just go ahead and take out a loan to finance additional funds to get a larger and better property.  Really debating the $$$ sense of depleting savings and selling stock.  Don't want to sell at a loss and conversely don't want to sell the good stuff that has gained a lot!  What we really want is to have ur cake and eat it too!!!  

Will have to see what is available in the next week.  Then we would do our dog perimeter fencing on our trips back to Texas several times a year.  *NOTDURING THE SUMMER MONTHS!!!*  Working in summer heat is not a good idea. However, we can come back during nicer weather to do the fencing, RV cover, and any barn building.  

So much to do to get ready to leave in next week.  Here is my schedule since last Wednesday:

*Wednesday* - Bridge with dear friends - they are not doing well with their cancer so if they are feeling well enugh to play bridge we want to do it.
*Thursday* - Nail appointment and made appointment for haircut before leaving.  DH took trailer batteries to shop to have checked (no water) and charged.  Clean barn jugs.
*Friday* - Odyssey Restaurant to sign contract for wedding venue (DD2) then have to meet traveling notary to sign closing escrow papers.
*Saturday *- Pick up lambs at butcher - deliver to neighbor to p/u our check.  Saturday afternoon started emptying drawers and cabinets, repacking trailer for trip.  DH emptying trailer belly to check over his necessary supplies - drain hoses, fill hoses etc.  Also flushing water tank.  Checking propane cylinders.  Clean barn jugs.
*Sunday *- A/C on - Spent all day in trailer emptying cabinets, drawers, and under sofa storage. DGD1 came over to stay while parents took DGS1 to San Diego to camp. She "helped" and watched videos in trailer under A/C while I replaced storage area. Found out that she could fit inside empty storage area. Made plans to stow away when we leave for Texas. Unfortunately for her, storage area is now full.   Cleaned stove and fridge.  Found one door shelf has broken support - glued it (hope it holds) - will put a pressure bar under shelf to help support it and will switch position to top of fridge where only light items will be put.
*Monday* - Took care of more business on line (including BYH) LOL.  Made some calls,  and appointments for all 3 dogs shots.  Clean barn jugs.  DH picking up trailer load of hay.  Got to finish trailer emptying and cleaning.  
*Tuesday *- Call power company to shut off power, call Vivant Security ditto, once escrow closes.  Finish cleaning trailer so DH can close up and move it to field.  Wants to get another trailer load of hay and park the trailer on the driveway where 5th wheel usually goes.  This means that I have to start packing trailer with clothes.    
*Wednesday* - Bridge with dear friends.  Move DS2's car onto field to park since he is driving Black Dragon.
Thursday - 3:30 pm appointment vet.  Then start setting out clothes to finish loading trailer.  Finish packing business files, office supplies, etc. to work on stuff while in TX.  DH pick up another trailer load of hay and park stock trailer in 5th wheel parking space.  
*Thursday* - Vet appointment for 3 dogs.  Cleaning house, getting ready for Baptism party, etc.  Get out sewing machine and hem DH's new overalls, cut off and hem "rompers" and insert gussets in both pairs of shorty overalls (rompers).  What the well dressed rancher wears on vacation!  LOL)  If time sew up some doll clothes for DGD1's birthday.  Wrap DGD1's birthday presents.
*Friday* - Hitch 5th wheel and pull into driveway.  DGD2 birthday.  Get ready for Baptism party here.  Finish packing clothes, start packing fridge with a few things.  Most fresh food will buy when arrive in TX on way to campground.  
*Saturday *- 10:00 am hair cut and possible "touch up" of my natural platinum blonde hair.   11:00 nail appointment - cut them short.  Errands to pick up anything needed for trip.
*Sunday - *Get ready for baptism party.  Baptism at 1:30 - party immediately afterwards.  4th July BBQ at DD1's house?  Back to ours for firework watching.  
*Monday - up at 5am to leave for Texas.  DH hopes to make Albuquerque first day.*

*What have I forgotten?  I will remember it halfway to Texas!  *


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## Ridgetop

Remembered stuff I forgot last night but forgot what it was by this morning!  I hope I will remember what state we are going to!  Will rely on DH and his GPS.  

Ran out and put on coffee this am.  Then ran to barn to feed lambs and mamas.  Then into the office to cancel electric and security company in Yelm.  Received email from 1031 people needing more docs to arrange money transfer from escrow company.  Took care of that and a few other items, then sent email to Bridge club board re meeting about resuming play.  I won't be here so they may decide to wat until I return.  No one wants to take over on my absence.     DH and I packing office stuff we will need for purchase in Texas.  Packed some clothes to transfer to trailer and put away.  Still cleaning up out there and removing stuff.  We use the trailer as storage for a lot of camping supplies and  emergency food supplies.  Remember the several hundred rolls of TP?

Went to reheat my coffee and DH had consumed the entire pot.  Just nuked my cold coffee - hadn't drunk any yet!  Too busy.

Back to trailer, then repair bed frame.  Good news though, checked our the banquette in trailer which we hate.  Got it thinking it would do for extra bed for grandkids but they would rather sleep  a tent outside.    Anyway the banquette was installed after the carpet and wall coverings were already in.  This means that we can just unscrew the seats and remove them.  We will leave the table and use folding chairs.  Much more comfortable.  We lose a little under seat storage, but I will use the drawer fronts as cabinet doors and build in storage under the bed.  The bed lifts up for max storage but it is heavy so by putting in drawers or doors, we can access areas at the head of the bed which is almost unreachable without propping up the bed platform with a 2x4 and crawling in there.  Always afraid it will come down on to of me too!  

More later.


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## Baymule

Monday heading to Texas!!    

We get our 3 granddaughters and their 3 dogs on the 8th. BJ has prostate surgery on Friday the 2nd, check up Tuesday the 6th. Then his next check up will be after we return the girls and dogs to their parents. He’ll be taking it easy, perfect time to have the kids! We’ll come see y’all and have fun.


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## Margali

Ridgetop said:


> Anyway the banquette was installed after the carpet and wall coverings were already in.  This means that we can just unscrew the seats and remove them.  We will leave the table and use folding chairs.


Is yours the built-in U shape sized for toothpicks? I took off the end seat and turned our into an L. Kept 2/3 of storage and doubled cushion turns L into decent reading spot. We use folding TV trays and chairs instead of one massive table. Soo much more room.


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## HomeOnTheRange

Ridgetop said:


> DH hopes to make Albuquerque first day.


Hey, that is my neck of the desert!


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## Ridgetop

No, we had the U shaped one in the camper because it fit over the wheel wells.  This is 2 benches with the table in the middle.  It is ok, except is becoming a tight fit for DH, and sliding in over the cushions requires some contortions that my body (while "in my prime") finds difficult.  The worst part of the banquette is that the cushions are not that thick so when  you sit on them they compress down, leaving the table at chest height.  Not so bad for eating, but difficult to use the computer with the keyboard under my chin.  I have to sit on a "booster seat" of all the towels and extra cushions.  Using the folding chair that we are taking with us I find that the table height might still be slightly tall, but after removing the banquettes we can cut the metal table support poles down about an inch or so and it will be fine.  Looking forward to doing this trailer renovation when we return.  And adding access doors to the under bed box using the drawer fronts on the banquette.  LOL

Played bridge today with "mom" and Don.  They are not doing well and are failing rapidly.  "Mom" says she doesn't know if she will last the year out.  Breaks my heart to see her so frail.  Don is having lots of problems with his meds.  The doctors have raised the level of his cancer meds and they are causing massive dizzy spells, loss of vision. etc. The spells wear off in about an hour, but he can't drive while having them.  Very worrisome.  His daughter is an MD and is coming up tomorrow to go to his doctor with him so hopefully more info will be coming about his prognosis.

Rushed home after bridge to finish cleaning out the trailer so DH could close it up and hitch ready to take it tomorrow for new tires.  While hosing it off, DS1 discovered that the rubber/plastic seal had dried out and was cracking and pulling out.  "No problem" said DH "since it won't rain in Texas in the summer".  "No" said I, "Remember it rained every summer for at least one day or night?.  We need to fix this seal!"  DH has now decided to buy the seal and we will put to  before leaving on Monday.  It comes in rolls at the trailer store and you pinch it together and insert it in the channel.  I told him to get enough for both sides because I noticed that the other side at the back corner looks to be breaking too.  Usually DH puts the trailer into the shop for a going over before any long trip.  Nothing usually needs to be done on it so this year he decided that it didn't need anything.  Naturally, a la Ridgetop luck, it needs work!  DS1 and DS2 are both home for the holiday weekend so I am going to see if I can get them to do it for us.  Otherwise, I will have to get up on the ladder.  Apparently DS1 told DH abut the problem several months ago but DH did not hear him or forgot.    Since DH's hearing has gotten very bad, and he agrees with whatever you say without actually hearing it, it is completely probable that he did not hear DS1 telling him that the water seal was bad.  So another last minute chore that MUST be done.  We have a telescoping ladder that we travel with so if necessary I can do it in the campground.

Got most of our clothes loaded this am.  Just have shoes, socks, PJs, underwear, meds, cosmetics, etc. to go.  Except that as I was putting DH's shorts in the closet I noticed a tear in one pair so need to mend them tomorrow.  Also need to laundry.  And go to the grocery store and Costco just before we leave.  Normally we would have the trailer parked in its spot and plugged in so the fridge and freezer would be available to load.  BUT DH is parking it on the field tomorrow when he returns after replacing the tires.  This is so he can take the stock trailer to get another trailer load of h ay.  He plans to park the stock trailer full of hay in the trailer parking in the driveway so Josie The Mule can't help herself to the hay bales.  This means that he won't be able to pull the trailer into the driveway heading out until Saturday.  Another problem is that I need the side extension extended to access the freezer and fridge.  They don't want to put it out unless they can level it and that can't be done on the narrow driveway.  I am going to tell them to put it out just enough to open the fridge and load it.  Then they can close it up.  Half an hour is all I will need for that job.  I am going to gather the meat we are taking (lamb chis and steaks into a plastic bag ready to toss into the freezer compartment.  We won't need a lot of stuff since I can stop at a Walmart n the way to the campground to complete our shopping.

At any rate, I finished cleaning out the trailer ready to close up.  I was exhausted and it was getting late so DDIL2 made dinner.  DH and DS1 hitched the trailer.  After dinner DH and I collapsed on the couch and dozed our way through 2 shows before deciding we should go to bed.  I staggered into the bathroom and brushed my teeth without opening my eyes - quite a trick - and fell into bed with DH.  He immediately dropped off while my eyelids popped wide open and stayed that way for an hour and a half!  I finally got up and came in to take care of any emails.  The Bridge club board members had all returned my email stating that they want to wait till August to resume play at Joslyn.  Now I need to notify Joslyn that we want to keep the room but not return till August.     Many of them say they are afraid of the Variant (wimps) and don't like the idea of "honor system" verification of vaccinations.  Again, wimps, and if they are all vaccinated what are they afraid of?  Oh well.  Personally I think they just want to wait until I am back to deal with everything.  

*Governor Gruesome is now talking about requiring us to wear masks inside our hoes because of this "variant".  I'm not even wearing a mask anywhere outside anymore.  Try and make me!  This has become a control issue rather than a health issue.*

Coyotes are active tonight and very vocal.  Dogs are working hard.  Coyotes are practically over running the entire area, across the valley, through Burbank and into Glendale.  Yesterday DH saw a piece of LGD behavior that really impressed him as to the efficacy of their teamwork.  He has several times voiced his concerns that Angel at 30 months may not be a very good guardian dog.  He bases this on the fact that she is usually sleeping when he sees her.  I tried to point out to him that since we don't wander around in the middle of the night wearing night vision goggles we don't see her actually working but he was not convinced.  I pointed out to him that Rika has turned over most of the night guard duties to Angel but again not convinced.  Yesterday that changed.

DH's story:       
"While feeding the sheep this morning I was standing by the water trough filling it when I saw Angel shoot down into the gully, up the other side and into the fence corner that commands a view over the neighbor's acreage and into the open 100 acres.  Immediately after Angel came Bubba and Rika.  Angel was on high alert with her tail standing straight up into the air.  Bubba and Rika's tails were also in the air - which is Anatolian language for "Watch out - there may be a dangerous situation.  I will check t out and if necessary I will kill it/them".  Bubba ran halfway down into the gully, pausing where he could see across the gully and part of the 100 acres.  Rika moved across the flat top of the field, pausing on the edge of the gully between the sheep who were placidly eating hay, and the gully.  Angel let out one warning bark and then stood watching the brush in the gully on the other side of the fence intently.  Bubba and Rika faced the same way Angel was indicating by her stance.  After about 15 minutes with no further barking from Angel, Rika turned and came back to her cool daytime bed (she had spent art of the night on night guard).  10 minutes after Rika left Bubba returned to the top of the gully where he also lay down.  Angel remained on watch for another 10 minutes then did a complete patrol of the fence line."  DH was very impressed with the  LGD's teamwork.  
DS1 broke it down this way:
Angel, the youngest and fastest of the trio, acted as scout and point guard.
Bubba, massive and in his prime, is the heavy muscle.
Rika, experienced and savvy, is the brains of the group.  

Here is my interpretation:
Angel has come into her own.  Although still young, she is fast and now experienced in what constitutes a threat.  She went all the way down and up the other side at a dead run to inspect the danger.  She kept her tail up as a warning that there was possible trouble.  Remained at her post until the danger left, then did a perimeter patrol to reassure herself that all was safe.  She dropped her tail once she decided that the danger was gone.
Bubba came halfway down the gully.  He is the heavy muscle capable of killing a coyote or 2 by himself with one bite.  He took up his position halfway between Angel (on point guard) and Rika, remaining with the flock.  In that position he could advance to assist Angel, or fall back to assist Rika who remained near the sheep eating on the flat.
Rika, older and experienced, remained between the flock and the gully.  In that position, if a coyote managed to decoy Angel out of the way, allowing one or 2 coyotes to sneak in behind her and get to the flock, Rika was waiting for them.  

This incredible teamwork is what keeps our flock safe even when the brush is thick (when we get rain).  With the current coyote load we have - and with the coyotes running in packs of 5-10 members,  these 3 dogs work hard.  Teamwork keeps our sheep alive.  The last couple of instances of teamwork in our working dogs will make a good article for the Anatolian Times magazine.  With Rika getting older, we need another pup.  I am on the puppy list with Erick.  I hope we can get another puppy before Rika is too old (and grouchy) to train her.  Yes, we will get a bitch.  Bubba is in his prime and in another 2 years will still be too young to accept another adult male Anatolian.  With a bitch, the age differences between the new female and the 2 older ones will be workable.

Dog appointments tomorrow afternoon for vaccinations.  Shots are due in August but Bubba needs his rabies shot now.  Can't let that go with the number of coyotes around.  Will a;so treat for fleas tomorrow.  Oh yes, and got a reminder that Bubba need an eye exam scheduled for July - it will have to be August at this point.  And the DR. appointment I scheduled for July because I thought we would be gone in June will have to be rescheduled too.     The end is in sight though. . . .

*TEXAS - HERE WE COME!!!     
*


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## Baymule

I love your description of how the Anatolians work together. What awesome dogs. I love the breed. I love my Great Pyrenees, but I don’t love their thick fluffy, tends to matted if not constantly cared for, coat. Also don’t like their tendencies to roam. It’s their duty to escape and go wandering. I’ll always keep my Anatolians.

That’s a lot of preparation! So many things on your check list, but you have done this many times before. You are so organized, I’m so impressed. LOL And tell your sweet husband that it does too rain in Texas in the summer. It’s hurricane season and even if we don’t get the full impact, we get rains from hurricanes. Sometimes we do look longingly at the weather radar in acute disappointment as the rains go elsewhere, it’s a crapshoot.

Can’t wait to see y’all!


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## Ridgetop

Well, feeling a bit disappointed about the properties available for sale.  On the computer all day looking at properties and weeding them out.    So many properties have been cut into 10 acre parcels.  

Several we will look at, most more than we want to pay for fewer acres or small homes in poor condition.  No problem since if we don't find a ranch   we can invest the 1031 $$ in something else. Main need is max acreage since the house will be rented and can be renovated when we move out here.  
Thee are a couple we will look at this weekend an hour south of Tyler.  There are another 3-4 north of Tyler.  We have several weeks to find something.  Maybe our dream property will come up for sale next week!  

I suppose there is always southern Oklahoma.  Or I hear that Tennessee is really nice and still affordable.    Gotta keep looking and hope God will find us something.


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## Baymule

How disappointing. Something will come up for you.


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## Mini Horses

It's good that you are open to other areas than TX. 

 For me it would be "general" weather year round to tolerate first, then look of land, then prices.   So fire, drought, tornado, etc...those prone areas are out!   6 months of snow, out!  Desert, out-- I like green.  I've traveled a lot and find I'm pretty happy with where I am. 🤔.  Lucky me!


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## Ridgetop

My heart is in Texas!     It was nice and green in the eastern panhandle as we crossed from New Mexico but I know that is just until everything dries out.  We missed the best buying time by listening to the previous WA agent who told us there was no market.  What he meant was that he was not ready to buy our property then.  We could have sold it then as a single family home with no problem, half the work, and the same amount of money.   No use crying over spilt milk.  I need to shape myself up with a slap upside the head!  

DH says we will find what God has in mind for us.  Thank God for that man!  🥰


Going to chew on the wound a bit by looking back through all the listings again.  😒


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## farmerjan

I guess patience is the word of the day.... Hope something comes up.....


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## Ridgetop

In for a long 2 days of property shopping.  Kris is staying the night down here and we will start early tomorrow again.

He is getting a motel room - the thought of our trailer sofa bed didn't appeal to him!  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Saw 4 places yesterday.  Started up north of Tyler.

First was 45 acres of good hay and pasture, older 4/2 brick home in Yantis.  Huge old pecan trees and lots of yard shade.  Very solid BUT right on the main highway.  DH liked proximity to huge Lake Fork.  2 public boat ramps and water park within a mile.  450' deep well but only for irrigation and livestock.  Good fencing.

Second place was in 25 acres of woods in Ben Wheeler.  4/3.5 with beautiful oaks, but whole property a disaster. Reminded us of Yelm after tenant moved out, except these junk piles were metal, rusted out vehicles, miscellaneous junk as well as trash.  3 RUSTED AND BROKEN SWING SETS!!!  It would take a month of backbreaking work just to clear the property, and where would you take the trash?  That was before we even went into the house.  It would need $$$$$ and hard work to fix up.  Different levels of floors - both step down and sloping.  Lots of add ons which had no style or sense to them.  One room was added outside the MBR enclosing the windows so no windows in the MBR!!  DH got out of the truck, took one look around and tried to get back in the truck!  Told Kris "This dog ain't gonna hunt".  No pasture.  Owner pointed into woods and said he used to get 60 rolled bales of hay off the dimly seen area between the trees "before I let the trees kind of grow up".      In another lifetime maybe.  Owner kept trying to sell us the property but DH said just the kitchen would take a lot of work.  Owner made the mistake of asking what was wrong with the kitchen and DH pointed to the door hanging off the hinges and the board nailed across the hole.  Even the _track_ in to the house would have to be graded and graveled, couldn't call it a driveway.  Glad we could switch to 4WD!

Third place was 25 acres of beautiful grass hay in Canton.  House sat way in the back on the property line and was a newly remodeled 4/3.  But again the remodelers had taken an old house and remodeled it with a bad floor plan, glaring problems, and poor workmanship.  The home was said to have been built in 1961, but the original radiator connections were sticking up out of the floor with the new flooring cut around them!!! One bathroom (original) had a match lit gas wall heater like our old house built in 1920! Horrible floor plan, and bad layout of building on the property for us wanting to rent it out for the next few years to satisfy the 1031 requirements before moving back here.  No fencing.  Owner was selling 2 smaller adjacent parcels which might have meant incomers building mega mansions to surround our new sheep farm.  Back in the car pretty quick.

Fourth was the property DH was really interested in.  Two 1500 sf homes on 47 acres with several shop buildings in Jacksonville.  Drove through neighborhood of small properties to get there.  Then the acreage was narrow with all the pasture in the back of the buildings.  Pasture grass was ok but not taken care of.  Would not be able to get anyone in to mow and bale with equipment.  Newer cottage was cute but tiny.  Layout not great. Metal roofing on ceiling "cutesy" but would get tired of it quickly.  Best part was large carports and metal shop buildings.  One new shop building had an 10,000 lb. engine/car lift hoist that would stay.  Probably because one of the rafters ran through it so it couldn't be removed without taking out a rafter.   The shop and storage buildings were jammed in tight together and so were the 2 little houses.  Worst part was the neighborhood.  Houses surrounded the entire property and you could see the backs of the properties and all their stuff piled behind their storage buildings!  Maybe 200 feet to houses on either side!  No fencing and no privacy.  And to top it off, a loose German Shepherd chased our cars as we left.  Just the sort of "allowed to run loose" dog to come in after the sheep, get killed by our Anatolians. and cause a neighborhood crisis!

Off to see the last property in Palestine now.  More later.



One more place to see this morning.  45 acres in Palestine with a 2 acre pond and a large double wide.  Also an old metal 4 stall barn.  It comes in UNDER budget so might fit the bill.


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## farmerjan

Ridgetop said:


> Saw 4 places yesterday.  Started up north of Tyler.
> 
> First was 45 acres of good hay and pasture, older 4/2 brick home in Yantis.  Huge old pecan trees and lots of yard shade.  Very solid BUT right on the main highway.  DH liked proximity to huge Lake Fork.  2 public boat ramps and water park within a mile.  450' deep well but only for irrigation and livestock.  Good fencing.
> 
> Second place was in 25 acres of woods in Ben Wheeler.  4/3.5 with beautiful oaks, but whole property a disaster. Reminded us of Yelm after tenant moved out, except these junk piles were metal, rusted out vehicles, miscellaneous junk as well as trash.  3 RUSTED AND BROKEN SWING SETS!!!  It would take a month of backbreaking work just to clear the property, and where would you take the trash?  That was before we even went into the house.  It would need $$$$$ and hard work to fix up.  Different levels of floors - both step down and sloping.  Lots of add ons which had no style or sense to them.  One room was added outside the MBR enclosing the windows so no windows in the MBR!!  DH got out of the truck, took one look around and tried to get back in the truck!  Told Kris "This dog ain't gonna hunt".  No pasture.  Owner pointed into woods and said he used to get 60 rolled bales of hay off the dimly seen area between the trees "before I let the trees kind of grow up".      In another lifetime maybe.  Owner kept trying to sell us the property but DH said just the kitchen would take a lot of work.  Owner made the mistake of asking what was wrong with the kitchen and DH pointed to the door hanging off the hinges and the board nailed across the hole.  Even the _track_ in to the house would have to be graded and graveled, couldn't call it a driveway.  Glad we could switch to 4WD!
> 
> Third place was 25 acres of beautiful grass hay in Canton.  House sat way in the back on the property line and was a newly remodeled 4/3.  But again the remodelers had taken an old house and remodeled it with a bad floor plan, glaring problems, and poor workmanship.  The home was said to have been built in 1961, but the original radiator connections were sticking up out of the floor with the new flooring cut around them!!! One bathroom (original) had a match lit gas wall heater like our old house built in 1920! Horrible floor plan, and bad layout of building on the property for us wanting to rent it out for the next few years to satisfy the 1031 requirements before moving back here.  No fencing.  Owner was selling 2 smaller adjacent parcels which might have meant incomers building mega mansions to surround our new sheep farm.  Back in the car pretty quick.
> 
> Fourth was the property DH was really interested in.  Two 1500 sf homes on 47 acres with several shop buildings in Jacksonville.  Drove through neighborhood of small properties to get there.  Then the acreage was narrow with all the pasture in the back of the buildings.  Pasture grass was ok but not taken care of.  Would not be able to get anyone in to mow and bale with equipment.  Newer cottage was cute but tiny.  Layout not great. Metal roofing on ceiling "cutesy" but would get tired of it quickly.  Best part was large carports and metal shop buildings.  One new shop building had an 10,000 lb. engine/car lift hoist that would stay.  Probably because one of the rafters ran through it so it couldn't be removed without taking out a rafter.   The shop and storage buildings were jammed in tight together and so were the 2 little houses.  Worst part was the neighborhood.  Houses surrounded the entire property and you could see the backs of the properties and all their stuff piled behind their storage buildings!  Maybe 200 feet to houses on either side!  No fencing and no privacy.  And to top it off, a loose German Shepherd chased our cars as we left.  Just the sort of "allowed to run loose" dog to come in after the sheep, get killed by our Anatolians. and cause a neighborhood crisis!
> 
> Off to see the last property in Palestine now.  More later.
> 
> 
> 
> One more place to see this morning.  45 acres in Palestine with a 2 acre pond and a large double wide.  Also an old metal 4 stall barn.  It comes in UNDER budget so might fit the bill.


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## Baymule

Hauling off garbage of that magnitude can run into thousands. Couple up the road bought 3 acres, spent $12,000 hauling off the THREE wrecked out mobile homes hidden in the brush/vines/trees. Plus burned out log cabin and all the trash. That made them run out of money before they completed their small metal home, so their RV is still their kitchen and bathroom.


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## Mini Horses

Hope the one in Palestine is better.  So far, the one on the main highway is best of 3 you describe!   We all dislike the highways!  But I'd double fence that front and leave  good perimeter for ???? An orchard?  Grass?  Garden?  Flowers?? Farmers market??


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## Bruce

Right on the main highway would be a HELL NO for me even if there were an 8' high block wall.


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## Baymule

Me too. A paved farm road would be ok but even those are busy.


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## Ridgetop

Well we went to the Palestine property yesterday.  Property seems way outside town but  between probably because all surrounding property is heavily wooded.  We turned to soon and drove up a terrible dirt trail about a mile into what looked like a survivalist encampment except that most of the trailers were junkers used as storage.  Survivalists hide their camps much better.  LOL  Probably some "good ol' boys" huntin' camps.  NRA sticker on one trailer reassured us  LOL  Anyway, no one stopped us and we turned around and got back on highway.  Next turnoff was narrow one lane 2 mile dirt road leading to property.  No turnouts. Road needed some grading but much better that first one.  One home at beginning of dirt road and another about midway.  Cattle on both sides in open areas.  Got to end of road and locked gate which was property. House was double wide mobile.  Gorgeous!  Loved it and layout!     Home was beautifully kept, furnished, huge with 2 living spaces and 3/2.  Furniture was negotiable too.  Modern huge kitchen with large breakfast bar/island opening into FR with wood burning fireplace.  Off kitchen was laundry room with room for our huge chest freezer, and entry deck.  Another small deck opened off kitchen door.  There was a large dining room beyond family room 2ith another large second living room.  There was a large deck across the rear of the home opening from the living areas overlooking large lawn, large horse turnout adjacent to 36'x48' driveway barn, more turnout area to tree line which overlooked huge meadow leading to gorgeous lake.  2 large bedrooms with very nice bedroom and separate entrance to huge MBR with gorgeous bath.  

Walked down to lake which had some open area allowing launch of kayaks or small fishing boat onto huge 2 acre pond surrounded by woods.  Raised dirt road led behind lake with several culverts under the road to allow runoff when flooded.  Road dead ended at clearing into higher bank which showed signs of excavation. This was perfect place to set up rifle range.  Some open pasture areas sighted further back into woods too.  36'x48' metal horse barn drive through barn with tack room and some stalls built inside. Room to put portable jugs up with room for more.  Good grass on meadow and grazing/browsing in woods would be good too. 
*Ready to buy?  Wait for it -

Drawbacks* - The property didn't have much access or flat area.  Difficult access for haying or hay delivery. Couldn't log or sell timber to build another home because of difficult/no access for equipment and lumber trucks.  Fencing for dogs and sheep through woods would be extremely expensive although doable and could be confined to areas near house leaving the further woods open.  Heavy predator load.  Access to medical or emergency services and shopping for us at our age would be difficult.  Hilly -not as bad as our cliffside dwelling!  But everything was rolling land and would involve walking up and down slopes.  We were tired after walking back uphill from the lake.  

*LARGEST DRAWBACKS - Easements for power lines across meadow!  *The listing said 138 KV but there were 2 sets of lines. One was normal large poles and transformers (138KV), but the other was a huge metal tower line that DH said was a 500KV line. UGH! Funny thing was you couldn't see the power lines from the deck or yard since the trees at the edge of the yard hid them from view. You could only see the edge of one tower base to the left. There were large farm gates on either side of the property opening into the meadow - this was the power company easement! Can you imagine Bubba chasing the power linemen up the towers when they enter his meadow of sheep?!!  

*SECOND OF LARGEST DRAWBACKS - Two more easements for Oneak and Lone Star pipelines running diagonally across rear of property!   *These would probably be underground pipelines but you couldn't know unless you saddled up and rode into the woods.  Also would be another easement access for these pipelines.  There were large notices at the "good ol' boys" camp up the road abut pipelines, and more notices at the beginning of the 2 mile road to the property.  The 2 acre pond was in the middle of the acreage with both easements on either side of it.  

Great for a hunting, fishing, vacation home, but not so good for running our sheep and 
Anatolians.  Would be a great vacation destination for our family IF THEY WANTED TO DRIVE 3 DAYS TO GET HERE!  Buy it in a heartbeat if our family were living in Texas as a family vacation camp.  Considering buying it anyway if other offers don't go through.  
Beautiful!!!

Making Pro and Con lists on properties now.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Could you put it up on air bnb or other site for vacation rental?


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## Baymule

Slightly hilly is nice, but lurching up and down hill isn’t too much fun anymore. Downhill-lay down and roll? Uphill-you are SOL!


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## Ridgetop

Hills are great for views but not for every day feeding and checking flock.  Wonderful as vacation property.  Forgot to say that no AG exclusion puts property taxes at $3,000/yr.  High.

Air BNB is an option but would not want to rent property for less than 2 weeks due to having to get someone out to clean, sanitize, wash bedding & towels, remove trash, make beds. and replenish TP, etc.  Also check contents of home for damage.  Would need to charge large cleaning fee to get someone to go out there to clean since most cleaning services want to do a lot of houses close to each other in town.  Travel time loses them $$ unless you pay a premium for the time they would have to travel to property.

Has 3 bedrooms with beds for 6 (one bed is twin with trundle).  You could replace one large sofa with sofa bed to sleep 2 more.  But do you want that many people?  How much could you get for it and would it pay for cleaning, and breakages?

Have 30 more days (until midnight on 30th day) to find and identify property.  Maybe new properties coming on market soon. 

Then went back to look at Highway house.  45.8 acres in L shape with long side along hwy.  This would give option eventually to subdivide and sell off a couple of lots if we needed $$ down the road.  _*Would definitely double fence entire front fence line.  *_DH already looking into 6' deer fencing for perimeter of whatever we buy. 

Hwy house has 4 offers already - listed on June 21.  Also has a current pasture tenant for $1200/yr to graze his registered cattle (12-15 cows calving).  He also keeps up fences, sprays pasture, and can take crop of hay if he wants.  Grass is excellent condition.  Owner's son is her realtor and she showed us the house both times and gave us lots of information.  Lovely woman.  She is moving into Sulphur Springs since house and property has become too much for her she says.  House is in excellent shape.  Allowing for need to update carpet and paint can be rented as is.  Formica counters in kitchen and baths are in excellent condition so might wait to replace counter tops until we move in.  Lots of paneling, brick fireplace with insert.  Wallpaper needs to come down in bathroom where it is peeling over tub. and 

Hwy house was built in 1972 by current owner and her husband,  The farm was bought by them 65 years ago when husband came home from WWII.  Bought with his GI bill through Veterans' Land Board of State of Texas.  Her husband's family has been in Texas since 1830.  She and husband ran a small grocery in Yantis.  Their original farmhouse burned down in 1971 and they built this one themselves.  Extra heavy insulation and ceiling (attic floor) is shiplap.  As a side note the owner told us that in the side yard is a well (since filled in) that was used by travelers through area to water their mules, horses, and teams early in the 1800's until the auto age.  Love the historical details supplied by the owner.  Her late son wrote histories of the area and Wood county.  Oversize attic space (standing height) runs entire house and is accessed through crawl space in carport.  Duct work in attic can be moved to one side allowing full use of attic space. 

DH *really* likes this house, as well as the property and layout.  It is a nice open floor plan inside.  Open floor plan is not my favorite since I am a more formal person, but as I get older I have relaxed my entertainment style, and since I will give much of my entertainment dishes, chafing dishes, crystal, etc. to DDs and DDILs, this would work for us.   Nice size MBR has adjacent bath with oversize tiled shower at one end of the house while other 3 BRs and bath are at other end.  Would give us an office and guest room whie giving DS1 a room and some privacy.  We might live in this one while building another house on rear of property if we buy this.  Then keep current house as rental for extra income.

Easy 10 minutes to I30 to Dallas.  8 miles to Sulphur Springs - Walmart, Lowes, shopping etc.  10 minutes other way to public boat ramp and park on lake.  DH talking about buying boat if we were to buy this house - pontoon since we are too old to waterski anymore and floating on a big pontoon with friends sounds like fun in the summer.  (Dana and BJ take note!)

Kris said house would easily rent for $1200.  Owner said to check with her SIL (he is realtor in area) since there are no rentals available and would possibly rent for more.  It is 4 BR 2 BA 1900 sf so nice size with small carport.  Since we need to rent house for 2 years this is a good thing.  As is current pasture rental since tenant would like to stay and doesn't over graze.  Cattle fat and in great shape on grass.  Owner says her husband used to cut at least one cutting of hay every year and ran 20 cows with calves as well.  In drought years he would not cut hay, but grass stayed good for cows.

1 native pecan, 1 thin shell pecan in back yard.  Huge Catawba trees 3 sides of house keep house and yard cool. Community water for house - deep well will irrigate all property and water livestock but needs some sealing to be drinkable - has crack(?) allowing ground water to contaminate.  HVAC only 4 years old.  Metal roof.  Newer black appliances stay.  Extra large septic doesn't collect gray water.   Gray water leach lines - lines leach into front corner of pasture across driveway.  Some need repair or replacement since cows have tramped them and damaged some.  Need new lines and need to fence off that corner so cattle can't damage again.  Hot wire around corner came down allowing cows access.  Possibility to fence off leach lines and plant fruit trees inside the fence? 

Would have to put up large carport for trailer and truck.  Need barns and shop building (old barn is not in good condition but could be repaired).  There is small shed for tools as well about 8' or 10' x 12'.  Two ponds.  One needs to be dug deeper since it has been sloughed in by cows.  (Opportunity to dig both ponds deeper and use dirt to build firing range backdrop.)   Scattered large shade trees on property.  Hay farms on each side - easy to find someone to cut and bale our hay.  Or sell us hay if needed.

This property would be very nice for us *EXCEPT FOR HIGHWAY!  *DH said he would put in a circle drive so wouldn't have to back onto highway from driveway.  And would fence along front of house and install electric gates.  As investment with rental, this would work very well  Giving us a property in TX to move sheep, equipment, dogs, and selves to.  Then we could either build another house or buy another property after sale of our current house.

DH _loved _it though and the house fills the bill for a good rental for the next 2 years.  Red sandy loan soil with excellent grass hay pasture.  Put in an offer on it at full price.  Just heard this evening from Kris that we got it. Probably a good investment with highway frontage for access to subdivide if necessary.  Property in mountains was beautiful but at our ages we need_ more_ access to medical facilities, not less.  Could not subdivide or even build another house or building on it due to difficult access.  Price was good considering prices of properties we have seen, what house was like, and possibility of subdivision of 45.8 acres with access from highway.  If it doesn't go through for whatever reason (survey, inspection, etc.) we will be back where we started and have to start over.  Sheep and dogs won't be on property for 2 years so plenty of time to come back to property several times a year and arrange for fences, barns, and shop building to go up.  Found another RV park with a pool closer to the property than Rusk.  Might stay there next time.  
Now we go through the process of inspections, survey, loan, etc.


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## Baymule

This is wonderful!


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## Mini Horses

TOLD you first property!!!   😁     Later subdivision might be perfect.   Actually...never know what else you might find once there, options!   It's workable.   Haying neighbors?  Jackpot!    Trust me, there will come a day when you'd rather sip wine on a pontoon than clean sheep jugs!!!  

You got pictures, right?????????


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## farmerjan

I think from the sounds of it, this might be the smartest move for now.  As you said, you might find something else when the time gets closer to moving and your house gets sold.  The possibility of subdividing off a smaller piece would also offer other income possibilities....
Having bought this one where I am, and not on a major highway, but a well traveled busy road....I GET IT......but I am looking at future potential.... and a possible rental after I am here for a year or two, knees fixed, work done to make it totally usable.... and this cannot be subdivided.....
If the craziness in this country keeps up, you might seriously want to think about putting your current one on the market soon and making a move sooner rather than later.... If inflation starts to climb more, you may not be able to get yours sold.... and let's face it, Calf does not have a very good reputation for being people/farmer/common sense friendly at this point and time.

Also, if there is a good tenant for the land, who is not abusing it, that is a real plus.


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## Ridgetop

Yes, finally happening.  Glad you can all see the potential in this parcel.  If we were moving here immediately to live in this, it might be different, but for now, needing to rent it for 2 years to satisfy the 1031 business, this is a great  rental home.   After so long it is almost an anticlimax!  Not as thrilled as I expected, probably because of highway.    But the pasture is in great condition, not over grazed which can happen with tenant who doesn't care about the land.

Got pix but for some reason my phone is sending them to my email address but they do not arrive from my phone in my computer.  They arrive from DH's phone so when we go back will take and send from his phone to email so I can post.  In the meantime, the address is 6069 W State Highway 154 Highway S, Yantis, TX.   There are pix on line on this.  Got a shock when I went on the website to get the address since the status is "pending"!  Then I remembered that the "pending" buyer was us!    

DH LOVES the entire property but I *hate* the highway. DH is super stoked about getting the property, wanted to offer more $$ than list price but wouldn't let him. Agent said it wasn't necessary. DH says the house "feels like home". Just occurred to me that his parents' home had wood paneling, brick fireplace, similar color kitchen cabinets, and countertops! Will I be living in my in-laws old home?  

DH wants me to renovate the kitchen before we move in, and do some other renovations.   A few other tweaks. Also considering extending the patio on the rear (possibly a deck instead?) and making it a screened in porch with a ceiling fan that we can enjoy without bugs.  At first I thought we might make the door and window to patio into a slider but with brick exterior, I have decided to just replace the solid door with a glass garden door instead of cutting into brick exterior.  A glass dual pane garden door will let more light into room without demolition. 
Actually it is a very solid built brick house with a large living and dining space and very large kitchen.  Owner has a table height peninsula she loves, but she is only about 5' tall so likes the shorter height.  Kitchen is large enough to put in an island instead of peninsula later.  Won't do anything except paint and new carpet for tenants, but will probably  remodel before we move in.  For now we will paint inside, remove peeling wallpaper in family bath,  add shower in the family bath tub (very easy to access plumbing since owners put in an access panel for plumbing in the cabinet that backs up to tub), and put in new neutral carpet.  Both bathrooms have laundry bins in cabinets which is very nice feature.  Right now we will do minimum for rental and then decide if we will do much else or build another house away from the highway. 

Property is in Wood County, not Anderson or Houston Counties.   Up in Yantis.  Actually between Yantis and Sulphur Springs, but beautiful soil and pasture.  And Sulphur Springs Livestock Auction Yard is between house and Sulphur Springs.  Very close so will have to check to see what prices are once we are here.  Mostly cattle around there.

Will need barn and shop buildings but can install those later when we move back.  They will go between current house and possible new build so we can use from either location.  I am toying with idea of putting in new double wide or modular with floor plan of one on Palestine property - loved that floor plan.  *Or* even just buying another property after we move here and sell our CA house.  At least now we will have a place in Texas to which to move ourselves and our sheep and dogs while selling our CA place.  (Or renting it to our son.)

Going to Sulphur Springs tomorrow to do paperwork on sale.  Will go to County to check requirements of Ag exclusion with our sheep.  Will also visit senior center to check out possible bridge clubs, and livestock auction yard to check eventual sales of sheep.  55 4-H clubs in Wood County.  We will be able to volunteer.  Catholic church in Sulphur Springs.  Nearest ACBL bridge club is Lake Springs, Pittsburgh, or Canton.  Need to find party bridge group nearby.

Got to go.  Lots of gunshots close by.  Probably at coyotes.  Or liberals.   DH watching shark week with guest William Shatner - Captain Kirk is apparently afraid of sharks. Spock not with him to mind meld with it. Guess Scotty will just have to beam him up. 

Love Texas!


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## Baymule

Going to Splash Kingdom in Canton. See y’all Thursday!


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## Ridgetop

If weather is bad for pool, let me know if you want to reschedule.  Really want you and kids to have fun time swimming.  Don't want to disappoint those little girls.


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## Finnie

I am visiting Texas this week, too. But way over in El Paso. My daughter just moved here.


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## Ridgetop

Everyone is moving to Texas!  Why?  Because it is a great state!!!  LOL  

Driving or flying?


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## Finnie

Ridgetop said:


> Everyone is moving to Texas!  Why?  Because it is a great state!!!  LOL
> 
> Driving or flying?


I flew. First we drove from home (Indy) to Colorado Springs to visit and camp with family last week, then my husband took off on a motorcycle trip with a buddy and I flew down here. On Friday I will fly home, and then he will have to drive home alone. (Motorcycle in back of pickup.)

Our son in law is military, and they came here for a year long training program he will be in. We will probably come back for a second visit (together) in the winter. No idea where they will get sent to next.


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## Ridgetop

Too bad you flew, we could have gotten together on your way back home.  Have a fun trip woth family and safe trip home.  

So after an evening of congratulating himself on getting the property he wanted, we finally went to bed.  I was just dropping off in spite of DH's constant rolling over and moving around when he jumped out of bed and announced that he couldn't sleep.   Apparently he was worrying about how to fence the property and where to place his barns.   He tried to discuss placement of fencing and barns which of course completely woke me up.  Then he fell asleep leaving me to toss around.   Darling DH.  

This morning we worked on a refi on our rental house which is financed at a high rate of interest.  DH wants to pull some $$ out and at a lower interest rate (almost half) the payment will stay the same.  Better do it now while interest rates are still low before everyone wakes up to Biden's mismanagement and raises them.  

Thought we would be going to Sulphur Springs to do paperwork on loan docs on new property today but I guess that has been set off to tomorrow.  Also have to arrange for inspection of house.   Need to get information from owner on various maintenance persons she uses.  Well people to see if well can be repaired and how much it will cost.  While I don't mind using Co-Op water, I think having a safe drinkable well would be wise for emergencies.  Would put solar panels on well pump eventually.  Fireplace person to see how much to seal crack in chimney and have chimney swept for tenant.  Kris and selves need to talk to selling agent Marlin about rental of home.  Marlin is owner's SIL and Kris might have him do management of property since he lives local and does that sort of thing in addition to his real estate brokerage.   Also will need to eventually meet with pasture tenant about his continued tenancy - is a good tenant and we want to keep him.  ETC., ETC., ETC.

On the way  to Sulphur Springs I want to stop in Canton to look at some cool metal cactus and flowering plant sculptures for sale.  Saw some at one of the houses for sale and figure that they would be perfect at home to thwart the gophers, ground squirrels and other varmints.   Put them in some of the flower beds where I can't get anything to grow.   Mulch really good over 3 layers of weed cloth, and finally have carefree landscaping!     Attractive and amusing landscaping for future sale of property too. Along with installing faux grass over last year's garden area this will be less to keep up, less to water, and be attractive. We can keep a small vegetable garden to protect with Squirrelinator and Sonic. Although planting the current area with large shrubbery (squirrel/gopher resistant) is also on my list of stuff to do to improve "curb appeal". Along with finishing the few items that Jerry (neighbor contractor) was supposed to finish before he moved to Arizona. DS1 and DS2 finished relaying the bricks that Jerry removed to install support posts for new overhang after tree fell on roof *3 years ago!   *Overhang was finished in a few months but bricks never re-laid.   Also some painting needing to be done in "new" garage conversion also completed a couple years ago.  Exterior entry ceiling never painted.  I also need to have new quartz counter tops installed in kitchen.  Tile is 30 years old and showing its age.  Have a new stove top in shed ready to go in with new counter tops.   Just need to get it done.  Delay is due to wanting to save money by keeping tile backsplash which is in xlt condition.  We will need to cut bottom of counter at back where it meets the wall so installation of quartz counters can be done.  Quartz installers don't want to do that since they will damage backsplash if they do it.  Can't trust anyone to be careful these days.  If we damage it OK, then we will have new backsplash installed but I think we can cut tile with a diamond tile blade and save backsplash. Time to start thinking about fixing up home in CA for sale.  Painting, new counters, remove wallpaper in family bathroom which is starting to show age.  Some minor repairs.  I am considering replacing all door knobs since they don't all match anymore.   Next year install neutral carpet in the bedrooms and replace 30 year old mini blinds with new blinds.  More yard work to increase appeal, and empty at least one of the Connexes completely.  DH wants to bring them to TX when we move.  Thinks we can load them on DS3's flatbed trailer, load them with our stock panels and livestock equipment, and bring them back to TX.  


*



*


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## Finnie

Ridgetop said:


> Too bad you flew, we could have gotten together on your way back home. Have a fun trip woth family and safe trip home.


Thanks! Yeah, I was sad that I wasn’t going to be anywhere near NE Texas. Maybe some day.


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## Finnie

Baymule said:


> Going to Splash Kingdom in Canton. See y’all Thursday!


I have a question for you Southwest Natives. Do you know what this purple bush is called? It’s EVERYWHERE here.


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## Ridgetop

Made the appointment for the inspection of property Monday, July 19, 2:30 pm.  Will meet him there.   Inspector actually inspected the home Mrs. McDonald (current owner) is buying in Sulphur Springs - I love small towns!!!

Surveyor is booked for next 3 weeks!  Kris is arranging appointment.  Will drive up to Yantis tomorrow to drop off earnest money.    I hope that Kris gets name of mortgage bank so we can get started with that.  When we drive up tomorrow we can stop in Canton and look at metal cactii (and prices) with an eye to buying some to use in CA.  

Spent day on computer doing refi on rental property.  DH wants to refi now and pull some money out for some projects.  Might as well allow the rent to pay for it.  We'll be dead by the time it gets sold anyway so might as well cash in on increase in equity  . . . .  Going through current mortgage holder.  '

We have approximate footage of fence lines so DH can call fencing people for possible price.  Won't be able to install fencing for a couple weeks since fence contractor is doing a big job in OK.  Hope to get some items repaired as soon as escrow closes.  Escrow is suppose to close August 20.  We will be back in CA by then.  Kris will have to arrange for repairs unless we come back after DD2's wedding on September 25.  

In the meantime we just wait . . . .


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## Baymule

What highway is the property on? We go to Sulphur Springs to buy feed. I’m hooked on Martindale feed, specifically their 14% all purpose pellet, it sure makes my life simple. I have fed it to my horses over 20 years, now feed it to pigs, chickens and sheep too. We go through Yantis on the way and cross over Lake Fork.


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## farmerjan

You mentioned double fencing the fenceline along the road.  What about just the 2x4 no climb horse fencing?  It is pretty escape proof... right?  @Baymule  would know more about that.  Then using sheep and goat 4x4 woven wire along the other perimeters.... don't know what is there already.....


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## Ridgetop

Address is 6069 W Hwy 154 Hwy S, Yantis, TX 
Not sure why the address reads_ W Hwy_, then _Hwy S_.   But you can look it us on line to see it. 
The property is located 8 miles south of Sulphur Springs which is a very cute town with a hospital, Walmart and Lowes.  We were worried that we would have travel 45 minutes south to Tyler for a Lowes or Walmart.  There is also a TSC and another feed and farm store.  Dallas is only  hour away from Sulphur Springs via a large highway.

The lot is *L *shaped with a long leg running along the highway and the other leg of the *L* running back. The house sits in the front corner. The 45 acres is flat.   No more having to climb up and down cliffs!  Our knees are happy!  We can use a tractor!  We can get a 4wd Gator!  I am considering keeping the long side along the highway leased for cattle or just use it for growing hay  That would keep the sheep and dogs behind the house and further from the highway.  

The front of the property is fenced with 48"(?) pipe fencing.  The pipe fencing also extends back down the driveway about 30' to the first pasture gate.  and the side of the yard around the house.  The owners left a  small section of property on that side outside the pipe fence except that the pipe extends along the entire length of the property along the highway.  confusing but hard to explain.  I will try to draw it up and scan it or something to try to post it.   There is some interior wire cattle fencing inside the property to divide up a field but not much.  The properties to either side are hay fields being baled.  Currently there is a tenant running about 12-15 head of registered cattle, some with calves and a couple pregnant, on the property.  The grass is tall, green and the pastures look really good.  most of the other properties we have looked at with leased pastures were over grazed or woud require a lot of spraying and weed or brush removal to be productive.

_DH plans to fence the entire perimeter with *game fencing*._  This is a high tensile fence similar to no climb about 6'-7' high designed for game farms and preserves.  Sometimes you will see additional barbed wire above the top of the fence, or hot wire.  Not sure if we will use a hot wire or not.  That height fence will hold the dogs easily.  Our dogs do not try to escape and the only worry we would have would be them going over the fence after predators that refused to leave.  If we get any wild hogs coming around they might antagonize the dogs through the fence so that height would discourage the dogs from going over after the hogs.  Supposedly the game fence would be somewhat hog proof too so with the dogs present to drive them off through the fence, hopefully the hogs would leave.  It would also help cut down predators.  Predators are a lesser worry with the Anatolians, even on 45 acres as opposed to their current 6.  That will keep the dogs inside the property and prevent them from getting onto the road.  

Now with the pipe fence along the highway, should we install the game fence on the inside of that fence or on the outside?  On the outside, the pipe fence would prevent any cattle or horses from rubbing against the game fence and ruining it.  But would the dogs be able to climb the fence using the pipe fence on the inside?  With the game fence on the inside of the pipe fence, would cattle or horses be able to rub on the fence and damage it?  Not sure which way to go.  Maybe the fence installer will have some recommendations.

So double fencing - The pipe fence would count as the first fence, while the game fence inside the property would be the secondary fence.  No rush yet since we will not be moving the sheep on for a while, but I welcome all suggestions.

The interior fencing dividing the fields into rotational pastures will be about 42"-48" no climb woven wire with 4" x 4" openings with pass throughs for the dogs to access all fields.  Except the ram field since  don't want them to suddenly become smarter than normal sheep and realize they could climb into the ewes' field.    The not yet bred ewes.  We will be getting another bitch puppy in the next year since Rika is getting older and showing it. Hopefully 3-4 dogs will be enough to cover 45 acres of mainly flat grass with scattered bunches of trees.  And 2 ponds.  

One pond definitely needs to be dredged out.  The cattle have trampled the edges down and it has gotten sort of shallow.  The other one is fine but we will probably enlarge and deepen it.  The well is a good one and will be able to fill the larger pond.    

Got to go to sleep now.  Tomorrow got to start calling to arrange a well inspection and bid on repairs.  Also get an idea of what the fencing will cost.  We met yesterday with 2 people about financing the remainder of the purchase price.  One is the farm bank.  the other is the regular local bank.  Will probably go with the farm bank for the purchase but will open an account at the local bank, and are checking with them about refinancing our rental house in FW.  They won't finance the farm for more than 10 years but will do a 30 year loan on the tract house in Fort Worth.  Their interest rate even on the 10 year loan is more than the farm bank too.  Really liked both lenders though.  

More tomorrow.  Falling asleep over the keys which causes strange things to appear.  LOL


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## Baymule

We had a great time with @Ridgetop and her husband yesterday at the KOA campground. Our little granddaughters played for hours in the pool, that means me too. LOL We had hamburgers, visited and enjoyed the day.

I just got a text from DD, they are boarding a plane in Rome for. 9 hour flight to Atlanta, Georgia, then a 2 hour layover, then flight to Dallas. They will get a room for the night, come here in the morning, do laundry, visit and go to Corpus Christi tomorrow. Their offer was accepted on a spacious house on 1 1/2 acres and they are anxious to actually see it in person. Their dogs are smelly little dirt bags and need a bath! Country dogs now! LOL


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## Ridgetop

Great time with Bay and BJ yesterday!  Girls are super cute, very sweet and mannerly.  Half hour after they left DH said "I miss those little girls"!  Had us homesick for our grandbabies!  This move may be harder than we thought.  

Made calls this morning about well inspection, septic lateral line repair, and fencing.  Waiting on call backs on septic and fence.  Won't arrange for chimney repair and underground electric to pump shed estimates till after home inspection and report.  Well person turns out to be life long friend of seller and has done all the repair work on well Said well is bad - mud comes out of it in spite of repairs so better to drill a new well.  Lots of water on property and new well would cost about $15,000.  Considering we just paid $15,000 on property in Yelm just to replace pump this sounds like an ok price  House is currently on Co-op water.  Well pumps out muddy water which will do for cattle and livestock for now.  Will see about drilling a new well later since another drinkable water source is a plus. 

When I called the well people I spoke to mom of well driller.  She told me that she has known owner of property for years.  Talked to me for 1 hour 45 minutes with lots of information.  She told me that Yantis was hotbed of drugs and gangs!  School kids all on drugs and are bad kids??!!       Worried for a while till she mentioned that the electric rays from power lines could burn through your heads unless you lined your hat with tin foil.  After that I began picking and choosing the information.  According to her the drug presence and gangs were so bad that you used to hear 1000 rounds going off at night in gang fights.  Now the Texas Rangers are patrolling since farmers have been poisoning the wild hogs with cyanide.  Their presence has cut down on gun battles.  I did look up the Cowboy Mafia she warned me about, and Rex Cauble.  Interesting reading.  According to her everyone around here belongs to the Cowboy Mafia.  

First lender, Legacy AG Credit, is farm/ag lender and other, City National Bank, is town bank.  Both knew the property and said it was a prime parcel.  Seemed surprised that t was being sold.  Said others had wanted to buy over the years but owners would not sell.  God is good to us and looks out for us!  Turns out the town of Sulphur Springs is growing south towards property, making future subdivision possible and easy. Both Ag lender (who does property investment himself, and CNB bankers, ditto, said it was a really desirable piece of property for future subdivision investment for "ranchettes".  Good investment property for future aside from good pasture and house for us now. 

Waiting on information on loan costs from Ag lender.  Probably go with him since he will do 30 year fixed at decent interest.  He also loans for farm buildings, etc. so could get loan for future new well, barns, etc.  CNB does not like loaning longer than 10 years 😠 not good for us, and interest rate higher than land bank.  However, they can do refi on our little FW rental house and quoted probable interest rate lower than current bid on refi from mortgage holder so will check into that before going with current mortgage holder refi.  Apparently Fannie Mae mortgage.  Both banks very nice and spent plenty of time with us to discuss mortgages, land possibilities, and gave us information on town and area, etc.  One of the bankers lives a mile from the property.  Said he is familiar with area and the property.  

No mention from either of them about Cowboy Mafia or cartels in town.  Drugs are everywhere in the country, but hopefully won't be any drug wars around us.  Tall fences and mean dogs first line of defense.  If it is too dangerous here, we will go back to California!  

Got to fill out a refi app now.


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## Baymule

Cowboy Mafia? I’ve been missing all the fun!


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## Ridgetop

Interesting reading - apparently actually happened in the 70's?  The title of the article is below.  
Some amusing parts make it hard to believe that Rex Cauble was actually involved as the "ringleader".  The crazy mistakes and actions of the rest of the "cowboy mafia" and "Muscles" don't really seem like a sharp operator like Cauble would have made them if he was running the operation.    
Rex Cauble and the Cowboy Mafia – Texas Monthly











						Rex Cauble and the Cowboy Mafia
					

The Denton millionaire hated drugs and liked cops. He also liked Muscles Foster, a footloose cowboy who was one of Texas’ biggest drug runners.




					www.texasmonthly.com


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## Baymule

Good article. I shopped at Cutter Bill’s Western Store many times in Houston. Cutter Bill the horse was legendary. Never knew about the Cowboy Mafia, it was interesting and amusing. Only in Texas.


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## Ridgetop

I really laughed at the thought of them sailing in to the dock in Port Arthur past the coast guard with the entire boat giving off a huge reek of marijuana!  Not to mention the evidence on their cameras of them all posing with their guns on the bales of drugs!   Sounded like a comedy movie!  

Anyway, worried about possibility to drill a well to produce enough water.  I can't get understandable info from well person's mama.   He is not available to talk to me since "too busy right now" with family matters and another job.   First she maundered on about sandy and muddy soil not being a good well site, and then talked about a house a mile down the road that they drilled and didn't hit water, then said everyone in family was suffering from Covid.  Would like to talk to him to get straight story.  However she said she talked to him about the well and said that he said to "use it until it collapses" before drilling another one.  Said new well won't give more than 5 GPM which will not irrigate anything.  Property advertised 4 wells but it appears now that 3 are filled in, the 4th is too old to last, and a new well won't produce enough to use anyway.  Will it pay us to drill another well at $14,000 to $15,000?  Especially if it doesn't produce enough water?  I want a well for a source of water for the livestock and ourselves in emergencies.  I don't plan to put in wheel lines (at $100,000 each) but would like to have enough water for household use, livestock, garden, filling ponds, etc.  And in drought would the water level in well drop below 500'?  
I guess I will call the other well driller for information.

Next, the septic guy did not call me back so have put in call to other septic guy.  (A note of local info - these two guys are brothers that split up into 2 different companies since they couldn't get along.)  At any rate, need to find out cost of new lateral leach lines before committing to this property.  Cattle crushed these.

Fencing will cost about $58,000 to put in game fence around entire perimeter of property.  $8.80 per running foot.  Must be done, but if house requires too much other expensive repairs need to consider.  
Might be better to buy a more expensive place where everything is already there.  (And house is further back from 70 mph highway!)

Called Kris to let him know that we will have to continue looking for back up property since our time window ends mid August.  

On a better note, aerial photo shows barn to be larger than first thought.  Possible 30'x30' or 40'x40' including open sided overhangs on either side.  However, original hand drawn plot plan is flipped so that house sits on front corner of short leg instead of front corner of long leg.  However, aerial photo shows pond to look larger than it looked on tour of property.  The aerial photo looks to be taken several years ago.  Aerial shot shows a catch pen around barn which is no longer there, as well as feeders in side field with areas of trampled out soil around it.  .  
Pastures don't look as good as they do now so maybe the excellent condition of the pastures and grass is due to fewer AUs?  Or more rain this year than in past years?  Probably should take some soil samples when out there tomorrow for inspection.  Can drop them off in Quitman at Extension office.  

Starting to worry.  

Anyway, went to Natchedoces yesterday to sightsee.  Oldest town in Texas.  "Old Town" has many "antique" stores. Was not too impressed since I have the same stuff in my shed and actually in use in my kitchen!    Flour sifter - $20?!  Old cheese grater - $15?!  Galvanized tubs with rust spots - $55?!  etc., etc.

I have an idea!  Instead of sending all my old junk to the Salvation Army, I will bring it to Texas and put up huge sign in front yard advertising "Antiques and Collectibles".  I will tell everyone that they came from my granny's attic and basement.  I can restock at the Salvation Army and thrift stores,  then leave the items in the yard for a few months or so to weather and rust!   

More later, DH wants me to look up costs on metal barns, etc.


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## Mini Horses

Ridgetop said:


> have an idea! Instead of sending all my old junk to the Salvation Army, I will bring it to Texas and put up huge sign in front yard advertising "Antiques and Collectibles". I will tell everyone that they came from my granny's attic and basement. I can restock at the Salvation Army and thrift stores, then leave the items in the yard for a few months or so to


Didn't I tell you that Road would me a good market Place????   You go for it!!


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## Ridgetop

OK, an update on the property.  We had the home inspection today and also the septic inspection since we knew that some of the lateral (leach) septic lines had been damaged by the cattle and would need to be replaced or repaired.  I had the septic man come out to give me a bid on repairing the system.

Huge storm front came through as we left Rusk.  By the time we reached Tyler it was so bad DH could hardly see through the windscreen, and had switched to 4WD due to water pooling on the highway and causing hydroplaning.  We met Bay and BJ at the Suphur Springs stockyards 2 hours before the inspection. We decided to have lunch and then do to the cattle auction.  The cafe was standing room only when BJ and Bay arrived 10 minutes before us. The cafe was completely jammed so BJ stood over a table where the people had almost finished and seized it as they got up to leave.  Our chairs were still warm when we sat down.    The cafe had run out of the pork chops, so we all had chicken fried steak which was delicious. I think the food at livestock auction yards is pretty good since otherwise the ranchers would all bring a sandwich instead of eating there.  LOL  We watched about an hour of the cattle auction trying to understand the auctioneer and the prices the cattle were bringing.  There were a lot of 250-300 lb. calves, then they moved on to the 600-700 lb. calves.  We tried to decide what ones Farmerjan would say were good calves.   A couple calves with longhorn and brahma in them were pretty feisty and one of the ring men just made it onto the fence in time! Bay and I agreed that we preferred the size of our sheep! Farmerjan is _*amazing*_ to handle her cattle as she does!  And with her bad knees too !!!

Then we went to the house to meet the inspector.  While he and his assistant were going over the house we met the owner and then walked over some of the yard, measured the barn and storage shed, then looked over the house again.  Really like it even better this time around.  Perfect size for us with enough bedrooms for DS1, office and spare BR for guests.  By the time we are done installing a dump outlet on the septic lid, electric outlet, and a water outlet for the 5th wheel trailer we can use it as a guest house too. The owner is so sweet.  She gave me the name of an excellent vet and plumber.  The vet only lives a couple houses away (several acres here in this area)  LOL.  

The well won't be as big a problem as we thought since community water is pretty cheap.  The well works for livestock and you can run 2 sprinklers at one time to water the garden/lawn.  You just have to turn on the breaker to the pump to fill the well tank.  DH turned it on and checked and the tank filled with water fine.  There is also a water feed from the well to the barn.  The pipe is capped off since previous cattle broke the pipe so the owner just capped it off.  Need to find the pipe and we can reconnect for a water source in the barn for the livestock.  

We will have the report on the house in the am.  The big problem is that the leach lines (laterals) are broken and the septic is puddling in the pasture across the driveway.  There was a slight odor from it too, detectable by both the house inspector and the septic man.  Both of them said that it was a big problem since a lender might not agree to loan on the property with the septic in that condition.  It needs to be fixed *BUT IT CAN'T BE FIXED.  IT NEEDS TO BE REPLACED.   *

We had requested the septic man to come give us a bid on replacing or repairing the laterals.  He told us that he can't repair or replace them because current codes require 2 septic tanks as well as some other stuff.  If it were working now, no problem, but since it is not working properly because of the broken leach lines which are puddling and seeping, it is no longer grandfathered in.  Now to repair it the system has to be brought up to current code.   Current code requires 2 tanks - this house has only one - so even to repair the problem would require adding a second one.  Also there is some problem with laying new leach or lateral lines.  We would have to pay for  lot of percolation tests, and other stuff.  The septic man advised that since this area has clay and sand soil it might not pass the perc tests depending on whether you hit a clay spot or sandy spot.  In straight sandy soil leach lines would be fine.  In clay soil not so much since they will not percolate properly.  Also, in clay/sandy loan mix soil area when you get a lot of rain, the leach/lateral lines will not necessarily perc properly which will cause a big problem with the system not draining properly.  He recommends a clear water (aerobic) system.  This will also require some electrical work.  Haven't gotten the bid yet but maybe $7,500.    Final bad news - septic man can't do the system until November!    However, the septic man and inspector both said that the plumbing was working (if you ignore the sewage puddling in the corner of the pasture) and the house could be rented now and the septic installed in November.   

So bad news more $$$.  Good news sort of, owner might pay at least part of the cost since she can't sell with the septic like this.  In fact the home inspector said that if it were reported (to whomever?) there would be a real problem for her.  Don't want that, since we like her a lot and she has been super open about every problem.    Good news - by putting in a new system it will be a new system.  Not so good news is the aerobic (sic?) system, which I have heard some people don't like.  Bad news - can't use it to water veggies or fruit trees.  Good news - you can use it to water a small section of the hay field or the lawn.  Bad news - the well is within 100 feet of the lawn.  The system must be located 100' from any well so it has to go into the pasture.  Bad news - we will have to mow or trim around the sprinklers so they can spray.  Good news - DH can weed whack around them  Since the land is flat he can manage and it will be good exercise.  We'll get the bid tomorrow or Wednesday.

Also if we need to install that system it will require the electrician to run the wires to the switches.  $$  But the electrician can repair some of the problems with the house wiring at the same time.  Apparently there is a problem with grounding.  And since the electrician has to install a sub panel DH already talked to him about putting more breakers in the sub panel for DH to hook underground electrical to the barn and well. The original panel is a 200 amp panel.  That made DH happy.  The electrical line out to the pump shed dangles from the house roof and is tied to a tree on its way to the pump shed.  Inspector said that would have to be changed.  The electrician can do all that at the same time.  

So a few problems, otherwise house is in pretty good shape and is very solid.  Minimal settling of slab, which in Texas is good, since some soils have terrible issues with settling.  House next door had issues and floors buckled.  Report tomorrow will let us know what needs to be repaired.  

On to *excellent *news.  BJ and DH measured the barn and tool shed and we were thrilled to find that they were both much larger than originally thought.  The shed with concrete floor (and pet armadillo living under one corner LOL) is actually 12' x 20' which is excellent and the size of current tool shed or old milk shed.  Not both but one or the other.  

*The barn is 40' x 60'!!!    ** *

The main barn is 20' x 60' while there are 2 shed roof extensions on either side each 10' x 60' with metal siding on the long sides.  Plenty of room for hay storage in the main barn, and there is a small room built in one corner of the main barn for a feed room, tack room, equipment room, etc.  The 2 shed extensions on the ends are closed in on the outside walls with metal.  One will be perfect for dividing into lambing jugs, and a communal covered area for small lambs and mamas.  The other side will be perfect to use for DH's rabbitry with livestock fans at each end and misters in the summer.  SOOO HAPPY!   The vertical barn timbers are telephone pole butts in excellent condition.  The wood is heavy duty and also in excellent condition.  Some of the exterior metal is in rough shape (darn cows again) but most of the siding is in good shape and the roof is solid.  A few repairs and it will be perfect for us.  And don't forget the stubbed out water feed.  And at one time it had electric in the barn!  Might pay the electrician to run a wire and box to the barn since he will be running it to the pump shed anyway.  When we move in DH can hook up lights and install outlets.  
We are currently trying to decide how much of property to fence first, and where to put our Connex storage boxes.  Also where to put the carport we will need to install for the trailer, truck, stock trailer, and DH's eventually to be purchased tractor.  

We will be going to the Emory Livestock Auction next Saturday with Bay and BJ.  It handles sheep and goats.  The auction barn today only does cattle.  We will have to leave super early since the auction starts at 9am and we want to meet for breakfast t their cafe first.  I have decided to test as many livestock auction barn cafes as possible in order to test my hypothesis that stockyard cafes are tasty place to eat!

Still raining like crazy.  Git to go to bed - yawning so hard I can hardly see the keyboard!  LOL  Took photos but will have to upload them tomorrow.

Looks like this is the one so *GOOD NEWS!!!*





*

*


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## Baymule

We sure were thrilled to see your new place. What HUGE OLD trees around the house! Big red cedars and lots of ancient catalpa trees. The owner said one of them was said to be well over 100 years old, that when they bought to property in 1954, an 80 year old neighbor said it was a huge tree when he was a boy. So who knows, it may be close to 200 years old. I've never in my life seen such enormous catalpa trees. 

The big barn is in pretty good shape, needs repair, but will be a wonderful asset to Ridgetop and her dear husband's sheep operation and her DH will be able to have his rabbits. Due to all the rain we've had, the pastures were lush and green. The house is right on the highway, but we were imagining that when the original farmhouse was built, the highway was probably a narrow dirt road, not the wide 2 lane with wide road shoulders and grassy right of way on both side, as it is now. 

It is a lovely place, needs some TLC and repair, but all is doable and it will make not only a nice home, but a good investment too. 

Looking forward to Saturday at the Emory Auction! More fun! 

While we were galivanting around yesterday with @Ridgetop and her DH, it drizzled and sprinkled a little. But here at home, it STORMED! We had 3 1/4" of rain in the rain gauge when we got back home.


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## Ridgetop

Those huge trees are special.  They shade both the front and back yards of the house.  Even though the house is close to the road and traffic noises are loud when there is traffic (often) at least it is not bumper to bumper traffic like our last house on Victory Boulevard in California. Our last house  sat right on Victory Boulevard which is one of the heaviest travelled surface streets in the San Fernando Valley.  When we moved to the private road Isaid I wud never live on another busy street but things change.  

When we lived there it had a half circle drive but when my grandparents bought it in 1926 the drive was a complete circle with more property going to the 2 lane road in front  Over the years the street was widened.  In fact, the last time it was widened my grandfather went to City Hall to get a variance to keep the big Deodar cedar that was planted in the middle of the circle.  The sidewalk made a detour around the tree!  One of my earliest memories  as a very small child (3 or 4) is walking with my grandfather to the Tasteefreez for ice cream, then walking over to make sure they were not damaging his tree!  (He was under orders NOT to get my sister and me chocolate dipped cones but always did.)  I remember standing there dripping ice cream and tell tale chocolate down the front of my sunsuit while he talked to the men working.  The street had been lined with those old cedars and to see the roots towering overhead as the poor trees lay out into the road was awe inspiring to a small child.  The surviving tree became a landmark.  

As a point of interest, all those giant cedars (and there were lots of them all over the Valley) were sold by door to door salesmen during the depression.  They were tiny twigs when planted and were huge by the time we sold out and left.  We were the only people who still had any.  When the property sold, the trees except the one in front (Gampy's Tree) came down when they built an apartment building.  So did my lovely 200+ year old orange trees.  

Here are some pix of the house, barn, yard, and pastures.  
     Storage shed is actually 12 x 20' not 8' x 12' as originally thought. Took tape measure with us this time. LOL It sits at ear of house across the back yard. You can see a couple of the huge trees in the back yard.    200+ year old tree in back yrd and other huge trees keeping the yard shaded.  Dead wood needs some trimming as do a few other trees.  Will cut wood to burn in fireplace.  Just told DH that he will have a full time job raking leaves during the fall! Might have to buy a shredder to compost them properly.  Beans are not dangerous but roots and possibly leaves are poisonous.  Luckily these are all inside the yard space around the house.
 Shed comes with pet armadillo - no extra charge! Owner has filled in hole several times but armadillo comes back.  Might have to fill with concrete.  The shed has a concrete slab floor so don't want to undermine it and cause foundation problems.  
  View of pasture from side of house.  Very lush and green due to unprecedented amount of rain this year.   Has about 15 cows grazing it now - leased out.  We want to keep land tenant till we move back here.  We won't need all the pasture for a while so maybe still lease part of it although this is the grass hay field to cut for hay so not sure.  Depends on how much rain and how good the pasture stays next year.  Can still either pay someone to cut and bale, or lease for hay if tenant doesn't keep pasture in good condition.    
 Picture of rear pasture on property.  Hard to tell where property lines are since I took this with my phone.  45 acres in an L shape.  Next picture is of the pasture with (hopefully showing up) the pond.  This is the larger pond, the other one is not in good condition since the cattle have trampled the banks.  We will have to dig it out a bit to restore it.  The large pond used to have a pump on it which pumped water to the old (100+ year old) farmhouse to flush the toilet years ago!  I think the old pump or pump house is still there but f course, the water lines were disconnected when the new house was built in 1972.  Original house burned down in 1971 and owner and husband built this newer 4/2 brick house with HVAC and 2 bathrooms.  ☺️  I love old houses, but for a rental this is ideal and I am getting too  "mature" to completely renovate and remodel another house.  LOL
 Posting this now so I can post more pix.


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## farmerjan

Sounds like you can make things work... hope the septic will be resolvable..... I know nothing about the aerobic systems.  But there is always something that needs doing when you sell/buy something.  

I'm flattered... working cattle is not that big a deal even with my knees not being very moveable.... but thanks for the compliment anyway....and we don't keep very many animals anymore that will put you into the fences.... they go to the stockyards!!!!!

Yep, most stockyard lunch rooms have really good food.... very little is lo-cal and all that ... it is REAL FOOD because most farmers put in long hard hours and burn ALOT of calories.... and it is good old fashioned country cooking.  
Hope that you have a good time at the other sale... will be very interesting to see how the sale compares to what you have back in Ca.  And to see what the prices are in comparison. 

Great that the barn is bigger than you thought.... and that it is very usable for what you want.  
Yes, cows against metal siding is a big problem.... and they will tear things up.  Shame they got into the septic lines and that it is going to cause problems, and cost money....... but may be a blessing in disguise to get a new system put in.  

Have a great visit/vacation/farm purchase....


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## Mike CHS

The stock yard in Pulaski, TN has hands down the best steaks around and they know how to cook them.

I bought a home in Florida that failed the septic inspection and the owners had to do w mound for the septic.  The literally dug out 10' feet of clay and filled that and a mound 6' high with drain tiles all over the upper section of the mound.  That cost a little over $13K and that was back in 2003'.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Considering we just paid $15,000 on property in Yelm just to replace pump


Did they see you coming? When my well pump stopped working the well drillers figured out one of the wires near the cap had shorted and fried. HOW that happened I have no idea since it is properly insulated wire. Anyway, they fixed that but since the well was drilled in 1979 and the pump is apparently original I asked what it would cost to replace it when the time came. The price was under $2K.


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## Ridgetop

Remember that the pump and all the well piping was stolen?  I had just paid $5,000 3-4 years before to replace the original pump that had been there for the past 40+ years.  Then the thieves stole all the pump wiring too! Washington State is high priced, and their labor is more expensive than California.  Then they stick a 10% sales tax on the labor!!!  Had to put it in regardless of cost - there was a hole in the ground where the well pump had been!  Insurance covered it.  Thank goodness we have sold that place and are done with it.

Well got the inspection report this morning and the main items that need work are the electrical, some problems there that need an electrician to look at them.  There also needs to be a new electric line to the septic system since that will be aerobic.  Not sure how it works.  We could have the sprinklers water the backyard but like Bay said, "You don't want to be having a BBQ and some one flushes and the sprinklers come on and spray your company!"   

However, the septic is shot.  The leach (lateral) lines are crushed and the water is pooling at the edge of the driveway and field where the line from the cesspool empties into the broken leach lines.  Both the house inspector and the septic man could see it and smell it.  They said that the house could not be sold with the septic in that condition.  Might not appraise for the loan.  The septic man is working up an estimate for a new system.  He said even if he could just replace the laterals, he would have to do it according to new code and that would mean digging another cess tank since now they require two tanks.  It will be cheaper to put in a new aerobic system.  It can't spray onto veggies or fruit trees, but can spray into the hayfields.  

The electrical will require a new sub panel for the aerobic system.  DH is fine with that since he will pay extra to have additional breakers to run electric to the barn and shed.  There is currently an electric line draped through a tree and running out to the pump shed which will be put underground.  Another few things that need repairs since they could be dangerous will be addressed at the same time.  Including filling in the deep well in the back yard that has water at the bottom.  Not a usable well, and dangerous to leave it unfilled.  Septic man said he would break up the concrete well ring and fill the well when he does the new septic.  

The roof is over 2 layers of shingles.  Not Good.  Next time it needs roofing will be expensive since all 3 layers will need to be removed.  The screws holding on the metal roof do not come out into the attic head space which they are required to do so it is possible that the only thing holding the metal roof on is screws holding it to the layers of asphalt shingles.  Big Wind -Good Bye Roof!  Some of the flashing is missing, some other stuff not properly done.  Husband probably did it himself.  Getting a roofer to take a look - another inspection, another bid for repairs.  More $$, but less than a new roof!  

Everything else is fixable by us - some sticky doors needing planing, some caulking of windows, fans needing replacement, etc.  Big ticket items are septic and electrical.  We can even fix part of the roof problems by buying longer roofing screws and putting them in the roof ourselves.  

Got to check to see if we can add the repairs into our loan or if that is considered Boot - the amount we have to ay 30% capital gans on.  If it is Boot we will have to bite the bullet and and come up with the $$ ourselves.  We will discuss with seller to see if she will pay some of the cost (both inspectors said she can't sell the house without a working septic).  However, lowering the price of the house doesn't help us since it means we still have to pay the repairs.   We can do that though being able to put it all on a mortgage payment would be handier and deductible.

Here are some more pix of the house.

Picture of house from across street. Very cute house with white columns, porch railing, and shutters. There is room in front for circle drive to make access from road easier. No need to remove any trees for driveway. Trying to decide how to fence house in case dogs get out from back pasture into hose yard and still allow ease in pulling in with car, truck, and trailers. Fence around sides of house but don't fence driveways leaving them open for access? 

   Front of house from street/driveway.  Brick with white columns and railings in front.  Solid built little house.  
End of house looking toward highway. 

  Big Catalpa trees across front of yard.
 *BARN!!!  *Barn is much bigger than first thought. Center barn area is 20' x 60' and was used to store hay. The left side covered area is 10' x 60' and the right side is 10' x 60'. Solid wall of barn is a small (10'x10'?) tack or feed room with door. Probably was a tack room since the right side of the barn was where the owner's children kept their horses. The barn is in good shape - solid wooden framework - just needs some TLC.  Some metal panels damaged by cattle and need eventual replacing after we move in.

I have calls out for a roof and chimney inspection.  I have sent portions of the inspection report to the roofer and electrician for bids, and am waiting for the bid on the septic.   Then we have to discuss with agent and seller's agent as to what they w contribute to repairs.  Seller is elderly and doesn't want to do anything to house.  I think she was shocked to hear that the septic had to be replaced instead of just adding new leach lines.  We will see what the bids are.  All the repair and inspection people know Mrs. McDonald and her husband.  When the septic man and electrician walked it was like old home week!   Makes it easy to give the address - just tell them the McDonald place.  😄  She is a lovely lady and I feel bad that the inspection gave her bad news, but we do need to figure those expenses into the purchase.  

I talked to 2 well diggers now.  The second well man I called said to use the well until it died then maybe dig another well.  He would look on the maps to see if there was enough water to merit digging another well.  Then the seller's agent gave me Clay Earle;s cell number.  Clay Earle, whose mama told me about the Cowboy Mafia,  is familiar with the well and explained that the well casing was steel.  The amount of sulphur and iron in the soil had caused some rusting through of the casing allowing ground water to get into the well water.  He said that it would not taste too good although it wouldn't hurt you.  It also would stain siding and and stain sinks.  The pump is running fine and he said just to use it for the livestock.  The pump is 1.5 hp and would pump about 14-15 GPM. This is much better news than what his mama said.   However he said that mama was 88 years old and not a professional. I said that is why I needed to talk to _him_ about the well.  

So things are looking better with the well, however having to replace the entire septic system is not good news. The possibility that the roof might fly away in a strong wind, and the electric system needs some significant repairs is also not good news.  Need to see what the estimates come in at to do repairs and replace septic.

 Got a name and number for a great vet from Mrs. McDonald.  The inspector, electrician, and septic man who were all there at the time for the inspection also swore by Dr. Dave Black.  Everyone I have called including the bank and loan people all have cattle.  LOL  The vet's daddy raised sheep so they said that Dr. Dave would know about them.  Oh yes, and Dr. Dave lives one or two houses away from Mrs. McDonald so convenient for emergencies!  She also gave me the name of a good plumber.  And one of the lenders gave me the name for a hay broker.  Keeping a list!!!  Love this town!!!  😍 

And still love the ranch in spite of the road and inspection flaws.  Close to town, 10 minutes from easy Dallas freeway access.  Hospital in town.  Catholic church in town.  Lots of 4-H clubs who need volunteers.  Even a senior center in town.  Everyone knows everyone.  Perfect place for us.  🤩


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## Baymule

Welcome to Texas. Welcome home.


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## Ridgetop




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## Ridgetop

Have not received bid on septic yet, waiting on it for further information.  But new septic can not be installed until November (Chad is booked up until then).  DH and I are discussing several options.

1.     Have handyman do repairs (smoke and CO2 detectors, GFCIs, plane doors, replace fans, and exposed bulb closet light fixtures, etc.) and rent house out.  The current septic is working now, sort of, with the broken connection just pooling into field.  Don't like renting the house before new septic goes in and electric moved while tenant is in residence.  Also want to be on site when work is going on in case they have to relocate something.  Since _we_ will be living in this house_ I_ would like to be the one to decide on new locations.  Don't want to come back and find out that sub panel or sprinklers are where DH planned to put something else instead of where we wanted them.  

2.     Leave house vacant until after septic is installed in November.  Don't like that option either.  Too easy for vagrants to move in and damage house leading to more repairs.  However, seller wants to stay in home until mid-September so possibly only one month vacant.

3.     Go home, marry off DD2 - if Gov. Gruesome does not close everything up again - and return to Texas..  If he does, have a quiet small family wedding and home reception.  If allowed to do so by family who want to marry off youngest sibling with nice wedding and reception. 
        So, return to Texas beginning of October after wedding?   Camp out in house while doing repairs ourselves and waiting for septic install.  Of course, with NEW inflatable mattress!!  And maybe a sofa from Salvation Army.  This will allow us to return with stock trailer and some of our equipment which we will store in the toolshed until we can get one of our connexes back here.  I suggested to DH that we buy a new one here but he wants to bring our connexes with us since they are brand new.  Our idea was to pack a lot of our corral panels, stall mats, rabbit cages, hot wire fencing parts, heavy duty connex shelving, and other farm equipment in the connex then have it delivered to the farm.

Time enough to work out time line.  Seller's hair dresser has friend wanting to rent a house so may have already found a tenant.  Have to have them talk to Kris when ready to rent.  Don't have to do much to house except a few minor repairs.   Carpet is in good shape and so is paint.  

Now, I don't want to go back to California!


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Sounds like it's all falling into place! Love it! Looks like a beautiful ranch despite the issues. 

You may need to check with the truck hauler people regarding whether the connex has to be empty or if it can have stuff in it to move. The ones we've talked to here have required them to be empty in order to move them. Possibly because they were moved with a tilt truck and not using a crane. Might also make a difference if the stuff inside is tied down or properly boxed up.

Connex prices are a lot higher now than they were a year or so ago. If the new place is near to a port city it might be cheaper to buy a connex there and just move the stuff, then sell the old connex in CA.


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## farmerjan

WHEN i was looking into a storage box, to put stuff in and then and wanted to get it moved.... I was also told that it had to be empty to be moved.... so it would do me no good at the old house.  At least that is not a problem now...


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> There is currently an electric line draped through a tree and running out to the pump shed


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## Baymule

Looks like packing everything into a Conex is “X’ed” out. Just buy new ones here, sell those in Ca. Haul stuff in trailer, pack in Conex box, put lock on it.


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## Margali

I agree with Bay. There's tons of places around DFW selling conexs. You can get a refurbished 40' high cube for about $6k and a weather tight one for about half that.


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## Ridgetop

DH wanted to move these because they are brand new.  I suggested we sell them and buy new here and he said he would move them.  If we can't move them full that will change his mind.    No need to do anything about them yet though and DS3 will want them anyway.  He already has several.  He has roofed across between them to make hay barns.  

DH wants 2 to do the same thing to make a covered parking space.  I would just as soon empty them and get rid of a lot of our stuff.  But buying one to put on the property to lock stuff in that we bring from CA would be a good idea.  I will have DH make some calls to price them.   

On the way back from Quitman the other day, DH stopped to look at metal buildings.  Then he stopped to look at manufactured homes.  The metal buildings were not too bad, but the manufactured homes were really cheap. Terrible cabinets with the insides just unfinished chipboard.  $95,000 for a 4/2 home that the salesman kept saying was spacious at 1400 sf.  On the way home DH discussed buy one for each of our children!     I just said no and that I would not live in one.  If I want to spend $100,000 I will add onto that cute little brick house we are buying.  Or put in a pool.  Not swimming in the pond.    I don't swim in anything I can't see clear to the bottom.  BTW  Shark Week is now on for 6 weeks!  Just saying.  

Tomorrow am we eave early to drive up for the chimney inspection.  Still waiting for the septic quote.  And the roof inspection.  Saturday off to Emory goat auction with Bay and BJ.  And for more proof of my hypothesis that auction barns have good cafes.


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## Ridgetop

So continuing the ranch purchase saga - another inspection this am.  This was of the chimney.  The seller said that a handy man who worked on a roof leak 15  years ago had told her that she had a crack in her chimney.  She immediately stopped using the fireplace due to fear of a fire.  The earlier farmhouse had burned down and she did not want a repeat.  The chimney inspector is a Dallas firefighter who has a chimney cleaning and inspection side business - as a firefighter he knows his business.   After a close inspection of the chimney he said he couldn't find the crack and asked Miz Joyce about it.  Turns out the handyman mistook the separation of some over flow mortar from the chimney.  In other words the mortar was not cleaned off the stack in the attack and some of the excess cracked away.  No crack in the chimney at all and in fact no need to have the chimney cleaned since no creosote deposits so only needed to pay for the inspection.   The inspector gave us some information about fireplaces and chimneys and then dated the house exactly!  He said that in the 60's inferior bricks were experimented with to save building costs.  This house was built in 1972 and he said that the bricks were top quality.  So good news there.  

Miz Joyce gave me the name of another septic company that she used.  She thought they might be able to replace the lateral lines.  I called but no joy!  That company said they no longer did any work on laterals either and have switched to only do aerobic installations.  They said that everyone is going only aerobic in the area due to the wet winters which cause some problems in water percolation.  The leach line systems only last about 8 years in this area.  The main problem with leach line systems in this area is that roots grow into the lines.  During the winter wet season the grass and bushes don't really cause a problem, but when the ground dries out come spring and summer heat the roots look for water and grow into the pipes.  So all the new septic systems are aerobic.   Also installation is a little cheaper.  Trying to have this new company come out and give an estimate.  The fellow who does the estimates can't come out until Monday.  I still have not gotten an estimate from the first company so if I can get an estimate from this company I will go with them.  BUT - there is always a 'but" - they are running months behind on installations too!  Apparently with the wet winter a lot of leach line septics are failing.   So earliest they can install will be end of September/beginning of October.     That time line is better than November - which the first company told me they were booked up through - and this new company may possibly be a little cheaper. Excellent reviews and 25 years in business.  Like the name too - Two Chicks Septic!   I guess we will be putting in a new septic system.  


Only plus (sort of) is that it will be deductible against the rental since we have to rent the property for 2 years.  Everything we do before moving in (in 2 years) will be deductible since this is a commercial piece of income property.  So all repairs deductible.  If we can afford those repairs for the deductions!    

Tomorrow we are off to Emory - 2 hour drive - to meet Bay and BJ at the sheep and goat auction.  We will meet for breakfast around 8:00.  _(What sort of people drive to a sheep auction at 6 am?  BYHers!  )  _Looking forward to a wonderful day with Bay and BJ. Good news is that Emory is only 30 minutes or less from the new ranch! 

DH has lost 16 lbs. since leaving for Texas!  He is pleased.   For a while he felt like I was starving him.  💀 I have lost 6 lbs.  Not noticeable on either of us but I notice that my jeans are a tad looser.  DH says his knee is feeling better too so hope we can keep this up.  Maybe we should continue living in our trailer with no access to food with calories when we go home!


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## farmerjan

Hope that you guys have a great time at the auction... and their food is as good.  

Losing weight is wonderful..... really helps the joints... I have been told that for every pound you lose, it is like taking 4 lbs of pressure off the joints....YAY !!!!!  I am trying really hard to watch and not eat alot of starches and stuff to try to take a bit off my knees too....
Plus, you guys are doing more walking and things there just from looking at the property and all....

Not good news about the septic... but the thing is at least they are all telling you the same basic thing.... not like you are getting totally different opinions.... and more confusing.... hopefully this guy will give you a better price and be able to get to it sooner too.  

GREAT NEWS on the chimney..... 

When is your planned date to head back to CA ????? I am really glad that your DH really likes this place... and the flat ground should make doing stuff out and around there much more enjoyable... yes, you will miss the family members... but you really are entitled to have some peace and quiet and not so much drama in your life....


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## Ridgetop

Going back no later than second week in August.  Should go back earlier - have 4 ewes due first 2 weeks of August, but all are 2nd and 3rd timers so no worries.  

Just need to get everything lined out for purchase, loan on property, refi on other rental house, and line out any repairs on the ranch.  

DDs and DDILs are starting to do things together instead of waiting for us to arrange family get togethers.  I think this will be good for the children - get them used to depending on each other instead of always on us.  Plus I am  looking forward to some "us time".  Once here we will have to find someone that can do house sitting and livestock feeding.  This would not be a problem except for Bubba, the stranger hating Anatolian.  If we get a 4th Anatolian, we can introduce them to the potential house sitter.  And of necessary bring Bubba with us to California when we come visit as long as we haven't sold our house in CA.  We'll work it out.


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## Baymule

We had breakfast at the auction cafe, watched the sheep and goat auction and enjoyed ourselves. @Ridgetop was tempted by a nice paint horse, but much to her DH’s relief, hadn’t become a registered buyer. LOL Then we came back to our house to visit and had lasagna for a late lunch. We sure enjoyed our day!


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## Ridgetop

We had a wonderful visit with Bay and BJ.  

The auction was fun.  I _was_ seriously tempted by the little paint and if I was already living here in Texas would have had a bid card and bid on it.  It was a really nice horse! Calm, responded to leg aids beautifully, and it was a small horse. I prefer horses 14hh to 14.2hh that is easier for me to mount up. The bids did not reach the owner's reserve of $1,000. I _was _tempted but I would have wanted to see it work in a large arena, also pick up feet and watch it get tacked up, etc. And a vet check. But it was a really nice little paint. 😍   I might have been able to lead it back to Rusk to the trailer park and hobble it in the little grass clearing near the trailer.  LOL  But didn't think I could load it in the 5th wheel to get it home.    There was also a nice dark brown mule in the sale too as well as a cute chocolate pony that was supposed to be a child's schooling pony and it drove too.  Another lot was a nice llama which brought $600-800.  DH had the foresight to make sure I did not have a bidding card before the auction started!  LOL

The sheep and goats were not impressive although they brought decent prices.   A couple registered Boer bucks - large and in good condition went for $400, while a group of Blackbelly rams with good horns also brought high prices.  Probably for a game ranch or game ranch breeder.  The prices the sheep and lambs and goats brought were very good for the time of year.  

Bay's new registered Katahdin ewes are very pretty, long and elegant.  In fact, her flock is very uniform and she has a really nice set of youngsters.  The two unregistered bucks she kept are also very nice.  A lot of length like Ringo.  She has a great flock and they are so friendly!  Sentry decided I had an acquisitive eye on _his_ sheep and after a warning growl kept a close eye on me in case I tried to steal one of his ewes!  

Paris was very friendly - she has obviously decided she is retired!  LOL


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## Baymule

We sure enjoyed our day! Thanks for the nice compliments on my sheep. I know I’m on the right track when you admired the same young sheep that I do.


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## Ridgetop

Did not mention the fantastic lasagna we had for our dinner at Bay and BJ's.  The noodles were made with a recipe that Bay came up with to use her extra zucchini.  Best lasagna I ever had.     I hope I remember how she said to make them when I get home.  Also had the sweet pickles she made that were fabulous.  Super crunchy and crisp. Need that recipe too.  Best sweet pickles ever!     Luckily I still have some pickling lime at home.  Can't get it in my area and I are checking with several tax lawyers to make sure that we can had to order it on line.  

Going ahead with our refi on the rental house, and the loan for the additional price of the ranch.  Tomorrow the option runs out on our inspection discovery.  We have decided to go ahead with the purchase even if we have to replace the septic ourselves.  Another septic examination and bid will be coming up hopefully tomorrow.  The first bidder never send in a bid, neither did the electrician.  This second septic company doesn't make repairs on leach lines either and only installs the new aerobic systems.  I guess we will go with them since they can install in September.  DH and I agreed that installing the new system will be smarter since with a repair, (and our luck) it would probably go bad again with the tenant in residence!  With the long wait in being able to do repairs, we would have a tenant problem!  

The fencing will wait until our next trip to Texas.  DH has decided to take some savings to pay for that and fence the entire acreage at once with 7' game fencing.  We will have to figure out a plan for the front yard fence though since we need to leave enough area to be able to pull into the driveway off the highway without opening the game fence gates.   So probably a secondary fence if necessary across the front of the house - wrought iron? - with automatic gates or just leave the front of the house open for now.  We will have to measure and need to have enough room for a circle drive among the large trees.  This would give us enough room to pull in off the highway with parking for visitors.  There is plenty of room to turn around the trailer near the barn and park.  We will have to measure and plan where to park the 5th wheel since it needs to be near enough to the house that we can load it for trips and also hook to house water and electric for visitors.  Will also put in a high carport for the 5th wheel.  All that can wait for us to measure and decide location during our visits over the next 2 years.  

The2 hour drive to Yantis and Sulphur Springs from Rusk is getting really old.  However I have found another KOA in Mt. Pleasant which is just a short distance from Sulphur Springs.  And it has a pool too.    Will make our reservations there from now on.  We are here for a month and if we leave sooner it will raise our daily fee.  So we will just wait it out.  Thought we would be buying in this area which is why I booked us in here.  

DH is looking at plan of lot and trying to decide size of pastures for our sheep.  He started at 5 acres which I told him was a little large for the number of sheep we will be pasturing together.  They won't do a good clearance but if the pastures are smaller but more numerous, we can move the sheep more often.  On the other hand, maybe we could do the larger permanent pastures and then use electro net and chargers to keep the sheep eating certain portions of them evenly.  All in the future . . . .


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## Baymule

I know you want the high wire fence so the dogs can come socialize, but leave room for the circle drive , visitors and turn around room at the carport. May I suggest, standing in the front yard, facing the house,fencing up to the right back corner of the house. Then fence up to the left back corner, not including the carport.

Zucchini noodles.
1 baseball bat size zucchini 
6 eggs, beaten
1cup grated mozzarella 

Quarter and deseed zucchini. Grate it. By handfuls, squeeze the water out or your lasagna will be watery. You should get 2 1/2 cups, packed. 

Combine zucchini, eggs and mozzarella.

cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper . Spread zucchini egg mixture about 1/4” thick. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes or until golden. Then follow your favorite recipe for lasagna. I used tomato sauce I canned, hamburger from a steer I raised, onions, eggs, even diced up yellow squash and layered that in the lasagna. Only bought the cottage cheese and mozzarella. Maybe that’s why it was so good, practically all fresh from the farm!

The noodles before I cut them in strips.


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## Margali

If it's s highway msnaged bt TXDOT you may have issue getting circle drive. They limit the number of driveways on a ~400ft section.

My FIL in Johnson County has 1acre homestead and 15acre pasture that is behind and adjacent to homestead. Previous owner added highway gate direct into pasture. They were required to block off half of circle drive. FIL found out the distance rule when he tried to start using circle drive. His only option is to make loop inside front fence w1 driveway.


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## Ridgetop

Is that every 400 feet?  Or since the frontage of this parcel on the highway is 1,732 feet, with only one driveway, would we be able to put in another driveway or even 2 or 3? DH will have to check with TXDOT and with Wood County.


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## Baymule

The county commissioner for that precinct should know. It would be a good place to start.


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## Margali

Ridgetop said:


> Is that every 400 feet?  Or since the frontage of this parcel on the highway is 1,732 feet, with only one driveway, would we be able to put in another driveway or even 2 or 3? DH will have to check with TXDOT and with Wood County.


As far as I understood from FIL its every 400ft of road frontage. So you can have multiple on a parcel but not closer than 400ft from each other.  Something to do with study showing multiple drives close together increase traffic accidents.


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## farmerjan

Obviously don't know TXDOT but here VDOT has to come out to inspect and approve all new driveways etc.;    including farm gate entrances, and now they are supposed to be off set in xx number of feet so that you are not opening a gate, pulling out into the lane of traffic, and having to go close the gate.... old ones are grandfathered in, but don't ever close off an existing gate or you have to go through the new regulations.... so if there is a gate there... maintain it as a gate even if you never use it for a gate....
  and part of it is for water run off and such... if there are sides of the road grades (ditches etc.) then a pipe under the driveway... of course we get snow and stuff,  so different for there... but DS was telling me about the number of entrances and footage requirements and it did have to do with causing potential traffic problems....he had to go look at where a farmer wanted to put in a gateway, and had to approve it.....


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## Margali

Yep. I had to get a Culvert permit which cost $0. Johnson County came and told me what minimum diameter was allowed. I went ahead and paid $18/lin ft for them to supply gravel and install culvert. Felt like decent price considering there is a 12" water main and buried cable in path of the culvert.


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## Ridgetop

We wanted to put in another driveway (no gates) to make a circle driveway so we don't have to back out into the highway.  There is turning area behind the first cattle gate behind the house, but it's not easy to turn around easily at the house.  DH figured that a circle drive would allow you to pull in and then pull out into the road instead of backing out.  Safer.  But when we move in we can have the appropriate department look and tell us what we can do.  If nothing else we can put in a "circle drive" under the trees for guest parking.  We will figure it out once we are on the property.

The survey of the property has been ordered.  We are moving forward.    The seller is putting some money toward the new septic system.   Everything else we can do ourselves.  The survey will be completed in 20 days.  We will be back in California by then but will be coming back in October/November to oversee the septic installation.  Neither septic company can install until November.    The second company is meeting me on Monday to work up the estimate.  The first company never sent me an estimate.   He promised it would be sent to my email by last Thursday.  So did the electrician.

At any rate we are on track.  Now all I have to worry about is California's Governor Gruesome returning us to masks.     If the restaurant closes again we will have to figure out a small at home wedding and reception. This wedding which should be so happy is beginning to feel like a nightmare from which  cannot wake up!   Sooner or later it will get done.

Tomorrow I have to pull out my flock cards and check which ewes are due to lamb the first 2 weeks of August. DS1 will have to move them into the jugs just before their due dates since it doesn't look like we will be back by then.  The other lambs and ewes are in the creep pen.  I will have to give CDT boosters to them when we get home.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> DH figured that a circle drive would allow you to pull in and then pull out into the road instead of backing out. Safer.


Yep. If they won't let you put in a circle you can always put a spur off the side that you can back into toe get turned facing the road. Not as nice as a circle though.


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## Ridgetop

Also have to negotiate huge Catalpa trees in front yard for circle drive.  Believe they would be negotiable for the turn  but we are waiting until we move in to make those decisions.  We could use the area in front of the barn for turn arounds and adjust fencing too.  Right now there are cattle out there but we will be rearranging things to accomodate the barn area for lambing jugs and a creep pen.


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## Ridgetop

Margali said:


> As far as I understood from FIL its every 400ft of road frontage. So you can have multiple on a parcel but not closer than 400ft from each other. Something to do with study showing multiple drives close together increase traffic accidents.


There is a driveway to the next parcel within 400' of our driveway, but it is a separate parcel.  Depending on the measurements, we might be able to to do something between the shed and barn.  There is quite a lot of space there so that might be the way to go instead of a circle drive in front of the house.  

Bad news on the septic system!  Finally got the estimate from the first septic guy.  $11,100+ pumping of old septic!  According to Chad it will require a separate tank for the washer gray water (which I think may also include the shower and kitchen sink) because that outlet exits in the front of the house and the black water exits behind the house.  Apparently to get the gray water to the septic line they have to put in a "power lift" tank to pump the gray water over to that line.  The carport is in the way of just rerouting the gray water from the house outlet so need that extra tank, plumbing - *an extra $4000*!  Oh well it is only money!  The second septic guy is coming out Monday and I will get an estimate from him too although I think it may come about the same amount.  Still November install date for both.

We are also meeting the electrician on Monday to get his estimate for the subpanel and electric repairs.  This will not include the electric line for the septic which was included in the septic estimate ($600).  But there are a couple things that need to be done to make sure it is safe for a tenant.  (Since you never know what a  tenant will decide to do.)  

Costs are mounting but we will do what is necessary now and space the rest out until before we move in.  These costs are also tax deductible since this is still a rental.  Problem with tax deductible expenses is being able to afford them in the first place!    The fencing can wait for a while since we won't have our dogs and sheep on the property yet.  That cost will be huge for the perimeter fencing so we need to determine exactly how much of the property we need to fence.  We could leave the front 20 acres as hay pasture at first which would cut the cost considerably.  Then fence that acreage later when needed.  

Huge thunder and lightning rain storm shook the trailer yesterday.  Right over Rusk.  Finally travelled west and we got our satellite signal back.  During the night another heavy rainstorm came and woke us up.  No lightning and thunder though.  Lovely sunny day today.

DH is losing weight on my diet plan.  (No food!)  He is also getting "trailer fever" and is restless.  We will be heading to FW this Saturday to sign and fill out some paperwork.  Kris' mom wants us to come for dinner at her house.  Such a lovely woman - we always enjoy our visits with her.  Next week we will have to find a day to drive south to Leander and visit Erick.  He took a couple dogs to the National Anatolian Specialty and won.  On fact all the top dogs were out of his breeding.  They also are true working Anatolians on larger properties with sheep and goats.    One person that couldn't wait for pups from him bought a sister brother pair from another breeder.  He called Erick to tell him he was desperate for a pair from Erick since those 2 year old Anatolians allowed neighborhood dogs to kill abut 8 of his registered (and expensive) goats!  Not all  LGDs are alike.  For some reason these 2 dogs would protect against wild predators but did nothing to stop strange dogs from killing the goats. Looking forward to our visit.


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## farmerjan

So, since you made the offer, was it pending inspections and such?  If so, how much off the asking/selling price are you negotiating to make this fair to your purchase.  Yes she is a nice old lady.... but if she cannot sell it without the improvements, she would have to foot the bill for the whole thing before the property could be sold.... mine had issues with the heating system and the upstairs ceilings, but they do not need to be inspected by anyone because this was between 2 private persons, and do not affect any things like electric or septic or anything.  But you are having to comply with city/county ordinances and that makes the property unsellable as it is????
Sure it is only money, but still she should make some concessions in the price.....

As far as the driveway to the adjoining parcel, anything that is already existing, and a separate piece of property, should be a non-issue with your property.  Laws might be different there, but for the most part, that is how they work... pre-existing/grandfathered in until you want to make a change to that specific spot.

Sounds like Erick has some very good working animals....
as far as the other guy who lost animals..... I would be out there with a gun and shooting anything that came on the property to hurt/maim/kill my animals....feel bad for him and for the animals he lost.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> it will require a separate tank for the washer gray water (which I think may also include the shower and kitchen sink) because that outlet exits in the front of the house and the black water exits behind the house.


Are the gray water and black water all ending up in the same leach field? If so can the grey lines get put into the black at there rear of the house? If not why does the grey need to be pumped out back? The usual purpose of separating grey and black is so you can use the grey for irrigation.


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## Ridgetop

The gray water lines come out from the laundry room and kitchen that are on the front of the house.  The black water line and at least some gray water lines come from the bathrooms that are located on the back side of the house. This would not be a problem if there was no carport attached to the house.  Since the lines come out on either side of the brick carport they can't be connected without digging up the concrete floor of the carport.  In order to connect them beyond the carport there is not enough slope to cannot them.  They need some sort of tank with a pump to pump the gray water over to the tank with the black water.  I would rather have had the gray water lines leach into the field, but no such luck.    The second tank and pump is costing the extra $4000.  Still have a second septic company giving me a bid on Monday so we will see what he says.  

She dropped the price $10,000, so we should be able to do the stuff without too much problem.  There were 3 other offers that came in on the property.  Other than the septic there is really nothing else that requires work.  I tend to over do on the inspections if something is turned up in the basic home inspection.  She told us about the septic leach lines needing repair otherwise we would probably not have known anything about it.  Also pointed out that the roof had a leak that they repaired, and that she thought the fireplace had a crack (turned out that was not so).  The property (and house) is really clean - nothing to haul off while most of the other properties had different types of stuff that needed removal.  

Inside the house everything is spotless and well kept.  The fan that the home inspector said needed changing actually works.  One blade got broken so her grandson took off the opposite one to avoid wobbling.  Pack of 4 matching blades is about $30 at Lowes.  Easy to replace.  DH can fix all other items.  He wants the electrician to add a sub-panel on the back of the house where he can bring electricity to the barn.  There is already a capped water line to the barn from the well to water the animals in the barn.  DH want the electrician to move the electric line to the shed and well pump underground.  We could do it ourselves, but will not be here when escrow closes so DH will pay to have it done.  

There is a lot of pipe fencing and the other fencing is in good shape.  The only reason for putting in m fencing is that we want the game fence - 8'.  Another reason we want the higher fence is that Erick is interested in us having a litter of puppies out of our next bitch bred to Bubba.  If we are having more than 4 Anatolians on the property I want good perimeter fencing.  Probably a holdover from having Pyrenees that could go over anything and did.  I don't think we will have problems with our dogs going over the fence, but rather than putting in 5' or 6' fencing and finding out too late that it was not high enough, we would rather bite the bullet and spend the extra for the higher game fence.   These dogs will go out of the premises if the predator does not retreat so better safe than sorry. 

I just have to rein DH in with regard to the extra farm purchases he is excited about.  "WHOA there Big Guy!" 
Plenty of time to get everything done once the property is ours and we can come back and do measuring, etc.  and see how much $$$ those tractors, mules, shop buildings, carports etc. will cost.  DH keeps talking about buying a new metal barn for the sheep.  I keep telling him that we don't need it since the current barn is in good shape and will work perfectly.  This saddens him since he think I want a nice new barn.   I DO NOT.  I like the current barn and it has plenty of room for all the lambing jugs I could want.  I currently have 5 jugs 5' wide x 7' long.  The shed But to the barn is 10' x 60'.   That is where I plan to put my lambing jugs and a separate area for a creep and covered pen for ewes with tiny lambs after they come out of the jugs.  Enough room for more than 5 jugs, and a large covered area for the ewes and their lambs adjacent.   And another 10' x 60' add on on the other side of the 20' x 60' main barn. 

DH is very excited.  I am glad I brought my knitting.  Knitting keeps me calm.  I have completed 3 small TV lap blankets and am starting on another now.  Luckily there is a Hobby Lobby in Tyler for more wool.  I have already been there.     May have to go back for more yarn.  

What I need to do is PM Mike to find out how large his rotational pastures are.  DH keeps asking me how large they need to be.


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## Ridgetop

Oops.  Went to correct a spelling error and must have posted this.  

We wanted to swim yesterday but a thunder and lightning storm suddenly popped up.  No swimming.  Today it keeps clouding up then a bit of sun and just as we put on our suits, cloudy again!  We are leaving tomorrow for Fort Worth to visit our friend and broker, Kris.  We have business to take care of.  He wants us to stay for 2 nights - his mom wants to have us come for dinner one night as well.  We will take our swimming suits - he put in a new salt water pool.  Hopefully no T & L storms will show up in FW over the weekend!  We will leave for Sulphur Springs early Monday morning to meet the septic man and the electrician for their estimates.

We have to arrange a visit to Erick in Leander too, before we go back to California.  Hopefully he will have puppies this year and one will be ready for pick up when we come out in November.  

DD1 finally bought a puppy for her children.  She decided on a yellow lab.  I arranged with a breeder that DS1's college friend recommended.  He hunts and has a pup from them that he says is fantastic.  The breeder does x rays and genetic testing for certain breed specific problems.  DS1 will be going up to Reno to pick up the puppy.  The breeder is up near Reno where DS1's buddy lives.  This will be a good opportunity for DS1 to spend a few days with his friend and pick up the pup for his sister.  I told DD1 that I will work with DGS1 on the training.  DGS1 has been wanting a dog for years.  So has DGD1.  DGS2 is happy with his guinea pig.  Need to train the puppy to leave the guinea pig alone!


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## Baymule

I totally agree with your VERY WISE husband! Yes! You need a nice new barn! He really loves you and wants the best for you. I love you too and would hate for that old barn to mar the serenity and beauty of your new barn. So as a true friend, I volunteer to take the eyesore down and haul it away for you.


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## farmerjan




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## Mini Horses

Sure sounds like an "add to my stockpile" offer to me!  

Nice of you to "help"!!!!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> The second tank and pump is costing the extra $4000.


I have the one we pulled out of this house, come get it free 

The fools we bought from "rehabbed" (poorly) and put the downstairs bath at the north end of the house. The pipe to the tank is 50' to the south, not nearly enough drop so they pumped it up under the second floor, connected the upstairs toilet to it. Sometimes when the ejection pump ran it would suck the water out of the upstairs toilet. I'll save you the details of the path from there. 



Ridgetop said:


> The gray water lines come out from the laundry room and kitchen that are on the front of the house. The black water line and at least some gray water lines come from the bathrooms that are located on the back side of the house.


Oh yeah, Texas. No basement, no crawl space to run the pipe to the back.


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## Margali

Ridgetop said:


> order to connect them beyond the carport there is not enough slope to cannot them. They need some sort of tank with a pump to pump the gray water over to the tank with the black water. I would rather have had the gray water lines leach into the field, but no such luck.  The second tank and pump is costing the extra $4000.


*I am an engineer but NOT YOUR engineer. I am NOT a registered Professional Engineer*

If it is just grey water, that cost is absurd. You just need to know what flowrate to handle. Here is some rough numbers:

Flowrates of new laundry machines
17 - 21 gal/min
Showerheads
2.5 (new standard) - 6 gal/min
Dishwasher flowrate
Couldn't find definitive numbers, ~10gal/min

So a tank that holds around 25gallons with a float contolled ~20gpm sump pump is all you need.
An example for $520: Aprox 27gal 15gpm


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## Bruce

@Margali how does a 2.5 gpm showerhead equate to 6 gpm down the drain? Or is that maybe for a bathtub being drained?


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## Margali

Bruce said:


> @Margali how does a 2.5 gpm showerhead equate to 6 gpm down the drain? Or is that maybe for a bathtub being drained?


New showerheads manufactured after 1992 are 2.5 gpm. You can pull the restrictor out of them to increase the flowrate. Pre 1992 shower heads were ~6gpm. So the actual flow will depend on age, condition and quantity of shower heads.  The 2.5 - 6 gpm was to show range of possibilities.

Bathtubs hold 40 - 80 gallons and take 4 - 6 minutes to drain. The biggest & fastest draining would be 80/4 = 20gpm.


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## Margali

Link to Texas A&M handout Greywater system design


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## Bruce

Margali said:


> New showerheads manufactured after 1992 are 2.5 gpm. You can pull the restrictor out of them to increase the flowrate. Pre 1992 shower heads were ~6gpm.


6 gpm is a LOT of water! I guess people took short showers since a big hot water tank would be half gone in 13 minutes, I'm sure the backfilling cold water was noticeable before that. Our shower heads are 2 gpm, it is plenty. We could have gotten 2.5 gpm but didn't figure it was necessary. Of course my showers are short anyway, about 5 minutes.


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## Ridgetop

Finally back and able to be on line.  

Went to DFW on Saturday to spend a couple days with our friend Kris and his mom, Beverly.  Had a nice time, enjoyed his pool, brought our documents to be copied for the refi, signed some necessary 1031 docs for the exchange trustee, and had a lovely time visiting with Beverly on Saturday.  Sunday afternoon back in the pool then out and showered to go to dinner just before a huge rain storm hit DFW.  Massive thunder and lightning.  We wanted to stay in and have dinner *but* Kris is a single man who is very health conscious. His smoothies are delicious but nothing else in fridge, so we went to the Hofbrau for MEAT! IN THE STORM!!! Good steaks, and the rain sort of eased off enough to allow us to drop off Bev and get home. It drained heavily all night and then cleared up in time for us to get to the house in Yantis by 10:00 am Monday for the second septic inspection and estimate, as well as the electrical estimate. Electrician said that the hot water heaters were not grounded correctly. I told Miz Joyce to be sure to turn on the shower and toss a bar of soap into the spray before getting under the water. If it sparkled stay out since I didn't want her electrocuted. LOL The hot water heaters are probably grounded to the cold water pipe as they used to do. However, we will bring up to current code. Visited with Miz Joyce and met her daughter and another old friend of hers who dropped by. Then on the way home we called Bay and BJ and stopped for a visit. Picked up some Blue Bell ice cream. Bay made yummy chicken skewers. Really looking forward to living at the new place. Bay and BJ come to Sulphur Springs for feed so we could get together frequently! 

Tuesday and Wednesday we did laundry, swam, read, I knitted.  No computer.  Children texted.  Daughters arguing.  DD1 took a snit over a joke from DD2.  Big fight.  Tearful demanding of apologies.  Vows to never talk again.  Did not call back.  Have to go home soon.   

Thursday went south to Leander.  4 hours from Rusk since GPS routed us on the secondary roads - no freeway.  Beautiful scenery.  Shocked though to find that entire area from Georgetown to Austin was building new tracts of big homes.  They all looked the same.  French style.  2 story with high peaked roof. Small lots for Texas!  Had a lovely visit with Erick.  His dogs fawned all over DH!  They always do.  Even the ones that Erick says are not friendly with strangers!  He showed us the 2 males and females he was planning to breed for litters and we made sure he had us on the list.  The litter I liked best was out of a make that has exceptional judgement like Rika.  His puppy that went Reserve Winners Bitch over adults at the Anatolian National Specialty is exceptionally pretty.  She is an outcross from an outcross.  Her bloodlines would be perfect for breeding to Bubba.  Unfortunately by the time I have a puppy from her old enough to use him on, Bubba will be about 10 and might be past it.  I might try though since it would be a great cross.  However, both of the litters that are planned are rather closely related to Bubba.  I really want one of his pups.  he has not bred any litters for several years so whichever litter he chooses a bitch from for me, will be perfect.   He knows what I need and will choose appropriately.  I want to have the puppy this year so Rika and Bubba can train her under closer supervision on our current property.  Will get another puppy after we are in Texas or will breed the pup I get from Erick to a stud he chooses.  Live cover only though.  I don't like doing AI with dogs.  They often seem to develop some problems either don't take, have problems with delivery, or infections.  Just not a fam of AI for them.  We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant - a new blue corn one - I had a delicious seafood enchilada !  Then discussed dogs, property taxes, dogs, neighbors, dogs, politics at the Anatolian Club, dog shows, his goats, and of course, dogs.  We realized it was getting dark and was almost 8pm!  And Erick had to do his feeding!  We left for Rusk.   From Leander GPS routed us back via freeway for the most part.  Since it was dark it was easier driving but still took 4 hours.  Got home at midnight.  

While we were on our way back to Erick's from the restaurant after dropping him off to pick up his truck, we got a desperate call from Kris.  Apparently although we had wet signed the 1031xidentificatin doc, they couldn't accept it being sent from Kris!  OK, this was serious since we only had until 8/12 to submit the ID form.  After a bad night I got up at 6 am and hooked up the computer and printer.  The printer is iffy.  It is a small travel printer and after working with it for a full day last week, I finally got it to print 4 pages!  Yeehaw!!!  But then it stopped working.    After 2 days of rereading the instructions, detaching different cords, bad language, rereading the instructions, reattaching different cords, more bad language, pushing different buttons, worse language, I put it away.  This morning I had to get it out and try again. Otherwise we would have to drive to Dallas to take care of this.  I read the instructions again, TWICE, then hooked it up and printed out the 1 page form.  God be praised!  It printed the necessary page then quit again.  Probably permanently.  At least permanently for me.  It is supposed to be able to scan too, but I could never get that option to work.  

We signed the form, then to find how to scan it and email it back from my email.  I took a photo with DH's phone, sent it to the computer, and forwarded the email to the IPX administrator.  I thought we would have to go overnight the original signed paper to them, but she emailed that it was good, didn't need snail mail copy, and sent me a countersigned copy.   Big sigh of relief.  DH got on the computer and checked his bank account. Then he suddenly remembered that we would need insurance on the house.  Got a quote from USAA which doesn't insure farms so they turned it over to Travelers.  Quote too high and not enough coverage. Called Farm Bureau.  Waiting on that quote.  

Got quote from second septic company which came in $1,000 higher.  And did not include the electric. Notified first septic company that we would go with him and also notified the electrician that we would go with his quote.  They won't be able to do it until November so we will have to come back to Texas in November.    Then responded to another email from Kris asking me to give him and the title company the name and contact info for the lender.  Another round of emails sending contact info of all 3 back and forth.  

Finally DH and I went to the pool and enjoyed a long swim.  Hot shower and back to trailer for dinner - crab salad.  Using up everything perishable before heading home Monday.  

Computer work can be exhausting.  This whole property thing is exhausting.  Packing and moving will be a breeze after this.  

Oops!  Forgot to check on fencing.  Tomorrow.


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## Baymule

We sure enjoyed our visit with y’all. It’s just not long enough! Lol

My opinion, I think you should bash that printer with a hammer. It should bring immense satisfaction to beat  it to bits. Take out all your pent up frustrations on the printer, then you should be happy and relaxed for the trip back to California. Once there, you can rule over your daughters dispute with queenly aplomb and wisdom. All thanks to the beat up printer!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Went to DFW on Saturday to spend a couple days with our friend Kris and his mom, Beverly.


I assume you mean the metro area and not the airport. I can't imagine spending a couple of days in DFW ... or any other airport.


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## Ridgetop

Actually Fort Worth.  Just used the initials since it was shorter.  

Went to the free pancake breakfast thus morning for the first time.  Pancakes are free but they also had bacon eggs, sausage, fried potatoes, biscuits ad sausage gravy.  Those cost a donation.  Since no one else was there except the employees, I got mine free.  DH paid on the way out.  Then we took a short walk around the campground,  This is the second walk we have taken here - after our original walk when we made plans to walk around the park every day.  

Getting ready to leave on Monday.  This means getting mentally ready,  First we look around and catalog what we need to pack and where it goes.  We decide to get a start on it now, then change our minds and go swimming.  Back from swimming I have another urge to pack away our recliners but  few raindrops fall and I change my mind.  DH has started a series of books by an author he has never read before.  He is now reading his way through them.  For the first time in a month Fox News is not on.    Blessed silence!  

I have packed up my files and the accursed printer - so called.  I have not yet destroyed it, mainly because I did not want to have to pick up all the little pieces of plastic.  e will have a steak tonight for dinner.  We split one between us.  I made a large chicken salad for tomorrow and will package portions up in the cooler for the trip.  Tomorrow I also have to cut up the last of the celery, slice up some apples, cut a block of cheese into cubes, and put the carrots in a Ziplock bag.  All this stuff will go into Tupperware type containers in the ice filled cooler so it will not take on water.   On Monday I will fill the cooler with bottles of water, ice and these snacks which will be our lunches for the trip.  We will eat at Denny's (or similar) at the truck stops while we travel the 3 days home.   We also sleep in the trailer in truck stops as we travel.  Faster and free.  Would have liked to have swung north through Montana, but no point since we would not be able to get back south through the fires.  We should be home around Wednesday/Thursday.  

I have 3 ewes due at the end of the week.  DS1 has moved 2 ewes in with the ram for breeding.  He will check on these ewes and pull them into the jugs for me on Wednesday.  Once home we will have to tag the lambs that were born just before we left.  And give any who need it their 2nd CDT vaccination.   

DD2 is going to the Odyssey today to make sure they are able to do the wedding,  I told her if they can't do it due to Gov. Gruesome that we will hold the wedding in the little neighborhood church (the minister is their celebrant anyway) and just have the reception at home.  We can accommodate 70 people which is the number on the invitation list and some won't come with this mask thing and all the Delta variant hype.  I can do the food myself along with some ordered stuff.  Paper goods, and rental chairs.  No problem.
I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR!  LOL  

*No time for fooling around.  I have to start decluttering and emptying connexes and cupboards preparatory to my move to Texas.  2 years is only 730 days!!!    *

Returning home to babysit both 3 month olds,  the 4 year old after preschool, and a labrador puppy. One 3 month old and the puppy every day.  The other 3 months old 3 days and the 4 year old after preschool on Fridays.

*Can someone explain "empty nest syndrome"?  What is is?  Has anyone ever really experienced it? OR IS IT A MYTH?!  *


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## Baymule

No wonder y’all love coming to Texas so much! Y’all need the rest!


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## Ridgetop

👍


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## farmerjan

Do you think that they realize this is not a dress rehearsal... that you are SERIOUSLY getting things together to move????


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## Ridgetop

Possibly not.  Or they are just in denial.    We will enjoy our 2 years with the babies, and I think we will also take this time to do some travelling in our 5th wheel to different parts of the country.  Once we are in the ranch we may not have the ability to travel as easily.


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## Ridgetop

About to go dark for 4 days.  Heading to California tomorrow.  Everything done for quick breakdown in the am and pack cooler.  Don't want to leave, but need to get home.  My dear friend, my "mom", is failing rapidly and asking me to come home.  

She was recovering from her cancer when her doctor had her get the Covid vaccination thinking it would best for her to be protected.  She was immuno compromised but doctor told her to get vaccinated.  She had a bad reaction to the first dose but the doctor told her to get the second dose.  After the second dose, she got terrible reactions in her body.  Muscular pain throughout her body, a horrible rash all over her body, and inside her ears, nose, mouth and throat.  Complete muscular weakness, can't swallow, now incredible mucous secretions in her throat prevent her from eating or drinking anything.  She s about 5'8" but lost weight down to 89 lbs.  She had to go into the hospital and get a stomach tube to eat.  Now she is getting terrible stomach pain from the food and tube.  She is so weak she can hardly walk and was going to the doctor yesterday to arrange end of life hospice.  The doctors have done innumerable tests and say they don't know what is causing these symptoms and can't do anything for her.   They are pretty sure it was a reaction to the vaccine .  I started crying on the phone which upset her.  I will go over as soon as I get back.  She wants me there even though we both know there is nothing I can do.  I want to be there for her too.  Her granddaughter (dead daughter's child) is getting married October 25. She really was happy about going to the wedding and bought a new outfit for it too.  Now she feels so awful.  She is in incredible pain.   She won't be going to the wedding, and I am worried that she won't make last that long.  She doesn't want to live that long because she feels so horrible.   She was always so lively and active.    

Sometimes life sucks.


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## farmerjan

There are no words,.  .  Reading this, then listening to the BS on the TV (computer new stream) this morning about the push for the vaccine is making me literally sick.,.  More schools here have put in a full mask mandate, and it won't be long before we won't be able to even breathe without it the mandates forcing us to all become their pawns.,

Have a safe trip home and I hope that you can give your friend some comfort.,.


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## Baymule

Y'all be safe traveling home. We love y'all!


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## Ridgetop

Made it home Wednesday afternoon.  Not sure why the trip home is shorter than the trip to Texas.  Maybe the time change cutting several hours off the journey?    Anyway got the trailer unloaded and clothes put away.  Still need to do the laundry.  Got my computer hooked back up today.  Have been catching up with all my business stuff.  Ran out of ink n my office printer so am waiting for another black cartridge (supposed to arrive tomorrow) to be able to down load and print some paperwork that has to be filled out, scanned uploaded, and emailed back.  Got some final paperwork to take care of on the Yelm property too.  Got the appraisal back n our rental house in FW, Texas.  $235,000!  Paid $115,000 5 years ago.  Lots of filing to do too.

Saw my dear friend on Thursday.  She weighs less than 95 lbs.  She is having some new treatment that supposedly finds whatever it is in your body that is making you sick and targets it, killing it.  It is an IV infusion that she is getting every day for 5 days then once a week.  It is the last thing that can be done.  She is also getting speech therapy which is supposed to help her with swallowing.  I am not sure what the infusion is or how it works,  It almost sounds like a nano type thing that DS1 explained to me.  I will be going back on Sunday.  Got her laughing when the speech therapist told her the goal was to be able to swallow clear fluids. Reminded her that Vodka counted as a clear liquid.  Her dear friend Don's older brother is coming out for a visit in another week.  He plays bridge and she asked DH and I to come over and play bridge with him and Don.  Don is getting very frail too.  

Yesterday 8192 delivered spit twins - ewe and ram.  Today AAC has a ewe lamb.  Placenta had not passed yet so will check tomorrow am and see is she has another.  8189, and 0123 don't have any udders yet so probably not going to lamb until second marking date 8/28 and 8/29. 18003 is due August 30.  

The lambs that were born 6/3, 6/19, and 6/23 have grown.  The single ram lamb that was born on 6/19 is HUGE!  The others are a nice size.  Will weigh them next week.  I think I will wether the enormous ram lamb and raise him for the freezer.  Prices are low this time of year.  Might wether the smaller twin ram lamb for the freezer too.  I have to get my registration paperwork in to the Dorper Association asap also.  I have some corrections to do on Application papers I sent in before going to Texas.  Typos.

Apparently Orange tag 9 got in with the ram in the breeding pen somehow.  DS1 noticed a ewe missing when he locked up the flock.  Wasn't very worried with the 3 LGDs in the yard, figured he would look for her after he fed.  He found her when he fed the breeding pen 15 minutes later.  She was marked and anxious to escape from the pen.  He said he thought she muttered something that sounded like Cuomo as she rushed out the gate back to the other ewes.  It is unfortunate if she was bred since she is only 7 months old.  We will have to keep a close eye on her if she takes.  The older 2 ewes that he moved in with the ram marked immediately.  Will have to check the ages of the older ewelings and possibly move a couple of the larger ones in to the breeding pen for January lambs.  March prices are still pretty good.  Noticed that P1 (Snowflake) has a giant swelling on her rear leg just under her butt muscle on the stifle.  We will have to check it out tomorrow.

DH picked up 43 bales of alfalfa today  I think he intends to go back for another trailer load tomorrow.  We had about 8 bales left when we got home from Texas.  The thought of being able to graze the sheep instead of buying hay is really wonderful.  Oh yes, we met the insurance agent from the Farm Bureau the day before we left.  Her dad is always looking for somewhere to graze his cattle.  She said he sprays and fertilizes the fields he rents so that is another option if the current cattle tenant decides to leave.  

Got DS2's amended birth certificate back.  She was thrilled to see it with us listed as her parents.  She and Dominic came over with both girls.  Baby Annabel is sooo active!  She is trying to scoot and only succeeds in rolling around everywhere.  LOL  So cute.  Starting to teeth.  Maisie was happy to see Grandma and Grandpa home too.  She came over yesterday to play with DGD1.  They love each other so much.  Both DGD2 and DGD3 are coming over tomorrow to be babysat while mama is working.  DSIL2 (almost) had the chance to work another shift and i said we would watch the little ones.  

Robert (DGS5) came home yesterday and actually smiled at us!  Then he took a second look and starting crying.  DDIL2 said it was because he was tired but I think the truth was that he finally realized who we were!  LOL  Apparently he is lazy and doesn't try to roll around as much.  His mama rolls him back and forth so maybe he thinks that is good enough and he doesn't need to expend any energy if she will do it for him!  LOL  He is very vocal though, apparently he babbles and laughs out loud a lot.

Was shocked to find out that DS3 and DDIL1 had Covid while we were gone  DS3 ran a temperature and tested positive on August 2. Other than the temperature ad a cough the symptoms were mild  He was back at work yesterday.  DDIL2 did not run a temperature.  She had a dull headache was tired, and lost her sense of taste and smell.  DGS3, age 10, had a cough but no temperature.  His test was inconclusive but he most likely had Covid too.  The youngest DGS4, age 7, was just tired for 3 days.  Both children are back to normal now and will go to school next week.  Not sure if this was the Delta variant or original Covid.  No lingering symptoms except the smell and taste thing for DDIL2.  She expects that to clear up in a couple of weeks.

DD1 just received a text from the school system that she needs to submit proof of Covid vaccination before school starts on Monday.  Nothing like giving plenty of notice!!!  She was vaccinated several months ago. Their school starts Monday.  Masks, of course.

Preschool for DGD2 does not start until September 1.


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## Baymule

Even though you love Texas, there is still no place like home. And California is still home. I’m glad that Covid was not bad on your family. They are fortunate to have a light case, now they have immunity. 
It won’t take long for you to get back in the swing of things with your sheep. New lambs, more to come, breeding ewes and all that goes with it. They are so much fun.

Y’all have an election coming up, now is your chance to get rid of governor Gruesome. He sure has done a lot of not so smart things. Wish you luck on that.


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## Ridgetop

Got our ballots yesterday.  Goodbye Governor Gruesome.   

BTW, I heard yesterday that the new governor of NY is Nancy Pelosi's daughter-in-law!  Is that true?  If so, out of the frying pan and into the fire for New Yorkers.   

We already babysat DGS1, DGS2, DGD1 and DGD2 over the past 2 days  Today we get DGD2 and DGD3 for a couple hours.  Robert is home as well (DGS5) and this morning he agreed to be held by me and did not cry.  Progress!  

AAC had a single ewe lamb.  Pretty little hair lamb.  She is still stringing afterbirth around the pen, but I am not messing with it.  It will fall out eventually.  

DH has to take the truck and trailer in for Ekhart to look at the trailer brakes  Had some trouble with them cutting out and then grabbing on the way home.   The truck also started puling to the left again.   He was having the same trouble pulling the stock trailer with the truck pulling hard left.  I had suggested he have the trailer brakes checked but The Little Woman does not understand mechanical things so he had the front tires replaced (they needed replacing) and some stuff done on the front of the truck before our Texas trip.  Now DH says maybe it _is_ the trailer brakes. This would cause pulling of the truck when the trailers were hooked up. I will let the big guy sort it out. If it is the trailer brakes I will reserve the right to remind him every so often that I did suggest that. Nothing warms my heart like a big ol' "I told you so". 

Got to go - DD2 is here.


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## Ridgetop

DDIL2 with Baby Robert, DH with Baby Annabel, foreground Rika, for some reason taking a nap inside.  DGD2, 4 year old Maisie, is out of view at the kitchen table coloring pictures for mama, daddy and me.   DD2 and DSIL2 both working extra shifts to save more money.  Apparently, we did not raise them as good WOKE millennials.  They believe in paying their rent and bills.

DS3 said today that the IBEW union is trying to force al ts workers to be vaccinated.  This in spite of the fact that he just finished having Covid.  He said he may have to move to Texas after all.  Wanted t know if he could live on our ranch in his trailer.   Told him ok he didn't have to pay any rent, but would have to use the stinky well water!  LOL  Offered him the house for rent but he doesn't want to pay any rent.   Very WOKE there.    

I have the vet coming out tomorrow for the ewe that singled on Friday afternoon.  She has not finished getting rid of the afterbirth that is still stringing out onto the barn floor.  She is also standing hunched and miserable looking and is not eating today.  I am beginning to think she has a dead lamb inside.  I haltered her and stuck my hand inside but couldn't feel anything.  She has closed up some.  However, the fact that she allowed me to halter her, then just stood there while I violated her means she is not well.  Her belly is also very distended.  This is what happens when I say "She will be fine, she is already passing the afterbirth" and don't do an internal check!  If I had done an internal there might have been nothing there but the fact that I didn't do one now means that definitely I should have!  Also a vet bill and possible loss of a good productive ewe.  And a bottle lamb now.  Stupid me.


One of the ewes that is due in a couple of weeks (having passed her first due date) doesn't have any udder.  I think I will run her down in with the ram and see what happens.  Totally possible that she did not take.  In 2 weeks if she does not mark and udders up we can run her up again into the jugs.  One ewe on the field looks to be getting an udder so I have to go out this evening and check her ear number to see if I have a mistake on when she was bred.  

Remind me why we want to retire to Texas and raise sheep . . . .


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## Baymule

So why do you want to retire to Texas and raise sheep? You feel like making plans. Then you think about it and  wonder if you are doing the right thing. You bought the ranch,  too late now! Your DH says  so he can hang out with BJ. Your kids say  how dare you move away! All of BYH is   Your children say you are too  and that makes you     Your children think you are ready for a   

    and your DH is ready for a   

  They will be horrified when your DH buys a    

    So bring your  🐑 and your 🐶 and come to


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> BTW, I heard yesterday that the new governor of NY is Nancy Pelosi's daughter-in-law! Is that true?


Yet another "conspiracy theory", pure BS. I have no idea who makes that sort of thing up or why.


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## Ridgetop

Insane!  You can't believe anything on the news anymore.

DH's tractor will be in place of a motorized wheelchair.  Both have speeds about the same.


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## farmerjan

The corona virus thread got locked.... you probably need to read the last few posts/pages to get the gist of it.


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## Ridgetop

He can tow me in my non-motorized wheelchair.  Or maybe I should get a motorized one with a large cargo area for doing my shopping and gardening.  

At any rate, I have been having a very worrisome several days.  DH wanted to pull as much equity out of our rental as possible but that would be counter productive since the payments, taxes, insurance, and management fee would be more than the rent.  Talked it over and decided to be more cautious with the amount we are pulling out.  Dine the property has  more than doubled in 5 years, I wonder if we should just sell it and pay the capital gains on the gain.  That would give us the same amount of cash without the worry about Covid non rent paying tenants.  still considering that possibility.  At any rate, we are still discussing how high the payment can go to be affordable.  

Next, we are getting hugely expensive quotes on the insurance.  Farm bureau want us to reroof the barn and out on new siding or they won't insure the barn.  They will only insure us for about 60% of the house value because it is a rental.   ?????  Trying to get hold of Germania.  Will also call the owner and see who she is insured with and see if we can just take over her policy.

Monday was my birthday.  Woke up feeling very old.    The day went downhill from there.  

My sick ewe died Sunday night leaving her orphan ewe lamb.  I had scheduled the vet for Monday morning but should have had her come out on an emergency call Sunday.  When I jump in and do an internal, there is never anything there.  When I don't I have a major problem.  She passed the afterbirth, so I let it go resulting in the death of one of my better ewes.  And the problem of a bottle lamb.    Stupid me.

DS1 called animal pickup while I searched for and found my Lamb Lac, and nipples.  Thawed 2 pints of goat milk, and made up a bottle for the lamb.  Waited till the afternoon to try to bottle feed the lamb.  Difficult.   I used one of the nipples that go on a canning jar which I had always used for the dairy goat kids.   I put Karo in the formula and on the nipple. She was not impressed. I was sticky.  She eventually got about an ounce or so into her.  I left her to consider the consequences of her behavior - starvation.  💀

Then another ewe lambed and DS1 and I tried to cover the lamb in the afterbirth and get that ewe to take her.  The ewe seemed like she might for a few minutes then kicked the lamb when she went to nurse.  The ewe seemed very confused as to why she had 2 now when there had only been 1 before.  The lamb was willing but not so the ewe.   When she went to butting the lamb we decided not to risk it.  Then the puzzle of why this ewe had lambed a single again instead of her normal twins was solved when the heavy football shaped 6" long x 3-4" in diameter lump proved to be a mummified fetus that had died mid term.  Probably about 2 months along.   I opened the thickly membraned sac to check and found a tiny skull and miniature legs, etc.  Always something of interest here.   

Did 3 loads of laundry.  Repaired the wooden leg on the porta crib that had broken.   Got the plastic baby jail panels out of the loft and scrubbed them off.  Got the travel swing out for Annabel.  The big swing doesn't have enough power now that she is 3 months old.  Got to put it away now.  Next to come out of the shed -  the large Bouncy Seat.  Just as large as the swing but it will stay out longer since the babies like it from 4 months old when they are proficent at staying upright until about a year when they want to walk.

We had Annabel watch  on Monday.  It was the first day and she took a little getting used to.  She does not take good naps.  Instead she takes 10 minute snoozes.  I put her down and allowed her to cry it out.  Out like a light in 10 minutes. DD2 feels that is harsh and fears that it will traumatize the baby.  I had to explain that Annabel is very wakeful and is sensitive to any stimulation, noise, movement, etc.  By trying to rock her to sleep at night they are stimulating her and keeping her from falling asleep.  She cries the whole time they are rocking her to sleep.  I suggested that they just put her in her crib and let her cry for about 10 minutes.  I found that she was going to sleep within 5 minutes of being placed in a super quiet environment.  DSIL2 tries to get her to go to sleep in her swing but that is stimulation too.  I will just do it my way here.  DD2 asked if that was how DDIL2 did it in an annoyed tone.  Told her I had no idea but that it was what I used to do.  We haven't babysat Robert yet.  

At any rate, back to my birthday.  DS2 came home and wanted to know what the cages were by the front door. ???   I went to look and someone had abandoned 2 guinea pigs on the porch!  With a bag of food! Each in it's own completely outfitted cage!  Dumping trash is bad but really?!  Dumping caged pets?  Or is this simply a case of homeless cavies camping in my yard?  DS1 checked with our neighbors to see if anyone had lost or misplaced any cavies.  No one had.

Naturally, they ended up in my laundry room.   DGD1 showed up after school and immediately laid claim to the black and white cavy.  DD2 and her husband arrived and he laid claim to the brown one.  DD1's other children arrived and wanted them too.  Excellent!  I was not going to be stuck with any!  My birthday was looking up!

DS2 started preparing 2 enormous chickens by a special recipe that came with his new Trager grill.  DD1 invited herself, her husband and children to dinner "for your birthday Mom!"  I told her no go unless DS2 had enough to go around.  He sent her out to the store for side dishes.  DD2 (still acting coldly toward her sister - remember the demands for apologies that were never given) announced they would go home NOW!   DSIL2, still happily playing with guinea pigs missed the basilisk stare DD2 directed at him and accepted the invitation to stay and eat with us.  DD2 sulked.  I retired to my rocking chair and ignored everyone.  I read an interesting article about Omar Sharif, the actor, who had been a fanatical bridge player.

Pandemonium reigned as always when our family gets together.  DDIL2 arrived home with Robert who deigned to sit on my lap and not cry.  Guinea pigs were passed around and cuddled.  Babies were passed around and cuddled.   DSIL1 arrived.  The guinea pigs were examined and pronounced females.  That settled it, they couldn't go home with DD1's family since their guinea pig was a boy.  Sex can be ugly.  Sadness reigned in DD1's family.      Triumph reigned in DSIL2's eyes as he was awarded custody of both guinea pigs.  He had always had his eye on the brown one and now was elated that he had both.  Or rather "Maisie would have a pet".  

Dinner was delicious.  There was a cake with candles.  DGD1 helped me to blow them out.  DS1 and I sang the Happy Birthday song with our own lyrics "Mom is so old, when's she donna die"!  DGD1 gave me some flowers  she had bought with her own money.  DD1 gave me 2 puzzles, admitting that she had been tempted to do them herself then tape the boxes up again.      DD2, horrified that she forgot my birthday, apologized over and over.  (Actually I had forgotten it myself!)  She tried to give me the guinea pigs for my birthday but I was too slick for that.  I am old, not stupid or dead!

The birthday ended better than it had begun, although when everyone left the 2 guinea pigs were still in the laundry room.  Got a call the next morning reminding _me_ to feed them.   

Yesterday DS1 left for reno to pick up DD1's puppy.  He will stay with his college roommate.  He is under orders not to bring any waterfowl back with him unless plucked, wrapped in plastic, and frozen.  I did send him a text this am to stop at Tractor Supply and pick up some bags of barn lime, and 3 50 lb. mineral blocks.  Also some bags of loose sale if they have any.  While feeding this am I noticed the sheep crowded around the salt lick trying to bite off bits.  I have loose minerals, but they need to be mixed into 100 lbs. of loose salt.  He had called last night and I encouraged him to stay an extra day. Apparently, the roommate's wife Megan wants to cuddle the puppy,   Before he left I found some dog dishes for him for water and food and a rug for the crate.  We also ran the ewe that had not lambed and had no udder down in front with the ram.  We will see if she marks.  If not, then she will go out on the field or back in the jugs to lamb.  This ewe is from another flock so I am not sure if she will show the normal signs.  I also have to check another ewe that looks to be uddering up on the field.

Snowflake had a huge swelling on her right leg under her butt cheek.  Yes, actually my sheep have butt cheeks.  Anyway, I decided it was some type of injury and abscess.  DS2 said we would deal with it when he got back.  The morning he left I realized it was ready to burst so that afternoon, DSIL2, DH and I caught her.  I lanced and drained it.  I never saw so much pus come out of an abscess!!!  The swelling was massive and as soon as I lanced it about a cup of puss shot out.  Luckily I was holding some paper towels under it and was barely able to catch all of the pus that shot out in the towels.  It took about 12 squeezes to extract everything.  And half a roll of paper towels.  Then I washed out the hole with iodine and mastitis tubes.  From the size of the swelling and the depth into the leg it went, I think that she actually had a bout of cellulitis rather than a simple abscess.  I sprayed the hole with Alumashield.  There was still a hole in her leg this morning although she let me touch it and she didn't act like it was tender.  Tomorrow I will try to catch her and give her a whacking big dose of penicillin.  And wash out the hole again with iodine.  Net time I will make sure that DH wears shoes instead of sandals.    An unpleasant task was made twice as bad by the constant screams of pain from my helpers as they tried to restrain the ewe.  Snowflake has grown into a nice big yearling.  Heavy too, apparently.  

Today the orphan lamb took to the bottle better.  She is taking a full cup at each feeding.  I am only feeding her 3 x a day to keep her slightly hungry.  Tomorrow I will increase to 4 x a day with 1 cup of formula.  I also want to weigh the lambs.  Weighing her will help make sure she is gaining properly.  DGD1 was going to name her Snowy The Second, but decided to call her Crystal.  

It was sprinkling all day - a heavy mist that just made everyone damp.  This evening the skies were dark gray with storm clouds, but I am not holding out any hope of rain.  Also I noticed this afternoon that all 3 of my older rams have lost both their ear tags!!!  Luckily I can tell them apart.  Tomorrow I will mark them with spray marking paint and then we will have to retag them.  I really hate how my sheep seem to lost their ear tags.  With them all being white it can be bad.  However, I have not had them lose both the flock tag and the scrapie tag before!  

Set up the baby jai panels today so the babies can roll around is a large area.  Annabel rolls constantly which Robert is content to wait for someone to turn him over or around!  Such different personalities  I guess we know who will be getting the other one into trouble.  Robert will think it up and Annabel will be happy to carry out any plans.  Then they will both blame their younger siblings - or possibly the dogs.


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## Ridgetop

Orphan lamb has now realized that I am not a horrid monster but the bringer of delight - her bottle.  Drank a cup this morning and will be giving her 3 more bottles today.  Easier now she runs up to grab the nipple without me having to force it into her mouth.


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## Ridgetop

Yesterday DGD1 fed Crystal her bottle without any help.  Yearning for the time I can just hand off the bottle to her.  Crystal is now up to about 8-10 oz. 4 x daily.  Might try to up number of ties I feed although would rather up the amount she takes and decrease gradually times she gets her bottle.  By 1 month old she should be eating hay, and drinking a quart 2 x daily.  Since she is only bottle baby though I might keep her on 3x daily until 2 months when I will wean.  In another month she can join the ewes and lambs her age in the creep pen since she will be able to escape from any punitive ewes into the creep for safety.  

Trying to get insurance quotes now on TX ranch.  Got hold of Germania agent, as well as Sulphur Springs Farm Bureau agent that currently insures home.  Hoping for better quotes.  Also having to provide all kinds of information for refi on Globe property.  So much work to pull all insurance, mortgage info rental agreements, etc. on all other properties!!!  Wondering if we should not bother to pull any $$$ out and instead just refi at lower interest rate for remaining loan balance.  Although we would lie to take the equity $$ and use it to do work on the ranch.  Discussed just selling the FW house since it has more than doubled in value but with the capital gains taxes we would have to pay it would not be good financially to sell.  Borrowing on the equity is better.  I hate paying taxes.  And Biden wants to raise the Capital Gains tax from 28% to 43%!!!  Might as well sell everything off and give away the $$$ then go on welfare and Section 8!!!  AAAARGH!   

Have I made myself clear?  Do I need more imogees?


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> And Biden wants to raise the Capital Gains tax from 28% to 43%!!!


The IRS charges high-income investors an additional 3.8% net investment income tax (NIIT), which could raise Biden’s proposed tax to 43.4% for those with long-term capital gains over $1 million. 

Source of the above

I suppose it it possible that the 100% increase in value of your property is over $1M. If not you can stop yelling and banging your head against the wall


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## Ridgetop

I started to reply to that Bruce, but it turned into an anti government anti tax rant and you never know who is reading these threads.

Anyway, the weather has been very nice for August.  Over the weekend it was overcast and only in the high 80's!  We were supposed to have rain one day but only got a mist that got us damp while feeding.  

Snowflake's huge abscess on her leg is almost healed.  Shehad a hole in it for a couple days but DS1 caught her and I cleaned it out again and injected a mastitis tube into the hole.  This morning her leg was back to normal!

This morning DH left very early to do errands, starting with taking the truck to the shop for an oil change.  The sheep woke me up screaming and I couldn't figure out what was going on,  First I thought maybe DH was feeding but it turned out he was already gone.  Then the sheep stopped making any noise.  I fixed Crystal's bottle and went down to the barn where I found the reason for the cacophony.  The entire pen of breeding ewes and the ram had escaped and were in the barn devastating a hay bale!  Back to the house for DS1.  While he dressed I investigated the gates and found the large wooden gate was standing open,  The latch had fallen off.  

I pulled it shut - the dogs must have gone through the inverted V opening after something and knocked it open.  Tomorrow I will need to find another latch to repair it.  DS1 got a couple flakes of hay from the mutilated bale and led the sheep back to their pen while I followed with my crook.  They all wore self satisfied smirks on their faces.

While we were doing that DSIL1 arrived with DGD1.  With their 8 week old puppy that they had brought for puppysitting.  The puppy was placed in the barn with the gates closed while I fed.  Very cute puppy wanted to play with Crystal so I removed him from her pen He wanted to play with the other lambs in the jugs but their mamas kept charging the bars and trying to kill him.  He wanted to play with Bubba who was s=wagging his tail at the gate but no time to make sure that Bubba would play nice.  

Went back to the house and Annabel arrived. Or rather DD2 arrived with Annabel. She forgot to bring the extra diapers I told her we needed.    Dumping Annabel in the family room DD2 made a bee line for the puppy.  Since she forgot to bring extra diapers of course Annabel had 3 large messy poos in her diaper during the day!  DS1 brought the puppy back from the barn, put up the baby gates, and shut the doors to the laundry room so the puppy could only get in the front hall that has vinyl flooring.  

Annabel proceeded to demand to be fed all day and took 3 naps. The longest one lasted only an hour!  DS1 was kept busy taking the puppy out to potty and cleaning up his messes.  He is a Labrador from hunting lines  Every time DS1 gave him a bowl of water he tried to paddle and swim in it!  The family is going to have fun with him in their pool when he grows up.  

I took a 30 minute break while Annabel was napping to take care of some business on the computer.  I ended up spending most of my time dealing with a hungry, tired, or playful baby.  In between feeding Annabel I fed Crystal.  Sheep are easier, even bummer lambs!

DH returned home with groceries.  For us?  No for his two daughters. I told him he better collect the $$$ for them since he had gotten abut $40 worth for each girl.  He tends to make a gift of hundreds of dollars of groceries to the girls each month.  I told him we can't afford this and he has to make them pay if they want the groceries.  Otherwise don't buy them.  As it turned out DSIL2 paid $10.00 for his 5 lbs. of hamburger - the avocados and mangoes DH gifted to them.     DSIL1 refused the groceries with thanks, so now I have an extra 15 lbs. of hamburger (which I didn't need) to separate into smaller packages for my freezer.    Then he left again.

Finally Annabel's father came to the house.  Not to pick her up though.  He brought Maysie to visit.  Maysie and Elizabeth went to the barn and gave Crystal another bottle.  DH arrived home with a truck full of cement blocks for his wall.  Remember the Never Ending Wall behind the tool shed?  Still in construction.  The 30' x 30' level area is being touted by DH as perfect for sheep (too small), a garden (to feed ground squirrels?), or plant a tree !   Anyway, DSIL2 went out with DS1 to unload the blocks.  I gave Annabel to DH to feed.

DD2 arrived but not to pick up her daughter.  She played with the puppy.  The DGDs were trampolining.  DSIL2 was stacking block.  DS2 arrived home.  The previous day he worked until midnight.  I offered to feed hi dinner (I had taken it out of the oven).  There was not enough to feed everyone.  

Then DD1 arrived.  She was not there to pick up her child and puppy either.  Instead she wanted to leave DGD1 there until 8:30 pm with her puppy because she had to take DGS2 to his soccer game and then both DGSs to scouts.  And would we feed DGD1?  DSIL1 had karate that night so she didn't know if he would pick up DGD1 and the puppy or not.  She thought probably not.  

By now I was hoping everyone would go home and leave me alone.  😒😫  NOPE!  Our family loves to be with us!!!

 DD1 left, DSIL2 and DD2 settled down to visit for a couple hours with DH, the granddaughters were playing somewhere, the puppy was napping in his crate, and I escaped to my computer.  I heard DDIL2 and baby Robert arrive home but I stayed cowering in the office.

Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but just pick up your child and go home!  After  taking care of a 3 month all day I am tired and want some relaxation, not 2 hours of visiting while the baby cries.   

Finally DSIL2 and DD2 left.  I dished up dinner for everyone and came back to the computer and solitude.  

I want to go back to Texas.  In my little trailer.  Maybe alone!  

Tomorrow no Annabel.  I pan to take down the overhead rack in the milk shed.  Then I will drag the perforated plastic drain hose up to the kennel where there is a lot more of it.  After that I will straighten up the milk shed and get it ready for the shelves that I will move out of the Connex.  

On Thursday I will haul the large boxes containing the saddles and tack out of the Connex and move them to the tool shed until we can make a trip to Nipomo to deliver the rack, drainage pipe, and horse equipment to DS3 and his wife.  After mentioning doing this to DH several times over the past 2 weeks, I guess I will do it myself.  After all, he will be working on his Never Ending Wall project.  At least I will only have to argue with myself about what we will get rid of!  

I will have to ask DS1 for help with moving the heavy shelves to the milk shed.  But he will do it for me.  We also have to move some of the yearling ewes into the breeding pen with Smalley.  And a few other things.  Hopefully, this cooler weather (90's) will hold.  No humidity so it won't feel as hot as in TX and Virginia.


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## Baymule

Your family loves you!


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## Baymule

We are on our way to get feed in Sulphur Springs. We just passed your house. We honked and waved! Have coffee ready when we come back!


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## Baymule

No coffee?


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## farmerjan

All I can say is you are a better person than me.  I have had it with only dealing with DS, and the cow stuff....  and the stupid stuff my father is doing in NH. And work and farmers.....but none of them show up at my house and ask me to babysit their kids or dogs or want meals..... and I am looking for someone to work one day a week... to do all the "honey do" things that  I cannot do and no one else seems to have time to help do.


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## Ridgetop

Yes our family loves us.  I wish they would love us from farther away.  No!  Cancel that - remember the country western song about the father who missed all his kids' important times because he was on the road.  The refrain was "Wish I could have been there for that".  Then when he wanted them to come to his birthday (or anniversary?) party they sent love and said "wish we could have been there for that".  Having our family enjoy being with us is a good thing.  Some people's kids and grand kids live far away and never see them.  So sad.  

You can tell that we are not babysitting anyone at the moment and the puppy is in the barn.  

Spoke too soon!   
DSIL2 got a call to work this Saturday and DD2 just called to ask about us watching Annabel.  DH said he will be home so I can let him watch her and just be in the house to feed her and t her down for naps.  The Never Ending Wall can wait anther day or so.  

Going down to start removing stuff from the milk shed.  Got n hour before i have to shower and dress.  Dear friend "Mom" called t say that she is bored and feeling a bit stronger and would like to try to play bridge!


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> No coffee?


What do you expect, they should launch it from So. Cal with a huge catapult??


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

A trebuchet would probably send it farther than a catapult. But it probably would be cold by the time it landed...


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> What do you expect, they should launch it from So. Cal with a huge catapult??





Larsen Poultry Ranch said:


> A trebuchet would probably send it farther than a catapult. But it probably would be cold by the time it landed...


Both would probably spill the coffee anyway.


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## Ridgetop

Could UPS a thermos!

Early this morning DS1 took down the overhead storage rack in the milk shed.  I will pack it up for DS3.  Then DGS2 dragged the lengths of perforated drainpipe out of the milk shed to the kennel run where the rest of the drain pipe is currently living.  Luckily we don't use the dog kennel during the summer because it does not have any shade.

It was pleasant and cool (for August in soCal) for the past week but today the heat soared again.  Was planning to do some Connex clean out today but too hot.  Tomorrow will move the 6-8 large boxes of saddles and tack to the driveway Rubbermaid storage so they will be close to the house for me to sort out what I will be keeping.  The rest will go to DDIL1.  The old quarter horse rawhide tree saddles will go to her for her boys eventually.  They are old but useful still, and will do for the boys to beat to death.  I need to find my mule pad, and Josie's leather bridle, along with a few other items of tack I plan to keep.  I am keeping my lightweight nylon saddle, breast collar and crupper.  DS1 is giving DDIL1 his leather English hunt saddle and English bridle.  I will keep 1 set of shipping boots, a winter blanket and a summer blanket, and a few other items.  Probably won't need them, but you never know.  Also going to look over the corral panels and decide how many horse panels we need to keep for TX.  I also will give a couple of the 50-75 gallon (larger?) horse troughs to DS3/DDIL2.  Can't decide which would be better to keep - the huge Rubbermaid ones or the galvanized ones.  We have about 10 and they are too tall for the sheep.  All the shorter ones will be kept to move to TX.  But DS1 wanted to put shelves in the top of the barn to store the smaller tubs, feeders, etc.  I told him we should just move the 2 folding saws into one of the Rubbermaid sheds which would clear our stairway to access the barn loft.  The we could store the tubs there and get them up off the floor of the barn giving us more room to move the scale around.

I am also bringing in several large boxes of the children's school pix and special keepsakes.  I will sort them into a box for each child along with school and camp photos.  No need for me to continue to keep them and store them.  I can't dispose of them because the children might think their childhood mementos are not important to their dear mama.  This way they can toss them out themselves.   
Perhaps I can wrap them up in  ribbon for Christmas?!  One Christmas gift taken care of!

The children have also said they would be thrilled to have my chafing dishes, punchbowls, and various other items for parties.  I used to go all out when entertaining - I even have 30 glass punch cups!  From now on I will use paper products if I do any more big parties.  Except at Christmas and Easter.   I need to ask the children who wants my 30 place settings of good china that we use for big dinners.  Better than paper plates because they don't collapse and go in the dishwasher so easy to wash.  Looking forward to getting rid of some of these items and moving a couple of the heavy duty shelving units into the milk shed to store boxes of stuff vertically. 

More sorting and organization!!!  

The closing date on the ranch has been extended to September 17 because the surveyor did not get out to do his job yet.  Got the insurance with Germania, contacted the cattle tenant, loan is secured, everything is ready to close - just waiting on the surveyor.  Can't close until the surveyor finishes.  For one thing the contract has to be adjusted according to whether the property is actually more or less than 45.5 acres.  And the title insurance can't be written until they know exactly how many acres there are.

Vaccinated the new lambs yesterday, docked the new ewe lambs, and weighed the older lambs. One ram lamb that was born June 19 weighed 77.8 lbs!  He is a single.  The last single his mother had was also a fast growing lamb and weighed 110 lbs. by 4 months!  Singles are not my favorite, but she certainly produces fast growers.  I need to go back in my weight records and look at the growth rate of her twins.  Need to weigh the new lambs tomorrow to check growth rate, particularly Crystal.  She is greedily drinking 10 ounces 3-4 times a day and growing BIG!  I mix 1 part raw frozen goat milk to 4 parts formula.  Probably don't need the raw goat milk, but I think it is healthy for her gut.  Just a personal choice. 

The cattle tenant told me that there is a dairy goat farm close to the ranch so hopefully I will be able to get raw goat milk to keep in the freezer for any bummer lambs.  Don't like bummer lambs, but if I had to have one, I am glad that this one is a ewe.  And a nice ewe too!  

DS1 moved all the sheep out of the breeding pen today.  Tomorrow I will look up the ear tag numbers of the older yearlings I want to breed.  I have several May yearlings that need to go in with this ram. Most of them are Lewis daughters.  The next  groups of lambs to be bred will be Axtell and Moyboy daughters and I will put them to Lewis.  

The 3 older rams have all lost their ear tags!!!    Luckily I can tell them apart.  We will have to retag them.  Several of the ewes have lost at least one of their tags as well.  Retagging them will also have to take place.  Then I will have to cross identify them with the new numbers to their registration papers.  Just need to know which ewes produce which lambs for registration purposes.  The registration papers will keep their original numbers.  If I wanted to re-record the new numbers I would have to pay a fee for each one.    Too much money when I can just do it this way.  

DH will go get another load of hay on Monday so hoping to have half of the Connex emptied out over the weekend.  I will move all the renovation items (new medicine cabinets, light fixtures, etc.) to the milk shed.  I found a new chandelier made of antlers along with 2 wall mounted matching side lights in the Connex.  I will sell them in Palm Springs in the consignment store in October.  

DH is yelling at me to come to get off the computer and come to bed.  Gotta go!


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## Baymule

You will still be able to enjoy your punch bowl, China and other items—at their house. Let your kids put on the party and holiday dinners! Show up as the honored guest.

Horse tack! Is there ever too much?

Have you thought about tattooing the ears of your sheep? You could use the clamp on rabbit tattoos that you probably already have. I only have scrapie tags, but noticed the numbers are fading. Great. Plus they get coated In lanolin and dirt. They are the free ones from the USDA.

An antler chandelier would look awesome in the ranch house. Hang it over the dining table. I’ve always admired those and I could admire yours! LOL


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## Shellymay

The three rams and ewes lost ear tags, we order ours from Premier One, if we lose one we can reorder them from Premier One, but it will come with a Letter R in front of the original number, the Letter R stands for Replacement tag. If these are rams that where not born on your place, you can go back to breeder and ask them to order for you and you offer to pay them the cost of tags and shipping, I say this because I am not sure if you can order a replacement tag for a sheep that was not born on your place, might be worth checking into...This is worth doing verse the head aches of cross referencing numbers to registration papers over many years.


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## Ridgetop

I buy all my rams.  I replace ewes from my own flock breeding.  As long as I can tell them apart, I don't have a problem, with the rams.  I can retag them with the color tag I use when tagging their progeny.  I use different colors so I can immediately see which homebred ewe is out of which ram.  I have their paperwork so know what their registered numbers and ranch numbers are for registration of their lambs.

As to tatooing,  I can use the tattoo kit I have for the goats - larger numbers.  We might start doing that on the lambs.  The adult sheep will be harder.  Tattoo numbers also can fade out but at least yoi will have a permanent number in the ear.  We used to do the LaManchas in the tail web so that is another option for tattooing as long as we don't dock too short.

Yesterday DS1 pulled the ewes out of the breeding pen.  Smalley ram is very angry and has tried to escape twice from his pen since he is now alone.  We kept them in today since we have a delivery coming for the Connexes and they would be in the way on the field.  I have to go through my registration papers and find all the unbred ewes that are old enough to go in with the ram.  Then I will spray mark them in the big pen today.  When we feed tonight we can separate them.  I want to move the squeeze off the end of the chute so we can run them through the separator gates.  Much easier than trying to get certain ones through the gate and into the pen!

Might keep the antler chandelier for Texas, although I don;t know how it will accessorize my lovely Asian items and DH's Louis XVI gold cabinet.  My grandmother gave it to him in her will because he loved it.  However, my style has always been eclectic so it might  work . . . .
Or it could become a great Christmas gift for someone . . . . 

Both the Connexes are now 25% and 30% empty.  DS1 removed all the giant moving boxes in which I had packed all the saddles from our family's years of horsekeeping.  All the kids rode, and all had saddles, and we had extra saddles we bought new over the years (as well as the old saddles that came with a couple of our older horses and were too usable to dispose of).  There is enough tack to equip a store, or at least a stall at the flea market!  I don't need it all, and my grandsons will eventually be riding so they can have it.  He put all the boxes over on the drivewy by the Rubbermaid sheds and I will have to start sorting through them.  I will definitely keep some of the tack


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## Ridgetop

Oops!  Posted again by accident!  

. . . also some horse blankets, halters, etc. 

Also found the box of wood pieces already cut that we brought from MJ's barn to make sprouting boxes.  And the box of new sprouting lids.  You just add quart canning jars and BINGO! Sprouting kits.  If I want to sprout stuff, I will do cold frames with old windows.  I will be replacing the TX house windows with dual pane windows (I think) when we move back there and will have those windows to use for cold frames.  DDIL2 wants these.  She and DS3 are really into gardening now.  The boxes are all cut out and ready to assemble so DS1 and DGSs 3 & 4 can put them together.  Maybe a 4-H project?

Then I found a box of papers from the kids' childhood and brought them in to sort.  I will also sort out a lot of the photos I have for the children to have.  And photo albums.  Hopefully I will be too busy running a sheep ranch, being a 4-H leader, doing volunteer work and playing bridge in Texas to look at photo albums nostalgically.  
I can do that when I come to visit my children, and drink adult beverages from the punchbowls and eat food *they* cook from the chafing dishes and the entertainment china!   Eventually if I am in the home, DS1 has promised that it will be the "good one" with the good drugs - if I make it worth his while!   

It is so hot, I am considering cleaning out my cupboards and packing up items for the children.  When we were out in the Connexes I saw a lot of boxes marked "Books".  I need to go through those and see if they are children's books.  In which case I have 8 grandchildren that will be reading them!  Otherwise, the libraries will take them, as will the senior center libraries, and Salvation Army.  There are another 20 boxes of books in the tool shed loft to be gone through as well.  Some of those titles I have purchased on my Kindle so those can be donated too.  I don't mind reading old friends over again.

Off to sort papers and photos.


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## farmerjan

I am a book collector.... reading and rereading......I cry when I see books get thrown in the trash.... I often think about how someone took time to write all that..... and then get it published....


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## Ridgetop

I know.  I collect series and authors.  I must have at least 20 cartons of paperbacks in the loft.  I never throw away a book.  Now that I have my Kindle, it is so much easier to keep all my favorite authors.  But there is nothing so satisfying as holding a book in your hand!  Reading is such a gift.  It takes you to places that you could never visit.  Lets you do things you could never do.  When I read I go away - which infuriates my family who have to shout at me or grab my shoulder to bring me back!     My family can be very annoying when i am reading.

Made a start on the Connexes today.  Sorted several boxes of children's papers, report cards, camp photos etc.  into separate boxes for them.  Sent DD1's box home with her husband and kids.   DS3's box will go with all the stuff I am sending to him soon.  DDIL2 said they might be going to visit DS3 this weekend so I need to get some of the horse tack boxes sorted NOW so they can take some of the stuff when they go.  

Next get at least one of the shelves out and put it in the Rubbermaid storage shed so we can bring move the stuff in the shed up onto the shelves instead of just sitting on the floor.  Vertical storage means we can move the portable table saws into that shed.  Then I can start cleaning the barn loft to store the livestock tubs and feeders where they will be handy.  

Hopefully the weather will cool down a bit so I can get out to do the work.  

Teaching my grandson to make meatloaf this weekend.  30 lbs. of ground beef, chicken and pork to mix up with onions, celery, crackers and eggs, and freeze in loaves.   

  The family loves my meatloaf and DGS2 has been wanting to learn to make it.  It is a lot of work making meatloaf, so no point making ONE when I can make 30 with just a little more work.  Much easier to take a meatloaf out of the freezer and pop it into the oven with gravy than it is to make one from scratch each time.  LOL  We have been out of meat loaf for a while now, and the natives are getting restless.    I did make a large pot of pork chile verde tonight for dinner and will freeze the rest tomorrow.  I am a lazy cook - I would rather work all day every couple of months to make a lot of meals for the freezer than cook each day.


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## Mike CHS

I thought I overdid it when I make 4 loafs so I have to give it to you for making 30.


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## Mini Horses

Used to have a lasagna making day with ex-stepdtr, once a yr.  About a hundred pds, lot of containers full.  😁  But, enough for all year.   Was fun.  Also used to make about another 30 qt of spaghetti sauce, all day event, own use.  Then can it.  DH loved his Italian meals.

I like a big cook session and meals in freezer, too!   Some days it's needed to be ready.


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## Ridgetop

Same here when making spaghetti sauce.  I freeze it with the meat in it.  When I had tomatoes (pre demon ground squirrels) I used to make the tomato sauce with seasonings and can it in quarts.  Then I could brown 1 lb. of ground meat (goat, lamb, beef) and just add the sauce. Quick meal.  Now no tomatoes so haven't made as much spaghetti sauce.  Also DS1 has decided that he does not like cooked tomatoes anymore!  Spaghetti used to be his favorite meal!  Oh well, we have  spaghetti on the day I have one helping of leftovers in the fridge.  

Another good item to do for the freezer is Chicken Divan.  This is basically chicken in a curry sauce over broccoli and rice.  I use Costco BBQ chickens (a loss leader at $4.99) and take all the meat off the bones - I use this for chicken enchiladas too.  When broccoli is on sale, I lightly microwave it, then layer it in the pan with the chicken and curry sauce over the top.  To save freezer space I fix the rice on the day I serve it, but you can freeze the cooked rice on the bottom of the layers if you want to.  Or cauliflower rice can be used too. 

Chicken enchiladas are super easy - just chopped cooked chicken, chopped green onions, and shredded jack cheese rolled in flour tortillas.  Dip the flour tortillas in oil, fill with the chopped chicken, chopped green onions and grated cheese.  To avoid the filling leaking out I use the largest tortillas and fold it like a burrito.  Then freeze the enchiladas on a cookie sheet, you can layer them with wax paper.  When they are frozen, just store them in Ziploc bags.  You add the sauce when you put them in the oven.  1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 cup of sour cream, and 1 small can of chopped green chilis.  Over the years I have substituted plain yogurt for the sour cream, and a small can of green chili sauce instead of the chilis.  I also often make chicken gravy with bouillon, water, and flour instead of using Cream of chicken soup which has gone to $1.00+ per can!!!

DS1's favorite meal is meatloaf.  But he only likes it with Cream of Mushroom soup gravy over it.  I used to occasionally change it out by cooking the meatloaf with BBQ sauce n the top.  Big complaints so back to gravy and potatoes with meatloaf.  Easy to bake all at the same time.

I prefer cooking lots of meals in one go instead of cooking something every day.  I make a lot of stuff ahead and freeze it so I don't have dinners hanging over my head.  You might think from this that I am not a good cook but that is not true.  I just have better things to do with my time than cook a single meal every night!  

Went through 2 boxes of miscellaneous tack today and found 4 lamb halters the kids used in 4-H.  A lot of old leather stuff that needs heavy oiling, a new fleece girth, and English saddle pad.  Also found a couple items I'm keeping - a 26' new lunge line, a new small string girth, a new hoof pick with the ribbons on it that one of the kids won years ago in a Gymkhana, and the folding halter rack we used at the fairs.  I bought 2 last year because I couldn't find this one .   I keep both of them in the barn to hang the sheep halters, bucket ties, etc. on.  They are made with swivel hooks on the top and bottom  They are so handy to hang on 2x4's in the barn or on the stock trailer sides when camping or at shows.

Checked the large moving boxes that were labelled as saddles.  The labels are correct so I dumped the tack into the boxes that are going to DDIL1, so I could keep the plastic bin.  I still have a lot of winter and fly blankets, bell boots, shipping boots (I made them for the children when they were showing), smaller size halters and good fly masks that won't fit Josie The Mule's giant head.  So still getting everything sorted to take to DS3 and DDIL1.  
DS1 got the overhead racks out of the milkshed so we can move a couple of shelving units into that and transfer building stuff from the Connexes.  We have 3 good light fixtures, 2 brand new fancy wooden medicine cabinets, and the new stove top that was supposed to be installed when I got my new counter tops.   Been waiting for those for a while.  I would keep it for Texas, but the stove there is electric.  Anyway, any stuff that I kept for remodeling purposes will go in the old milk shed.  On the new shelves.  

Checked the items in the barn loft.  There are not too many and they can come out and go on the milkshed roof.  The milkshed roof has become a loft now since the barn roof was extended over the top of it.  Some items that we have no need to access for quite a while.  If ever.

DH also said that we will pull daddy's old boat Foxy Lady up to DS3 too. DS2 nd DS3 want to scavenge both the boat and trailer for parts (Foxy Lady is almost 60 years old so you can't get parts to repair her but DH put a built in cooler and some other special stuff in her about 15 years ago thinking we would go to the lake with the kids.  They were to busy showing livestock, and he did not replace the motor so it never worked properly.  Foxy Lady has been deteriorating on our field for years now but she is a "family heirloom" so we had to keep her.  Some families have gold and gems as heirlooms.  We have a 60 year old Glasspar ski boat with an Evinrude outboard that is not allowed on most lakes now due to the pollution regs.  The trailer is good though and DS2 wants to put daddy's little fishing boat on it since that trailer is not in good condition.  Then they will junk the rest for parts.  I think that is what they are planning, not real sure and don't care!  I am just glad to get the boats out of my field!  One more thing done in getting ready to move to Texas!

DD1 just called to say she is ready to make meatloaf.  I will collect my giant bowls and the meat!  Should be shady back by the saddles and tack when I get back so I can sort the horse blankets, etc.  And see about getting the first shelf unit out of the Connex!


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## Ridgetop

Made meatloaf with DD1 and DGSs at her house. DGD1 played with the new puppy all morning.  I wrote out the recipe and talked them though everything.  They decided to have one meatloaf for dinner so I had DD1 drive me home and gave her some baking potatoes.  Then  sent them all home and collapsed.

Since DS2 had a bunch of large boxes sitting on the large freezer, I couldn't get to my frozen ground beef to make _my_ meatloaf the next day.  I went ahead and put the ground chicken and pork in the other freezer and will make meatloaves after DH picks up 2 heads of celery.

Sorted out the tack, and realized I was 2 large boxes shot of the good stuff.  DS1 brought the boxes up from the milkshed.  I sorted everything I plan to keep into a large PVC chest and into the box with my large nylon saddle.  There were 2 tooled leather breast collars, a leather crupper, (I need these items here in our steep mountain raiding terrain, and also because TWHs and mules are build differently from other horses.  Riding with breast collar and crupper is necessary to keep saddle slippage to a minimum in mountains.  Found Josie's tooled leather bridle, along with a brand new halter bridle that I bought for horse camping.  Kept a couple crops and lunge whips, sent 2 crops to DD1 for her children  😉. I didn't bother keeping the hobbles, but did send DD1's English bridle over to her. She already has her English saddle.  I kept Camalen's large blankets - winter and summer - since they will fit Josie.  The smaller ones will go to DDIL since she has a couple of 14.2 horses.  Lots of English and western bridles and bits.  Sorted out what I use and put the rest into the boxes for DDIL.  Also several good heavy duty metal saddle racks that mount to the walls of a tack room.

Found a nylon cow halter.  Also found the missing nylon webbing lamb halters that the children had from 4-H.  Couldn't find them 2 years ago when I broke down and ordered several poly rope halters.  😡The stretchy show lamb coats are still packed somewhere in the Connexes with the pig brushes, calf combs, etc.  I did find 2 calf/steer neck tie up ropes from 4-H shows.  Tomorrow I will bring over the calf show sticks and pig slap sticks and put them with the stuff to go to DS3.  As long as the weather stays cool I can work in the Connexes and milk shed.  I might bring up the solar hot wire charger and give that to DS3 too.  It might need some wire work, but I don't want it and he can fix it to use for his calf and horses in spring when he has grass.

Then over the weekend it got hot again I cleaned out the 3 large bookcases in the family room.  The children's books were trapped in a corner behind a large recliner.  I rearranged the shelves for the different size as of books and moved the children's books over to the side by the sofa where they are reachable for the grandchildren. That job took 3 days since I sorted out a lot of books.  Some will go to the grandchildren, some to the senior center and a whole box full of books that belonged to my uncles, mother, aunt, and grandparents.  Those books are 100 years old and I gave then to DS1 to find a used bookseller and sell them.  I kept my 100 year old second printing of To Have and TO Hold that belonged to my grandfather.  The pages are onion skin and it is leather bound.  I like the story too.   Tomorrow I will find my grandmothers journals from her early days here in the SF Valley.  They detail all the fundraisers - dinners, bake sales, etc. that the parishioners held to raise the money for a church. The church that they raised money to build is no longer ther3.  It was replaced by a much larger church where Dh and I were married, our children were baptized, DD1 and DS2 were married and babes baptized, and grandparents, mother and aunt buried.  I promised those journals and photos of the consecration of the church to the pastor for the church archives.  They won't mean anything to my children but will be valued by the parish.

Found the wooden handmade alphabet and number puzzles that my mom gave to DD1.  She didn't want them so gave them to DD2 for her children.  Slowly winnowing out stuff. 

Got a tenant for the ranch house for a year.  Friend of the owner who sold his property (retired and downsizing) and is building a new house for his wife and himself.  He doesn't need us to do anything so although the rent is not great it will pay the bills.  Since he is multi generations in Sulphur Springs, it will be good intro for us when we  move back there.

My fried (mm) was able to play bridge today.  she is feeling stronger nd is going to keep up with the new treatments.  No more pet scans though since her GP said that even if she is riddled with cancer there is nothing further that can be done so why suffer through another pet scan.  Her GP will discuss with oncologist  So happy she is feeling stronger.  Maybe she will be able to go to her granddaughter's wedding after all.
Don (her significant other) was expecting a visit from his brother for his birthday but the brother's wife who was suffering with Alzheimers had a massive stroke the day before he was due to fly out from Minnesota.  She only survived a couple of days which in many ways was a blessing for the family.  She was a bright witty woman and the 5 children were all there at her bedside.  2 of the sons are doctors and they brought her home on Friday and she died that night during the night.  After all the funeral and business work is taken care of we are hoping that he can come out for a longer visit with Don.  One of the brother's sons lives in San Francisco so maybe they can go up there for a visit too.

Heading into the holiday weekend, DS2 has 5 days off and will be babysitting Robert while DDIL2 wife has to work on Friday and Tuesday.  We will have Maysie and Annabel on Friday, and Annabel on Tuesday.  😵 Feeling !  Annabel had terrible colic yesterday.  I didn't think we would survive!  Poor thing refused to eat anything from 8 am to 5:30 pm.  She was having intermittent bouts of abdominal pain and throughout the day we passed her from one to the other and got little bits of gas up.  Finally, I gave her some colic medicine her mama had in the diaper bag and she fell asleep.  When she woke up at 5:30 she pooped and then drank 8 ounces!  If she hadn't eaten by the next morning I was going to tell DD2 to take her to the pediatrician!  Luckily she is fine.  Robert also didn't poop for 8 days!!!  DDIL2 finally had to give him a laxative and he pooped a lot.
DD1 was a little constipated around 3-4 months, but you could buy baby suppositories over the counter then.  Apparently you can't get them now.  Robert is also eating cereal.  Annabel hasn't started yet but is trying to crawl.  She can get onto all fours but hasn't figured out that to go forward painlessly you have to move your hands forward on the ground.  Instead she just pitches forward onto her face!  Robert is still working on rolling over.  He is a lazy baby but I think his other grandparents hold him most of the time.  No need to bark if you have a dog.    Both are adorable.  

So is the puppy who at 10 weeks has learned to sit before getting fed!  He also occasionally runs to the door to go out and pee.  They are crate training him.  I was worried that DSIL1 would not like him since he never had a pet but he really likes him and is impressed at the speed at which he learns.  This is a calm sensible pup from good hunting lines and will be easy to train.  Good conformation too.

Had a surprise lamb in the corral today.  18003 was due on August 30.  I had forgotten that she was not in the jugs and she lambed early this morning.  I iodined the cord and it is a nice healthy ewe lamb.  DS1 moved her into the last open jug.  Tomorrow DS1 and I have to move 4 more ewes in with Smalley.  One didn't take, another is her daughter that turned a year old in May (I forgot about her because I bought her at her mother's side a year ago) and 2 purple tag lambs that escaped when he was moving all the purple tags in to the breeding pen.  Got to get out and mark them in the morning so we can move them.


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## Baymule

I know the recipients of all that tack will be thrilled. That's like manna from Heaven! Lots of work on your part to get it all out and sorted, but it heeded to be done and you can cross another chore off the list. 

Good news on finding a tenant for the new house. That is a big help. I'm glad your friend felt good enough to play bridge. I pray that she will be able to go to her granddaughter's wedding. Those pictures will be priceless. 

Grand babies are the best aren't they! So much fun watching them crawl, walk, then get into everything! LOL


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## farmerjan

That is really wonderful that the friend is feeling a little better.  I pray that she is up to going to the wedding... 

We are about ready to pull the bulls from some of the pastures now so we don't get calves all summer... Then they will get a rest,  and go back with the cows that are due to start calving now into late fall.  Trying to tighten up the calving seasons again... but don't know how much cooperation I will get from DS.... closer tighter seasons makes for more uniform calves at sale time.


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## Ridgetop

I agree on that.  While our lambs go through one at a time I like to breed at least 5-6 ewes at a time.  Easier t go through a batch at a time.  When we move to Texas I will try sending the lambs through in lots to see if they bring a better price.  

Uniform groups of at least 3 seem to do better in cattle.  When we were raising our bull calves on goat milk, we tried to raise at least 3 at a time for sale.  Better prices on a group of 2 month old Holstein bull calves raised on fresh goat milk!  Auction owner was a cattle man and he told me to sell at 2 months instead of holding them another month or 2.  He also advised me to raise and sell in groups. We had been raising veal calves for Fair and I thought we should raise one at a time to 300-400 lbs.  He said to bring in several at a time at 200 lbs.  We had plenty of milk (15 gallons daily) so no problem raising multiples.  I got Angus prices for my shiny, healthy, frisky Holstein bull calves.  He taught me a lot.  I always listen to advice.  If it works, wonderful!  If not I haven't lost much and can go back to the original way.


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## Ridgetop

Grandsons fed on Thursday night after asking us to babysit their puppy and guinea pig for the weekend.   No school for grandchildren so they were going to San Jose to visit DSIL1's aunt. Didn't want to babysit since after a hard week, but other family members (DH) said "No problem"  (for them).  We would have baby Robert, baby Annabel, 4 year old Maysie after preschool.  DS1 and DS2 would be home as well.  (5 day weekend for DS2).  

Friday dawned and it rapidly became a typical Ridgetop day.  Breeding pen of sheep had escaped.  No, not escaped - gate was not locked by DGSs - they simply walked onto the field.  Nothing like starting the day herding escaped sheep back into their pens.  Since we did not have any grandchildren there to complicate things, I opened the lower gate, DH chased them onto the driveway and into the front yard.  DS1 then herded them down, cutting off any escape.  Back into the pen.  

Next - September 3 - DS2's birthday.  We were also having a joint dinner and birthday party for him and Maysie, whose birthday was August 30.  We had gotten a cake.  Apparently DDIL2 hadn't realized we were getting a cake so she had ordered 2 - a unicorn cake for Maysie and a regular one for DS2.  We now had 3 cakes.  A giant sheet cake in the freezer, and 2 more to be picked up.


DDIL2 had already left for work and DS2 had baby Robert.  The previous night we had acquired 2 more pieces of baby furniture from DDIL2.  They had been at her mom's house but she figured we needed them for the 5 day weekend.  Luckily, I had cleared out the boxes of books and made room in the family room - not for more baby stuff, mainly so we could actually move around.  No longer possible now that the baby stuff was in place, together with the baby jail play yard.  Oh yes, and since baby Robert is on solids I needed to get the high chair up from the shed.  Not sure where it will go. On the patio maybe?  That way we can utilize Bubba to clean up spills and baby Robert.  Our dogs work for a living!  

DD2 arrived with Annabel and Maysie who was on the way to preschool.  She reminded us that Maysie's birthday bike would be delivered that day.  Also that we would have Maysie after preschool. BUT we did not have to pick her up because DSIL2 would be off work and pick her up then bring her to us and put the bike together.  The day was just getting better.    

I fed the lamb, and the barn full of sheep.  I discovered that for some reason when feeding the previous night DGS2 had felt it necessary to feed the 3 week old bottle lamb a huge double flake of alfalfa.   
I removed it and broke it in half for 2 of the ewes, then finished feeding and watering.  

Returning to the house I stripped the bed and loaded the sheets and towels into the washer.  Then I got my morning coffee, gave Annabel a bottle, changed her and put her down for a nap.  

At 9:30 am the traveling notary arrived for the signing on the refi on the rental house.  I put her in the dining room at the table I had cleared for the signing.  The process took about an hour.  Just as she left Annabel woke up from her early nap.  

Meanwhile Robert had also woken up.  Robert did not want a bottle. He was very fussy and his daddy couldn't comfort him.   Thoughts of colic ran through my mind in nightmarish form.  Annabel started wailing in sympathy.   DS2 took Robert in and put him to bed for another nap.  Annabel calmed down and took a bottle.  
It was only 10:00 am.    The day stretched ahead of us.  Slowly.

DS2 had thawed 2 tri tips for his Traeger grill birthday extravaganza. This now entailed his entire day being spent in the kitchen making a rub, and a grilled vegetable dish.  Slavishly following the recipe for the rub he berated me for not having any Cayenne pepper.  He had already added the black pepper and Paprika.  He announced he would have to go to the store.  I told him not to bother adding any more pepper since the seasonings would be too spicy.  He sneered but continued his work in the kitchen.  Needless to say, every counter was occupied by "The Chef" in pursuit of his work.  Using a tiny corner of counter I prepared lamb formula for the day, bottled it and stored it in the fridge.  

Both babies were now awake and getting hungry.  DDIL2 arrived home early and fed Robert his cereal.  Annabel had some too and liked it.  Yes, definitely going to have to get the 2 high chairs out of the shed, wash them down, and find a space to set them up.  Both babies settled down to play in their assorted spaces.

The bike arrived.  DD2 called to tell me she had checked and the bike had arrived.  Thank you dear.  A discussion was held as to whether DS1 should put the bike together for Maysie.  He vetoed this since he said that if he was a dad and bought a first bike for his child he would want to put it together for her himself.  This began a discussion of how many toys and pieces of children's equipment everyone had assembled over the years.   We lost count.

Sometime during the morning DS1 repaired the Diaper genie that had not been working.  I was very glad since I had been reduced to wrapping dirty diapers in a plastic bag and putting them in the trash while holding a squirming baby Annabel.  For the past week.

DSIL2 arrived at 12:30.  He settled down to visit with DH - I reminded him that he had to put together a bike.  He brought the bike into the crowded family room and proceeded to assemble it.  DS2 was still occupying the kitchen.

I changed the laundry over and started folding in my bedroom. Since only a small amount of laundry remained that had not fit in the last load I stripped the bed pad and washed it too.  Then I went back to my room to wrap Maysie's birthday presents.  I was glad to escape to a neutral territory since the family room and kitchen were occupied by large men with large voices and babies (also with large voices).  Both baby daddies were present so I felt no compunction to remain. 

Eventually I had to return to the family as 2 screaming babies made their unhappiness known.  No baby daddies were there.  No baby mama was there either.  DSIL2 had left to pick up Maysie from preschool and run by the grocery store for DS2.  DS2 was outside fiddling with his Traeger.  DDIL2 had gone to pick up the birthday cakes.  DH was alone and at the mercy of 2 screaming infants. Handing off Annabel to DH with a bottle, I changed Robert and started feeding him his bottle.  Annabel was not happy DH was not getting any burps from Annabel so I switched babes.  I had just gotten 2 burps from her  when DDIL2 came through the door screaming for help.  She had gone to pick up the birthday cakes.  One had started to fall over in the car.  In her hands was a tall cake that was toppling over slowly.  Putting Annabel into her play yard I quickly grabbed the cake from DDIL2.  Rushing to the kitchen I found a tiny area of counter where I could push stuff aside.  The only thing keeping the cake upright was the side of the box and it was being stressed to the limit.  I grabbed my cake lifters (giant 8x8' spatulas) from the cupboard and was able to rescue the cake - to a certain extent.   It still tilted badly, and the lovely pink and blue decorations were history.  It seemed to be a unicorn cake, since it had a large gold horn and gold ears on the top.  Other than that it's face was just a smear. Using half a dozen bamboo skewers I speared the tilting layers together.  Then I retrieved the icing from the box and re-iced the cake.  Sad!  But it was a cake and had a number 4 candle on it.  Carefully, I put the cake on a large plate and made room in the laundry room fridge.    Hopefully it would stay together till candle and cutting time.  One tragedy averted.

DSIL2 and Maysie arrived back.  I gave him a bottle for Maysie to feed the lamb.  Then I asked if he was going to take the kids home and come back with DD2.  I was informed that he planned to "hang out" with the family at our house till DD2 got off work.  Apparently he has adopted us as his parents.  At least DH, which is ok since DSIL2 has not had any male role models in his life.  DS1 and DS2 are also able to be role models for him.

DSIL1 and DD1 arrived with DGS2, his guinea pig, their 10 week old puppy, and food for both.  The guinea pig in his traveling bin went on a table in the rapidly overcrowded family room, the puppy went into his X-pen in the yard.  DD1 milled around grabbing babies and talking.  DGS2 was given an earful from DH and DS about his carelessness in not locking the sheep gate.  DSIL1 tried to give everyone instructions about feeding.  Naturally no one listened.  In typical Ridgetop tradition everyone talked at each other at the top of their lungs.  20 minutes later they left.  I put the guinea pig greens in the fridge.  
I changed out the laundry again and returned to my room.   By now my back, knee and feet ached.  I also had a major headache.  I decided to lay down for a while and take a couple aspirins.  Maysie kept coming back to see what I was doing.

On a trip to retrieve more laundry to fold I noticed that Maysie was coming into the house followed by the puppy!  Amid screams of "who let the puppy out?" and "catch him" as he ran into the carpeted living room, we noticed the DSIL2 was no longer around.  I took puppy back out and reattached the clips holding the gate shut.  Later while in my room I noticed dsil2 reappearing and releasing the puppy for Maysie (who was not interested) "to play with".  Out to the family room again to instruct everyone that the puppy was out and someone (not DSIL2) should be watching it.  I saw DH had the puppy now so went back to fold laundry and lay down.  

I made the bed and lay down with a TV program.  I might have fallen asleep because DS2 came back to tell me that DDIL's parents had arrived and dinner was ready.  DD2 was also there.  My headache had responded to the aspirin.  The day was almost over.  
The tri tip was very good, but everyone agreed the sauteed bell peppers and onions were too spicy.  I did the dishes and put the leftovers away while the girls got the cakes ready.  The candles were lit and blown out, the cakes cut, The tilting unicorn managed to stay together long enough to cut off the overbalanced side.  Maysie managed to open her presents before falling asleep.  Everyone departed.  I returned to the bedroom showered and collapsed.  DH woke me up when he came to bed so I could turn off the TV.


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## Mini Horses

So much for "family" days!!!   Yikes..... 😁    TX is sure calling you, right???  What, two yrs?  Not sure you will make it that long.  Can you get the loans closed and go camp out on your new farm??????   Zoom meetings for family days.


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## Ridgetop

Seriously considering doing that.  Looking forward to return to TX to do septic and electrical work in November.  

Today DD1 and DSIL1 picked up their puppy and guinea pig at 6:00 am.  I cleaned the jugs before it got too hot.  Well over 100 today like all last week.  Supposed to cool off to high 90's tomorrow.  So many flies in the barn just had to clean.  Really need to move the older lambs out of the creep so this last lot can go in.  New lambs are starting to nibble hay.  

Crystal is growing very well.  I cut her back to 10 ounces of milk in her bottle because although she was willing to drink a full pint at a feeding she started to scour a bit.  She also wags her tail so hard that her dock fell off while she was drinking!  I sprayed her butt with fly spray because her tail dock was raw.  Crystal is beginning to eat hay now.    I put a handful of alfalfa into a shallow pan and add extra loose leaves that have fallen off on the bales.  The only lamb not eating hay yet is 18003's week old lamb.  

0439's ram lamb is 10 weeks old and 80 lbs! Her lambs grow really large and her singles grow huge very fast!  If the ram buyer doesn't take him we will send him to the butcher.  I think he is too large now to band!  

After cleaning the jugs, I came up to print out and send wedding invitations.    Hope I don't have to cancel them but if so I will just call everybody and tell them wedding will be at our house.  If worst comes to worst, paper goods, and Costco finger foods.  I am don't with this. 3rd set of invitations going out now.  Beginning to wonder if this is a sign!  

While working on my computer DSIL2 showed up with Annabel.  He has the holiday but DD2 doesn't.  He told DH he could bring over some dirt for dh's Never Ending Wall.  Told him I could not watch her since I was very busy on the computer  He said she was taking a nap in the playpen.  No sooner was he out the door than Annabel started fussing.    Dirty diaper and hiccups.  Luckily DS1 offered to hold her and try to get the hiccups over.  Gone home now.  DD2 is working and instead of staying home and doing laundry and cleaning house he likes to come over here and "hang out".  

The invitations are not wanting to line up properly so I will have to change everything by hand - then I have to load them one at a time into the printer since it doesn't want to accept the heavy card stock in the feeder.  Did I mention this is the THIRD TIME I have had to do this?  

Yesterday DH, DS1 and I went to the Connexes and moved a shelf over under the carpets which were hanging off the top of some shelves.  These are large wool carpets (one modern Persian and one old Chinese) which we had cleaned and repaired.  They were rolled and wrapped in plastic for storage.  The Chinese carpet was too long for the shelves that were in the Connex since we needed another shelf at the end of the run.  So yesterday we moved a 6' shelf over to that side to support it.  Next thing to do is to move boxes of items we want to keep over to that Connex from the other one.  We will be sorting out stuff for the Salvation Army and the kids as well while we do that.  Once we have emptied one of the 6' shelf units we can move it over to the driveway side of the property and install it in either the milkshed or Rubbermaid shed where we need vertical storage.  I need to move a lot of oak molding from the milkshed into the top of the tool shed to store it.  Then we can remove the rest of the stuff from the milkshed to make room from the shelves.  There are some rolls of rabbit cage wire, some rabbit cages still in shipping cartons, metal privacy panels that need to be boxed up, etc.  

When we come back to TX in November, we are thinking of staying in a motel and bringing the stock trailer with some of our farm stuff to store in the tack room in the barn.  The cattle tenant is going to store hay in the barn but will not be using the tack room.  The house tenant might want to store stuff in the other shed so we will put our rabbit cages and some other items in the tack room and put a hasp and lock on it.  

We have at least 10 large water troughs - about 50-100 gallons.  Not sure.  They are 24" x 48" x 30" high approximately.  The ones we used for our failed raised garden experiment.  We did nit drill any of them for drainage holes.  Instead we took out the plugs and inserted PVC pipes to drain them.  We can easily replace the drain plugs.  I was considering giving a couple of them to my DDIL1 for her horses.

* QUESTION!*
Which ones should we bring to TX?  The rubber ones or the galvanized ones?  Need help people living in that sort of wetter climate.  They are actually too tall for the sheep, but they would do for Josie the Mule or cattle.  We considered building a ramp and platform for them so the sheep could use them but worried small lambs might fall in and drown.  If we brought them to TX and did not use them we could sell them there I suppose, or use them for raised gardens there with plexiglass on top for a cold frame.

Anyway, having trouble with the template for the invitations and got side tracked.  Got to work on those.  Only 3 weeks to get  them out for the wedding.


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## Ridgetop

After working on my invitations for 2 days, adjusting margins, paper sizes, etc. I puled in DS1 to help.    He insisted that I was not setting up the template right.  After spending 3 hours retrying all the things I had tried, he agreed that it was the printer.  Not the computer operator.  Yes, my printer has died.  Just in time to mess up the rush job of sending out the invitations.   

 I will have to buy a new printer/scanner.  No choice since I use it a lot for business as well as needing it YESTERDAY for the invitations.  I will have DD2 nd DSIL2 call everyone on the list and make sure to get an RSVP since I need the number of beef and chicken entrees.  

Anyway, it was slightly cooler this am so I raked out the jugs again when I fed.  The DGSs were over today and helped us with some stuff.  They picked up the pile of soiled hay.  I had both Robert and Annabel today.  Annabel had her first bowl of cereal.  She really liked it.  Robert had carrots which he liked but then he absolutely refused any milk contaminated with formula (we have to cut it now his mama is back at work).  While DS2 begged his fat little boy to eat, I callously told him that if Robert wanted to suck his thumb just to put him down for a nap.  DS2 said he would call DDIL2 at work and I vetoed that.  I told DS2 he would eat when he got hungry enough.  I did try adding a little Karo syrup to the formula/breast milk bottle, but Robert was too sly for that trick.  He must not have been that hungry because he waited till his mama got home to eat.  She said that if I waited until he was sleeping I could stick the bottle in his mouth and he would drink it but I worried that he would choke.  He needs to learn to drink the bottle anyway since she is not able to pump enough as he grows.

Crystal loves her bottle but is starting to nibble hay.  
She is doing well.  DS1 said we needed to tag the older lambs.  I need to order some new scrapie tags  You can't get them free anymore.  

Then DS1 and DS2 emptied one of the shelves in the Connexes and brought it over to the Rubbermaid shed.  We emptied that shed and they put the shelf in at the back.  Everything that had been stacked on the floor was able to be put on the shelves with some of them still empty.    Then I went out and brought more boxes over from the second Connex to fill in the empty shelves in the first Connex.  DH wants to go to DS3's place next weekend with one of the boats.  He can take all the tack and saddles up then too.  I am going to continue to look through the Connexes and make up a load for the Salvation Army.  DH said he would take it over when I got the stuff together.  Not a huge amount, but getting it out of the way will help a lot.  Also found a couple of good Boogie Boards and a skim board that we gave to the grandkids.  Also going to give DGS1 the 10 speed that DS2 had at college.  It needs to be cleaned and the tires aired up but it is a nice bike.  (And we need it gone!)  LOL  Also giving the electric ice cream maker away to DD1 or DD2 or DS3.  We used to make homemade ice cream n 4th of July.  The grandkids will enjoy doing that now.  

DH wants to buy a Connex for Texas.  I told him we could just lock any stuff in the tack room in the barn.  I would buy a hasp and padlock.  He said it would get dirty and chewed on by rats.  No point arguing about it.  Let him do what he wants.  I am going to continue to dispose of stuff quietly.  Found a bunch of his old lineman spec books in the shed.  He tried to give them to DS3 years ago but DS3 said they were out of date.  He tried to give them to DS2 this time.  No success - DS2 refused them as well.  Very insulted.  Another valuable heirloom I will have to transport to Texas probably.  I hope they don't get lost on the trip.  

Well, got to go look for food.  I told the family to forage for dinner with? the left over curry and fajitas.  Plenty for dinner.  I was too busy alternately cursing the printer and trying to make it work.  Another candidate for Baymule repair therapy.  Where's my hammer?  I need the big one.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

The lineman spec books, are they in decent condition and over 20 years old? If so, you could try to sell them as 'vintage', maybe make some money off them to buy the connex?


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## Baymule

My son bought 2 Conex from somebody in Marshal off Facebook marketplace. They are 40’ long, I think he paid $3500 each delivered, but not set up. He didn’t have the concrete blocks to set them on. So he had to get the blocks and set them up. He plans to put a roof between them to park his RV in.

Happy printer crushing. It’s wonderful therapy for releasing tension.


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## Ridgetop

We have 2 brand new 24' Connexes here (that DS3 offered to load on his flatbed and bring out to Texas when we move).  We also want to roof between them for hay storage.  Been wanting to do that for several years.   DH did put corral fencing around them and then DS1 stacked all the extra corral and fencing pieces inside to keep the horses and sheep from getting around them and being injured when they knock one over.  We also have another corral just for scrap metal. Hopefully DS1 will take a load of it to the metal yard and sell it soon. At least it can't escape and run off!  LOL

Today no puppy, or babies!    Elizabeth comes after school and will feed Crystal and do homework.  She has started asking for Crystal's bottle as soon as she gets here and just before she leaves so she can feed her.   

Today going to try to empty the remaining items out of the milk shed.  Moldings to go in the loft of the toolshed, rabbit cages still in flat pack shipping boxes (which will go to Texas with us for the new rabbitry), the old wood stove from Yelm which I am not sure can be repaired now, and miscellaneous junk to discard. 

Also to come out of the milk shed are several items we will take to Salvation Army.  Found our old solar charger which I will add to the items going to DS3.  It needs a couple of wires reattached which DS3 can do easily then he can run a hot wire for his horses and calf to graze in specific areas.  I will keep the hot wire tapes and equipment for Texas, and buy another charger if we decide to use hot wire. Might want it to keep the sheep away from the game fencing or protect new trees and garden.  We will see.  Eventually will have to go through the boxes and bins in the milk shed again.  Did get out the 2 large plastic bins of extra horse tack and add them to DDIL's haul.    Also found 2 boat life jackets in one Connex that can go to DS3 as well.  One of the 2 old boats will be leaving this weekend to go up there with all the horse tack, etc.

Not sure what to do about the anatique wood cookstove we brought home from Yelm as well.  In working condition and not a scratch on it.   Was going to donate it to a museum (one of those old houses museums) but DH suggested bringing it to Texas to sell (???)  On the other hand if we bring it to Texas maybe we should just put it in one of the outbuildings and use it if the power goes out?  I have a box full of working kerosene lamps from Yelm too.  I will bring those in case the winter storms last year turn out to be the "new normal".  Actually, we plan to buy a propane generator that will run the house in emergencies.  There is no propane on the property, but we can always put in a tank and maybe switch to propane for cooking in the kitchen since I don't like cooking on electric.  OR just use my Instapot, electric oven, and electric skillet!  OR let everyone else cook!  No, DH belongs to the school of leave the dishes and dirty counter behind.  DS1 belongs to my school of clean as you go.  The worst offender is DS2 who belongs to the school of use every dish and pot in the cupboard and leave it all for someone else to clean up.  I guess I need to keep cooking, but maybe I could just start using paper plates?  

Got to go feed Crystal and the ewes and lambs in the barn.  Need to weigh the lambs again but I hurt my hand the other day and broke a whole bunch of blood vessels inside it.  It completely swelled up and turned an interesting shade of purple.  No knuckles on that hand, and it looked like an inflated rubber glove!   Did not break any bones but pretty painful for a couple days.  Getting better now but still no noticeable knuckle bones and can't close the hand completely or lift stuff.  Mainly coffee cups and small items since I can't close the fingers to grasp.  Luckily typing does not require closing the hand or any pressure on the keys.

Got to get a new printer asap.  Also got to meet with the venue today.  Oh yes, and have DGD1 try on her flower girl dress to see f it needs to be let out.  DGD2 tried hers on and there is plenty of room so she is good to go.  DD2 needs to have a final fitting at Davids.  Forgot about that.  I also need to recut and sew her wedding petticoat which I cut down from DD1's.  Then had to recut it and add a new top part from the hips up to accommodate the baby bulge Now need to take it back in!  Oy Vey!  DD2 will be over today since she has to finalize flowers.  I can fit it then and remind her about scheduling a fitting with David's immediately.  All the alterations have been paid for so she needs to get in and make sure they are correct.  I really don't want to have to finish the alterations on her gown as well in the next 2 weeks!  Now I know why parents cry at weddings - Dad cries over the cost while Mom cries with relief that it is over and she can finally take a Xanax and collapse!

Still very hot here but has dropped from over 100's to 90's.  High 90's but lower.  Gotta go get that bottle ready and feed.


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## Ridgetop

Posted too soon!  DDSIL1 showed up with the puppy.    Just when I thought we were safe.  

DGD1 will be feeding the lamb later and


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## Baymule

Hahaha! You just thought you weren’t going to babysit today!


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## Bruce

Larsen Poultry Ranch said:


> The lineman spec books, are they in decent condition and over 20 years old? If so, you could try to sell them as 'vintage', maybe make some money off them to buy the connex?


Why would anyone want them?


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## Ridgetop

I cleared out the end of the milkshed and loaded a half pickup load of stuff for the Salvation Army. 

Found Daddy's large clamps made with a long water pipe and slide on clamps.  He used them when making cabinets.  I used them to repair furniture many times.  Also found what we thought was an attachment to a weed whacker we no longer have.  Turned out to be a new(ish) battery hedge trimmer.  I remember now that DH bought one 3 years ago when we cleaned up the Yelm property to rent it out.  Keeping that!  Those items came up to the tool shed with the moldings. 

Sent a SS sink to Salvation Army.  It was our laundry sink in the old garage laundry.  We kept it to use in either the tool shed or the new laundry.  Not bothering to install it now even though there are water outlets in each location.  Debating over whether to donate my old tile saw.  I used it to install back splashes and tub surrounds in 7 kitchens and 11 bathrooms in the apartment, then used it at DS3's
old house to do their kitchen counter.  Installed all that with the Italian tile I got at Habitat.  I bought a complete pallet of 6" tiles in a neutral sand color.  I got edging in  matching/contrasting colors since there was no edging tile with it.  I used mostly black and used formica countertops to pick up the black and sand colors.  All bathrooms turned out beautifully and all prospective tenants raved abut the tile.  A little know how, some shopping expertise, and all that tile work done for only $200 in tile!    I love DIY.

Still more to go to salvation Army, but have to get to it in the Connexes.  Next stuff to go will be the saddles and tack, boat, etc. to go to DS3.  There are 8 saddles, a larger number of bridles, saddle blankets pads, bareback pads, halters, saddle racks, shipping boots, fly and winter blankets, and miscellaneous stuff.  Huge moving boxes of stuff.  The 7' x 7' Rubbermaid shed is full of the tack!!!  Oh yes, I need to check my box and pull out the lamb halters.  Although I can wait to give those to the DGSs until I give them lambs.  I also need to find the stretchy Fair lamb coats too.  Found the show sticks and pig canes.  I need to remember to take the Chafing dish from my inside cabinet too.    I might also have some pretty serving dishes for the children later too.  Maybe I should pull a "Gammy" and wrap them for Christmas!  Save some $$$$$!   

Sent out the emails to all the wedding venue participants - cake, photo, DJ, coordinator, etc. and set final appointment with the venue manager.  All set.  Then sent an email to the officiant to remind her and make sure she has the day free for rehearsal.  We had to pay for a minimum of guests.  It is possible that we will have less guests than the minimum, but the venue has said we can arrange to put in some extras (ceiling hangings, extra hours of bar service, etc.) in lieu of the unused guest charges.

DS1 got me a new printer and spend several hours hooking it up and figuring out how to print the invitations with me.  We got them printed out and the menu cards as well.  Then I had to retype a lot of the addresses - I am using labels instead of doing them by hand like I did for DD1's wedding.  More time and younger 16 years ago!  In calligraphy too!  Anyway, tomorrow I will print the labels and get the invitations into the mail.  I asked everyone to RSVP immediately by phone.  That will save me postage on the menu acceptance cards.  

Met DD2 at the florist and arranged all the flowers.  Then DD2 made an appointment for her final fitting.  She needs to get  pair of shoes and possibly new undergarments,  She complained that she needed to tighten her tummy more, but since she weighs 100 lbs., her tummy is flat as a pancake, and the dress is a lace up style, no worries.  I just have to alter the petticoat from maternity to normal. Tried DGD1's flower girl dress on her and it just fits.  No room for error.  She wanted to keep wearing it because she "felt so pretty".  I told her she could wear it every day after the wedding.  I remember when we bought the dresses we got a larger size for DGD2 but couldn't get a larger size for DGD1.  She needs a new pair of white shoes - her mother will get them for her next week. 

DGS2 is worried about being ring bearer at the advance age of 10.  I assured him it would be fine because it was an important job.  Offered him the job of being train bearer but he prefers to remain ring bearer.  Got hold of the wedding coordinator, minister, cake baker, and photographer. Scheduled the rehearsal an final meeting at the venue.  If Gov. Gruesome cancels this wedding I am going to be in line to drive a stake through his heart!  I would be acquitted I am sure - just need the jury members to be mothers who have done weddings for daughters!      So wedding is back on schedule.  

This afternoon got the rest of the "baby jail" panels out of the barn loft.  DD2 wants se of them so we hosed them off and she will take them home and scrub them up.  These are panels that fit together to make a large play yard for infants and toddlers.  You can't buy them anymore, and I bought 5 sets used 14 years ago when DGS1 was born.  I have kept them, passed them around to the girls and now the next set of grandkids will be able to use them.  They are one of those things that are so useful you pass it down instead of getting rid of it.  We also used to put them together to block off the Christmas tree from crawlers and toddlers.  

Made a start on emptying out my cupboards today too.  Offered a chafing dish to DD2 and she snapped it up.  Also saw a 3 tiered cake server in the cupboard and asked for it.  SOLD!  One will go to DDIL1 along with a nice electric fondue pot, and the ice cream maker.  I won't need it in Texas, home of Bluebell Ice Cream!  

 Stuff keeps disappearing from my storage areas like receding water in a drought.  

Tomorrow I will work on the milk shed and try to get it cleaned out for the shelving units.  Not sure what we will store in there since it can't be anything rats could destroy.  Everything will have to be stored in plastic or metal bins.  But rabbit cages, wire, and items that are not chewable can certainly go down there.  The metal folding stanchion could go there, also maybe some of the rubber buckets and smaller pans for the sheep.  There are several large dog crates (both the old PVC airline crates and some newer wire crates) in the barn loft that could come down and be stored in the milkshed.  Also quite a few X-pens.  Space - beautiful space!


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## Ridgetop

Was really blown away by poor Farmerjan's news about her dad.  Really thought he was doing better in spite of terrible tractor accident.  

A whole week has gone by and I have gotten more emptied from Connex.  Abut 20 boxes of books have been sorted and removed.  10 boxes have gone to the Salvation Army  The library did not want them.  We don't offer them to Good Will anymore.  Delusions of Grandeur there.  The books were mostly paperbacks in series - mysteries mostly.  I have a lot on my Kindle now so the paper copes can go.  I have another 6 boxes to go now.  I think I will check out the VA hospitals and see if they want some of them  They are almost new.  Wish I lived close to Farmerjan instead of on the other side of the US - I would bring them to her to read during her knee surgeries.  I have kept my favorite series though as well as some old series.  Agatha Christie for one.  Also have 2 boxes of books that were printed 80-100 years ago.  Told DS1 to find a place to sell them.  

Still more up in the loft of the tool shed - probably another 12-18 boxes up there.  I hate to dispose of them but I have collected them over 60 years and don't have that much time left to read them all over again!    Might as well let someone else enjoy them.  3 boxes have gone to DD1 for her kids.  

I also was able to find enough storage in the cabinet that I took the chafing dishes from to store my canned goods and noodles.  An overhead and hard to reach cupboard was cleared out and that is where I stored the 10 containers of coffee.  God forbid we should go short on COFFEE!!!  

DGS2 was with us yesterday - a child in his class is positive for Covid so he is home.  He is 11.  Negative test Monday for him and he gets another one today.  If negative he goes back to school on Friday.   Told him not to worry since I had a magic cure for Covid now!  

Sadly a 12year old boy in their scout troop just died of Leukemia yesterday.  He and his 2 14 year old sisters have some genetic defect which contributes to the disease.  The 2 sisters have the defect but not the disease yet. Their triplet brother does not have the defect.  The older sisters and brother are all fraternal triplets.  A horrible thing to lose a child and know that your 2 daughters may die before they are out of childhood.    My heart breaks for these parents and children.  Both DGSs are very upset.

I was laid up for 2 days with colitis.  Better now but not eating much until it is resolved.  Spend all day Monday laying down with a heat pack on my side.  

4  refusals and 2 acceptances.  Sadly DSIL2 grandmother said she won't come after all.  She cares for a mentally retarded son and is afraid she is starting to get Alzheimers.  Said she is worried about being able to cope on the trip from Florida.  It is a shame since she and DSIL are very attached.  I suggested that he and DD2 fly back with Annabel for a visit.  Looks like we will be short of people.  Anyone want to come?  Next week we will start calling people to get RSVPs and menu selections.   I paid for a minimum number of people so can't just deduct from that.  

Governor Gruesome has evaded recall.  It was to be expected with mail in ballots.  We are now waiting for his revenge act.  I am actually hoping for him to shut down the restaurants so we can just have the wedding at home at this point.  I am taking in the wedding petticoat today.  Have already altered it from pregnancy baby bulge but still too big.  DD2 needs to buy new shoes and bra.  After baby has gone down in bust size.  Told her since dress was lace up corset style that we could just lace her in tighter.  Last fitting this weekend.  Really want to get this wedding over and done.  At this point is is kind of like deja vu with her having a baby already!

The never ending wall is approaching completion.  Once it is done, I am going to ask DH and DS1 to put up some fencing below so we can move the creep ewes and lambs there and move the new lambs into the creep.  

d


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## Ridgetop

UGH!   😡   Newsom The Destroyer in action again.  Within hours of the the election being called for him, he signed 2 bills that completely destroy single family home zoning.  These bills make it legal to build an additional home on your single family lot, or build duplexes/fourplexes in single family zoned neighborhoods. 

On the other hand, he has set the directive closing all eating establishments, etc. unless patrons are all vaccinated to begin October 1.  Since the wedding is on September 25 we are in under the wire.  😓

HOWEVER!  DD2 has a final fitting scheduled for today at 2.  Yesterday she called to confirm and they told her that she has no appointment and they can't fit her in.  I was standing right next to her when she made the appointment so someone screwed up at the salon.  They told her she can go to a different David's and have the work done _if she can get in_ BUT all the work was already PAID FOR IN FULL at this one and the other one will charge her again!  While I feel she should have made an appointment and gone in sooner, I am only her mother and will not risk a Bridezilla meltdown.  However I foresee having to finish the alterations myself.   
  I am not sure they have even supplied the off shoulder sleeves that were paid for and not attached yet.  I may have to go over myself with DD1 and the receipts.  At any rate, I redid the petticoat.  It was still a bit large so I took it in another 2" at the waist this morning.  Ready to go to the salon with the dress.  I'll take the veil too for her to try on with the dress.  They made us take the dress home unfinished which is a good thing since they probably would have lost it!  

Another nail in my coffin as my grandmother used to say.   

One week to go, just one week . . . Please God!

Also have to get out the favor boxes, assemble them and fill with mints.  This weekend start calling all the people that have not bothered to respond so I can give a count of food to the venue by Wednesday.  Then on Thursday rehearsal and final payment.  With so few people coming, it will be much less that we thought it would.  Unfortunate that we can't have a nice big turnout, but good for our checkbook.  DH and I considered the guest list compared to DD1's wedding and it is depressing how many of our relatives have died!  Of course, DD1 and DSIL1 had a huge number of college friends too from both early college years and post grad degree classes.  300 guests!  In many ways this will be better since we will be able to visit with everyone and it will be more intimate. Never even got to meet most of DSIL's out of town relatives!


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## Ridgetop

OK.  Mom to the rescue.  No need to kill anyone and spend the wedding in jail.  

Called and spoke to the manager.  Used my very quiet voice.  The voice that DD1 calls Mom's Dangerous Voice.  Told her that both the florist and I had heard the conversation setting the appointment, and that before we came down with my daughter's phone and watched her fire the person who was so incompetent I wanted to talk to her.  I told her that something was wrong since I could not understand why the salesperson would tell us to go to another store for alterations we had already paid for.  The manager checked her book and said that we *did* have a 2:00 pm appointment.  She apologized and said they would never tell us to go elsewhere for alterations that had been started at their store.  I agreed that it was very strange and that was why I had called her.

DD2 had bought shoes and new under garments and tried on dress.  OOPS!  Dress is now too large since DD2 had the baby.  Lace up style back so should have been ok BUT still not tight enough to fit properly.   Wedding next week. Draping cap sleeves that were to have been added on were also missing. Slight argument about where the sleeves were and had we paid for them. Straightened that out - not paid for. $35.00 plus cost of attaching. Said I would attach them myself. Sales girl attached them with pins and they drooped and looked bad. DD2 told girl to let her mom do it, then before I could she ran into dressing room in tears. _*Bridezilla moment.* _After a few minutes I went in to console her. She said the sleeves were ugly, droopy, and didn't even look like the same color as the dress! Sob, Sob! I said we hadn't paid for them yet so don't have them since dress looked beautiful without. Made her come out and try on veil with dress and no sleeves to see how nice it looked. (I did not like the sleeves before but DD2, Maid of honor, DD2, and DDIL2 all liked the sleeves. I think they may have looked better when DD2 was pregnant because they gave her more of an hourglass figure. Now they are unnecessary.) She agreed that the dress looked better with just the veil. *Major meltdown averted.* 

BUT dress still not fitting properly.  Gaping around back.  Salesgirl said it could just be laced tighter but NO.  After I checked it myself I discovered that the back placket under the lacing had been moved over to allow for the pregnancy.   The snaps and hooks were 1" too far over and the stiffened and boned placket would not allow the dress to actually pull tighter and lace up.    The snaps needed to be moved over at least an inch. The shop wanted $60.00 for "rush" alterations to move three snaps - told them I would do it myself. That way when we pick up the dress and the alterations are not done and I have to move the snaps myself anyway I am not out $!!!  

Another problem.  Due to Covid no makeup artists available.   Catastrophe!  DD1 will be reduced to walking down aisle "looking horrible, mom!"  Apparently no bride does her own hair or makeup anymore.    When I got home and related all this wedding tragedy to DH he reminded me that DDIL2 had a person who did her wedding makeup and for 15 people in wedding party and relatives.  Called her and she was free.  Sent me the contract.  Still reeling in shock at price but am completely fed up with all this drama. Will tell DH it was his idea when he complains about the price. I will remind him that I did my own and that he is lucky to have a low maintenance woman.  Will also have wine in the fridge and sandwiches for us to eat during the 4-5 hour ordeal of becoming beautiful.  For the price I should be getting liposuction and botox too!  I guess I will just drink.

Now on to deal with the next bridal drama - DD2 wants to take DGD1 and DGD2 with her for mani peds.  Naturally neither she or DD1 have apologized to each other yet.  DD1 said she would take DGD1 with her. DD2 immediately saw this as an "I hate my little sister and will not let my daughter spend any time with her aunt" moment.  Called both of them up.  They returned my calls at the same time so put them on speaker phone. Told them that I had had enough!  Told DD1 that DD2 was apologizing for calling her a liberal - it was a joke.  Told DD2 that DD1 was sorry she got so angry but that it was because her feelings were hurt at being called a liberal.  Made them both apologize to ME for upsetting ME and then arranged that they would both go on Friday at the same time and to the same place and get mani-pedis together with their daughters!!!   

Reminded them that the rehearsal was 4:30 on Thursday and that I had rescheduled the reservation for the rehearsal dinner for 6:30.  For some reason DSIL2 had told DH to make it for 4:30.    Then wished them fun at their respective restaurants (I could hear them ordering margaritas) and reminded them that I was stuck doing all the wedding stuff while they were out carousing and drinking.  

Now going to go resew the snaps on the wedding dress.  Tomorrow will continue sorting and disposing of books that I have in my Kindle.  20 large cartons are done now. Hundreds and hundreds of books.  Thank God DS1 persuaded DH to get me a Kindle.  Now I just have to pay $$$$ to transfer all the rest of my favorites into it!  The only thing that comforts me at getting rid of these books is that others will be able to read them, and there are not enough years left in my lifetime to reread them all!  

Wondering why I had children.


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## Baymule

Hey! What about the wedding? Got pictures?


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## Ridgetop

Got the devastating news about Bay's BJ a couple days before the wedding.  Since then have been too depressed about it to report on the wedding.  

Have pulled myself together now and will make a full report beginning with the books.  I sorted all the boxes of books and sent them to Salvation Army.  I did keep back several series that I love and don't have in my Kindle.  Emptied out some of the bookcases and gave a lot of children's books to daughter for her children.  She will pass them on in her turn to nieces and nephews.  I  was able to double shelve those paper backs - 6 boxes of books.  I will eventually buy those titles but not yet. Today I found 2 more boxes of books (in the small PVC shed) that I had been looking for. These are titles that I planned to keep but didn't find.  Relieved that I was not going crazy thinking that I had not noticed them in the other 20+ cartons of books I had given away.

Books taken care of, I was able to clean the house, and concentrate in the wedding.  Put together the favor boxes.  Need the Jordan Almonds since the mints were now a year old.  Very cute boxes looked like brides and grooms.  Also sorted out the small bottles of bubbles that I had decorated as well.  Left 60 of each at home since only needed 40.  Packed everything for the wedding ceremony in one box and the rest in another box for the wedding reception.  I realized that while I had the Unity candles for the ceremony i needed holders for them.  Got out 2 very pretty hand  painted short candlesticks and a gold Picard saucer for the large candle.  Wrapped them in tissue and bubble wrap and stored in the wedding box.  Next up - call everyone that had not responded - most of them.  No manners these days.  Had DD2 and DSIL2 phone all their friends.  Apparently, DD2 had called and told them to notify me of the dinner preference. Naturally they did not.  Why not just find out when she talked to them?   Told her to call them back and find out IMMEDIATELY!!!  Also called venue to see if we could upgrade the menu since we were looking at well under our original 73 people booked for.  Was told no problem.  Final count 38 adults (anyone over 8) and 2 children.  Now ready for the final meeting at the venue.  And rehearsal.

Week before the wedding DDIL2's mother and sister left for a trip to Italy to see the pope.  We now had to care for 6 month old Robert who detested us, as well as 6 month old Annabel, the puppy, DGD1 and DGD2 after school.  See last sentence of previous post.  Luckily DD2 took pity on us and stayed at home for 3 days.  Her school was still waiting for its approval to bring in children so she did not need to be in class.  Also luckily, during this week Robert decided we were not monsters and deigned to allow us to  be in his presence without screaming.

Wednesday morning DD2 (aka Bride) showed up to shop for dress for DGD3 and Flower Girl shoes for DGD2.  I insisted we go to the shops in San Fernando since they cater to the Hispanic community for white clothing for First Communion, Confirmation as well as Quinceanaras, weddings, etc.  4 stores later we found the perfect dress similar to the Flower Girl dresses but in ivory.  "No good" announced the Bride who was slowly turning into Bridezilla.  At the 6th store we found the identical dress to the Flower Girl dresses in white.  Bought it and returned home.  I still had to sew on all the rosebuds to the tulle net skirt, find and buy matching fabric or ribbon for the sash and make it for the wedding on Saturday.  Still no Flower Girl shoes.  No longer my problem though.  DD2 went home and DH and I went to the venue for the final payment and menu details.

At the meeting I gave head count to coordinator and changed menu from beef filet and roasted chicken to Surf & Turf and Chicken Marsala.  Still had enough over in minimum for extended bar hours.  Should have gotten the shrimp cocktail instead as you will see. The coordinator informed me that the rehearsal would be at 2:00 pm.   *WHAT?!  *The original time set by the wedding coordinator was 4:30 pm. I was told that it had to be at 2 since dinner service would be on that patio at 4pm.   The flower girls and ring bearer would still be in school, and the Maid of Honor couldn't get off work that early!  The Best Man had been fired by the Groom for his super liberal political views but I had 3 sons that could step in at the last moment although the Groom didn't like them because they were "mean to him".  I gave that the consideration it deserved - none. If it came down to no Best Man, I would shove one of my sons into the spot.  None of them wanted the "honor" but I am not the Alpha Bitch of my family for nothing.  A show of teeth and low growl and the pack would fall into line.

Home again?  NO!  Had DH drive me to the fabric store that was close to the venue. Matched the fabric and bought 1/8 yard for the sash.   Next stop Jordan almonds to fill favor boxes.  While he drove, I worked on my wedding list.  Once again at home, Emailed the wedding coordinator who confirmed the time at 4:30 pm.  DH had made the after rehearsal dinner reservations for the rehearsal dinner for 4:00 pm, based on the 2:00 rehearsal time.  I changed them to 7:00 based on the 4:30 time.  The venue coordinator called and emailed me that it could NOT take place at 4:30.  After several brisk 3 way discussions it was changed to 3:00 pm.   Gritting my teeth I decided to make the best of it and changed the dinner reservations again.  I was then informed by DD2 that the groom was working out of town and probably wouldn't be there either!  And the Maid of Honor could not get off work.  And we still did not have a Best Man!   

However, the flowers and bridal carpet were a go.  And the make up artists were booked for Saturday morning for an estimated 4 hours.  Realizing I had to be available all Saturday morning to make Mimosas and put out the roll up sandwiches I changed my nail appointment from Saturday to Friday.  Then I took 3 aspirins and lay down with an adult beverage to contemplate life.  Decided it may have been a mistake to have _any_ children at all.  Definitely a mistake to have had daughters.

Thursday dawned.  Got out the sewing machine and made the sash.  Preparing to stitch the rosebuds to the skirt, I checked the Flower Girl dress against the baby dress for placement of the satin flowers.   Flower Girl dresses are ivory - baby dress is snow white!!!  AAARGH!!!     Gritting my teeth (will probably need some expensive dental work after this wedding) I began to sew on the individual satin rosebuds.  The baby dress is a S but probably equates to 12 months.  At least Annabel can wear it next spring for Easter when she is walking.  Did not finish sewing on the rose buds before the rehearsal.   Left to pick up DGD1 at school and head for the venue.  Met the minster and wedding coordinator there and proceeded to wait half an hour for the Bride.  She showed up with both girls.  Maysie was not supposed to be there but had to be picked up from school.  Birth mother not answering her phone so called DD2.  Maysie sick!  Slight temperature and very whiny.  Found out from minister (daughter in same class that "a bug" was going around the preschool.  Can anything else go wrong?  Flower Girl may not be present but the other could carry it off.  Baby sleeping in carseat, I bit the bullet and held Maysie on my lap so the rehearsal could go forward.  Tried to hold my breath too but unable to keep it up so had to breath in germs.  No Groom, no Maid of Honor, no Best Man, no Ringbearer.  1 sick crying child.  Just as we finished up the Groom appeared.  He took Maysie from me.  Minister said she had a special Unity Candle holder and offered to bring it.    I gratefully accepted.  I told DD2 not come to rehearsal dinner.  I told her to go home with DSIL2 and put children to bed, particularly the sick one.  She was very upset to miss out on her own rehearsal dinner although without the members of the wedding party why even have a rehearsal dinner anyway?  DH and I were going since we needed a Margarita - make mine a double.  DD2 called to say she was on her way as was DSIL1.   She was upset that DD2 would miss out on her own rehearsal dinner.    She decided to drop off her boys at the restaurant and drive to DD2's house to babysit the sick children so DD2 and DSIL2 could come.  (Sisters still not speaking to each other, but this is the Ridgetop way!)  We ordered her a dinner to go.  DGD1 did her homework while waiting for dinner.  The boys arrived and ordered. Half an hour later DSIL1 arrived and ordered.  DH, DGD1 and I had finished dinner and DGD1 and DH were on desert.  I was on my second Margarita.  Another half hour later DD2 and DSIL2 arrived and ordered.  At 8:30pm (3 hours after arriving at the restaurant) the DH and I with DGD1 left after paying the bill.  DSIL1 and the boys left at the same time on their way to our house to pick up their puppy.   I told the Bride and Groom to stay and enjoy themselves since this would be their last time without children for a while.  

Friday I finished the baby dress with rosebuds and stitched on the sash.  DSIL2's family arrived in town -his grandmother was supposed to come as a surprise but at the last minute decided she was not able to face the long flight.  Just as well as it turned out.  DD2 was supposed to sleep at our house.  I made up the sofa bed and sent DH to make up the bed in the trailer for DS3's family.  I went to bed.  

Next day - THE WEDDING!

More - lots more - later . . . .


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## Baymule

I've been missing you on here, but I knew why. You did keep me rolling with laughter on our long extended phone call, giving me the details of the wedding. And believe me, I needed that laugh. 
Then we cried together and laughed together over BJ. I'm looking forward to seeing y'all when you come in November or December. Big hugs to you and DH.


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## Ridgetop

Ok, back again.

The wedding morning dawned.  I sprang from my bed ready for the events of the day.

Sound like a fiction novel?  I crawled resentfully from my bed and staggered to the kitchen to make coffee.  Luckily I can do that with my eyes shut. 

Gulping the life sustaining caffeine I staggered back the the bedroom and threw on some clothes before returning to the kitchen to make the Mimosas for the girls.  I cleaned up extra space for the makeup artists to work in - the room is big but full of baby equipment.  Set out the roll up sandwiches DH had picked up for us.  DH and DS1 moved our cars into the back yard to free up the 5 parking spaces out front.  I didn't want the hassle of locking up the dogs.  People started to arrive.

It would only be the bride, maid of honor, sister, sister-in-law and me.  2 makeup artists, 1 hair stylist, and 4 hours to do the job.   I figured they would need that much time just to make me look good.  I meant to apply Preparation H to my face to tighten the wrinkles but couldn't find any in the house.  My grandmother told me in her mother's time women used to apply whisked egg whites to their faces to tighten the skin and minimize wrinkles. I had the eggs but according to Gammy you didn't dare smile or the egg mask would crack!  I decided to skip the egg mask.

About an hour into the session DS3 and DDIL1 arrived.  Pushing DDIL1 into a chair I handed her a Mimosa.  The men gathered around laughing at us getting beautified and stealing our roll up sandwiches.  Now it was my turn.  My sons asked if the makeup people had brought enough supplies for my face.  Jokes were made about my advance age.  Spackle and a putty knife were mentioned.  DS3 said he had his truck and they offered to do a supply run.  Wisely they all stood well out of reach.  The girls and I had a wonderful time laughing and joking.   The bride looked radiant.  As a final treat we all decided to get false eyelashes!  I worried that DH would wake in the night and smack me thinking a spider had crawled across my face, but the makeup artist reassured me that she would attach them securely  Super Glue I suppose.  We all looked very glamorous when finished.

DD1 and DGD1 left for home to dress and pick up family members.  DGD2 had already been picked up.  The maid of honor was dressing before driving the bride to the church. I had to iron DS1's and DS2's dress shirts.  Somehow DS3 snuck his and his boys' shirts into the pile.  Then he borrowed a tie from DS1 for DGS3.  Apparently the Tasmanian Devil tie he brought to wear had been vetoed by his mother.  

Everyone was almost dressed when an emergency occurred.   I got a hysterical call from DS3.  The new dress pants bought for DGS3 were 3 sized too small.  DDIL1 had accidentally bought the wrong pair instead of the pair he had tried on!   DS3 was saying he had to find a Target right now when I broke in and told him to call his sister.  DGS1 or 2 would have an extra pair of dress pants to fit him and could bring them to the venue. Tragedy averted.  The image of DGS3 in a Tasmanian Devil tie and no pants  flitted across my mind.

Everything was loaded and ready to leave for the venue.  I laid the wedding gown carefully in the back of the car.  The maid of honor and bride left with baby Annabel. Ditto DS3 and his family.  DS1 locked the door and we were on our way.  Finally the wedding was to take place.  I almost shed tears of joy but remembered my carefully lacquered makeup and restrained myself.  

Arriving at the venue I located all members of the party.  The bride and maid of honor were in the bathroom ready to put on her gown.  I spread a sheet on the floor and then The Dress.  Carefully the bride was inserted into the creation by many hands.   Now to lace her up.  Luckily I had done this when marking the alterations and had brought my crochet needle to pull the laces through the loops otherwise we might still be lacing her up.  This is why women used to need maids to help them dress.  And why corsets went out of fashion when women ran out of maids.

Bride dressed, I handed out the flower baskets and ring pillow and sent them off for more photos.   I told the bride's sisters to bring all the remaining paraphernalia down to the reception. Rounding up my grandsons I had them take the boxes of favors etc. to the reception room while I took the Unity candles to the minister.  The wedding was being held on a different patio.  The Odyssey Restaurant is a lovely venue renowned for its spectacular views across the entire San Fernando Valley.   It has been added onto over the years to accommodate the popularity of functions held there.  The drawback is that to access many of the different banquet rooms you must go us one flight of stairs, cross the main level and then descend a different staircase.  The wedding was being held on a front patio and the reception in a room on the other side.  

Candles delivered I went back up the stairs, across the restaurant, and down the other stairs to the reception room.   I was glad I had remembered t wear my Tommy Copper knee brace.  I was beginning to regret wearing my pretty beaded shoes that matched my dress.  Comfortable when I put them on, they were beginning to hurt my feet.  Oh well, I would be sitting down soon enough, right?    

Quickly placing the guest seating signs in the centerpieces, I rounded up my grandsons and handed them the boxes of favors and bubbles to put out.  The DJ introduced himself to me as did the Maitre D' for our room.  Back to the wedding area.  Up the staircase, across the restaurant, down another staircase.  Tommy Copper was holding up but I wished I had worn my slippers instead of being prettily shod.

The wedding coordinator was lining up everyone for the bridal procession to the alter. Snatching the wandering flower girls and ringbearer back into line I fund DS1 who would escort me down the aisle.  The bride and DH were somewhere to the rear but the coordinator would made sure she looked coming down the aisle.  The groom and best man were up front.  His cousin had arrived and been pushed into the job last minute.  I noticed that several guests already had drinks in their hands.  A faint flicker of apprehension tickled my spine.  No time to worry now - the procession was starting.  

The groom's parents were sent off.  DS1 and I followed.  Flower girls holding hands down the aisle were adorable.  The ringbearer knew exactly what to do,  No crying 3 year olds in this procession.  Now the bride on the arm of her daddy.  She was breathtaking, daddy proud and loving.  As he gave her away he surreptitiously wiped tears from his eyes.  DH always cries at his children's weddings, also baptisms, funerals, and Old Yeller.  My big tough guy has a huge sentimental streak.   🥰

The minister did a lovely service.  The couple were truly in love.  It was slightly marred by the DGD1 flower girl swinging on the wedding arch but a hissed order from her grandmother averted collapse on the minister and bridal pair.  A pity in view of later events . . . . 

   The happy couple     Flower girls

Photos were taken afterwards with both families while the lucky guests escaped upstairs where the bar was now open.  The photos seemed to last forever.  The older flower girl kept whining for a drink.  Her churlish expression and folded arm pose in the family wedding picture will be treasured.



Top L-R             DS3, DH, groom, DS2, DS1, DD1, DSIL1
Middle L-R        DDIL1, me, DGS1, bride, baby Annabel, baby Robert, DDIL2, DGS2
Bottom L-R       DGD1 (note attitude), DGS3, DGD2, DGS4

Photos finished, the family all headed upstairs, across the restaurant, and down the other staircase.  Although appetizers had been brought down to us we were all parched.  Back in the reception room guests were finding their tables and getting drinks from the bar.  The bridal party was introduced to mad clapping and cheers.  Intercepting me in my dash to the bar the Maitre D' told me that no one had picked up their dinner tickets.  The tickets were necessary so the waiters would know where to place the beef and chicken plates.  Going to the microphone I announced there had been a last minute change in the menu.  We were now having Surf & Turf and Chicken Marsala.  If anyone had allergies to shellfish to please let me know.  No allergies to the lobster but the groom's mother said she was allergic to alcohol - the chicken was cooked in wine.  That dealt with I passed around the dinner tokens and tried to get to the bar.  

It was not to be - a couple said they were not on any table list.  ???  Oh yes, it was because I had been told they were not coming!  Long time friends of the groom's family, so I reassigned a teenage cousin and seated them at that table.  Again I headed for the bar and my cocktail when another emergency occurred!  Was the Mother of the Bride to be cursed by never having a drink at this wedding?!

The groom had been assigned the job of bringing the special diaper bag for his infant daughter.  OOPS!      Annabel was now wet, hungry, and determined everyone should realize it.  The bride was ordering the groom to return to the house for the bag.    I suggested that we simply send someone to the nearest store for diapers, a bottle, and formula.  NO!  The bride had bought special pink noise cancelling headphones for the baby hoping she would go to sleep during the wedding.  Like that would happen!   They must be brought to the reception immediately.  DS2 offered to make the 1 1/2 hour round trip diaper bag run.  As soon as he left DS1 said he needed t go home and feed!  WHAT?!  

That emergency dealt with I finally got my cocktail.  The first dance by the bride and groom was taking place.  As I sipped my Mai Tai I was gad that the groom was present for it instead of racing down the freeway.  The father/daughter dance was next followed by all the other traditional dances.   Finally at my table I was again accosted by the Maitre D'.  He pointed out that it was a quarter to 7, at which time dinner was to be served.  Should chef delay preparation of the steaks and lobsters to wait for the missing guests?  I told him to hold off serving until 7:15 hoping DS1 and 2 would have returned.  The guests were happy and the bride and groom were circulating.  My knee was holding up - thank you tommy Copper - so DH and I danced several times.  Dancing was fun since I could no longer feel my feet in my pretty shoes.

Dinner service just as DS1 and 2 returned.  All god.  It was a lovely wedding.  The children had crayons and activity books.  They could go outside onto the large patio and there was a large open area at the back of the room.  The children were also  dancing with each other.  Can't load up here since I took a video but adorable.  11 year old DGS2 asked the groom's 10 year old cousin to dance.  Much hemming and hawing over it - first time to ask a girl.  Sadly she turned him down having her eyes on his 14 year old brother. The attraction of an older man apparently.  


 
Drinks kept flowing, waiters were pouring wine with dinner.  The Surf & Turf and Chicken Marsala were delicious.  Everyone was raving about the food, the decorations, the ceremony, and how beautiful the bride was.  I had relaxed.  Bad mistake.

My DDIL2's father and sister were seated at our table.  I had heard that he enjoyed his drinks but had no firsthand knowledge.  He jokingly said he would "buy a round" for our table.  Then I noticed he was bringing straight shots.  Uh Oh.  😟

After dinner DDIL2's dad went to sit at the bar.  Several of the young men were also at the bar as was DH.  The groom was happy, too happy.  I got another Mai Tai.  The groom wanted to hug me but  evaded him and returned to my table.  He proceeded to hug and kiss his friends, including my 3 sons who held him off.  He had reached the point of universal love.   Not good.

*Posting this now since lots more to come with more photos.
*


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## Ridgetop

A proud daddy with his 2 baby girls.


Resuming my tale . . . . 

We had left the groom extremely happy . . . .

DD2 was now going around all the tables speaking to all the guests individually.  She made me proud with her elegant bearing and polite manners.  I was the only one who noticed the steely edge underlying her voice.  The groom was still at the open area in the rear of the room and had now become boisterous.  I found out later that he had attempted to descend the outside steps to the patio narrowly missing falling onto several children, including his own.  DS1 had called the kids away from the danger area at which the groom added, "Yeah, get the F#%* out of here.  He was retrieved by several men and returned to the banquet room.  Unfortunately for him several of our family members were also sitting outside at the time.   

A chair was placed in the open bar area where the groom's father, friends, annoyed father-in-law, and increasingly unfriendly brothers-in-law could keep him under control.  The groom's father continually apologized to DH and myself for his son's drunken behavior. The groom escaped from his keepers and tried to rejoin the guests.  The best man and DS3 retrieved the swaying groom and escorted him upstairs to the men's room.  I was saddened to see that his feet were no longer walking - instead the toes of his shoes were trailing behind him on the carpet.    The next is an accounting by DS3 who helped drag the groom into the bathroom.  In the nick of time they got him into the toilet where he proceeded to vomit several times.  🤮  Staggering out of the stall just as DS2 entered the men's room he decided to take a punch at him.  As DS2 avoided the wild swing the groom reeled around and lost his balance.  Falling back against the wall the groom proceeded to slide down into a hand dryer.  The facility has the newer style hand dryers where you insert your hands from the top.  The hand dryer came on.  Shocked the groom leaped from the dryer and tried to turn to see what had attacked his nether regions.  Unable to balance he spun around and collapsed back into the dryer. Again it came on, roasting him in a private area.  He struggled but couldn't get out.  By now DS3 and the best man were laughing so hard they could barely stand up.  Prying him out of the dryer roughly they shoved his head in a basin and proceeded to run cold water over his head and face trying to sober him up.  

While the groom was out of the room, the Maitre D' came to me and said that the bartender was worried that some of the guests were drunk and he wanted permission to close the bar.  We had an open bar until 10:30 pm and it was barely 9:30 pm!  But at this point I was becoming annoyed.  My Alpha Bitch persona was emerging.  Possibly a full moon?  The behavior of the groom and his best man should have happened at the bachelor party, *not* the wedding.  I ordered the bar closed.  As soon as I had authorized it DH came up and said to close the bar.  He had noticed the excessive drinking too.

Once more back in the reception the groom reeled towards the bar where his father-in-law was standing talking to DDIL's father.  DDIL's father was also in a happy place, but is older, wiser, and a calm and pleasant drunk.  DH was rapidly losing his patience with the groom.  The groom had now entered the stage of alternately hugging and kissing his friends and threatening his new brothers-in-law that he could "take them out".  As I passed him from the bar he made a grab for me, announcing that I was beautiful and he loved me.  How sweet.   The best man captured him, and his father warned him not to "paw the bride's mother".  The groom was placed back on his chair and held in place by his dad and friends.  His father removed his shoes.  I'm not sure why.  He had already taken away his car keys.  Meanwhile another sober guest kept shoving water down him in an attempt to sober him up.  A kind gesture but wasted.



The DJ now approached and suggested we have the champagne toast while the groom was still conscious. We also needed to cut the cake.  I announced the toast and offered best wishes to all who were still able to comprehend what was being said.  Obviously not the groom.  The groom's stepmother was standing off to the side glaring at the groom, while his father tried to keep him upright on the chair.  The groom, oblivious to the basilisk stare from DD2 was calling for his "beautiful bride" to come and kiss him.  The groom then took a swing at DS1 and missed almost pitching headfirst out of his chair. DS1 patiently pushed him upright.  My next view of the groom was of him attempting to dial his cell phone.  Since he was holding it over the vomit bucket thoughtfully provided by the bartender, I was in hopes of seeing it drop in.  I had lost all patience with the groom and just wanted to get this wedding over with.

Time to cut the cake and finish up.  Since the bride was now standing at the cake table with a sharp knife in her hand and an unpleasant expression on her face, I had the men bring the groom and stand him on the other side of the table.   Space between the bridal pair was optimal at this point.  In very strong terms I warned DS2 and DS3 to hang onto the groom tightly since he could not stand on his own.  All we needed was a picture of them with the cake and then I planned to lay him somewhere out of the way. The groom grabbed a server from the cake table and announced he would cut the cake. My son removed it before he could injure himself.   My daughter was looking daggers at her beloved as I told her to hurry and cut the cake for the poised cameras.  At that moment the best man lurched against the groom causing his brothers-in-law to lose their grip on him.  With the cameras rolling the groom memorialized his wedding by planting himself face down into the wedding cake. 

It was a Kodak Moment.



   Yum Yum!   


Pulling the groom out of the cake, DS3 grabbed a napkin and wiped is face free of the frosting.  Dragging him to the chair his dad and DS3 planted him on it where he wobbled.  I took a napkin and wiped up the globs of frosting that showered the floor.  I did not want to soil my gown on them.  Since I had finally removed my painful (but pretty) shoes, I also did not want to step in the sticky stuff.  DS3 asked me in disgust to help clean up the groom.  Grabbing 2 napkins i doused them in water and made for the groom.  Seizing him by the hair I ruthlessly scrubbed his face clean.  I was somewhat saddened to see DS3's quick reaction had freed his nostrils so he did not suffocate on the frosting.  A finding of accidental death by wedding cake might have been a first for the coroner. 

His father removed the groom's coat which retained large pieces of cake and frosting.  There would be an additional cleaning fee when the tux was returned.  Finding the Maitre D' I requested a large spoon with which to serve the remains of the wedding cake. Also black coffee all around.

No one except a few children ate the wedding cake.  

My evening was not over yet.  Now to get the happy couple home.  No one on the groom's side seemed to be taking responsibility for their relative.  I told DH we had a problem and he acknowledged it with a stern face.  He said that he was actually grateful that none of our relatives had decided to attend.  We agreed that we had been spared much gossip and embarrassment among our relatives.  I wet around the room checking on who would be driving home.  DH went to talk to the groom's father who kept apologizing for his son.  Luckily DD2's neighbors had already taken DGD2 home with them to spend the night with her little friend.  She had missed her father's spectacular dive into the cake.  Considering the custody problem he has with the child's birth mother, this was a gift from God.  I said a small prayer of thanks.  

DH came back to report that the groom's father was taking him home.  The best an's actions in pushing his cousin into the cake became clear when his girlfriend said she would be driving him home.  The groom's stepmother denied all knowledge of them taking him home.  They had to return to Big Bear that night (3-4 hours away) because they had to be at work the next day.  OK.  As I searched for another ride home for him, the groom's father appeared and said he as definitely taking him home.  I told him just to open the bedroom door and give him a gentle push inside but he said he would undress him and put him to bed.  The groom's aunt said she would drive DD2.  DD2, after the wedding cake episode, had consoled herself with several drinks.  It didn't matter - there would be no romantic coupling in the marital chamber - the groom was finally out for the count.  I told DDs we would take Annabel home for the night but she tearfully insisted that her children were her life and she would take her baby with her.  DDIL1 insisted on carrying the baby to the car for her since DD2 was now swaying like a young willow in a gale.  She would be hard pressed to get herself up the stairs in her wedding gown, let alone carrying the baby!  

Finally on our way home - the wedding was over but the night was not.  As we turned onto our road I received a call from the groom's Aunt Nikki.  She had mistakenly taken the wrong freeway and was only now approaching the venue again.  Annabel was screaming with exhaustion in the bck seat.  Nikki's daughter, 10, was unable t cam her and had herself burst into tears.  DD2 now proceeded to go to pieces as well.  She was demanding that Nikki pull over and let her out of the car with her baby.  Nikki was then to call me to come and pick her up from the side of the road.    I told Nikki to let me speak to DD2.  DD2 refused to speak to me.    Nikki wanted to know what she should do.  I said to give the phone to DD2.  There followed the sound of the phone being thrown around and some bad language from my child.  I would have a stern talk with that young lady!  When Nikki came back on the line asking if she should let her out of the car with the baby Alpha Bitch lost patience and snarled to just take DD2 home and shove her and the baby into her apartment!   

Pulling into the driveway we were greeted by a strange scene.    DS2's car stood in the drive with both doors open.  DDIL2 stood helplessly while at her feet sprawled a motionless figure.  It looked like either a homeless man was sleeping on our driveway or the sad victim of a hit and run.  Pools of water showed where the distraught woman had attempted to revive him.  DH asked if he had tripped and hurt himself but was assured that he was passed out drunk.  No vomit was to be seen but DDIL2 assured us that it was because our devoted Anatolians had cleaned him up.  This was really the last straw!!!   In my preoccupation with the wedding, I had neglected the actions of DS2.  In an attempt to make up for the 1 1/2 hours of the reception he had missed, he had doubled up his drinks during and after dinner.  I told DS1 and DH to roll him onto his side so he didn't choke if he vomited again.

DS3 now arrived home.  Seeing his brother stretched out on the asphalt he came over to investigate  After one look his wife took the boys into the trailer to put them to bed.  DS1 and DS3 stood laughing at their comatose brother and taking photos with which to humiliate him.  I went in and removed my shoes and gown.  If DS2 spewed I did not want it ruined.  Returning outside I considered leaving him there since I did not want him being sick all over his bed and wife.  DH and our sons were now making disparaging remarks abut their son and brother while congratulating themselves on their superior ability to hold their liquor.  I sent DDIL2 off to bed assuring her we would take care of her errant husband.  I went in search of a pillow and blanket but couldn't find any pillows that I was willing to sacrifice.  I returned to the scene and told them to just leave him there till morning - the dogs would guard his.  Faithful Bubba was already posed watchfully at his head - whether guarding a fallen family member or in anticipation of another tasty meal of vomit - who can say?

In the end, the compassion of men who have spent a night boozing it up on the town took over.  They hauled the limp body into the bathroom where they draped him upright against the wall near the toilet.  DS3 and DH then went to bed.  I came down the hall in time to hear a loud thump.  Looking into the bathroom I saw that DS2 had slumped to the side causing his head to impact the toilet.  Did I feel compassion?  Did I rush to make sure he had not concussed himself?  No!  My inner Alpha Bitch was prepared to rip out throats.  DS1 suggested the time honored practice (among drunken young men) of drawing a part of private anatomy on his forehead with Magic Marker.  I was tempted but he had to go to work on Monday.  Instead we placed a child's tattoo on his forehead. from the grandchildren's rub on tattoos.  It shocked him when he saw it.


----------



## Baymule

And all this was videoed? Talk about Thanksgiving entertainment! Play that and let the laughter begin! Hahaha!


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## Ridgetop

Yes there is a video.  I am collecting more of them.  

He did apologize profusely the next day to everyone.  DH had a private heart to heart with him but that will last only as long as he is embarrassed by his behavior.  When he found out that he had cussed at DDIL1's and DS3's children he was even more worried.  DDIL1 can be dangerous in defense of her children.  

DDIL2 is young and stupid.  He needs to grow up.  Getting drunk and thinking he can pick fights with people is a mistake.  If he tries it on the wrong person he could be seriously hurt.  And it gets old pretty quick at family gatherings.  The family has instituted a joint resolution not to allow DSIL2 liquor at any gatherings.  He is cut off from all liquor.


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## Mini Horses

Wow!!!  Just WOW! 🤪   

You were the wedding planner!??  

No doubt in my mind, you are really glad it's over.  🤭🤫   Pack for TX!!!!!  😂🥳


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Oh goodness, that's definitely a memorable wedding. I'm sorry it went a little sideways but at least it's over? Now you can finally relax and get ready for moving to Texas.


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## Ridgetop

Yes, the first half of the evening was absolutely perfect.  Had I realized that the groom was unable to hold his liquor and had no idea that his *limit* was 1 or 2, I would have appointed a bodyguard and instructed the bartender not to serve him.  

However, the professional photographer we hired was only there through the dinner sitting, then she left.  She got pix of everyone behaving appropriately and of the cake pre collision with Doofus' face.  Thank heavens the professional pix will be nice.  The photographer is posting the pix on line for us to view.  

The groom's grandmother was supposed to fly out from Florida with Nikki.  DDSIL2 is her favorite grandchild.  She is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's and at the last minute decided that she could not make the trip.  It was to be a surprise for DSIL2.  I was very disappointed but now am very glad that she did not see his disgraceful behavior.  It would have broken her heart.  

In the meantime the wedding will provide the guests (thankfully few and mainly close family) with many riotous memories which will be outrageously enlarged and distorted over the coming years.  

I do feel that I was able to pull off the best of a bad situation.  I showed a pleasant and calm face to all the guests.  I quietly issued my orders to the Maitre D' as if I supervised similar events constantly.  *I did not allow myself  slap the groom upside the head.  I did not drown him in the vomit bucket.*  No matter the temptation I behaved as a lady.

I credit my grandmother's early training.  She raised me and I have always attempted to behave in pubic situations as she would have approved.  Also earlier positions in charge of various functions where upsets occurred have steeled me.  Not to mention my tightly  slimming undergarments that did not allow me to slump in despair.  No wonder the women of old had such good posture in those corsets.  You have to stay upright and move slowly and calmly.    

I did require 3 Mai Tais but they were small and weak.

The groom's behavior provided a valuable lesson to the grandchildren on the dangers of alcohol.  Their parents were quick to take advantage and caution them against liquor. Naturally they will learn the lesson for themselves when they grow up.  🤢

On Monday I sorted out the leftovers wedding items.  The extra crayon boxes and activity books went onto my grandchildren's shelf.  I found the unused guest book that I had forgotten to put out.  (I knew there was something i was missing at the time.)  Having bought for 100 guests I had 60 unused favor boxes and bubbles left along with the guest book and the just married signs.  Our dear friends' daughter plans a small wedding reception next year and happily said they would love them so they will not be wasted.  

I also had the "Just Married" vinyl window stickers which were not used since the neither the groom nor his bride were fit to drive themselves in any vehicle.  I considered that we could have duct taped him to the hood of the car and driven him home that way but it was a fleeting thought brought on by the thought of him laying cold and dead with a deer tag in his ear.  I dismissed the thought immediately but not with as much distress as it should have occasioned.   

Over the following week Annabel, Robert, DDIL2 and I came down with the mild cold Maysie had brought home from preschool.  Gotta love preschool - for a year no one got anything except Covid - now we are back to preschool infections.  I took the opportunity to alternate between cleaning out closets, dressers, and inside storage areas and taking to my bed with a pitcher of orange juice.  I kept checking myself for fever and signs of Covid in case I needed to swig Ivermectin but it was only a minor case of sniffles.  

On Thursday or Friday evening a surprise thunderstorm blew in.  Massive lightning strikes - unusual during our major storm systems.  Lots of rain.  Supposed to rain all day today, but only a small amount last night.  Whatever we get we need.  

Then another sad blow.  I called my dear friend/mom to go over and tell her all about the eventful wedding.  The family was in the midst of setting up Hospice at her home.   While I knew it was coming she had seemed to rally before DD2's wedding.   Now it seemed she was failing fast.  She had weakened to the point she could no longer walk and could not be left alone.  She is in constant pain in all extremities.  Her son has been staying with her at night and her granddaughter, who can work from home, during the day.  I am going to spend tonight with her.  They are trying to find a caregiver but the agency rules say the caregivers must be in the room at all times with her.  They are forbidden from reading, watching TV, or sleeping and must remain in the room at al times!  Creepy to lay there while someone just sits and stares at you.    I asked DDIL2 if she knew anyone and it seems her auntie does that work.  Unfortunately the auntie is currently working with a patient but is going to refer a friend.  The family can interview her.  I offered to stay with mom when needed so between the family and me she will be covered.  DH offered to stay if needed as well.  We both love her so much.  This will be the end of another chapter in our lives.

Each major occurrence in life is the end and beginning of a different chapter.  Our lives are not just one flowing story.  Getting morbid here.

Annabel is very cranky today.  She had shots yesterday and was feverish and crying.  I gave her Baby Tylenol and she is sleeping now.  I am going to leave for Lois' now.  Need to be back by 1:30 DS1 can pick up DGD1 from school.  Otherwise I will pick her up.  I need to come back to do dinner and pack a bag for tonight.  Also come home tomorrow morning because DSIL2 is out of town again working tomorrow and DD2 has to work so we must watch Annabel an extra day this week.

This coming week I plan to do more cleaning out of the Connexes.  Both now have large empty spaces n the shelves and also large empty spaces where we moved out shelving to other storage locations.  The PVC storage unit on the driveway is almost empty on all shelves so a lot can be moved over there from the Connex emptying another shelf unit.  We need to move the shelf units and all contents from one Connex to fill it with hay.   DS1 keeps wanting to move my stock of TP over to the driveway shed but I want to keep it safe in the Connex.  The men want to use it up since they are now able to buy more but not happening.  They are of the shake and dry component while DDIL2 and I are not.   They do not see the need for excess TP.  Told the girls to start stocking up on diapers in larger sizes.  

Got to go to Lois'.


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## Baymule

I’m so sorry about your mom. I’m more sorry for her suffering than anything else. My Daddy had bone cancer, it was very painful.

Yes, one chapter ends, turn the page and another chapter in life begins. You don’t know what is in the next chapter until you live it.


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## Ridgetop

Got an urgent call Friday.  My dear friend/mom needed me to come and stay with her overnight.  DH and I both stayed on Saturday.  She needs a lot of help.  I helped her on Sunday with a sponge bath and washed her hair.  She hopes to have a caregiver by today.  

She is upset because her grandchildren won't come and get some of her cut glass and crystal. She wants to give them to the 2 grandchildren before she goes but they refuse to choose anything.  I tried to explain that by choosing something they are accepting that she is dying and they are in denial.  Instead I said that I will bring some gift boxes over and she can choose pieces to give each one, and the great granddaughters, and I will wrap them up carefully and label the boxes for the kids and grandkids.  Then when she is gone they will be waiting for them to open for Christmas.  In the case of the great granddaughters (6 and 1), the items can be kept until they are old enough to appreciate them.  

Her granddaughter has finally accepted that Lois will not make it to the wedding October 25.  Whether she is still alive or not, she is too weak and fragile to attend.  she did go to the engagement party in September and saw all the old friends there so was happy about that.

I will go over on Thursday or Friday.

After the weekend and yesterday of not looking at my mail, it took me an hour plus to go through and delete all the junk, and read my correspondence!   DH does not read any of the mail so I have to slate any Facebook stuff for him, frat and reunion friends mail.  I just move it into the appropriate files and every so often make him go in and read it all.  I am not his answering service although he seems to expect me to be his social secretary!  

We are finally signing the paperwork on the Yantis property tomorrow.  The appointment was for today but when the notary received it all the documents were dated tomorrow!  He had to reschedule the appointment.  We are getting in just under the wire on this since I think the time limit to close runs out December 25 (180 days from close of Yelm sale).  The Identification period ended in August s if we did not close before December 25, we would have to pay the capital gains tax whether we bought the property or not!  The first problem in closing on time was the survey which kept being extended for over a month.  So lots of amendments as to closing date.  Then more extensions of the cosing date since the rice had to be adjusted due to the survey # of acres.  Then The escrow company (abstract company) had no experience with 1031 exchanges and made several mistakes, including not vesting the title in the name of our trust which was the owner of Yelm in the paperwork.  This had to be the exact same owner name to satisfy the IRS 1031.  More extensions while they said they had not been informed of this.  This was not true since I personally spoke to "Shelley" from the title company on the phone and gave her the information, Kris had emailed them a copy of the Confirmation of Trust on August 16 (copy of that email in my files), and I had given the Confirmation of Trust to both the title company and the lender when meeting with them in Texas.  However, after another bunch of extensions, we are ready to go tomorrow.  I need to emai the cattle tenant and have Kris send him a new land contract for the coming year.  His current contract with Mrs. McDonald runs through the end of 2021.  Our house tenant wants to start moving stuff into the house as well.  

God willing, we will be leaving for Texas the end of October, beginning of November to deal with the septic, electrical, and game fencing.  I told DH the fencing could wait till this summer if we don't have time to install it now.  We are hoping to be in tx for BJ's memorial.  Then we will head for DS3's place on the way home since the entire family is meeting there for Thanksgiving.  We were bringing the trailer up there to sleep in anyway, so can just go straight there from TX.

Emptied out the PVC storage shed in the driveway and found 2 more boxes of books.  Sorted them and have got them on the shelves, with others to donate.  Then I also went through all our shelves of old DVDs and matched them with the ones we have replaced in CDs (family favorites).  Those are now sorted to donate.  The added bonus is that I have freed up shelf space in my pantry cabinet for stocking canned food, etc.  Also have extra space in the hall cabinets for same.

Am on almost the last couple lbs. of lamb formula.  Lamb will wean when I finish this batch.  She is 2 months old today, eating hay, and I have enough for another 2 weeks. * BAD NEWS!!! *    Can't order any Manna Pro lamb formula from Chewy who no longer stocks it.  Also only able to find Manna Pro Lamb formula in 3.5 lb. bags from other suppliers.    Will try my local feed dealer.  Other local dealer said they can't order 1 bag!  I like to have it for emergencies.  I pack it in individual containers that I seal in plastic. Stays fresh in the laundry room.  
*YAY!!!  *My local dealer can order it for me BUT don't know yet how much it will be.  Oh well, better to pay than watch an orphan lamb starve.  Waiting to find ut the cost.   

Anyway, as I was saying, I cleaned out the PVC shed. The giant box with my saddle and retained horse tack was taking up a large portion of the floor space, as were my 2 standing saddle racks. I set up one and put a smaller nylon saddle on that one, then folded and stored my favorite travel rack in the loft We had cleaned that out and I dragged out the jumbo tool chest that we used when working on the apartment from the loft. I scrubbed it out, and DS1 got casters to put on the bottom. For 10 years I wanted to do that but couldn't because we were always using it!!! I attached the casters and moved all my horse blankets, saddle pads, etc. in it from the giant cardboard wardrobe box. The second nylon saddle went on top of a walking horse pad on top of the first saddle on the other rack. I have another large tool box with the cruppers, breast collars, bridles and halters, etc. stored in it. They went back into the PVC shed with the saddle rack. I draped an old sheet over the saddles and tied the corners together underneath to keep the saddles clean.   Nice and tidy with mostly empty shelves now in the shed!

Then I checked the Connex.  One of the that has all the Christmas decorations in it is otherwise almost empty.  We need to remove the last 8' shelf unit (now empty) from it and put it in the milk shed.  Then I can start moving stuff from the other Connex to the milk shed.  Mostly building supplies - 2 new medicine cabinets destined for the Texas house, several light fixtures, one an antique brass fixture, ne a new fixture and the other a quirky new antler chandelier along with 2 antler wall sconces.  Not sure what I will do with them but want to hang in to them for a while yet.  They can come to TX with us. Also needing to be moved into the milk shed is MJ's antique wood burning kitchen stove which we want to bring to TX with us.  We will probably get rid of the old round wood stove because it is in such bad shape.  We would need to find someone who works in iron to repair it and we don't think it can be repaired - probably just will buy a new one for the barn in TX.  Also our new stove top for the house here which we bought and never installed because we kept planning to get new countertops but can't find the time to be without a kitchen long enough for the countertops to be removed and new ones installed!    DS1 said we might as well move the stove top to the milk shed and look at the instructions to see if we can just install it in the old counters.  DS2 said he would pay for new countertops but the installers don't want to leave my tile backsplash in place. Not sure what we will do about the counters but will move the stove top to the milk shed.  With the wood burning kitchen stove and new stove top out that will empty a lot of the second Connex.   Also keep sending off unwanted stuff t Salvation Army.  I still have my great grandmother's pressure canner.  It has metal arms that have to be screwed down by hand around the lid!  I am considering making it into a garden ornament again.  At one time I had it and on old dairy milk can (the big farm ones) in the flower beds as ornaments.  Might keep it for a porch ornament in TX.  Not sure what I did with the old milk can.  Might still be in the flower bed with a tile on it and a plant sitting on it.  I'll have to look.  LOL
Then a trip to Palm Sprigs to take my good furniture to sell at the consignment shop. Antique Asian stuff too good to dump at the Salvation Army.  DS1 says he will bring all the Christmas stuff over to the house in November which will empty the last shelves in the first Connex.  With those shelves empty, DS1 will move the empty shelves to the second Connex  and the milk shed.  VOILA!  An empty Connex for DH to fill with hay.  The time line seems long, but we are already halfway through October so not as long as it sounds.  Particularly when you realize that all the Christmas stuff will not need to return to the second Connex until January.  Hay prices will have increased but I do what I can when I can.  I am not able to move everything by myself anymore.  I figure if I just keep moving along little by little, there will be less to move to TX eventually.  

I wrapped up and sent some of my grandmother's crystal to DD2 as well.  Of course I replaced it in the cabinet with the crystal from my friend/mom.  It had been her mother-in-law's.  My grandmother's crystal matches some that DD2 already has that I gave her.  Also very old.  

When it comes to fine crystal I no longer wash it by hand.  I wash it in the dishwasher and it comes out beautifully.  I have never had any break other than some newer cheaper stuff I bought!  And I can use it more often by washing it this way instead of hoarding it for "good".


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## Baymule

I'm so sorry that your friend/Mom is doing so poorly. Maybe her granddaughter and her new husband can go see her in their wedding finery so that Lois can see them. Then she could maybe feel like she got to go to the wedding. 

It is good of y'all to wrap up her crystal and things she wants her grandchildren to have. That is a good idea. 

Closing on the Yantis property!   

Looking forward to seeing y'all in November.


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## Ridgetop

till tomorrow when we are supposed to sign.  Then I have to notify the septic and electric people so we can schedule that work in early November.  We will do the fencing next spring or summer when we will come out for a month again.

Our truck is in the shop.  They are waiting on parts.  Might have to take DS2's Black Dragon to TX.  I don't like it since it rides much higher than ours and I can barely get into it even with the running boards!  However, we need it to tow the trailer - wait, it doesn't have a 5th wheel hitch.  OOPS!   Might have to stay in a motel.    DS2's truck was just in the sho for a month.  If we can't pull our trailer with the Black Dragon, we will have to get DS3's Big Red and take out trailer up to Nipomo with it.  We need our trailer up there for sleeping quarters for ourselves and one other couple over Thanksgiving!  Just as things look like they will go right - they DON'T!!!


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## farmerjan

Ridgetop said:


> till tomorrow when we are supposed to sign.  Then I have to notify the septic and electric people so we can schedule that work in early November.  We will do the fencing next spring or summer when we will come out for a month again.
> 
> Our truck is in the shop.  They are waiting on parts.  Might have to take DS2's Black Dragon to TX.  I don't like it since it rides much higher than ours and I can barely get into it even with the running boards!  However, we need it to tow the trailer - wait, it doesn't have a 5th wheel hitch.  OOPS!   Might have to stay in a motel.    DS2's truck was just in the sho for a month.  If we can't pull our trailer with the Black Dragon, we will have to get DS3's Big Red and take out trailer up to Nipomo with it.  We need our trailer up there for sleeping quarters for ourselves and one other couple over Thanksgiving!  Just as things look like they will go right - they DON'T!!!


 Always something......


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## Baymule

How long will it take for the parts?


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## Ridgetop

Not sure - possibly a month?  

Saturday - DS2 is home today so will be able to have him help move the big wood cookstove into the milk shed along with the new stove top for our kitchen.  Once those are out of the Connex we can move the 8' shelf unit to the milk shed and I can get far enough into the Connex to transfer boxes either to the milk shed, the Rubbermaid shed, or sort to donate or dump.  There are several boxes of old paperwork and bills that I need to sort and shred.  Some need to be kept until we sell this place for tax reasons.  Some cover the purchase and sale of the apartment building - need to keep those for capital gains tax info.  Many are just old utility bills.  Since I was a legal secretary I tend to keep more documents than necessary.  However, DS has been known to shred stuff then have to locate copies the following month due to a mistake or dispute.  Better to keep the stuff for a couple of extra years and then sort and shred in my opinion.  Need to buy some new plastic file boxes to store anything in that needs storing so rats can't chew it up, then store those boxes in the milk shed.

Have been sorting out items to wrap for Christmas this year - some of my grandmother's crystal and china.  Also have ordered and received the toys we are giving the grandchildren.  One toy each because money is short after the wedding costs and the ranch purchase and our trip to TX.  I am also stocking up on some things.  Sugar and flour, Bisquik, rice.  Noodles and pasta I already stored away.  I have a case each of corn, green beans, and other beans.  Not enough for this family, but I can only store so much.  I am also buying some powdered milk.  Years ago when I did daycare in my home, I used to mix reconstituted powdered milk and whole milk to save money  My family never noticed the difference!  The alternative would be to buy a goat, but then I have the problem of buying more hay and grain.  I will buy powdered milk a bit at a time until I have enough to at least cook with.  Can't keep chickens since I have a problem with my lungs and their feathers.  I suppose I could buy some dried egg powder like the military uses for emergency use.  On the other hand, if it gets that bad, we will be in really bad trouble.  LOL  At least DS2 and DD2 listened to me and ordered extra diapers.  Again, I can sew some diapers up from cotton flannel and gauze if necessary but I really don't want to.  Their babies their problem.  If flour still came in flour sacks we would be home free!    

We have baby Annabel again today since DSIL2 is working out of town on Saturdays for extra $$$.  So far, have had Annabel M T,F, S, and Robert Th.  Wednesday DD2 came by and spent most of the day here.  She had errands to do so left Annabel to take a nap.  So although technically Annabel was with her mother I had her for about 4 hours.  Then Maysie came over after preschool to play with Elizabeth.  Just realized why I am so tired!  

Oh well, hopefully I can get the boys to do the Connex shelf and emptying thing so I can start moving boxes from  the Connex onto the new vacant shelf areas in the other sheds.  It is at times like these that I realize how old I have gotten!  Even 10 years ago I would have moved the large shelf myself.  The antique stove might have been too heavy, but I could have maneuvered the new stove top onto the dolly and moved it across the field and down to the milk shed.  

I got the results from the ankle xrays.  Some tendon damage, mostly arthritis, with -

SURPRISE! * evidence of a healed break in the left ankle*!!! 

I don't know when that happened.  Probably when I was having trouble walking on my ankle while working on the apartment 10-11 years ago.  Went to the podiatrist since it felt like it was my feet.  He did foot xrays not ankle xrays so missed it.  The break apparently did not displace so might have been green stick.  I'm tougher than I thought! Always poo-pooed those movie strong guys that took a couple bullets then crawled miles with a broken leg to fight the bad guy and win.   Maybe it happens.

Maybe I _can_ lift that antique wood stove by myself after all!


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## Mike CHS

I think you could probably do it by yourself if you put your mind into it.


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## Ridgetop

Been super busy emptying the Connexes and sorting out boxes.  Didn't have to lift the wood stove after all.   I did insist on taking all the parts off and out of it before the boys moved it.  Then I wrapped it in heavy plastic to protect it.  The boys moved another 8' heavy duty shelving unit down t the milk shed, and moved some of the heavy stuff down there too.  2 new medicine cabinets destined for TX, several new, and one antique, light fixture, etc.  

DH took a load of stuff to Salvation Army - 2 lovely old wing chairs that were grandmother's that I had intended to reupholster, a Duncan Phyffe folding table that I loved that my uncle gave my grandmother with his first paycheck, and a bunch of junk.  The armchairs and table wrenched at my heart but the chairs had gotten loose in the joints from being stored for years in the Connexes, and the mahogany veneer was breaking off the table.  I decided to be strong and just send them off.  I am a bit too old to refinish the mahogany table veneer, and like DS1 said - I have too much furniture and am trying to downsize anyway.  Besides when I go to Palm Springs there are always good buys at the consignment shops.    

I brought in another dozen boxes of stuff to sort through.  Several boxes of antique toys and collectibles, DH's cribbage board collection, a collection of lovely carved and handmade wooden boxes from specialty woods, and boxes of china ornaments, painted plates, etc.  Sorted all those boxes out and wrapped up a lot of the items for the children.

Next several boxes of old documents to shred.  Old meaning back to 1973!!!  Old statements and cancelled checks from banks that are no longer in business, bills, etc.  Took 2 days to sort through those and shred them.  Then another couple of boxes of old documents pertaining to purchase and sale of our old house (including the bill of sale when my grandparents bought it from the original builder 100 years ago!), purchase of the new house (where we live now) as well as earthquake and renovations documents and bills.  I kept a lot of those things just in case we have to prove we raised our basis in the house.  DH says the tax laws have changed but they could also change again and we might need those items.  Packed them in plastic Banker's Boxes to store in the sheds.  Have another Banker's Box of old IRS returns to go through dating from 70's/80's too.  Asked DH to do that but might have to do it myself if he "doesn't have time" or more truthfully inclination.

However the one Connex is now almost empty while the other is now 3/4 empty.  The 3/4 empty one has lots of empty shelves which means that I can transfer more stuff from the almost empty one.  The almost empty one has 16' of shelving mostly with Christmas decos and the Christmas tree.  DS1 said the in November he will bring in all the Christmas stuff as normal, at which point he and DS2 can move those 2 8' shelves over into the 3/4 full Connex, since it has room for them.  That will leave one additional 8' and one 4' shelf to relocate to the milk shed and the Rubbermaid shed.  

Voila!  One empty 24' Connex with doors on each end for hay storage.  Hay has gone up in price, but DH plans to bring in as much as he can afford this year, and next year if it comes down we will be ready to stockpile during the summer when it is cheaper.  It is expected to be a La Nina year - no rain again - although we have gotten a couple days of light showers.

OOPS!  Just found the pile of Salvation Army stuff in the house that  was supposed to go. Loaded the truck and forgot to load all that stuff!  Oh well, there will be another load from various areas next week. 

Th ram buyer that has been calling saying he will come out to pick up a registered ram lamb did not show up again last weekend.  The ram lamb is 3 months old and over 100 lbs now so I need to make a reservation at the butcher for him and a couple of smaller ones.  I should actually take the smaller ones to the auction since my freezers are full.  I am considering getting another big chest one and putting it in the milk shed,  Priced them at Lowes and they run $750-850.  Next appliance sale will be Black Friday.  Need to consider if I really need it or not.  However, it is a good place to store extra bags of flour so it doesn't hatch weevils.  

DD2 and DDIL2 both listened when I told them diapers might become hard to get.  DH is suddenly saying that there is a limit of ne on toilet paper again.  I did get some powdered milk but couldn't get the large boxes of individual packs to make 1-2 quarts at a time.  It was either 3 packs in a box - yield 6 quarts - or a large bag that would make 5-10 gallons.  I may get the larger pack and if I have to open it then pack it in Ziplock bags and store it in the freezer.  DH couldn't find any at Costco either.  

Pulled Smalley out of the breeding pen last week.  In another week I will put Lewis in with the ewes as a catch up, and sort out some other ewes that are ready to breed.  However, doing that I will have ewes lambing in March which means summer sale of lambs for less money.  I considered holding off on some of the younger ewes but that will mean hold them until they are 18 months old before breeding.    Bad for them and bad for me. Better to breed them and get less money at a summer sale price than have them sit open for an extra 6 months.  I have about 6 due during November which will be prime for spring high $$ sale.

DH wants to get the new countertops in the kitchen done.  The tile is 30 years old and the grout is failing.  Have a new cooktop already to install.  When we move to TX, DS2 and DDIL2 will probably rent our house from us.  That takes the burden off having to sell and means that if we have health issues and need to move back near the children we can. Our house payment is so low (2.25% interest) that DD2 will pay about the same renting our house as renting a 2-3 BR apartment.  He has so much of his stuff stored here that by the time he rented a house or apartment and a storage unit he would be paying more than the cost of the payment here!  In the meantime we will do the countertops, have done repairs to the driveway, and will install more faux grass on the barn side of the house where the sorry attempt at a garden was.  Any shrubs I plant from now n will be gopher and ground squirrel resistant.  Or fake!

Have my Christmas shopping for the grandchildren done.  All the hype about not getting any toys for Christmas kicked e into high gear.  Just the babies to shop for and Annabel needs clothes so.  I am giving some of my good crystal and beautiful items to my children along with some money.  Not much though because we are short with the ranch purchase.

The ranch finally closed on October 13.  We may not be back there as early as we thought since we both have appointments with the orthopedic surgeons November 9. My knee has started buckling and when working in the tight confines of the Connex I had a lot of trouble when I would twist around and the knee would give way.   Main problem is that the knee is causing the hip to go out too.  DH's has fallen several times when his "GOOD" knee has given way.  He is worried about walking with the baby in his arms in case he falls.  We have known that knee needed replacement for a long time.  

We have to be at DS3's house for Thanksgiving.  So a trip to TX might be either a quick trip out or we will have to go out _after_ Christmas for a longer trip.  The late closing on the ranch has messed up our timeline.  On the good side, the tenant is already moving into the house.  The cattle tenant was going to work on the Honey Locusts that were coming up.  Two weeks ago he texted that he was shredding.  He usually sprays the pastures and I told him that we would pay to fertilize so need to hear about that.

Couldn't sleep so got up to catch upon my emails and BYH.  Off to bed now.


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## Baymule

I went to Sulphur Springs Monday for feed, coming back I saw your new tenant moving stuff into the house. 

You really should get on track to get your knee surgery. There is no reason for you to suffer in pain and not be able to do the things you want to do, much less what you need to do. Life will be a whole lot better! 

I finally went to a doctor, lab work first, then back next Wednesday for results. I'll get knee x-rays and see where I am. If surgery is recommended, I'll wait until I sell the farm, get moved and settled in and find someone to feed sheep and dogs while I'm gone. BJ was supposed to take care of me when I had knee surgery, but it looks like rehab and therapy every day for a couple weeks might be my best bet. Not quite what I pictured, but It's what I got. I'll come back to Tyler to the same doctor that did BJ's joint replacements. Looking forward to next Wednesday so I can see how decrepit I am.


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## Ridgetop

Well it never rains but pours!  Both our truck and DS2's truck are stalled on repairs due to unavailability of parts.  Also DS2's car so he will be using our car to go to work tomorrow so we can use his truck to haul 3 lambs to the auction.  Then I have a mammogram scheduled at 3pm so can't stay for the auction.  Will have to come home and drop the trailer then take the ginormous beast of a Black Dragon to the appointment.  I will have DH drive in case there is  no parking since this is a new location.  In North Hollywood which is only 20 minutes surface streets instead of an hour on the freeway.  UCLA is starting to have locations for testing in the valley which is good for us.  

DH's truck was in for something - oil change? and when he got it back the radio did not work and neither did the speedometer.  This is the dealership shop wh have always done our work.  They were not sure what the cause was so he went to the radio shop and they replaced a fuse that had blown out.  Whatever the shop had done while replacing whatever it was, the mechanic had apparently blown up some wiring while working on it.  The shop now tells DH that the part to fix the problem is obsolete and they can't get it.  WHAT?!  

This is a sore spot since this is not the first time the shop has messed up something while doing a repair on our car or truck, requiring another week or more in the shop while they fix the second problem.  (Lately the shop also "found" other problems while working on repairs.  These second repairs usually cost in the neighborhood of $500-1000.  DH no longer tells me about these since I get very testy about it and suggest finding another mechanic.)

At any rate, now DH is pissed.  DH has words with the mechanic, the parts department, the manager of the repair shop, and so on up to the general manager of the dealership. Our family has been a good customer for the past 20+ years and DH is VERY UPSET!  He comes home and tells me that they are looking for the part.  That was last Saturday and he is still waiting to hear from them.  Since they no longer answer his calls when he phones (probably blocking him) he drives back to the shop and talks to the shop  manager again.  The manager sees him coming but his back door access is blocked and DH had seen him so he can't run.  DH informs him that they either fix the truck since they broke it, or replace the truck.  The manager brightens up and says they can probably find a used truck.  DH says "Not like mine, in that condition".  The manager's shoulders slump since he has to agree with DH.  DH has kept our truck in perfect condition.  All work has been done on schedule at the dealership, the leather upholstery was replaced when it got worn, and the motor runs like clockwork.  

Now we wait and see if they can locate the part.  In the meantime, we can't go to Texas in November since the truck is sitting at the mechanic while they search for the damaged part.  

The bright spot is that the manager is hunting for the mechanic that caused the damage.  👿  Public hangings anyone?

Started on my taxes.  First I have to sort out all the bills for each property.  This includes travel expenses.  I also have to tally up all the farm expenses since we are not sure whether to wait until next year to claim the ranch expenses.  DH says since you can only take 3 years of loss we should wait until next year when we will have pasture rent, pasture fertilization, etc. along with the sheep expenses.  This year we will have only had the farm for 2.5 months of the year.  I think he is right.  But I want to start keeping the ranch records anyway for this year.

It rained all day yesterday!  It was sunny today and will be for the rest of the week.  Apparently it was a freak storm that blew through.  Hopefully we will get a few more freak storms this winter.  LOL

DH hopes to get another couple loads of hay in the now empty Connex for the winter. We turned the last ewe and lamb into the creep today after loading the 3 lambs for the auction tomorrow.  This weekend we will pull Lewis out and harness him for breeding.  A couple of ewes need to come out of the breeding pen (Lewis' daughters) and a couple others go in for breeding to him.  I really like this ram.  He produces fast growing lambs.  He is also getting older and I want to use him a lot before he gets too old.  I will buy another Lewis ram before we move to Texas.  

Tomorrow I need to order some more scrapie tags.  The state does not give them out free anymore so I have to pay for a set up printing fee as well as the tags.  One company wants $40 for the one time fee and another $25 for the one time fee.  Got to check the reviews.


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## Baymule

No parts. Have you gotten a part number or description and done a parts search yourself? The dealership is tied to only it's "approved" suppliers. You are under no such constraints and if you can produce the part, then demand the dealership put it on for NO CHARGE plus REIMBURSE you for the cost of the part.


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## Ridgetop

DS1 did a search on line and there are parts out there.  DH told the shp manager that and the manager said that they are trying t find the part but that sometimes they show they have it on line and when you send the $$ suddenly they disciver it was an inventory mistake.  They send back the $$ but it takes time.  They are searching.  Yes, they are going to fix it no charge.


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> No parts. Have you gotten a part number or description and done a parts search yourself? The dealership is tied to only it's "approved" suppliers. You are under no such constraints and if you can produce the part, then demand the dealership put it on for NO CHARGE plus REIMBURSE you for the cost of the part.


Yep. Dealerships don't look for used parts, an independent mechanic will. DD2's car needed a part that Toyota wanted $1,500 new. I found it for $1,200 online from Toyota dealers!!!! Found a used one for under $700. Cars get totalled, plenty of usable parts in areas where the damage didn't occur. The part I found was from a car that they even listed the VIN on and all the parts they had on hand. 

How the hell do you blow the electrical system while changing the oil?????


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> How the hell do you blow the electrical system while changing the oil?????


It is easy when one is super talented.


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## Bruce

I guess I'm glad I have no talent! I've managed to change the oil in cars lots of times and never screwed up something that has absolutely no connection with the process at hand.


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## Ridgetop

OK.  The dealership found a shop with the part that will do the work.  It will be paid for by the dealership.  I told DH to get the name of this shop because there are  couple of items in the truck that the dealership told us could not be fixed because yo could no longer get parts.  Told DH might as well see if this guy could fix those small items too - after getting the truck back from the dealership.

Started working on my taxes.     So much sorting of bill categories for each property, and each different trip.  Total of 4 trips last year.  2 to Texas and 2 to Yelm.  All the bills from cleaning up the Yelm property and repairs after the tenant left.  Then all the costs from selling the property.  Then all the costs of purchasing the new property.  I am glad I am starting now since it will probably take the rest of the year to finish all this.

Got my check from the auction.  Very pleased.  Well over $200 each for 3 lambs 4 month old!   Will be sending more next month.  Got to get Lewis in harness and down in the breeding pen.  Will start lambing in mid November again.


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## Baymule

Don't envy you on the taxes! 

That is good prices for the lambs! You did good!


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## Ridgetop

Next year will do a farm tax return since I will have fertilizing, liming, and fencing expenses on the farm.  I am setting the account books up now in order to have everything in line for 2022.

Finished Yelm annual expenses and sales costs.  ONE down and 5 other items to go.  Glad I am starting now.  

!!!  Just got an email that the Final Settlement Statement on the TX farm purchase is wrong! Charges and expenses put in wrong places!!!  Need to sign another doc.  AAAARGH!  
Also heard from insurance company that insurance premium was not paid from escrow like it should have been!   

At least I was planning to work on those docs today and had not already done them!!!   My broker tried to get the escrow company to correct several errors but they were adamant that that was how they should be.  Now - OOPS??!  

Barn has been cleaned out, jugs removed and floor scraped for application of lime before next lambing cycle.  I also have to order new Scrape tags.  Almost out and have another 2 years to go her in CA.  Need to check with TX about getting a TX Scrapie tag number. Also need to retag 3 rams with color coded tags for them.  Their tags are missing but it is not a problem since I can tell them apart and the have registration papers.  I tag their lambs with colors allocated to each ram - Purple is Lewis, Orange is Axtel, Blue is Moyboy.  I guess I need to order green or yellow for Smalley.  Gonna be stuck for a color when I get another Lewis ram before moving to Texas!  LOL  Start lambing next week. Sorting ewes this week for lambing and breeding.  Will paint mark them to category.  All young purple tags will be held out until I change rams.  Got to move a couple of purple tags out of the breeding pen.  Will leave in a couple of the other ewes that never marked.  It is possible that the crayon was not working properly.  I have a list of who was in with the ram and for which dates but prefer exact breeding dates to work with.

Anyway, back to the business side of the office and those dreaded taxes.


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## Margali

I feel you on the farm taxes. Trying to read thru the IRS publication is giving me a migrane. Need to file farm taxes this year and going crazy trying to understand them.


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## Ridgetop

Have you done farm business this year?  Do you have crops or orchards?  Is your farm a working farm now?  If this is the first year you have been on the property and you have not had sales or income of any kind, you might want to consider waiting till next year to file and then go from there.  

You do not have to file a farm tax return to continue your AG exemption on taxes in Texas.  You just have to show the County Assessor that you are fulfilling the acreage and animal unit or pasture requirements to continue the AG exemption if one is already on the property.  Check with the County tax offices to see how many acres you need and how many animals you need on them to satisfy the requirement.  This must be done each year by January 1.  I am not sure what the widow is for filing.  

Each County has different requirements.  My friend in Leander (which is in both Travis and Williamson Counties)  needs 50 acres to qualify for his AG exclusion.  They raised it several years ago.  Wood County where our farm is located currently only requires 5 acres.  This will eventually change as more farms are cut into "estate" plots.  In Wood County 1000 lbs. of animal is required for every 5 acres on pasture.  The requirements for croplands are different, as is woodland, and wildlife acreage.  Also the record keeping changes for each category.  If you plan to keep some of your acreage aside for hay growing and cutting, that also has a different acreage requirement.  A farm tax return is not needed for the Ag tax exemption though so it depends when you want to start your farm status with the IRS.  

Remember that you will have to show the IRS a profit in 2 out of the next 5 years on your farm.  Depending on the expenses you have this year for start up, if those are fencing, buildings, etc., these are large expenditures.   If you installed them this year you might wait to file then use their cost as the original basis for depreciation each year for a certain number of years.  Pasture work, ploughing or discing, seeding, spraying, fertilizing and liming are annual expenses and can be done right after the first of the year and then written off in 2022.  Since you are only able to take a loss for 3 years before showing a profit, you might want to delay the loss till next year which will give you more time to get to the point of making a profit.  Or more likely, breaking even.   

The important thing is to keep _every _receipt no matter how small. I throw them in a box and then go through them to assign them to the appropriate categories. Once they are entered in your farm recordkeeping book, you can staple them together and store them in an envelope with your return for each tax year. Just in case of IRS audit it is good to have EVERY receipt no matter how small. Overwhelming any auditors with paperwork proof is the goal. 

One important item to keep is a mileage booklet in your vehicles in which to record the mileage to and from feed store, vet, sale yard, and any other trips you make for livestock or farm errands. Mileage is better to take as a business deduction than gas receipts and depreciation of vehicles.  You also use your vehicles for personal use so depreciation doesn't work as well. You also get a better deduction than with mileage.   

DH is waiting to do our _farm _taxes until next year since we closed mid October on our TX farm.  I _am_ setting up a farm account book this year.  I will transfer all costs and income from receipts each month from now on in order to have a complete record.  I also have all my farm receipts for the last several years in a file in case it is necessary to show farm operation losses for which we did not claim.   

If you find a good farm tax person, you can have that person set up your files and then you can do subsequent tax years.  We are going to do that for 2022.  DH knows a lot abut farm taxes since we used to file them when we ran our commercial rabbitry and the 4-H dairy herd years ago.  However we haven't filed in years and tax law has changed.   DH used to work at H & R Block while in college, and took their classes every year.  Now we have an accountant do our business taxes, but we often spot deductions that they missed, so knowing the tax laws is important.  

I do plan to fill out a farm tax return this year although I will be doing it just for the practice and learning about how to do it.  Or maybe I am a closet masochist!


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## Baymule

I make copies of receipts because they fade away. I categorize the receipts by which animal and get several receipts on each page. Sometimes I have expenses for several different animals on one receipt. Such as sheep drench, chicken feed, or pig feed. So I would circle the chicken feed on the copy, for chicken  expenses. Then I total the receipts on that page, top page is total of all receipts on those pages for that animal. Staple on the corner. 

I’ve made money on the meat chickens and the pigs. Sheep fo good to break even. If I had grass, it would cut down immensely on feed costs.


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## Margali

@Ridgetop I bought the land of which all but 1 acre will be for business. I've spent ~$1500 on bee and animal durable goods plus ~$850 on livestock. And I will be repairing shed before years end. *shrug* I need to figure out how to report these expenses.


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## Baymule

Margali said:


> @Ridgetop I bought the land of which all but 1 acre will be for business. I've spent ~$1500 on bee and animal durable goods plus ~$850 on livestock. And I will be repairing shed before years end. *shrug* I need to figure out how to report these expenses.


Since you can show a loss for 3 years, then must show a profit, Ridgetop is advising show these expenses next year. Next year you will have a full year to raise bees and livestock, possibly make sales. Year 2 and 3 will give you even more time to build your farm. By year 4, you will need to show a profit. If you take expenses this year, then you’ll only have 2 full years to build up bees and livestock sales. 

On truck mileage, I just use half the year’s mileage. If I had a LOT of farm miles, I’d keep a log.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> Since you can show a loss for 3 years, then must show a profit, Ridgetop is advising show these expenses next year. Next year you will have a full year to raise bees and livestock, possibly make sales. Year 2 and 3 will give you even more time to build your farm. By year 4, you will need to show a profit. If you take expenses this year, then you’ll only have 2 full years to build up bees and livestock sales.


Baymule is right.  Have you produced goods this year?  How much money have you made?  If the income covers your expenses I would not claim that income, nor would I file a farm return for this year.  

*Land cannot be deducted or depreciated.* Other than the land which cannot be depreciated anyway, your cash outlay is minimal this year.  By waiting to file until next year, you can set up your operation, have the year to produce and sell honey, and other products.  Even if you show a profit next year, the depreciation and deductions will be valuable to offset any taxes.  Depreciation deduction is often what makes the largest difference in showing a deductible loss.  

Your main benefit this year will be filing for or proving the AG exemption on the property.  This will cut your property taxes considerably.  if the property already has an AG exemption on it you need to make sure to renew it each January.  If it does not it will take 5 years of annual application to obtain it since the land must be actively AG for 5 of the 7 current years.  It is worth the effort though since it can mean a difference of several thousand dollars in property taxes.  Check with your county to find out the requirements as to acreage and animal units you will be required to run.  Beehives count as agricultural use too, so be sure to check that requirement when you file.  You might meet the minimum requirements with the hives ou already have.

Buildings *can* be depreciated so you will assign a value to the shed and depreciate it. Repairs can be deducted in their entirety in the year they were done.  If covered by insurance, no loss can be taken.  

Livestock can be depreciated according to usage and anticipated length of life.   For instance DH allows 7 years productive breeding years to our ewes so they would have a depreciation schedule of 7 years.  Rams will breed productively for another year or so but I prefer to sell my older stock near the end of their depreciation age while they still have breedable years left and replace them with younger animals that will begin depreciation all over again.  That is what most ranchers do with older stock unless they are particularly valuable for bloodlines.  This gives you a figure for the sales column as well as opening another space for renewed depreciation on the replacement animal.   You will have to figure out the depreciation life of your hive to take depreciation on the bees.

Farm equipment can be depreciated.  So since you invested in the bee boxes and equipment (smoker, bee suit, honey gathering equipment, etc.) which will have  a salable value if you disperse your operation and will be used from one year to the next, they are considered durable/long term equipment.  You would assign them a depreciable value and time of depreciation.  The cost of replacement is what I use for depreciable equipment/large durable goods if I have had them for a while and n longer have the receipts.  If you have receipts you need to how the cost, and date of purchase on the inventory which you will use for depreciation.   Depreciable items - sheds, tractors, supply wagons, bee boxes, stationary feeders, fencing, etc. are then assigned a value and depreciation schedule and depreciated every year against profits. Usable supplies such as medicines/vaccines/feed/etc. will be deducted in the year it is purchased.  The wax sheets you put in the bee boxes are _"supplies" and would be deducted in the year they are purchased, as would the glass or plastic jars and labels in which you plan to market your honey._

It is your choice to file your farm return when you want, just remember that you *must* show a profit in the 4th year.  "Hobby Farms" are not recognized as a business by the IRS so if the IRS decides that your farm is a hobby farm, they will disallow any deductions.   

As a precaution do not take any deductions for any portion of the house for business purposes.  That leads to a whole set of IRS problems.  Same goes for phone services unless you can identify long distance calls relating only to business.


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## Ridgetop

AND DEFINITELY GET SOMEONE KNOWLEDGEABLE TO LOOK OVER THE FARM RETURN.


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## Baymule

I take all my stuff to a CPA. Much easier.


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## Margali

@Baymule I probably will hire a CPA but I still need to understand general ideas. Otherwise, I could be fed a load of bull$$it.

I think I get where I was stuck. For my husband's EE work we use cash accounting and expenses/income have to be in quarter they actually happened. You both seem to be advising business starts next year with expenses transfering from household to business ledger at that time.

And sorry for the derail of your journal!


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## Baymule

Derailed is what we do best!


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## Ridgetop

Derail?  Nope!    You never know when a chance sentence will provoke a great discussion and we all learn a lot from those!  Always welcome derailing!


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## Ridgetop

Finally got the ewes sorted out and moved to the breeding pen tonight.  DS1 will move Lewis tomorrow morning.  I will have to show him which one is Lewis since his ear tag is missing.  I think we will retag all 3 older rams at the same time since they are all missing at least 1 tag!  Probably from fighting in the pen as they come and go to the breeding pen. We will just give the either a blue, orange or purple tag like we tag their offspring.  

Anyway we sorted the ewes out.  The girls due in November are HUGE although no udders filling yet, probably a couple weeks off to lamb.  One ewe yearling lamb is a b*&@h!  She may go to the sale with the next batch of lambs.  Naturally she was one of the nicer lambs from last January.    She is also carrying a lot of wool too although I don't always like culling for wool retention until they have had 2 summers to shed.  With the fall born ewes that means we have to hold them longer.  A couple had Actinobacillus abscesses which were ripe so we lanced and doctored those.  Don't know how they are getting those since most of the brush is gone but they may be rubbing on the wooden hayshed or somewhere and getting a scratch that gets infected.  Not Caseous so not worried about it although it is disgusting to have to deal with them.    Need to clean out the jugs for the lambs but need to keep a couple of the abscess ewes in for a day or so and then will lime and disinfect the ground and pens.  The lambing ewes will not be coming in for another week or so.  

I am pretty pleased about the quality of the homebred stock.  Looking forward to the first large batch of lambs out of them.  I do need to get out and check ear numbers with wool shed ability to keep notes for my culling records.  I have been letting the sheep chores get away from me for the past month or so.   I did order another 60 scrapie tags.  The different states only provide you with the first batch then you have to have your own imprinted with your state assigned number.   I still have about 10-15 of my last batch so 60 might take me through the TX move  I will need to order TX tags and they will assign a new number then.  My CA number is RT1 - I am not sure the state is still allowing you to choose your own scrapie designation anymore now that sheep and goats require the tags to sell.  The auction yards have their own scrapie tags for all animals that are run through without tags.  I got our tags about 25 years ago when the program was optional and we could pick our own nos.  I chose the RT1 since that was our ADGA ID at the time. In fact, DS2 and DS3 are still on the record as co-owners with me of that scrapie #!  LOL

Hadn't been out of the office for almost 2 weeks due to tax and bookwork!  Felt good to be working with the sheep again.  

Have also been doing some research on TX FSA opportunities.  They offer low interest loans for business purposes for farmers.  Women farmers get an extra bump.  Might be better to do the farm business in my name to take advantage of those opportunities. Have to check with an accountant to see what the advantages and disadvantages might be.  I would qualify because of my years of experience raising livestock.  I also ran a couple other small businesses in the past so that would also help on any application. Anther way to qualify is to take courses offered through the County Extension services. Something to investigate when I move to TX.

Got to go move Lewis ram in with his girls.  Hot time in the old breeding pen tonight!


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## Mike CHS

We put everything in Teresa's name since Tennessee has more programs for women including cost share even though we only used it one time.  My being 10 years older was my reason above the state programs.


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## Ridgetop

DH is 7 years older than I am so that might be an additional reason to list the farm business in my name.  I think we will need to check with a farm tax preparer as to the tax advantages and possible problems.  

Moved the rams.  DS1 has christened Moyboy "Friendly" because he comes right up to you - just before he backs off and tries to butt you!  After DS1 had a crotch near miss I went in and got the "ram subduers" - lengths of wooden closet pole with a cord strung through one end.  They are about 18"-24" long and you can reach out and ward off the ram's nose as he is thinking about whether to take a go at you.  The other 3 are not too bad and don't want to go after you.  The oldest ram, Lewis, is extremely docile.  

This is why I don't like to make big pets of rams.  Lewis came to us full grown and right off the range.  Moyboy was a 3 month old baby and we had DGS1 gentle and tame him when we got him.  We have not repeated that mistake since.  The other 2 are not real tame either but can be handled.  They rarely take a go at anyone.  That said, my cardinal rule is *"NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON A RAM"!  *All the cartoons are about billy goats butting people, but in my experience rams are more dangerous than bucks.  

At any rate, Lewis had a couple small abscesses as well in areas where it looked like sharp pieces of straw or thorns had worked into his unshed fleece mohawk.  Drained them and doctored him.  

Looked over all the rams and retagged them.  Axtell has some strange lumpy masses in his throat around his windpipe.  Not abscesses - they are rock hard masses, possibly tumors or growths.  We will keep an eye on them.  Other than Axtell's growths, the rams look to be in good shape except for their hooves which need serious trimming since they are confined in a small pen now and don't wear them down on the hillside.  DS1 wants to put them into the squeeze and use our shop grinder on them.  The hooves on the rams are so hard that I can't cut them myself and it took a lot of effort by DS1 last time with the tree lopper!  I considered ordering the electric Hoof Boss hoof trimmer that I have seen advertised.  They come in electric or battery models.  The battery models use a DeWalt battery which is easily available at Lowes.  If I decide to order one I will call and see if our Bosch batteries would also fit.  Maybe once I start filing a farm tax return and have more actual farm income than outgo I will.  Right now  a $300.00 hoof trimmer is not in the cards.  A large muscular DS1 however, is available for free.  

Tomorrow the treated ewes will receive Penicillin shots, and Alumashield spray to prevent fly infection.  2 will go back on the field.  The other 2 will stay in for another several days since their abscesses were not ripe enough to drain.  Better to keep them in and deal with them in a few days than turn them out and try to separate them again.  One of them is scheduled to go meet Lewis in the Pen of Rapture once she has been doctored.

We also need to weigh the remaining 2-3 months old lambs to see how large they have become.  I have another 3 ram lambs to take to the auction in a couple weeks, and possibly that b%*#hy ewe that is so freaky about being caught and is carrying wool. While prices are high would be a good time to take as many as possible.  Hay prices are not going to go down until next summer.


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## Baymule

I find that my sheep get those abscesses more in the fall and winter when there is little to  no soft green grass to eat. My theory is the hay stems poke the inside of their jaws. Right? wrong? I dunno but it sounds good. Inherited from their parent(s)? No idea. I have one ewe, Ewenique, that has never had an abscess. I have one of her granddaughters, Frimplepants, that so far, has not had one either. Unfortunately, Ewenique almost always has ram lambs. And her ewe lambs aren't always good quality. nice rams, but who needs a bunch of those? Since I've had Ringo, she has had rams. Phooey. She looks to be due in December, so well see what she has this time. Also, Frimplepants is due end of November, I bred her to Snip, (out of Miranda and Ringo) just to see what I get.


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## Ridgetop

Yes, sharp stems from hay and forage are what does it, although if they get a scratch from a wire, or rubbing on something, they can get them on other parts of their bodies.  Wooden feeders used to be blamed too.  We still have one wooden feeder in the ewes' section of the creep pen.  It is possible that they get the infection there and it takes several months to show up after they are turned back into the main pasture.  Anther name for it is Kruelz.  You are right, some individua seem to be very prone to it and others not so much.

One of the ewes is showing the exact same symptoms we had with another ewe a couple years ago - large swelling of entire side of her face.  The actual abscesses to drain then start to form and the swelling recedes as they appear and localize.  The entire cheek is huge then when the abscesses appear, ripen, and are drained the cheek returned to normal.  That was the ewe for whom I had the vet out and we sent the pus for testing.  We have been feeding hay for 2-3 years straight now.  No rain so no forage for the past couple years.    

We had 3 different light showers over the past month, but not enough to encourage growth.  Our normally rainy months are January through February.  

Actually with the bad winter and doubles heating costs predicted, maybe it is just as well we are staying in CA for another 2 years.  Haven't turned on the forced air heating yet.

When we move to TX we will have to investigate sources of wood for the fireplace.  It has a heat distributor fan.  By closing off the office (we can use a small electric heater in that room if necessary) and the spare bedroom, we might be able to heat the house with the fireplace since the living room and kitchen are one big room.  Also will store propane and get a propane generator for appliances.  Complete new experience for winter heating.  

Orthopedist appointments this am for DH and me.  Preliminary checks n knee replacements.  Definitely him, possibly me.  😱


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> And her ewe lambs aren't always good quality. nice rams, but who needs a bunch of those? Since I've had Ringo, she has had rams.


Time to have a little talk with Ringo!


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## Ridgetop

Both DH and I went to the orthopedist today.  He went to the surgeon and I went to an orthopedist for consultation.  We both had x-rays done.  We already new that he was probably ready for a replacement  The orthopedic surgeon gave him a brace to wear when on his feet.  He has to remove it when sitting or laying down.  He is also supposed to use a cane.  He has one but it does him no when he leaves it in the house.  LOL

She did say that my knee was pretty bad. She showed us the x-ray and the right leg from the knee to the foot is crooked.  It sticks it out to the right side when the knees are together.  The ankles can't touch each other - there is 4"-5" between my ankles with my knees together.  The right side of that right knee joint is completely bone on bone.  The other knee has some arthritis but not bad for my age.   The pain in the bone on bone knee is not so bad yet though that I want to rush into a replacement.  When she manipulated the knee I was getting some severe hip pain. The doctor was concerned about that.  After my consultation the ortho sent me back for more x-rays of my hips in case the hip was causing the problem.  She said that sometimes pain will surface in a joint when the cause is elsewhere.  I have another appointment in March at which time I will get some sort of gel type shot - not steroids - that is supposed to reduce inflammation and pain in the right knee.  It has to be approved by the insurance so by coming back for it she will have time to check over the hip x-rays too.   She said there is no reason to get a knee replacement then find out that the problem was the hip!  DH started insisting he wanted it done NOW because when we move to Texas our medical insurance will be a PPO which will mean a co-pay.  I told DH that we had 2 years and could even put off the move for a couple months to take care of the replacement.  It is scary how he is trying to push me to have this replacement.  I know he is concerned about it, but I think the way that leg angles out at such an extreme angle from the knee worries him more.  I am also starting to limp a lot more but like I told the orthopedist, I am not sure whether that is from the knee pain or the hip pain.  I think DH expected the orthopedist to scream "OMG!  We need to get you into surgery immediately before that leg falls off completely!"  At any rate we will be going back routinely now and eventually it will get done.  

So for a laugh - DS1 watched baby Annabelle while we went to the ortho.  About 20 minutes later I got a call saying that DS1 has lost the baby.  Apparently he went to the bathroom and when he came out the cage was open and she was gone!  After a first minute f panic, he started looking for her and found her behind DH's recliner.  She was chewing contentedly on the puppy's Bully Stick.  In case you don't know what that is it is a chew stick made from a bull's penis!  

My children all found one as crawling infants as did the grandchildren.   She is not the first and probably won't be the last child to teethe on a  puppy toy.    It did lead to some ribald remarks from DS1 to DD2.  

Tomorrow I start putting up Christmas decorations.  Usually I wait unti Thanksgiving weekend but this year since we are going away for Thanksgiving I decided to get started earlier.  Every year it takes me longer to get up and down on the ladders to do the garlands and high shelves.  I will wait to put up the tree until after Thanksgiving along with the Nativity set.  Both those take me a full day.  I used to have DH do the lights on the tree and then let the children decorate it but now I have to do it myself.  We have a nice artificial one with the lights already attached and since going to the artificial tree I realized that I was allergic to the preservative on the live trees!  Decorating the tree s very nostalgic since all of the ornaments are ones that either the children made or were bought for them each year.  Now I have branched out with buying ornaments from our travel destinations.  So much better than souvenirs since they are small and I only have to put them out once a year!  LOL  Eventually I will have to start separating out the kids' decorations and give them all of them.  For now I just give them each a few each year. The tree is so heavily covered with the decorations you can't even see the needles!  Next year I might give away more of my decorations and just take my favorites with me to Texas.  The Nativity is also getting too big.  Along with the wise men, camels, angels, ox, donkey with foal, chickens, and townspeople, I have extra shepherds and a whole flock of sheep and goats guarded by a Pyrenees and an Anatolian.  Not to be prejudiced, there is also a pack of wolves arranged artfully among stones in a cave in the hills among the pine trees.  Can anyone say "overkill"?  The grandchildren like rearranging the sheep. One time they decided that a wolf might eat Baby Jesus and surrounded his manger with the LGDs.  LOL  DD1 has dibs on my Nativity set.  She has her own but is is "boring" since it only has the main characters.  Maybe I will trade with her when we go to Texas since mine takes up the entire top of the 6' buffet in the dining room.

Tomorrow I have ewes due to start lambing.  I did not put them into the jugs yet so will have to see if any lamb in the large corral tonight.  Did not notice any of them bagged up although a couple are ginormous.  I need to transfer lambing dates from my wall chart to my calendar too.


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## Baymule

Getting knees replaced is a big decision. My left leg will not straighten out. Feet placed together, the left knee is bowed out-a result of being hit in the back of the knee by Trip and Carson running into me. Getting hit by 230 pounds of dogs at warp speed was a painful experience, but they knocked the bones forward and relieved a lot of pain since then! still picking the dirt and gravel out of my teeth.........   Doctor was astonished that I am not using painkillers.

Get your beloved DH rebuilt and the following therapy and he will be raring to go. Then you must address your own health. As you well know, limping around is no fun. If your right leg is sticking out that far, not only the hip, but your spine is compromised too. That can cause more problems for your whole skeletal structure, says Dr. Baymule!  Stop being afraid of the surgery and get it done.

As you know, I am a little over my head in things that must get done. I'm getting the farm ready to sell, refinishing the wood floors, clearing clutter, moving "farm" stuff to the new to me house-which needs works too. I have a very long list! I'll have to build a shelter for sheep and dogs. We have discussed a lot of this over the phone. I play out around 2:00 because of knee pain--on both knees! I am forced to stop, sit down with feet up and look at all that I need to be up on my feet, getting done! I'm currently caught up in the whirlwind and cannot stop. Once I get the farm sold, moved to son's rent house, and get settled in, I'm going for knee replacement. 

You are surrounded by family. If one cannot help, another one can. You need to get this done, putting it off is not helping you any. All of this is said with love and concern for you. Get your sweet DH's knee surgery, then suck it up and take care of yourself.


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## Ridgetop

I know that I am a wimp about surgery.  The thought of getting my knee cut out and replaced with a mechanical thing scares me.   Already have a pin in my lower spine, and one in my shoulder.  Needed those to walk and lift the arm.  At least I am still able to walk on this knee.  I'm anxious to see what the hip x-ray shows since it aches when the knee does.  

Got the garlands in the family room up yesterday over the 3 windows, the other garland on the bookcases up with the Santa sleigh and deer, and the wreath in the middle of the big window.  Also the timer lighted snowmen on the table.  This morning I got the garland over the LR window up with that wreath.  Also the decos in the hallway set out. Next I have to put together the wooden reindeer boxes my mother made.  I set fake white pointsettias in them with twinkle lights on either side of the fireplace.  Asked DD1 if she wanted them for her fireplace.  If she does, I will pack them for her after Christmas. Sad to see them go but too many decos to take to Texas.  Also takes me almost a week to put up all the decos including tree and Nativity set.  Maybe time to cut back?  We do enjoy the lighted garlands when they are up, and the house always seems so bare and empty when they come down but not getting any younger and my grandchildren are much younger than I was when I helped my Gammy with hers.  No help there except DS1 has the older boys help with the outside lights.  I will wait for a while to put up the tree since the baby jail takes up a lot of the space.  I am putting up the decos today and yesterday because baby Annabel is not here.  Put away the baby jail to be able to move around.  Taking my time on the ladder interspersed with rests.

DGS2 and DGD1 said they want to help bake Christmas cookies.  Made the mistake of asking if they wanted to help me.  Mistake since it always takes much longer with others. I am not a patient person in teaching mode.  Oh well, they need to learn how, and DGS2 likes to cook and bake.  

Update on sheep.  No ewes ready to lamb yet.  Watching udders closely.  Snowflake is growing a very pretty little udder.  I am glad she got bred although never noticed a mark on her.  She is also a perfectly clean shed ewe.  Hope she does not have trouble lambing. There are several other home bred ewes and ewe lambs out there that are clean shed. Last night we turned one of the pregnant ewes back onto the field.  Her abscess has healed nicely.  3 more I am still watching to drain.

DH got rammed in the belly today by Lewis when feeding.  I constantly warn the guys not to trust rams!  They always poo poo me.    Good thing DH is not terribly tall.  Just a few inches taller and major catastrophe! As it was DH said Lewis came at him so fast he couldn't avoid getting hit! Hopefully his armload of hay helped to cushion the blow!   Apparently Lewis does not want to share his ewes with ANYONE!!!  Lewis bred 2 yesterday.


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## Baymule

I have 3 ewes that are heavy bred,  make that 4. Two are starting to bag up. I was trying for lambs to take to auction in January-February. I might make the tail end of February. At any rate,  lambs will be ready for auction before I move. 

Christmas decorating. I haven’t done that in a long time. Holidays have been at my sister’s house for years. 

Yes, you need to conquer your fear. Sounds like that knee is causing trouble for you, more than just the knee! Take care of DH first, then you must take care of yourself.


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## Ridgetop

Just saw the report on the hip x-ray.  No change in amount of hip arthritis, BUT "worsening of L3 disc condition".  Had surgery on L4 & L5 some years ago.  Hope this doesn't mean that the problem is moving up my spine!  That back surgery was the most painful thing I have ever had, including the 2 surgeries on my shoulder!

8174 lambed in the barn this am.  Single ram lamb 8.1 lbs.  She was due last Wednesday. Time to bring in the others I guess.  Considering sending all current 2-3 month old lambs to auction next week since prices are good.  If truck is back.  

Realized I have to sew up special Christmas stockings for the new babies and Maysie!  I guess I didn't do one for her before this.  I applique their names on them and do a lot of beading, etc.  (Elizabeth returned hers to me last Christmas with a request for more fancy beads to be applied.)  LOL  The boys' stockings have cording at the seam, but the girls' stockings have lace.  DS2 has asked for Robert's stocking to have a dragon on it.  Showed him the prototype drawing and he said it looked like a lizard!    I pointed out that the wings would be gold and separately stitched on so they could stick up and flap.  He approved that notion and I quickly removed the stocking before he could make any further complaints.  Soon I will be too old to do this sort of thing.  I am cutting out 2 additional stockings to have them ready for any future grandchildren.  Unfortunately I can't applique any names until after they are born, but this year I will buy some beaded Christmas appliques so I will be able to make the stockings in another year or two and just apply those machine made appliques.  Luckily I don't have arthritis in my hands yet like my mother did at this age.


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## Baymule

So what are your feelings on knee surgery? And I'm sure you will keep a close eye on the L3 disc! 

I am in admiration of the Christmas stockings that you are making. I have 3 sewing machines, plus a commercial sewing machine that I haven't used in a long time. I guess I need to get one out and actually make something.


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## Bruce

Stockings for the GDs?


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## Ridgetop

Yes, Christmas stockings with their names appliqued on them and also Christmassy appliques - snowmen, candy canes, Christmas trees, etc.  Then I embroidered the snowmen's features and added sequins and beading to the names and appliques.  Finished them off with gold braid around the top.  Flashy but to my grandchildren "soo beeyootiful"!   Robert's stocking has a dragon on it wrapping itself around the stocking and with flames shooting our of his mouth.  This was requested by his father, DS2.  The dragon has green sequin and gold bead scales all over his body.    At least it is a green dragon on a red stocking!  LOL

Took me a week to do the appliques and beading before I was able to attach the lining and finish off the hand stitching of the gold braid.   Can anyone say "*BACKACHE*"?!  

Got out truck back just in time to take the trailer to Nipomo for the giant Thanksgiving family rout.  DD2 said that she was warned about all the time she had to take off with the brother-in-law dying and the 4 year old being sick so she offered to work Thanksgiving am until noon.  Now her husband doesn't want to make the 3 hour drive to Nipomo because he says it will be too much traffic.  She was willing to drive it alone and let him come on ahead with other family members, but he didn't want to.  So her dad called him and told him about the back way which is a little longer but much quicker since no traffic at all.  Also no towns, gas stations or anything just empty hills.  Pretty, but make sure you have a full tank.  

Bad news from Texas.  The cattle tenant texted yesterday that Mrs. MacDonald, from whom we bought our ranch, had passed away Thursday night.  Quite a shock so I called to ask about sending flowers and Marlin called me this morning.  He said that about 5 weeks ago she had a memory loss and they took her to the hospital where they discovered that she had a rare fast growing brain tumor!  She was fine up to 3 days ago when she went into a coma at home and then passed away with no pain.   Such a shock since she was just so sweet and sprightly.  I had talked to her a couple months ago and she was fine and enjoying her new house in Sulphur Springs.  She was a lovely person and really fun to talk to.  I was looking forward to visiting her in January.  So sad but with cancer she was lucky not to have any pain.  

More bad news on that front, my dear "Mom" told me yesterday that her doctor told her that she is failing rapidly and it is only a matter of a few more weeks for her.  She is too weak to hold the phone.  Even though she kept warning me that she was getting worse I did not want to believe her.  DH and I will be spending this weekend sleeping over at her house to give her son Mitch some time off.  Mitch is trying to find someone to stay with her full time but although Mitch found someone they can't start until Monday.  I told him that we could do it anytime.   She can't stay alone and is so weak that she can't use the tube feeding apparatus on her own.  

I guess we are getting to the age when we will start losing friends as a matter of course.    Old age - bad!

Anyway, got the Christmas decorations all up in the house and the boxes all returned to the shed.  Only the tree to do now but not until after Thanksgiving.  I am coming home on Friday am after Thanksgiving.  We are planning out the logistics of cars.  I want DS1 to have fun with his brothers, and if DH wants to go shooting with them too he should also stay up there.  I will come home and feed livestock so they can enjoy themselves.  That way I get a start on my Christmas baking without having to stop and feed anyone.  
So annoying that they all seem to think they should eat meals when I have a lot of work to do!  

I might have a couple ewes kidding over Thanksgiving too.  I just realized that 3 ewes who I had written down as lambing in late October/early November are actually due in February so that clears up that problem.  I wondered why I had so many due this month. So instead of 10 due I have 6 due sometime this month.    Whew!  

Big week before Thanksgiving.  I have to clean out the trailer for Nipomo before Wednesday.  On Monday am I have to meet DD1 at Hobby Lobby to get her Christmas decos lined out.  She has none and had decided to buy some this year.  She is doing Christmas again this year (my decision - so much less work for me )  and has decided she needs to decorate.  Good idea since all her decorations are old left overs from me and not many of those.  Her eldest is 14, so her kids can put them up for her each year.  I have a bunch of stuff we can use on garlands, etc.  So Monday is shot, Tuesday back out with DD1 to Ross since I have a Senior discount in Tuesdays.  I also have to get a bathmat for the family bathroom.  I will be looking for a couple of things for Maysie. DD1, DSIL1, and DDIL2.  Not much since I have a couple things for them already.  Wednesday the trailer has to go to Nipomo so need to be packed.  I better remember to put the electric heater in it too.  It gets cold up there.

We also need to pick up the pies from Costco on Wednesday am.  I got lazy and decided not to bake for this Thanksgiving.  I will bake for Christmas though, both pies and cookies.  Next year I think I will make fruitcake.  Not the kind you get in the store!  Mostly glaceed fruit, almonds, and pecans, held together by liquor infused batter and then soaked in more liquor. Super rich, and you almost get drunk if you eat more than 3 slices.  My grandmother's recipe.  You make it around Halloween because it has to age - every month you have to add liquor to the cheesecloth you wrap it in.  I keep it in the freezer and take it out to reapply more liquor.  I used to make it every year for my grandmother, mother, aunt, and uncles but they are all dead now so haven't made it very often since.   I think you acquire a taste for it as you get older.  When I was a child I didn't like it, probably because of the liquor.  Now I love it but it is expensive and difficult to make - all that heavy mixing.  

Got to get my things together to go over to "Mom's".   I am taking my sheep records to work on them.  I want to cross file all my homebred ewes by dams and sires.  

*HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!**
*


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## Baymule

I would love to see a picture of the dragon stocking! I bet it is beautiful! 

That is so sad about Mrs. MacDonald, but at least she was not in pain and agony. She also got to enjoy her new house, even if it was a short time. She was such a nice lady, a delight to visit with. 

So sorry about your friend , your second Mom. It is good of you and your husband to go stay with her. True friends do exactly what y’all are doing-being there when she needs help so badly. 

Thanksgiving that you don’t have to cook. Getting smart in your old age, aren’t you? LOL LOL

Want my homemade eggnog recipe? It’s my great grandmother’s recipe. She made it Christmas morning and everyone drank it-even the children. My Mom remembered having eggnog Christmas morning as a little child. Then my grandmother made the eggnog and I remember getting sh!t faced on eggnog as a little kid with full approval from my normally non drinking parents. Then I made the eggnog. Full strength it will blow a non drinker’s head off, I make it at half strength. LOL

MamaWall’s Eggnog 

12 shots bourbon 
12 eggs, separated 
12 heaping tablespoons sugar
1 pint whipping cream 
A little milk


Beat egg whites until stiff
Beat whipping cream until stiff
Beat egg yolks. Add sugar, beating yolks as you add sugar. While beating yolk mixture, slowly add bourbon, 1 shot at a time. If you just dump it in, the yolks will curdle. 

Fold in whipping cream 
Fold in egg whites. 
Serve in cups with nutmeg or cinnamon on top

I use half the bourbon. Full strength is too strong for me! 

@Bruce likes Mama Wall’s Eggnog!


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## Bruce

Yep! And I can't imagine it full strength! It is a fair bit of work, and bowls, but is tasty. It will separate out in the refrigerator (assuming you've made it for a small number of people and have some left) but mixes back up for an even more smooth flavor.


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> Yep! And I can't imagine it full strength! It is a fair bit of work, and bowls, but is tasty. It will separate out in the refrigerator (assuming you've made it for a small number of people and have some left) but mixes back up for an even more smooth flavor.


I just jumped up and went and made a 4 egg batch. It is so foamy and good, I ate a cup full with a spoon, got a quart jar in the refrigerator. LOL


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## Baymule

Leftover homemade eggnog goes great in morning coffee.


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## HomeOnTheRange

Baymule said:


> I use half the bourbon. Full strength is too strong for me!





Baymule said:


> While beating yolk mixture, slowly add bourbon, 1 shot at a time.


So I guess the recipe is now, add one shot to mixture, then one shot for yourself until all 12 shots of bourbon is used.


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## Baymule

HomeOnTheRange said:


> So I guess the recipe is now, add on shot to mixture, then one shot for yourself until all 12 shots of bourbon is used.



You catch on fast! LOL


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## Bruce

HomeOnTheRange said:


> So I guess the recipe is now, add on shot to mixture, then one shot for yourself until all 12 shots of bourbon is used.


I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to finish making the egg nog if I was downing a shot every minute!


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## HomeOnTheRange

Bruce said:


> I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to finish making the egg nog if I was downing a shot every minute!


Oh come on @Bruce, give it a "shot" and take pictures!


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## Bruce

You first! And you have to be able to type coherently 5 minutes after your last shot.


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## farmerjan

Bruce said:


> You first! And you have to be able to type coherently 5 minutes after your last shot.


ROFL


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## Ridgetop

Haven't been on for a while.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Some sad  news.  My wonderful and beloved "mom" has passed on.  I am blocking out the sadness by keeping so busy I don't think about it.  

I was supposed to go see "mom" the Friday before Thanksgiving but got a call from her son Mitch asking if I would spend Saturday and Sunday nights and days with her.  Her skin felt like she was running a fever when I arrived Saturday.  That is not a good sign because it means the body is unable to regulate its temperature any more.  Have seen it in my mother in law and aunt several days before the end.  She was in very weak condition, skin and bones, no strength, and in a lot of pain.  Sunday she decided not to get out of bed to sit up in the living room so I sat with her all day in her room.  She was up and down all Sunday night and in so much pain that I gave her the highest allowable dose of morphine Sunday night.  When the hospice nurse arrived Monday morning he raised the allowable dose to 1.0 ml since the .75 had not done much for her pain.  

Mitch had arrived on Monday morning and I brought him and the nurses up to date on her pain level and what had been happening.  The nurse said she couldn't get out of bed anymore since he was putting her on Oxy every 4 hours and morphine every 2 hours. Her son, Mitch, and I agreed that she was not going to be happy to be told she had to wear  a diaper!  Mitch later told me he had to give Ativan in between the morphine doses to help with the pain.  

I had found a caregiver company for him, and he had the interview later Monday morning.  I left Monday morning to meet DD1 at Hobby Lobby at 10:30 am to shop for her Christmas decorations.  I kept checking with Mitch all day because not only did she have a fever, her extremities were beginning to swell.  Mitch and I spoke again at 9 pm. The next morning at 9:08 am he texted me that she had just passed away.  While I am grieving her loss, I am thankful that she did not linger any longer in pain.  She could not get up and down without help, but screamed with pain if you even brushed her skin.  I am so thankful that I had those last 2 days with her.  I even made her laugh a couple of times. The funeral will be December 17 for family only.  Thankfully Marv and I count as family.  

Anyway, I have blocked out her death for a while by going on a marathon shopping journey with DD1.  First getting her decorations.  Then I had to go to her house to help put them up since she said she has no design sense.   Late night then home to fix dinner since DH and DS1 are apparently not capable of taking the dinner I left for them and heating it up.  A grown man whining that he is hungry and when will I be home to feed him is NOT ATTRACTIVE.  Particularly when I am on the top of a ladder hanging up garlands! 

Tuesday the news about mom.  Then another marathon shopping day with DD1, starting at Ross and ending up at Burlington. Tuesday night at 10 pm I came home and packed the trailer.  After my tirade the night before the family wisely ordered pizza!  Wednesday I had to go to Costco with DH before we left for Nipomo.  

3 hour drive up and i was glad not to have to be on my feet.  Beautiful weather, lovely Thanksgiving with family.  Friday all the men, grandsons, and DDIL2 went shooting at the range.  DD1, DDIL1 and I stayed home and did a puzzle.  DGD1 stayed home and had the video games all to herself so she was happy.  BTW I will post a fabulous banana cream pudding recipe I got from DDDIL1.  Best I ever had.

DD2 and husband caught one ewe lambing on Thanksgiving night and stayed at our house to make sure she was ok.  Split twins both healthy.  Then DD2 drove up Friday to see the family.  Doofus stayed home with his family to scatter his brother's ashes.  and I drove home with DD2 Friday night.  Wrapped some presents and fell asleep in front of the TV/  Another ewe lambed twin rams Friday but I was asleep and in the am fund that a ewe had stepped on one lamb and killed it.  A hole punched in the stomach and the intestines showing.     DH had put 2 ewes in that pen because the weanlings were in one of the jugs.  I think the mother was in the process of giving birth to the second and the other ewe might have stepped on him.  However, she still has one lamb, so just a punch to the profit line.  I moved the young lambs back to the creep and moved the other ewe (snowflake) to the other pen.   Saturday more shopping with DD1.  Had to take DGS1 and DGS2 with us to the first store (Kohls) to get dress pants for church.  Then dropped them back at our house with instructions that they were to clean out the barn. (They had been very annoying at Kohls!   Then more shopping at 2 more stores. 

 Feeling my age by the end since I had to come home and fix dinner every night. Apparently dinner can only be eaten if *I *get it out of the oven and place it on the table! Not really interested in hearing that from DH.   Knee replacement is looking better after so many days on my feet non stop.  Put Doofus' name on his stocking.  I had bought him one since I couldn't go through the work of sewing another one.  His name is Dominic.  Showed it to DD1 and she said I should have left out the "O" and substituted a "U"!  He will never live down his bad behavior.  LOL

Annabel was not a good baby yesterday, refused to take a nap.  By the time her mother came, I was finished!  Barely able to get dinner in the table and do the dishes.  Oh yes, and do 2 more loads of laundry.  

This morning Snowflake presented us with twin ewe lambs!  Went down and iodined cords, then back up to do more laundry.  Annabel arrived and I gave her breakfast. Today she took a nice nap - the talk of duct tape worked - and I went to do my returns at 2 stores as well as more shopping.  Only one thing to order on line and I am DONE!!!
 
Most of the things are wrapped and sorted.  One pile to go under our tree, and a larger pile to go to DD1's house Christmas afternoon.  DDIL1's mom is going to Nipomo for Christmas, so we will take everything that did not go up at Thanksgiving to Natalie to take up for us.  DD2 had the stuff wrapped and then forgot to bring it when she came up.    OOPS!

All the ewes that were due this month have lambed now - we have a total of 3 ewe lambs and 5 ram lambs - with one ram lamb dying.  Nice crop from a young ram.  They look good - healthy and lively.  Next set of ewes due January or February.  Then Lewis has finished marking all the ewes with him and they will be due March and April.  In another couple of weeks I will move a couple more ewe lambs in with him.  Then change rams.  It is working well having lambs every month or so.  I don't flood the market at the auction, and my lambs are bringing between $160 and $180 each at 3 months.  

Well time to put Annabel down for another nap.  I need to look for some stocking stuffer gifts that I wrapped and set aside and have lost!  LOL  Better go - Annabel is crying for her nap.


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## Baymule

I'm so sorry about your Mom. I'm glad that you were able to spend that time with her, it is to be treasured. Big hugs.

Glad you had a good Thanksgiving with family. The best part-it wasn't at your house! Doofus's brother died? What happened?? 

That's too bad about the ram lamb, I hate losing one. But you still have a healthy crop of lambs.

Do you not get pizza delivery where you live? Surely your DH's fingers, weak though they may be from slow starvation, can manage to call the nearest pizza place and beg for food!   Bummer that he and your DS are so helpless that they can't even heat up leftovers! You should warm up some for YOURSELF and eat it in front of them.   Tell them NEXT time, to have it hot and ready to eat when you walk in the door, tired from shopping all day!


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## Finnie

I’m so sorry for the loss of your mom.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

I'm sorry for the loss of your mom


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## farmerjan

So sorry for the loss of "mom".  Really tough but at least you got to spend those last few days with her.  It isn't any consolation but with that amount of pain she is in a better place now and not suffering.


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## Ridgetop

Thank you for your sympathy, everyone.  Have known it was coming for the past year but it is still sorrowful.  With the amount of pain she was in and no prospect of improvement, just constant decline and increase in pain, she is at peace now.  She is with her daughter and husband, both of whom died about 15 years ago.

Doofus half brother was a drug addict and was discovered in a park dead of an overdose.  He was 18 and they were not close.  In fact at one point he had threatened both DD2 and Doofus.  Doofus upset DD2 because he was going to his mother's house with that family and getting drunk every day for a couple of days.  (For a while it looked like we would have DD2 moving to TX with us!)  He finally straightened up, sobered up, and came home.  The problem as she saw it was that he had cut off all contact with that side of his family because the mother and other half siblings were so toxic.  Then he got sucked back into the drinking etc.  For a while they wanted to have a massive expensive funeral but of course the family has no money.  Doofus volunteered to pay for all the flowers at one point which had DD2 fuming since they don't have the money for that.  Finally the family opted for cremation (which DH and I had suggested as the least expensive option) and scattering the ashes.  We were prepared to refuse to pay for the funeral if Doofus approached us for $$. So much drama! All I had to do was listen and make soothing sounds though.  LOL  Things are back to normal now.

I should have gone to Costco, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby this am for returns.  I need to pick up some stuff at Costco, laundry detergent, etc., and just return something at Hobby Lobby.  I was ready to go. this morning but couldn't make my legs get up and go out to the car.  I am exhausted after all the shopping and decorating.  I will go tomorrow.  DS1 needs to go to Walmart to order new glasses, and while he is doing that I will shop for Barbie clothes, etc.  DGD1 gets her first Barbie this Christmas.  Next summer she gets a Barbie house that I will make with Ikea shelving units.  DD1 has all the handmade Barbie furniture I made and bought years ago.  She and I will furnish it for DGD1.  It is a lot easier these days that when I made one for DD1.  With scrapbooking, the scrapbooking pages are the right side prints for wallpaper, and you can get miniatures stuff that looks like tile and hardwood.  I have some of my grandmothers tatted lace doilies for table cloths and bedspreads.  It will be a lot of fun to make.  We need to remove the old kitchen set up from her room to make room for the wall units.  

I also had really nice patio furniture, Barbie horses and a stable, etc. along with a garage and car that I have collected over the years.  I pick up things that I see that will make god Barbie furniture and accessories.   In case you were wondering I had a great doll house when I was a child.  There were 2, made for my mother and aunt by my great grandfather who was a German immigrant master cabinet maker.  He also made beautiful furniture for them.  I made Barbie furniture too when I was selling at church boutiques.  Enough for DD1's 10 room mansion!  LOL  I used to rearrange the furniture in my doll house more than i played with the dolls.  I didn't like to play with the dolls in the dollhouse because it would get messy.  Foretelling of things to come?  My dolls spent a lot of time away from their house!   LOL

DD1's Barbie had several children (using her little sister Skipper and little brother or cousin Ricky.  But instead of wimpy Ken for her husband she had a buff GI Joe!  I have 2 new GI Joes that I picked up a number of years ago for this purpose. They are good NRA members and come with weapons.  Barbie and her family will be safe from liberal crazies!      
Maybe we can mount the grenade launcher on the roof . . . .      

Guess I need to go to Costco this am and get it over.  Sigh.


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## Baymule

GI Joe, armed and ready! LOL LOL  You are one awesome Grandma! Making the doll house and furniture is outstanding.


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## HomeOnTheRange

Ridgetop said:


> BTW I will post a fabulous banana cream pudding recipe I got


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## farmerjan

waiting on banana cream recipes.....


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## Baymule

Y'all can have it, I hate bananas. Blech.


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## Ridgetop

Back again.  Not a banana person either but the recipe I got from DDIL is fabulous!  It has cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, and Cool Whip.  Lots of calories, but aren't they what God puts in food to make it taste good?

I talked to Mitch again today about my dear friend.  I have offered to help him in any way I can and he wants me to help with clearing her closets and bagging the clothes for donations.  I told him I would help him with that and any other stuff he needs.  His wife has a bad back - several surgeries - so is not terrible able.  The funeral is set for December 27 at 9:00 at the graveside.  

Finished all the Christmas shopping and now just have to make pickled peaches (promised DGS1) but can't make any Cinnamon Rings since they take 2 weeks and very large cucumbers.  I'll have to make several batches this summer.  DD1 and family are flying to Pittsburg after Christmas for 4 days to see family.  I will send some jam to Cindy (DSIL1's mom) along with candied ginger, and a few items she can't get there.  She is very sweet and I really love her.  She s not in very good health so they want to go back and see her this year.  She is not really well enough to come out for a visit any more.   Apparently we are to have the company of a well behaved guinea pig and lab puppy for several days.  LOL

The 2 babies are about 8 months now and are pulling up and standing.  Both are crawling well.  When they are together Robert continues to take all the toys from Annabel.  At first he seemed afraid of her since she wanted to be near him, now he has decided she is an interloper in HIS jumperoo, HIS baby jail play yard, HIS high chair, etc.  Yesterday he pushed her over and proceeded to try to eat her head.  DDIL2 has video evidence of this hysterical event.  Since Annabel has a big sister who plays with her she just takes all this for granted.  He doesn't sleep long unless sleeping with his mother and has a disconcerting way of looking asleep only topop his eyes open and stare long and hard at you  It reminds me of Bela Lugosi in Dracula.  The scene when the vampire hunters find the coffin at dusk and open it to drive the stake into his heart, Dracula's eyes pop open and he attacks them.  I told DDIL2 it is possible that he is a cross between a vampire and a zombie since he won't sleep and apparently wants to suck Annabel's brains out.    Annabel seems to love him anyway but maybe she is just under some sort of spell!  Anyway both babies are adorable and growing fast.  They will be walking in another few months.  They could be twins since both have dark hair and brown eyes.  So adorable.

Saturday DD2 brought Annabel over for us to babysit.  Both she and DSIL2 were working. Maysie was with her to be dropped off at DD1's for the day.  DS1 was cooking breakfast, DDIL2 was feeding Robert, DS2 was on the couch reading ad both DH and I were sitting un the family room with everyone listening to Christmas music.  DS1 threw another couple eggs in the pan for Maysie and DD2.  I told DH that this was what I would miss the most when we move to Texas - the family just dropping in and all being together frequently without any given reason like holidays.  He agreed that we need to enjoy this now while we have the chance.

I bought a lot of baby toys at Ross.  They have tremendous buys on Infantino, Baby Trends, and other good baby brands.  The prices are only about 25-30% of what you would pay even at Walmart.  I bought quite a few for Christmas then changed my mind. Instead of having a bunch of new items all at once at Christmas, I have been pulling out a new toy every week or so and putting it in the play yard for both babies to enjoy.  I gave a new toy to Annabel the other day.  She was at the other side of the play yard.  When she saw it her eyes got very big and she made these funny squeaky breaths of excitement then crawled super fast to get it.  Sooo funny!   DD2's birthday next Thursday. Just doing a cake.  She always not to bother but having your birthday close to Christmas is no fun anyway so at least we like to do a cake.

DD2 took DGS1 to the doctor for a referral to a plastic surgeon.  When he was 18 months old he put his hand on a glass fireplace screen with a fire in the fireplace and seared his hand badly.  Two of his fingers won't straighten completely because of scarring.  It should have been done several years ago but she put it off and has now decided it needs to be addressed.  She was annoyed with the doctor who asked 14 year old DGS1 if it bothered him and if HE wanted the surgery.  He said No and No.  So then the doctor asked DD1 if she didn't think he should be allowed to make his own mind up about this!??!!  
DD1 said "Well, he has some acne and won't wash his face properly or use the medicine he should use, nor does he think he should shower daily or use other good hygiene, so NO, I _DON'T_ THINK HE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO MAKE UP HIS MIND ON THIS!"
The doctor looked a bit taken aback, then thought a minute and said "Actually, you have a point."  Then the doctor turned to DGS1 who had been smirking at his mother and embarked a a 20 minute lecture on hygiene!   Score one for a parent who doesn't subscribe to the liberal thought that children should be allowed to make health decisions before they turn 18!  DD1 said that she wants to fix his fingers now since "he was perfect when we got him and we broke him so we need to fix him."  LOL

The weather was in the 90's a week or so ago but now had dropped to the 60's and 70's. This is when everyone in California gets sick because of these drastically fluctuating temps.

The truck was fixed but is now pulling to the left again when hitting the trailer brakes.  DH took the triuck with the trailer down to the shop AGAIN and he and the diagnostic mechanic took it out on the freeway and around surface streets to demonstrate how it pulls.  Now it is back to the shop next week since they now think they "know what the problem is".   Right! I told DH that they should give us a discount since he has now replaced and repaired all the other things that were *not* the problems but DH just snarled.  He is getting really annoyed at the dealership.  We need it repaired before we leave for Texas in mid-January.  We may have to drive out in the little car and _*rent*_ a truck to help Bay get her fencing panels to her new place! DH is optimistic that this new $1000+ repair will fix the problem. He got the Visa bill and started yelping about all the charges I had put on it. When we got to looking closely most of the $$ were repairs on the truck, trailer, trailer brakes, etc. Very little (comparatively) was Christmas shopping. Oh well, Twinkles is a good truck and deserves to be repaired properly. 

Trying to schedule our trip to Texas to get the work on the farm done.  I need to call back there and talk to the septic people again, and also email the electrician.  I think it will be mid January since we have an eye doctor appointment around Jan 8,  Since it take several months to get an appointment we don't want to reschedule.  Not to worry, I have long underwear, wool sweaters, wool socks, sweatshirts, winter boots and muck boots.  I need to buy a couple of pairs of overalls when I move back though so I can wear long underwear under my pants in the winter to work in the barn.  At least with all the animals, the barn will warm up in the winter.  I will put doors on each end of the long narrow lambing barn area so we can work out there in really cold wet weather.  DH is going to run underground electricity to the barn as well so we will have lights out there.  Before we electrified our barn we used to use lanterns.  Quaint and picturesque but I do prefer my electric lights and outlets.

Well the ewe with the HUGE - literally tennis ball size - abscess on her cheek finally had it ripen.  DH and I went down 2-3 days ago and I used the scalpel to open it.  A huge stream of green pus shot out.   Must have been half a cup in there. Once it was flushed out with iodine the skin looked like an empty bag on her face. When you get that size abscess on the cheek, there are other pockets of pus around the original one. Then you have to wait for those to drain into the original abscess site. Checked her tonight and it is filling up again. Tomorrow DS1 and I will see if it is ready to drain again. We had one on another ewe a year or so ago like this. It is from dry stalky hay that pokes a hole in the skin. Especially in the mouth there are lots of bacteria and they cause these Actinobacillus abscesses. It is also called Cruelz disease. I had it cultured and it is *NOT* CL.  Thank heavens.  Several sheep breeders have said they get it as well.  Some drain and doctor the abscesses, others don't bother.  We prefer to drain them since it helps to contain the bacteria if it doesn't rupture on its own in the pasture.  But very YUKKY!  DGD1 went down with us to play with Snowflake's twin ewe lambs and said it was very gross.  Then she named the wooly lamb Betty.  Apparently she is enough of a farm girl now to see gross stuff and take it as it comes.  Proud of her.

BTW, DD1 said that she had to hand out behavior pamphlets to the students.  The pamphlets were about how to behave at school and had a chapter about "Gus in the Home".  One of the students said in a shocked voice "Who would even have a gun in their home?"  Another female student turned around and said "We have guns.  It is our American right!"  I told my daughter that I would give her a $5 tip for that kid who supports the 2nd amendment!  LOL  DD1 did elaborate to the class that you must keep your guns, if you have any, under lock and key.

Well got to go look for some of the postings that I haven't been getting notices about in my email.  Sometimes my computer stops notifying me of the postings I have been following and then I have to search for them.


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## Baymule

I feel ya’ on the truck problems. I pulled a trailer to Groveton several weeks ago. Fuel line cracked and spewed diesel. Son had to load it on a trailer and bring us home. Repair bill was $490. Took sheep to auction Saturday, when I got home, dropped trailer, there was diesel blow back on the trailer. Taking truck to shop this morning. AND this happens just when I need to go north of Dallas to pick up a registered ewe, 10 months old! 

Car is chugging and either needs a tune up or fuel filter/ fuel pump. After I take truck this morning, I’m taking the car for them to hook it up to a code reader, take her temperature, check her heartbeat, pulse, blood pressure and will to live. 

Now the stupid heating and AC unit won’t come on. I’m getting annoyed. All of this costs money and Social Security has been depositing BJ’s check in the account, then jerking it back out since September. I finally had a PHONE appointment last week. Can’t go to the SS office to actually TALK to anybody because they are drawing hardship pay for working from home! At least now I know how much SS will let me have from the goodness of their shriveled heart. But I don’t know just WHEN that will be! Maybe next month, maybe the end of this month. Maybe not. 

I got good prices for the 4 sheep I took to auction Saturday. @Devonviolet and her husband met me there and we watched the auction together. Maybe I can pay for the registered ewe and the truck out of that. 

Gonna be in the 30’s this weekend, guess I got to call AC/heat repair. 

I chronicled my hitching the trailer adventures on my journal, go check it out.


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## Ridgetop

Found your journal and will be watching it now.

The ewe with the abscess filled up her cheek again so after a couple days DS1 and I drained it again.  Very little pus but lots of thick stringy blood clots!  Drained those and now it will just reabsorb any blood.  I gave her a whack of Penicillin and although there is still some swelling, she looks better today.  It looks like there is another abscess forming behind this one on her face which is what happened on the other ewe with the ginormous cheek abscess last year so we will watch her closely.  DS1 says possible auction candidate.  Too bad since she was an expensive ewe but a tendency to abscess means a low resistance to Actinobacillus.  Constantly having to doctor abscesses is time consuming any gross!

I pulled the 5 cards for the yearling ewes that needed to be bred and DS1 went out this am to sort them in with the ram.  He came back and said that he couldn't find one of them.   After looking in the pedigree book, we realized that was the yearling ewe I sent to auction because she was such a b****h to handle!  I usually pull the registrations when I sell them, but we were in a rush before Thanksgiving and with "Mom" I forgot.  2 of the ewes we moved down to Lewis are his daughters from last November and October.  They were overlooked when we moved the other Lewis sired ewelings in with Smalley. Decided to get them bred now since I wouldn't be changing rams till January, so put them in with their sire.  If these inbred ewe lambs look really nice I will keep them - one generation of inbreeding won't hurt.  If I don't like them that much they will go to the auction but at least the ewes will get bred NOW instead of waiting another 2 months till they are 14+ months old.  Wasteful to keep ewes too long before breeding them.  They should already be pregnant for March lambs!  There are some January through March Axtell sired lambs coming along to be bred in January/February. Might just keep Lewis in the breeding pen for them as well.  Lewis will be 6 in May and I really like him so might as well get as many ewe lambs out of him as possible now while he is in his prime.  His lambs are very fast growing.  

Truck is back in the shop.  The 5th wheel is due to go in too for something.  Not sure what.  DH is on a hay buying binge right now.  Connex is full, barn is full, shed is full, and he is bringing home another trailer load.  Went down yesterday but no hay till today. Went down early this afternoon and already sold out!  No hay now till Friday.  Everyone must have the same idea to stock up.  It rained a Monday night and is supposed to be a large storm tomorrow.  Hope it rains hard since we are in a drought again.  

The last hay DH got looks like older hay.  It is very dry, but is tightly baled and is peeling off in 1" flakes.  DS1 went out with DH this morning to see how he was feeding because the sheep seem extremely hungry.  DS1 discovered why the ewes are trying to break out of their jugs and acting like they are starving.  They _*are*_ starving!  Apparently when we said to feed half a flake per sheep we did not explain we *meant half of a 4" flake not a 1" flake*.  DH was happily feeding a 1" thick flake for every 2 sheep and congratulating himself on how long he could make a bale last!  No wonder the sheep were screaming all day!  Now he has adjusted the amounts.  The new hay looks pretty brown in the middle of the bales instead of a nice green alfalfa.  I told DH and DS1 that we will have to get some barleycorn to supplement the pregnant and lactating ewes.  Next year DH plans to buy a whole field in June/July when prices are low.  Maybe we can have it analyzed for protein content so we can feed more exactly.  

This week DS1 and I have to dock 3 ewe lambs, vaccinate all the lambs and their mamas. Then we will turn the two older lambs in the creep onto the field with the main flock and run the ewes and older new lambs into the creep.  We may move the new lambs in this weekend since DS1 wants to rake out and clean the creep a bit.  That will give us time to clean the jugs again and me before the end of December when 3 other ewes are due.

I started to do some cross referencing on my flock to cross check the ewes and their progeny.  It started to get too complicated though.  I will need to have several card file boxes to do it properly.  I will ask DD1 to tell the children that I would like 3x5 file boxes in different colors for Christmas since they always get individual gifts for us.  They should be able to get card file boxes for under $10.00.  Also will need a lot of index cards! Maybe I should just stick with the different colored ear tags.  That reminds me that I need to order green and blue ear tags for the lambs in the barn.  

There is something else that I need to order from Jeffers but can't remember what it is.  I bought some Focus Factor which is supposed to help my brain.  the drawback is that yu have to take 4 horse pill size capsules daily!  I will check out Prevagen and Neurowhatsit as well to see if there is another brand that you don't have to swallow so many giant pills. I find myself forgetting words and it is very annoying when doing my crossword puzzles! We did see on the news that Viagra is being tested as a preventative for Alzheimers.  DH was very excited about that.

Well, got to go.  Making strawberry sauce tomorrow with the frozen strawberries in the freezer.  Freeing up freezer space.  No need to make jam - still have cases of jam and jelly in the laundry room.  Instead I figure I will make strawberry sauce for French Toast and ice cream.  I can always thin down a jar of jam and convert it to sauce or syrup too, but since I want to get these berries out of the freezer might as well make sauce now.  I made 4 quarts of pickled peaches the other day  Did it the easy way like Gammy taught me - use canned peaches and just put them up in the vinegar syrup.  When I have access to fresh peaches I do them with fresh peaches but this way I can just do it a couple weeks before Christmas and voila!  Pickled peaches for my grandchildren!  They think I am magic and I do nothing to dispel that belief.


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## Baymule

I just park a round bale for my sheep. Surround with Half cow panels and they stick their heads through. Only drawback is they eat in so far, then can't reach any more, so I have to pull hay and put it up close enough for them to reach it. Ringo can't stick his big head through the holes at all, so I make sure he has plenty up close enough to stick his nose in and eat. When I design the perfect system of round bale feeding, I'll let everybody know. LOL

Ringo is with 4 of his daughters right now. I'm waiting for results! 3 of them are Miranda's triplets, 1 is a granddaughter of Miranda's. Kinda heavy on the Miranda lines, but oh well. Brought in 3, registered girls for Ringo, that ought to tip the scales and balance things out. 

I have 4 heavy bred ewes, Ewenique (hope she has ewe lambs-she always seems to have more boys) Eve and Lucy-both daughters of Miranda and a Dorper ram and Frimplepants-Ewenique's granddaughter. Frimplepants is out of Ringo, bred back to him. Excited to see what I get.


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## Ridgetop

Another week gone by since I was on here.  Have finished all the cookies except the Lemon Squares.  Still have to roll out, cut, bake the Almond crescents, or as my family have renamed them Moon cookies.   Then need to cookie press and bake the Jelly Centers.  Both sets of dough is made and n the freezer though so half that work is done.  Decided not to make extra cookies this year.  I made Snickerdoodles and Rum Balls this year so that will be 6 varieties.  I will do a large cookie platter for Christmas at Stephanie's and also make 2 Banana Cream pies, Mini Cheesecakes, and pumpkin pies.  That should be enough for 15 people, 2 of whom are 9 months old.  Everything except the banana cream and pumpkin pies can be made next week and frozen until Christmas.

DS1, DH and I went down and vaccinated, docked, and tagged on Monday.  Ran out of green ear tags as I expected so did not tag Snowflake's twin ewe lambs except for their scrapie tags.  Used the last of the original scrapie tags too.  We will start the new year with the new lager bright yellow scrapie tags.  DS1 ordered a new set of green and blue tags as well.  Snowflake's ewe lambs will get the first of the new green tags.  We also retagged Snowflake since she lost her Purple 1 tag.  Thank goodness we do a herd tag and a scrapie tag since we have had to cross reference several times to ascertain which sheep we are retagging!  I suggested tattooing ears but was promptly vetoed by DS1 who stated he would not now or ever tattoo wildly kicking lambs.  He went on to say that tagging was hard enough.  So I will not pursue that suggestion.  

Rechecked the 3 ewes that are supposedly pregnant.  2 are definitely due the ed of the month but the other one is not.  We were not sure why she was included on the board as being bred since she is quite young.  Then DS1 remembered that she had gotten into the breeding pen somehow for a day.  The ram rubbed marking crayon on her so we put her down as bred just in case, but apparently he was just over anxious.  That is good since she is only 10 months old and is due to go in with the ram next month.

Got DS1 a new kindle for Christmas since he lost his a month ago.  Yesterday he came in with it from where it had gotten wedged between the seat and console somehow.  I told him he did not have to pretend to lose it if he wanted a new one.   He is redoing the library for me since mine (which he had borrowed) is not holding a charge anymore. Mine is the oldest of all of ours. So he ordered a new cover and is wrapping it up for me for Christmas. DS2 is getting a new cover and DS1 said we will keep my old one to turn in next time they have a special sale. The next new one goes to DS2 for his birthday. In the meantime, we have a spare. Al Christmas shopping is done and wrapped except for DGS1's special sweatshirt that is from some special website where they are individually designed and made up as ordered. They will not even make it until 12/17 but it is guaranteed to be here for Christmas. It was the only one he wanted so if it comes late too bad. DS1 sold a couple of his computer games and Game Cube and bought a used Wii for DD1's kids. It only came with one controller so he kept that controller as a spare and ordered 4 others for me to give DSIL1. The kids get the game but their dad gets _all_ the controllers!  That is the sort of sick joke our family delights in.  

Preschool Christmas program this morning.  DS2 got home from a cancelled job just in time to go with us to see Maysie perform.  So warm and encouraging for all those 2, 3 and 4 year olds to walk into a church to sing to a bunch of masked strangers.  Can anyone say intimidation?  The program went off well though and the minister announced that there were a lot of bicycles that had been donated and were being sold for $10.00 each!  Proceeds for charity.   I got a medium sized pink one for DGD1 so she will ride it with DGD2 and let DGD2 ride her own 2 wheeler.  She has her ow bike at her house but this will be for here since Maysie's bike is here.  Also got 2 brand new helmets that were being given away with the bikes.  I gave Pastor Arlo $20 and she tried to give me change but I said no since the proceeds are all going to buy Christmas gifts for foster kids in a group home.  On the way out I saw a cool push car (the kind where the child sits in it and pushes it along with their feet - Crazy Coupe?) and was amazed to find that it was also for sale for $10.  Another $20 found its way to Pastor Arlo and I became the proud possessor of a Cinderella Coach drawn by a white horse.  Well in actual fact, the front half of a horse, but you get the picture.  All the granddaughters will love it and probably little Robert too.  DS2 said that Robert is forbidden to ride in it but I promised to get the pickup model of the push car next year for Robert's first birthday and he relented.  The entire family agreed that, in the perverse way of toddlers, Annabel will probably grab the truck and Robert the coach but they will enjoy them.  DS2 also got a tiny little green 2 wheeler with training wheels for Robert.  LOL  Then we went along to the classrooms so DS2 could say hello to Miss Cindy, Maysie's teacher, who was his preschool teacher.  Naturally she couldn't believe that this 6' guy with the beard was little Carl.  Cindy and I agreed that while we may be older, we still look as good as ever and ARE IN OUR PRIMES!  LOL

The funeral is on Friday.  I have been communicating with Mitch about it.  We will pick up Don and take him to the graveside service with us.  The family has decided no after service gathering.  Mitch is uncomfortable holding it in his mom's house with some of the relatives that are coming.  I offered to have it at my house but Mitch said that they would just go home.  I think there is some strain between him and his niece and nephew.  I am here is he wants to talk but I won't butt in.  Oddly, I was sitting and watching a Hallmark show with DH and there was a scene where they were doing a Posada.  It was not a sad scene but for some reason I started crying thinking about Lois.  I had not cried since she passed.  

So got home, finished making my appointments and calls, wrote some checks, checked and cleared my e-mails.  Now I need to go fold 3 loads of clothes and put them away.  Still have to work on my sheep records.  I am writing down all my breeding records in a notebook from the white board where they are listed temporarily so I can refer back to them easily.  Now once they are removed from the white board after lambing I have to look them up on my calendar month by month.   Putting the information in a notebook so I can refer back to it will make things easier for me but I have been putting that off since it will be a lot of work.  It needs to be done though, maybe tomorrow.  Can anyone say "man~ana"?  Oops that needs the little squiggle on top of the A not in between.


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## Ridgetop

Lois' (mom) funeral is tomorrow.  I am not looking forward to it since it means that I have to face her actual death.  Until now I have been able to avoid accepting it.  It is a simple graveside service with only her closet family and friends.  The visitation was today but I didn't go.  The casket was closed.  Then I realized that I had not sent flowers for the visitation which meant that I had to pick them up to take with me tomorrow.  We have to pick Don up at 8:00 am to take him with us to the gravesite too.  I should have ordered the flowers to be delivered to the visitation then Forest Lawn would have taken them to the grave with the casket.  I have been trying my best not to remember that she is really gone.  I guess that was a mistake.  These are the last flowers I will be giving her.  She always told me not to send them because it was a waste of $$ but she always enjoyed them.  In the immortal words of Scarlett O'Hara "I won't think about that now".

The truck seems to be fixed.  Only about a gazillion trips to the shop and another gazillion $$.  DH had me ride along with him when he pulled the trailer over to the trailer shop.  We went on the freeway so he could slam on the brakes to test whether it still pulled to the left.  It didn't so hopefully . . . .    The slideout has been giving us trouble so DH and DS1 looked at the slideout mechanism and one of the gears is broken AGAIN!    This brand of trailer seems to have big problems with the slideout apparatus. The gears (cogs?) are weak or something and they keep breaking.  The gear thingy will take a week then it goes to Ekhart for a trailer wheel bearing repack and brake job. We are getting it ready for our trip to Texas the end of January.  I told DH that when it comes home I will pull out the dinette benches and table and he said there wouldn't be time before we leave for Texas.   It will only be in the shop for a total of 2 weeks max and we have almost 6 weeks before we leave - how much time does he think it will take to remove the dinette benches and table base?  They are held in with screws.  Just unscrew them and out they come leaving the carpet without any holes.  He wanted to know what we would use for a table and I told him (for the 100th time) I would put a card table and some folding chairs in the trailer to use.  The banquette is so uncomfortable for both of us to slide in and out of.  We ordered it with the banquette because we expected to go camping with the family and it made into a bed but we never used it as a bed so it is coming out.  There is storage under the banquettes but one of the pull out drawers broke when we were in Texas last year so I will take the drawer front and use it as a cupboard door under the bed.  I want to cut openings in the forward part of the bed frame so we can access the storage without lifting up the entire mattress.  The forward part of the under bed storage is hard to reach so if we have cupboard access we can have better use of it.  

I also have to sort and load the tools we will take with us to Texas.  We won't take the table saws, but will be taking the air compressor and the nail guns, battery operated tools, Skilsaws, Sawsall, etc.  Also a bunch of our hand tools and drywall tools.  I have to make sure to load the electric heater.  I am considering buying an electric blanket for the trailer too.  Texas will be cold.

Something was prowling big time yesterday.  The dogs barked from about 7 pm till 2 am.  first all of the were congregated in the front along the road, then they moved down inti the breeding pen.  I went outside to see if i could identify what was bothering them but nothing because it was dark.  I think I will ask for a night scope for Christmas so I can check out what the dogs are after at night.  Anyway, after barking around the lower front pasture for about half an hour they relocated to the side of the property then the rear gully.  Next, they separated and were barking from different locations around the perimeters.  Whatever was there they were not happy about it.  Tonight has been quiet.  It is possible that a cougar is moving out of the foothills and into the area.  This is the time of year we sometimes get them coming into town.  Haven't heard any coyotes which sometimes means that there is a larger predator in the prowl.

Talked to Erick this morning and he said that neither of his 2 bitches had conceived.  He has 2 younger bitches that he is very excited about breeding.  They are going to be OFAed and he has chosen a terrific dog to breed them to.  The dog is a terrific worker currently guarding a large herd of Spanish goats and has beautiful conformation.  He is also not as aggressive as Bubba which will be a good thing.  The litter will be a slight outcross.  We are on the list for a bitch.  Breeding planned for spring so will be coming back to Texas in Fall to pick up the puppy.  Haven't told Rika yet that we expect her to train yet another LGD!  LOL  We will not be spaying this bitch since once we move to Texas we will breed one litter of puppies IF she is a good worker.  If her conformation is excellent I might also put her in a couple of shows to see how she does.  I have a good Anatolian handler I can use.  Have to see, but it would be nice to finish one of Erick's pups on the west coast.  One of these 2 youngsters took Reserve Winners bitch at the National Anatolian Specialty last summer.  A younger pup of his took Winner's Bitch on another day.  Both straight out of the pasture and into the show ring.  It just shows that you don't have to sacrifice working ability for breed ring performance if you know your genetics.

Off to bed now.  Lots to do tomorrow after the funeral.  Keeping busy keeps my mind from mom's death.  I am very good at mind control.


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## Baymule

Put me on the list for one of your female pups from the pup that you are getting that hasn't been conceived yet. 

Somehow, that feels like trying to set up a slaughter date for a pig 1 1/2 years in advance, that not only isn't born yet, but that I haven't even located a prospective breeder yet. At least I'm ahead on a pup, I've got my eye on a prospective breeder. 

I'll have plenty for y'all to do when y'all get here!  I'm about to swing into full on moving mode. The family that looked at the farm Wednesday has been approved and the process has begun. It can only get crazier from here.


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## Margali

Baymule said:


> I'll have plenty for y'all to do when y'all get here!  I'm about to swing into full on moving mode. The family that looked at the farm Wednesday has been approved and the process has begun. It can only get crazier from here.


Yay on approved buyers. 

Let me know if I can help. I'm great at dissasembling things and schelping. Work is going to be super slow week between Christmas and New Years. You'd be saving me from paperwork.


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## Baymule

Margali said:


> Yay on approved buyers.
> 
> Let me know if I can help. I'm great at dissasembling things and schelping. Work is going to be super slow week between Christmas and New Years. You'd be saving me from paperwork.




I'm thinking rent a uhaul and get a lot of stuff out of here so I can get the floors done--REdone! I'm picking up boxes at my sister's this evening. Packing time! 

But I have to get the Groveton house livable. Right now the so called master bedroom has a big doorway sized hole in the back wall with a piece of plywood propped up against it on the inside to keep rain out. Rotten carpet, Filthy McNasty, yuck. The rest of the house is good, just got to get all the lumber out of the living area, can't even roll a dolly through there. 

I got to kick this thing in high gear. I'm thinking 60 day closing, maybe sooner, but probably not later.


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## Ridgetop




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## Finnie

Baymule said:


> I got to kick this thing in high gear. I'm thinking 60 day closing, maybe sooner, but probably not later.


Well, you didn’t really want to wait until March anyway, did you?

Congrats!


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> about 4 years from now Bubba will be over 9 years ldPut me on the list for one of your female pups from the pup that you are getting that hasn't been conceived yet.



Don't hold your breath sine I am not even sure I want to breed a litter from this bitch puppy that will not be born till mid-summer then has to be at least 1-2 years old for OFA x rays and certification, THEN another 1-2 years to mature and breed.  By then Bubba, the prospective sire will be over 9 years old.   Getting a little old and less potent which may set any breeding back another year since I (or more probably Erick) will have to find a good working sire.  Not sure I want to breed *any* litters since it is cheaper and better for me to just buy my evaluated and started puppies from Erick. However, I did promise him that I would breed a couple litters of puppies for him and then bring them to him to evaluate and sell for me.   While I do love puppy litters, they are very expensive to raise.

Funeral this morning.  Don called this am and said he had been up all night grieving and couldn't face the burial, so we did not pick him up.  He was at the visitation yesterday. He is not doing well.  Invited him for Christmas.  Just immediate family, a close friend, DH, and me at the funeral.  No get together afterward.  Very upsetting to actually see the coffin.  I have not been at my best all day.  Back was aching and knee and ankle really hurting.  Probably the cold wet weather.  Yes, we actually got a full day and night of rain Wednesday, then it rained again last night.  Worried we would be outside in rain for the burial and took my umbrella but the sky cleared up.  Still cold though. 

After the burial we drove over to Daddy's and Mom Robbins' graves.  They are also in Forest Lawn cemetery.  We were unhappy to see that Daddy's gravestone has sunk abut 4" or more.  DH said he would go to the office and ask them to fix it, but I told him that the cemetery would take forever it they even bothered.  Told DH we would bring over a pick to lift the stone n each end and a bucket of sand and dirt from our place and fix it ourselves.  Daddy was turning in his grave until I said that.  I could feel his approval that we would do the job ourselves.  Forest Lawn would also probably charge a massive fee for "resetting the gravestone" too.  Also, something of which Daddy would have disapproved.  DH was also unhappy because the permanent in the ground vase also seemed to be missing.  Told him we would come back, raise the stone to the proper height, and just place flowers on top of the grave.  In that area the Griffith Park woods are only several hundred feet away and the deer come down and eat all the floral offerings anyway.  We learned that at Mom Robbins' funeral.  

Went by the bank afterward to have the affidavit notarized for the septic permit in TX. Have to send it, the other application papers, and a check back to the septic company so they can pull the permit for February install.  

Came home and did some stuff before leaving at 12:30 for my hair appointment and nails.  All DD1's children were here since apparently they all got off early and DS1 was on an emergency run to pick them up as well as Elizabeth and Maysie who had different pick up times due to the Christmas holiday schedule.  DD2 got off early from work and picked up Maysie, then came by so Maysie and Elizabeth could play together.  Maysie loved the Cinderella carriage.  Elizabeth announced she was the Footman and pushed her around. DS1 had the boys cleaning the creep pens while Elizabeth played with Maysie.  Then the girls helped move the ewes and babies into the creep.  Snowflake remained in the larger jug since her lambs haven't been tagged yet.  Tags due in a day or so.  As soon as they are received we can tag the twin ewes and put them in the creep too.  The other 2 hugely pregnant ewes will go into the jugs tomorrow.  They are due on December 30 and 31, but if they actually bred 1 cycle earlier, they will lamb this weekend.  They are certainly big enough!  I got home and collapsed.  

DD2 took her 2 kids home and I made dinner for everyone.  7peopl since I sent ahead and fed DD1's kids.  DD1 had called DH to say that she was exhausted and needed a quick rest. Then fell asleep and did not show up.  At 6:30 I put diner in the oven for everyone since I figured DD1 would not be picking them up before dinner.  Put on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and had eggnog with a shot of rum while watching with the kids.  The 8 year was sent to the bedroom to watch cartoons.  The older 2 debated whether they were allowed to watch it since it was PG13.  I told them at my house it was ok.  The 11 year texted his mother who texted back that he was not allowed to watch it, but I ignored it.  DGS2 will be sorry when I don't allow hm to watch Home Alone (his favorite movie) or Jurassic Park!  The rum was calming.

I got cranky with everyone because they were arguing loudly and I was not in the mood. Then about to start dishwasher and noticed a piece of cake still on the table.  Asked and was told it was DH's piece that he had not bothered to get.  I blew up at DH who apparently was too lazy to ask for it to be passed to him, and now all the placemats are back in the drawer, and he just sits there looking at me to bring it the length of the table to him!      Knee hurt, and I was probably cross from funeral.  Also did not help that DH was telling DSIL1, who had shown up at 7:45 for kids while they were eating desert, that we would keep them overnight!   I said take them home.  DH snickered like he thought it was a big joke.   He does not know when to tread softly.   Annabel is already coming tomorrow since both parents are working.  Not sure where Maysie is going.  Not very happy with DH at the moment!


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## Finnie




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## Ridgetop

In bed last night and the phone rings at 10:37pm.  DGS2 is whispering on the phone which naturally makes me think something is wrong.  As I prepare to leap out of bed and rush to his assistance, he tells me that his mother is very angry at him for watching Christmas Vacation.  She is also angry with the rest of us for allowing it.  She is not angry Not so Darling GS1, his 14 year old brother, the rat fink snitch who told her about it to get DSG2 into trouble!   According to DGS2 she has forbidden *all 3 *of the children to come over or see us ever again.  We all laughed at that since it will only last till she needs a babysitter or someone to pick up her kids.  Does this include watching DGD1 after school and watching her dog during the week?  Poor DGS2 was very upset, so we told hm that we would talk to her and explain that I MADE him watch the movie.  He was even more upset about us talking to her because this was apparently a secret call to warn us of his mother's anger.  He swore us to secrecy about his phone call.  

This morning DH, DS1, DS2, DDIL2 and I discussed DD1's problem.  We all agreed that she is over controlling, and we would not mention the call to her since she was probbly stressed from her job and temporarily insane at the time.  Got a text this morning from DD1 scolding us and telling us this was why she would not let the children go on any trips with us because she couldn't trust us to follow her orders.    After we got through laughing and dissing her, we all decided to pretend it never happened since we know she will send the kids over when she is busy, needs a sitter, or just wants a break.  Not to mention the fundraisers we are expected to support, etc.  She is also the one who can't stand the thought of us moving to Texas because she wants her children to spend as much time as possible with us.  

Anyway, this morning DS2, DDIL2, n DGS5 went to Lake Arrowhead in the mountains to see Santa's Village.  Quite a production getting off.  I had to go down to the shed and find the larger stroller seat so the baby would be comfortable instead of sitting in his tiny carseat all day.  DS2 kept insisting that that was not what DDIL2 wanted thinking that he was supposed to find the entire stroller.  Brought the seat up and found out that she had the stroller base in her car but since she uses it the car seat she needed the larger one, etc. yadayada . . . .   He brought the stroller base in to make sure that the larger seat just snapped in instead of having to be mounted with screws or other attachments.  Then I had a good time watching him trying to fold it back up.    DD2 had arrived with Annabel by then and we enjoyed the show as he tried to force the stroller to bend in half.  Finally, DDIL2 came in and with one hand collapsed the stroller.  More laughter at his expense.

After they left, I fed Annabel and put her down for her morning nap.  Then made lemon squares.  This year I tried a batch with lime juice too to see what that would taste like. Now I am waiting for the Almond Crescent dough to thaw so I can roll, cut, and bake those cookies.  I will do the Jelly Centers tomorrow and finally the Snickerdoodles.  I was planning to do all those with the grandkids but since I am a forbidden person now, I will do them alone.  😄  This is actually easier.  I never liked baking with my kids since it took more time, made more mess, and they ate half of the finished product before I could safely get them into the containers!  I realize now why my Gammy never baked cookies with us when we were children.  My children's cookie baking memories are centered around their Grandma Robbins who enjoyed doing that.  She was a brave woman.  

So today I am determined to fill out the file card system to cross reference my sheep flock, sires and dams, breeding exposure dates, marking dates, and lambing dates.  Then I have to clear the white board in the office and put up the new lambing and marking dates.  Then plan the next group of lambs and ewes to go in with the ram.  Now that I have so many breeding ewes and ewelings, I need to get this more controlled instead of just shoving a few in when we think of it.  Need to be on a planned schedule every 8 months.  Breeding, 5 months pregnancy, 3 months lactation, wean lambs and back in with ram to repeat cycle. When I was just keeping the ram with the flock this was the cycle they were doing themselves normally even with nursing lambs at their sides.  With adequate nutrition they can handle this breeding schedule.  As we get the schedule refined, we should have 5 ewes lambing every month.  This will give us a set of ewes with newborns in the jugs, a group of month old lambs in the creep, and an older group moving into the older lamb and ewe pen getting ready to wean.

Got to get to work.


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## Baymule

My heart goes out to you, funerals for loved ones smack you with finality. You got smacked around and it’s a deep hurt. Big hugs. I love you. 

I did the math. 5 ewes to lamb every month. That’s 60 ewes! OhGreat One! I hope to catch up to you some day! 

Your DD1 offers a lot of laughter to the family. Be sure and keep her around. Knowing you and your dear DH, how did y’all spawn a child with such high anxiety? LOL


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## Ridgetop

Actually half of those ewes will be repeats during the year and the timing will skip some months.  We now have 30 ewes if you don't count the babies in the barn.  

Yes, DD1 is very OCD and extremely dogmatic.  With regard to her children, if she was Chinese she would be called a "Tiger Mother".  Even though she is not Chinese she is still a Tiger Mother.  

In her defense I am also OCD - all my cupboards are labeled, and the contents arranged in labeled storage boxes.  Same for the tool shed and storage shed.  I have always liked being organized and making lists but some of my OCD organization was learned early in my married life when I realized that DH did not organize anything and was capable of losing everything in record time.  My first protective act was to get my own household tools and HIDE THEM FROM DH!  His naive belief that he could leave anything he was working on outside and have it be there a year later (in the same condition) was brought home to me when he decided to rebuild the engine in his 67 Camaro.  Small parts were strewn across a rickety picnic table under a giant avocado tree.  During the winter the wind blew pieces away and covered the rest with leaves.  The following summer DH announced he would now complete the rebuild work on the engine.  Five minutes later he came roaring back into the house demanding to know who had "messed with his engine parts that he had left on the picnic table"!  

That scenario has been repeated many times throughout the 50 years we have been married.  My OCD organizational tendencies are now explained.  I can only assume that they were deeply ingrained in DD1.  

I too used to be very dogmatic and see things only in black and white.  Over the years my views have softened.  My grandchildren get candy, a no no for my own children.  I tend to try to roll with the punches instead of taking it on the chin or blocking and delivering a KO.  So much easier on my aging body and nerves.  Poor DD1 has not learned that yet.  Of course, she is a teacher and still trying to teach children who refuse to do any work and whose parents demand passing grades for failing work.  Abd she has a just turned 14 year old.     Poor girl.  Hopefully she will learn one of these days.  In the meantime, we just ignore her until she gets over it.

EMERGENCY!  DH just rushed (or rather gimped heavily) down the hall to demand to know what I have done with all the jumper cables.  This is the downside of my organizational skills.  I am assumed to now where every item is located on the property whether I ever use it or not.  

We used to have several sets of jumper cables, one in each vehicle, one in the emergency it in each vehicle and several spares in the toolshed.  I came out to check and after looking in all the sheds *THERE ARE NO JUMPER CABLES ON THE PROPERTY. * Apparently, DS1 found a set by the back door but it fell apart when DS1 tried to use it.  DS1 and DH have now gone to Lowe's to buy jumper cables.  There might be one in the trailer, but it is currently at the shop being repaired for our TX trip.  DH is annoyed because somehow it is my fault that we don't have any laying around in plain sight when he wants them.  The last time we were on a trip and used them to start a stranger's car, DH made him a present of our jumper cables since he felt the guy "would need them again".  Possibly so but that would be why there are none in the truck now.  I told DS1 to get several sets since I feel you should carry a set in each vehicle for emergencies along with flares, a blanket, and a small emergency kit.

Two riders are enjoying the trails behind the house today.     Love seeing the riders out there.  We used to have at least 20 people on horses on those trails every day on the weekends and holidays.  All summer kids riding bareback out there, and about 5 adults every evening.  Hardly any riders any more.   

Got my lemon and lime squares made yesterday but I don't think they turned out too well.  I don't like them that well anyway.  The Almond Crescents turned out perfectly. Mainly because that is all I concentrated on doing.  I will do the Jelly Centers today. Those are a cookie press cookie.  I use the electric press my mother gave me about 20 years ago.  I found out you can't buy an electric press anymore when the plastic tube cracked!  Luckily DS1 found some used ones on EBay.  I now have spare parts.  Once those are baked and in the freezer, I will only have the Snickerdoodles to do.  I will wait till the middle of the week to bake those in case DD1 needs to leave the kids here for babysitting.  You can see how seriously I take her threats.  LOL  I will also make a batch of mini cheesecakes.  Those are wonderfully easy and tasty,  You use a vanilla wafer for the crust by dropping it into a cupcake paper and then fill the cupcake paper with cheesecake mixture and bake.  3 cherries from cherry pie filing on top of the baked cheesecake finishes it off and looks really festive.  If you have any fresh mint, stick a leaf in the filling to top it off for Christmas.

I still have not gotten my sheep flock records transferred.  I had a backache yesterday after standing to bake all day.  Also, my shoulder hurt badly when I raised my arm.  Instead of sitting down to work o the records I sat down and watched British detective shows.  I am not sure why I hurt so badly, but maybe it is psychosomatic - I really don't want to work on the sheep records so my body is paying tricks on me.

Speaking of British detective shows, I notice that the detectives follow suspects in such an obvious manner that the bsd guy sees them right away.  The cops might as well be carrying signs that say "Shadowing a suspect".  They also don't carry weapons so when faced with a knife wielding or gun toting suspect they are at an extreme disadvantage.  In Britain you have to call for backup from the ART - Armed Response Team.  They are the only ones with weapons.  These British cops are either very brave or extremely reckless. Although a lot of the criminals don't have guns either and seem to give up pretty easily. I also have to translate British for DH and also the strong regional accents.   The Scottish accents are the worst for poor DH.  His hearing is bad enough but when combined with a strong burr and peculiar diction I need to turn on the subtitles for him.  British English is almost a different language.  

Well, got to go start on the Jelly Centers.


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## Baymule

Ok so 30 ewes. That’s still twice as many as I have. LOL

Hahaha on the jumper cables, plus all the things gone astray over the years.

Your mini cheesecakes sound easy! How smart you are!


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## Ridgetop

Well, all mine are white so maybe I don't have a correct count . . . .       

And last week it was pretty foggy and I really couldn't see _any _of them . . . . 

I am afraid to go out and do an accurate count.  LOL


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## Baymule

ONE. One white blob. Just ONE. So that means you almost don’t have ANY SHEEP AT ALL! Quick! Go buy some more!


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## Ridgetop

Will make the Snickerdoodles today.  That finished all the christmas baking until I have to make the pies.  DS1's friend is coming down from Reno soon.  I need to have a pumpkin pie for him.  He loves my pies.  He is the friend that recommended the Lav breeders and then went and picked out DD1's pup.  Might have to make him TWO pies.  That is a great pup.

DD1 came by yesterday.  As I figured she had calmed down.  She talked with DS1 and myself about the movie.  She said that she realizes that we would not show a movie that was not suitable to her children but admitted that she was somewhat over concerned about what they watched.  She watches the show first to make sure that it is ok.  Anyway, she was agreeable.  I knew that she would not prevent the children from coming over here.  We discussed Christmas and DS1 said they would bring a lot of the gifts over this week before the big storms supposed to come in tomorrow.  

Yes!           We are supposed to get 4 days of heavy rain from now over the Christmas weekend.  Maybe we will actually have winter rain this year!   And pasture!

This evening DS1 and I will sort out the bred ewes that have not recycled and turn them into the big field.  We will sort out the ewelings due to be bred and turn them in with Lewis.  3 ewes will stay in with him - the ones that we just turned in last week, and another that recycled yesterday and marked.  I have another 3-4 that are 11-12 months old and need to go in to be bred.  Next month the ewes whose lambs just went to auction will go in with another ram, probably Smalley.  Etc.  Getting harder to tell who is who.  After they _are_ all white! 


At the same time, we will bring in the two ewes that are due on December 30 and 31.  With the expected heavy rains expected we would like them in the barn just in case they decide to lamb early, I marked them down wrong or miscounted, etc.  Don't need lambs drowning in a muddy paddock.  My ear tags arrived yesterday.  We will tag Snowflake's lambs tonight and move them to the creep pen with the other small lambs and their mamas.  Then ready for Christmas in the barn.

Annabel has cut her first tooth.  DD2 is thrilled and thinks Annabel is the smartest baby in the world to have produced a tooth.    DD2 kept poking her finger into Annabel's mouth to feel the tooth.  I finally told her that if she kept doing that she would push the tooth back down into the gum!   DH took Annabel and tried to feel the tooth too. Annabel bit him.  Hard!     Poor baby - nobody lets her eat the interesting stuff she finds when she crawls around, but they stick their dirty fingers in her mouth!

Robert got a walker for Christmas.  It is over at his Lolo and Lola's house now.  I wanted it for here because it is a John Deere Gator!  We had DS2 order the pick up truck for here.  Those two walkers were more expensive than the cheap old fashioned one I was going to order but I was overruled by the men in the family.  Actually those 2 walkers are cool because once the baby is actually walking you lift off the truck and/or gator part and flip up a handle and the toddler can push them around.  Two walking type toys in one.  Pretty cool.  Unfortunately, Robert had to walk up and down the hall since the walker would not ft in the family room with the baby jail, jumperoo, and furniture in place.  We moved the jumperoo into the living room temporarily, and took out a leaf in the kitchen table to give more space.  

On Sunday night I let the LGDs into the house for family time.  Rika was at the door and she seldom asks to come inside so . . . .  Everybody got a dried pig ear, and the sound of 3 giant dogs crunching up their treat drowned out the TV.  They all barely fit and I had to carefully step over and between legs and tails to get to the sofa.  For ginormous dogs they are very calm in the house and very delicate about how they take food from hands. Soon Angel asked to return to the sheep, then Bubba, and last of all Rika.  That was surprising since Rika is usually the first one back out.  It has been cold (for us) and darling Rika may be feeling some age at 10 years old.  

The dogs were on guard again last might.  Definitely something is hunting around our perimeter that they don't like.  I have been thinking about an infrared night vision binoculars to see if I can spot what is out there.  There are some good ones that take videos and photos as well.  But with the amount of brush around our property will I be able to see anything?  Hmmm . . . . 

Off to the Snickerdoodles . . . .


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## Baymule

I'm trying to catch up on posts. Got the two little granddaughters asleep. Now I have a little time before I go off to bed-between them so they can kick like mules all night.


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## Ridgetop

Ouch!  LOL

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

Having a calm and restful Christmas.  Everything is done and all gifts bought and wrapped.  Made my pies yesterday, 5 pumpkin, 2 banana cream, and a mince pie.  Mock mince actually, with mincemeat from a jar, but added extra rum and some apples that were getting soft.  Then we watched Christmas movies beginning with DS1, DS2, and DS3's  "Best Christmas movie ever!" - Die Hard.  LOL

Next watched Christmas Chronicles, Fred Claus, and DS1's favorite - White Christmas.  We have the sing along version so the 3 of us sang along on all the musical numbers.  It rained all day so couldn't do anything except enjoy a quiet day relaxing.  My knee had been very painful for several days before but when it started raining it stopped for a while.  My grandfather used to say that his "roomatiz" told him when it would rain!  I guess he was right!  After seeing the doctor and finding out that my knee was bone on bone it starting hurting badly!  Told DH that going to the doctor had made it worse, so it was a lesson not to go to doctor anymore!  LOL

Got up this morning at 4 am - couldn't sleep thinking about the defrosting turkey in the sink.  Washed it and put it in the fridge wrapped in a wet dish towel.  DS1 and I will make the stuffing today and stuff the bird Christmas morning to put in the roaster.  As usual had to rearrange the fridge to find room for the bird.  25 lbs.

Today I will make a large cookie platter for Christmas Day.  Cookies are in the freezer - just a matter of arranging them on large platter. DGS1 wants a pecan pie. Super easy to make so might make one.  Storm is still here so raining all night and most of Christmas Eve.  We will watch another couple movies today, Christmas Carol with George C. Scott, Christmas story, Christmas with the Kranks, etc.  Love being able to find these on streaming services.  Although now they are charging for the best Christmas movies.

Moved the sheep around on Tuesday evening.  Took our 4 that had marked early November and not remarked.  6 of the 11 ewes in with him are now marked.  A couple might remark since he marked 3 each night.  He's got stamina.  LOL  Moved the 2 ready to deliver ewes into the barn.  Tagged Snowflake's twin ewe lambs and moved them into the creep.  A little worried about having so many ewes that will be due at the same time.  I have 5 jugs and can use the creep pen for another so al the young lambs should be on the field by then.  But I will have to move the young lambs into the creep early to accommodate all of the ewes that will be lambing in May.  I'll figure it out then.  

DS2 and DDIL2 took Robert to his Lolo and Lola's yesterday. They spent the night with her parents and might spend tonight there as well.  Not sure.  Not worried.  They said they will be back on Christmas morning.  Then we will all go to DD1's house after opening our presents at home.  Tonight we will meet DD1's family at church for the 5:30 pm vigil service.  Can't do midnight mass anymore.  Fell asleep in the middle of the sermon 45 years ago and DH had to elbow me to stop me falling over in the seat.  The pew was crowded so it kept me upright, but he said I was beginning to snore!  No more midnight masses after that!  We started doing vigil masses when the children started coming along.  Much easier and kept them from getting too impatient for Santa.

I think I will go back to bed for another hour or so till DH and DS1 wake up.  Need a nap! Hoping for another rainy restful Christmas Eve.  

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!!


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## Baymule

Day after Christmas. Wake up and survey the carnage. Go back to bed.


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## Ridgetop

Christmas is over and it was lovely.  No arguments, everyone happy with gifts, lovely dinner.  Rained all day o Christmas and afterwards through New Year's Eve.  Yay!  hope it will bring in some forage for the sheep.

Have guinea pig and lab puppy for DD1 and family while they go to Pittsburgh and Maryland to visit DSIL1's relatives.  They all took Covid tests from kits before going and DD1 tested positive twice.  Then she went to a Covid test center and tested negative s they were able to switch their tickets for a day later.  Back today.

Kept DGD2 and 3 after Christmas during winter break and got sick.  They have been sick off and on since Thanksgiving.  Survived Covid, Delta, and Omicrom but brought low by DGD2 and 3.  Have a terrible cold that started with sore throat and slight cough, got worse.  Went to bed for a week.  Much worse.  Still sick and not showing improvement, just getting sicker.

Both DS2 and DS3 have been sent on storm duty to the mountains to repair electric lines brought down during the 2 week storm.  DS2 is in Lake Arrowhead and DS3 is in Tahoe. Both got 3 feet of snow in 1 day in each place.  BRRR! 

Ewes still have not lambed.  Here are pix from last week.  7041 is ewe with mohawk.  This is her 5th lambing, and she was born January 22, 2017. 7088 is ewe without mohawk. This is her 5th lambing, she was born March 28, 2017.  They usually lamb around the same time and mark around the same time.  They are my oldest ewes, and generally lamb every 8-9 month alternating twins and singles.  This year they skipped one lambing because I forgot to put them in with the ram before we left for Washington in May.    Duh!  Got back in June thinking they were in the breeding pen.  Checked the white board and wondered why they weren't on the board as being bred.  Checked the flock and they were in with main flock not ram pen.  OOPS!  Checked the calendar and realized my mistake so tossed them in with new ram and bred ewes.  They are last set of ewes to lamb out of new ram from show last May.  

Anyway, they are due soon, any bets on when?  If they don't lamb soon then I expect major explosion in barn any day.  Looking at these pix they don't look as big as they are in person.  Must be the angle.

GLD7041
 GLD7088

We have 4 rams that we rotate, and I had assigned each of them a color.  All ewe lambs are tagged with the sire's color tag.  We don't tag the ram lambs with anything except their scrapie tag which is required at our auction now.  If you bring in sheep or goats with no tags, the auction will tag with its own scrapie tags.  

This year I made another change.  I had to reorder my scrapie tags so used Valley Vet which offered free personalization on Scrapie tags.  The original tags supplied by the state were .25" x 1.25" - super tiny and hard to read even with tame sheep.  The new tags are 5/8" x 1 3/4" and printed on both sides.  Easy to read.  When it came time to reorder the colored tags, I ordered the same size in the ram colors.  I only order 25 at a time since that will take me through several lambings on that ram considering I only expose 4-10 ewes at a time, and only use them on ewe lambs.  The ones with the buttons were hard to read because you could only read the number from the front of the ewe.  With these being numbered on both sides, it is much easier.  I might start ordering them with the ranch name registration prefix on them in the next order.

Up for 2 hours, made tea, and on computer.  Going back to bed now.  🤧   Got to try to check everyone's posts soon.


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## farmerjan

I hope that you can start to feel better, but it might be time for a trip to the Dr's office..... you are wearing out your reserves by it dragging on so long.  You aren't going to be able to make the trip to Texas if you aren't feeling better....


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## Baymule

Please go to a doctor and get over this sickness!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Christmas is over and it was lovely. No arguments, everyone happy with gifts, lovely dinner.


Are you sure you haven't entered the Twilight Zone??

Get well, sick is no good!


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## Ridgetop

It is possible that my memories of Christmas were merely delirium.

DD2 took baaby to doctor and was told just a cold.  Why bother to go?  I am already on penicillin for future dental work so . . . .   

DS1 said that I look better today.  That sweet boy said last week I looked like a corpse.  Today he said I look better, not decomposing yet, so must be recovering.     DS1 is getting me something to dry up the flow from the sinuses.  That will help the sore throat, and cough too.  Really need to get better and put way the Christmas decos.  This particular cold virus sems to take at least 2-3 weeks to clear up.  

7088 lambed yesterday (?) right after I posted her photo.  BIG twin rams.  Too sick to weigh them but they look like about 9 lbs.  Yay!  She still looks very large but then these are nice heavy mature ewes.   7041 should lamb soon.  Then we can do first vaccinations January 13 and do second vacs on the same day for the previous lambs that arrived in November.  Also changed ram crayon so the end of month we will run out the ewes that have not remarked, and change the ram again for breeding the next batch and any that did not mark.  This time I will double check to put everyone into the breeding en that needs to go there before we leave for Texas.


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## Baymule

Glad you are feeling a little better. Tylenol Sinus Severe and Musinex is good for sinus drainage and colds. Delsym cough syrup stops the dry coughing. I buy the Walmart brand.


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## farmerjan

I like the Mucinex type stuff for thinning mucos and getting it to drain and then clears up.  I use store brands mostly... Guaifenesin has been around forever...  Mucinex came in and made it much more popular... I have seldom taken a cough medicine so am not much help there.


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## Ridgetop

Off the terminal list.  Survival optimal.  BUT - DH has now come down with it.  He is coughing and came to bed at 6pm last night.  He always thinks that he can't catch anything.  This is what come of cuddling a sick woman.  

He is confined to bed and whining about wanting to watch football.  Had to get DS1 to switch the TV to regular stations instead of the special movie and Brit Box ones.  Told him to be a good boy and I would bring him some orange juice.  Already gave him some stuff for his cough.  

Annabel is recovering, but Baby Robert is still coughing and has runny nose.  DDIL2 is getting runny nose and cough now too.  DS2 was sck while up in snow in Arrowhead working storm watch.  Getting better.  DS1 has mild case threatening but says ok now.


DS1 brought in the tree and tree ornament boxes.  I am going to take down the tree today and hopefully get some of the other decos down too.  Feeling a lot better so need to make hay . . . . etc. etc.  DS1 is putting on Small Change movie (Bill Murray) to watch while I pack up the ornaments.  The ornaments are all delicate, most handmade, so take hours to remove, wrap in tissue and pack away.  

7041 looks close to lambing.  Udder is filling and vulva softening.  Once she is done, we will just have to vaccinate all.  Older ones second series and these first series.  When we get back from Texas they will be ready for auction.  And another group apraching lambing.  

I use a large white board for breeding, but I really need another white board with all the so I can keep track of approaching lambing dates.  I use my calendar, but the print is small, and it is easy to overlook upcoming lambing ewes.  Need to find wall space to hang another white board!  LOL  Maybe on front of shelves in closet space?  Or hang on back of door.  Needs thought.  Rotational breeding throughout the year is challenging.

Off to take tree down for another year.  This Christmas season really passed quickly!  The older I get the faster the year goes by.  Seems like only yesterday it was DGS1's first Christmas - now he is 14 and as tall as his mother!  

Got to thinking about the pioneers and how whole families would come west to claim land.  With 3 DSs, 2 DSILs, 2 DDs and 2 DDILs, not to mention 8 grandchildren, we could have carved out an empire!!!  LOL  I guess our 45 acres in northeast Texas will have to do.  At my age it is a big enough empire with which to deal.  

Trailer is in shop for final repair of water damaged siding.  As soon as it is back, I will start working on removing the dinette, loading tools and cold weather clothing, etc.  Hopefully DH will be up and running (or hobbling) in a week.


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## Finnie

I’m glad you are getting better. Too bad it has to work it’s way through the whole family. 

Maybe you all have “flurona”.


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## Baymule

Why bother with testing? By the time the appointment comes around, the sneaky virus will have left the building, leaving behind only remnants of symptoms that will still be kicking his butt. Then he'll have hours of waiting in line, which I'm sure will make it all worthwhile. Plus the added bonus of absolutely NO TREATMENT. You're on your own anyway, so why bother.

Order this now! I buy the Walmart brand, but since you seem to be in the epicenter of no diagnosis, and people who probably don't even have covid and don't NEED relief as bad as y'all do, they have wiped the shelves clean. You can go look anyway. I keep this on hand, it works and stops the coughing. I had the granddaughters over Christmas holidays and they had just had their Covid shot. I slept between the coughing snot heads and soon was a coughing snothead myself. I gave then the cough syrup and me too. Good stuff. 



			Amazon.com
		



Order the Carhart overalls, top it off with the Carhart coat. The heavy duck canvas blocks the wind. I am a Texan, used to HOT SCORCHING weather, freak winter storms shiver me to the bone. Heck, ANY winter storm shivers me to the bone! Overdressed? Yeah, but I'm toasty warm! I also have flannel lined blue jeans, thick woolen socks and a sweatshirt my Mom got me in Scotland in the early 1980's that I can only wear one or two days out of the year. But for those couple of days, I'm WARM!  The Scotland sweatshirt was made in China. Of course, where else?


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Today DH called the covid number to find out where the location for the drive through test was. It took him half an hour on hold on the phone to talk to someone and find out the location, then they out him on hold again while they checked to see if they could give him an appointment time.


Is testing in Cal by county same as vaccinations?? 
Seems pretty messed up. Here the state has a website where you find the closest test or vaccination site and pick your date. No calling ... well there IS a phone number, for people that don't have internet I guess.

I agree with Bay, no real reason to get a test a week after you get Covid unless it isn't resolving. And then if it is bad enough one needs to hit the hospital. Where they will give you a test  

Vermont opened up an online "get 2 test kits by mail free" site yesterday. DW wants to have some around for "in case" since you can't find them at stores currently. Supposed to be "live" at 10, no link on the page until 10:30. Got in, put in my zip, got the "you are eligible" page (Vermont addresses only) then "extremely heavy volume try in an hour". Screw that I hit the first page about 6 times before it let me in. There are only 500K tests, 2 per kit and you get 2 kits regardless. That means they will run out and apparently did fairly quickly.

Put in the address ... can't find it?!? Changed "Rd" to "Road" and it found it, then it changed "Road" to "RD"  Someone needs to learn how to do a case insensitive search of their database. In any case, the 2 kits were ordered yesterday and shipped from Amazon today according to my text alert.



Ridgetop said:


> DSIL1 is also sick so he is working from home for the rest of the week. He is picking up DGD1 as well so she will not be exposed.


So she won't be exposed to Covid but can get what he has (assuming it isn't Covid) instead???? I'm confused.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> So she won't be exposed to Covid but can get what he has (assuming it isn't Covid) instead???? I'm confused.


Yes, unless they make her sleep in the garage.  LOL   Exposure is imminent for everyone.  No need to stress over it, but we don't need any more people here to look after.  Not sure of the incubation period either so we may have gotten it from DSIL1 and DD1 before they left for Pittsburg on 12/29.  

DD1 texted me this morning, very upset that we were not rushing out to stand in line for hours to get tested.  Gave her the info about length of time to test and no cure available for regular people.  Hope the info quiets her down.  I know she is worried but if we have anything it is probably Omicron which is much less dangerous, and which children can get easily.  

DD2 keeps insisting that her children tested negative, but those tests are not always correct.   She just texted that she is running a fever and sore throat.  She and family are going now for Covid test.  She is blaming _us _for giving it to her even though her kids have been sick with cough, fever, and runny noses for a month!  It is always the parents' fault.   

DS2 tested positive at work yesterday morning but the crew made hm stay and work because if he went home, they would not have the required number of people on the crew per OSHA.  Then they would all have to go home.  The foreman and other crewmen were sick over the weekend and called in sick on Monday and Tuesday. No shift, no pay. I think that is what is coming for the whole country.  The government is no longer paying salaries for Covid positive workers, and people need to pay their bills.  They can't get Covid tests so will just be showing up for work anyway.  Maybe we are seeing the end of this with not enough monoclonal antibody cures being produced, the bill to produce more test kits not signed, the government letting in all the illegals without testing them and lots of them being sick, grocery sheves empty, eventually we will just have to accept that it is something with which we need to deal.  We have vaccines if you want to take them.  Masks don't work.  And production of the cheap medicines that work to cure Covid are being suppressed by Biden's government.  Americans will only take so much of this b******* before deciding to get on with their lives and going back to life as we knew it.  

I am not going to get tested and if DH recovers between now and Sunday he will probably not go either.  In the meantime, he feels he is doing something to help himself. What that is, I don't know, but it keeps him busy between fevers.     At least he got his own aspirin last night.  Pitiful!    

Still waiting on lambs from 7088.  Records show tomorrow is last due date.  If no signs of lambing I will do an interior check.  I have learned that older ewes don't always show signs of incipient lambing like younger ewes.  7041 showed no signs then suddenly tossed out 2 big lambs.  These old girls are in no hurry, they just get down to business with no fuss.  

I have decided I will need to get the knee replacement before moving to Texas.  I will probably get it over the winter next year.  Need to get some work done during the summer on the ranch.  It is getting more painful, and sometimes won't hold me up.  Getting worse fast which is strange.  Maybe psychosomatic because I know the knee is bone on bone now.  

Going to check on Carhart overalls now.  Oh yes, and dose my patients with the 3rd dose of Ivermectin.  Then they will get 3 days of Doxycycline.  This is not a 3 day virus, more like a couple weeks but we can see the end.  This Omicron or Delta, or whichever strain we have is different than normal flus though.  Dizziness, bone and muscle pain are bad, and you stay weak longer.


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## Bruce

Probably Omicron, I think they said it is about 95% of all new infections in the country.


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## Ridgetop

The Plague House no longer echoes with paroxysms of .coughing.  We seem to be conquering the virus, or at least lasting it out!.  DH has hardy coughed at all today , and I seem to be just on the tail end of whatever this was.  Almost no coughing, minor runny nose.  DS1 and DDIL2 are recovering.  DS2 still coughing so forced some Delsym down him today.  Hopefully we are on last week of this virus.

Whatever we had, it lasts about 3 weeks.  First week with intermittent fever and chills, second week with cough and runny nose, and a final week as you stop coughing and dry up the sinuses. Weakness and dizzy spells can occur. DH says that toast tastes bad now. I have no appetite.

Night before last DH had a lot of dizzy spells and had trouble getting to his feet. He went to bed at 6 pm again. He kept me awake all night long coughing. Yesterday morning, in Snarling Zombie mode, I shoved a double dose of Delsym nighttime cough syrup, 3 aspirins, a Mucinex (no acetaminophen), Ivermectin, and Doxycycline down him with orange juice and hot lemon and honey. He slept for 24 hours. The kids and I kept checking for signs of life. He kept kicking off the covers and I kept replacing them. When I went to bed last night, he had kicked them off again and was stone cold. It was like cuddling up to a corpse, but I did my wifely duty to warm him up. This morning he was better. He got up, showered, and is sitting up in the recliner under some blankets watching football. He has not coughed at all and says he is just very weak. Keeping my eye on him for signs of a relapse.  I offered him chicken soup and he demanded a quesadilla so must be on the mend.  Gave him chicken soup in a mug.  Quesadillas later.  I am washing all the bedding - 3 loads, and remaking the bed.  No time for making any quesadillas.

DS1 has almost recovered. DS2 is still hacking away so I might have to dose him again with Ivermectin.  It is a threat to make him take cough syrup.  The injectable Ivermectin apparently tastes horrible.  Should have gone with the apple flavored horse wormer.      DH was supposed to have his Covid test today but was too weak to go.  Probably no point anyway since he is now on the mend, and as I pointed out previously, the doctors will not prescribe anything that will help you!  As usual when DH is sick, he is very pessimistic.  I told him that if he did not recover that I would drive to Texas by myself.  He just made a noncommittal noise but that may be because he did not hear me properly.

DD2 just texted that DSIL2, DD2, and 4-year-old DGD2 tested negative.  *BUT DGD3 9-month-old Annabel tested positive for Covid! * Now we know the source of the infection.  DD2 had Annabel at the doctor 2 week ago and the doctor said the baby just had a cold!!!  So glad that the doctors are so trustworthy.    Both DD1 and DD2 are blaming US for "contaminating Annabel" at our "Plague House".  Difficult to see how that happened since Annabel has been sick since before Christmas!  I will make Annabel a bib with "UNCLEAN" written on it with a bell attached - like lepers had to have in the middle ages to warn off the villagers.  LOL

Took a break to let the family know about the plague carrier in our midst masquerading as a sweet baby girl.  Warned Robert to run screaming if his cousin approached him.  While I was in the kitchen I made the quesadillas.  And passed out cough medicine.

7088 lambed this am.  Split twins.  She seemed a bit restless last night but not really in labor.  Bubba was lying next to the pen though so figured it would be last night.  These dogs just seem to know.  One of them usually is in the barn when a ewe lambs.  Anyway, no fuss, just two lively kids in the morning with a big puddle of afterbirth.  Let Bubba in to remove the afterbirth - he has come a long way - while I iodined the cords.  Will have 7 ram lambs to go to the auction in March when we get back.  Hopefully prices will still be good in March.

I still have a load of clothes to wash.  That will make 3 loads to fold and put away after remaking the bed with the clean bedding.  I should point out that I dragged myself out of my own sick bed to wash the linens when I was still sick and remade the bed too.  I point this out to reinforce the song "I am Woman hear me roar (or cough as the case may be".  We are tough.  

The truck backup camera has now been repaired.  The trailer should be done this week and will come home the end of the week when DH feels better.  Then I will remove the dinette - DH shouted at me about doing that, but the dinette is a big space hog, and we don't like sitting at it anyway.  It is uncomfortable for DH to even fit in it, and the cushions are low.  I cannot even use it for my computer because the tabletop is uncomfortably high.  Removing it will leave space for a card table and folding chairs.  Also, space for a storage chest for our winter clothes for Texas.  DH then demanded to know where I intended to store the dinette sections.  I told him I would put them in the tool shed since all the Christmas items are now back in the Connex.   He went into a paroxysm of coughing trying to argue, and I left the room.  I have my own tools and I refer you back to the "I am Woman . . . " comment.  

I went on Amazon and was going to order the Carhart insulated overalls but even on sale they were $100.  I found another maker with good reviews (a couple people rated them better than the Carharts, except for not being waterproof) and was going to order them at $77.  I can get them in purple which will make me look like a giant eggplant.  Scary, but one looks for humor where one can, and if I can brighten someone's day with a smile I will have done my part in these dark days.  On the other hand, I just realized they only will deliver Prime on February 20 which rather defeats the purpose of taking them to TX.  

I also ordered some thermals for DH.  He has regular overalls already and can just wear the thermals under them. With woolen socks and our boots we will be ok.  Might have to get him some larger rubber boots since he says his are not big enough anymore.  ??   I did not know that feet keep growing at his age, but since they used to fit and now are not comfortable, he needs another pair.

I also considered buying an electric mattress pad for the trailer.  It would cost $150, so I will use hot water bottles instead.  We used to use little Pretzel but she is no longer with us .

Well off to the laundry again to switch loads.  "I am Woman etc."


----------



## Ridgetop

OMG!  This place has just returned to Intensive Care status!   DS2 is gagging and vomiting in the bathroom unable to breathe.  Went to help him.  Returning through the hall found DH on his hands and knees in the hall.  He had slipped and couldn't get up.  He has been complaining of weakness with this virus and was supposedly helpless in his recliner watching football. 

"Why was he in the hall?" you ask, "Why did he leave the safety of his recliner?"  That was the question asked by all of us as we tried to help him up.  He wanted an ice cream cone! Too weak to get up for anything else he snuck out to the laundry room figuring he could make it there and back before I returned from caring for the other habitues of the Plague House.  He tried to time it right - I had just taken laundry to the bedroom, DS2 was in the bathroom upchucking his guts, DDIL2 was caring for Robert, and DS1 was outside.  A clear field he thought BUT he underestimated his strength.  Pride goeth before a fall - literally in this case.  He is now sulking in his recliner with his ice cream cone after a scolding by moi.  DDIL2 is telling DS2 that he can't go to work tomorrow no matter what the rest of the crew says.   DD1 and DD2 are texting each other back and forth on the family chat line about how Annabel obviously caught Covid from ME.  Maysie is not allowed back into preschool even though her test was negative because her baby sister is positive and everything as usual is Mom's fault.  

I am about to wash my hands of everyone and drive to Texas by myself.  Only one thing holds me back - I haven't gotten my flannel lined overalls yet.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Do you have a Bare Bones store near you? I don't know what the price might be but they should have lined overalls. 

I hope your family gets better soon!


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## Baymule

Isn't everyone in your family vaccinated? It's no good against Omnicron. Probably won't be any good against the next variants either. At least it is a much weaker version and y'all are getting better. Well, maybe not. Puking and falling down for ice cream don't sound so good.  

Get well, get your cold weather clothes and warm weather clothes packed. You may need both on the same day! LOL

I need help putting up a lean to shelter for the sheep and dogs. Note to self: get treated 4x4's. I have stacks of reject and used lumber and used tin. Only have to make roof strong enough to hold me while I crawl around on it and put pitch on the holes in the tin. HAHAHA


RING! RING! RING! 

TEXAS IS CALLING!!


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## Ridgetop

Falling down for ice cream is only allowed for Bluebell!  DH said the throw rug slipped under his foot.   He is still pretty weak.  

DH, DDIL2, and I are vaccinated, but this is probably Omicron for which the vaccinations are not effective anyway.  I have not been anywhere since Christmas Eve when we went to church.  Someone must have brought it to me since I seem to have been the first in our house to get it on New Year's Eve.  I think I am almost recovered while everyone else is a week behind me in recovery time.


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## Ridgetop

Got text from DD2 tonight.  Now 4 year old DGD has a fever and tested positive for Covid.  

DH is still sick, although recovering slowly.  He is pretty weak from all the coughing.  DS2 is also still sick and coughing.  Coughs so hard he ends up vomiting.  He stayed home from work today and will have to call in sick tomorrow too.  He needs to notify the apprenticeship office too.  At least his work knows that he had a string positive result on his rapid test.  DS1 is back to normal.  DS1 and I both are O blood type while DH and DS2 are B.  I wonder if that has anything to do with DH and DS2 being so much more sick than DS1 and I.  

Told DDIL2 that seeing the 2 of them laying in the recliners with blankets over their laps made me think of a convalescent hospital.  All we need is wheelchairs to be able to opt them on the patio for fresh air.  Hopefully they will be better soon.  DH is very cranky and demanding.  He doesn't deal well with being sick.

It has been raining here every couple days now.  Not big storms like the rest of you are getting, but enough that the hills are all green.  We are getting some green stuff growing on our gully sides too.  DS1 said he might go out to TSC tomorrow and pick up 50 lbs. of pasture grass seed to toss out on the hillside.  I told him that if he does that, we need to get 50 lbs. of peat moss to toss out with the seed to try to protect it from the birds.  Of course, as soon as he broadcasts the seed we won't get any more rain and it will not sprout!      We are probably getting rain because DH brought in about 10 tons of hay.  The Connex is full, and so is the shed.  He announced that he would go get more hay the other day (during the rain) but DS1 and I stopped him.  Possibly delirious!  At the time DS1 was running a high temp and unable to stack it.  Right now DH is so weak that he has stopped mentioning it.  

DS1 and I have to do the second round of inoculations on month old lambs and the first set on the 4 new ones.  Also have to dock the one ewe lamb and vaccinate the 2 ewes.  Then move Lewis out of the breeding pen.  Then we need to sort out the ewes and in another week the next ram can go in with a new set of ewes.   

Off to bed now.


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## Baymule

It seems like this Covid will never leave your family! At least it is the weakened strain. But it still makes everyone feel terrible. The weakness hit me, I couldn’t even walk to the sheep barn. It took weeks for me to get any strength back. Is the family’s taste and smell affected too? 

I’m really sorry your 4 year old granddaughter is sick too. 

Rain! What a luxury for you. Green! Have you forgotten what that color is? The sheep will really enjoy that.


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> Green! Have you forgotten what that color is?


The problem with green now where Ridgetop lives is it turns to brown in the summer then turns to fire 

I hope the family gets better soon Ridgetop!


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## Ridgetop

The sheep will eat all the green before fire season.

DH says that food tastes a bit off.  DS1, DS2, and I have no appetite (good for my weight I suppose).  I am worried that if DH doesn't get better soon it will delay us getting to Texas for a couple weeks.  I made him stay in bed today and he slept most of the day.  Very unlike him.  

At least DS2 called the union hall and told them he was positive for Covid.  He is home. Watched all 5 Jurassic Park movies today and at times the roars and screams were drowned out by coughing paroxysms.  Had to turn the volume up.


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## Bruce

I know YOUR sheep will eat the green before it goes brown but sheep pastures aren't the source of the devastating wildfires!

Man, I hope that y'all kick the Covid bug soon!


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## Baymule

At least you are keeping your sense of humor. Delay your trip to Texas??? NOOOOOO!!!!


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## Bruce

Drag DH and his deathbed there on time? NOOOOOOO!!! Best to wait until he is all better.


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## Baymule

Hahaha! Yes, he needs to stay home and be tended to by his loving, doting wife.


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## Ridgetop

He is obviously feeling better.  Just called me on his cell phone to ask for lunch!


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## Baymule

RING! RING! RING!

ROOM SERVICE!!!!


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## Ridgetop

Took his phone away.  Told him I needed to charge it.  

The wind has been blowing badly - about 50 mph for 2 days and most of the night. Finally has stopped now.  At one point was worried about the roof. We have lost the roof several times over 35 years.  Everything seems ok today - stuff blown across the driveway and patio but not missing any sheep or anything!   

DH has been sleeping in his recliner and has been so weak that needed both DS1 and DS2 to pull hm up and help him walk.  Went down yesterday and got the new walker we had ordered for MJ and kept in the milk shed until needed.  

OMG!  It was on the top of the shelf on the side wall of the milk shed.  DS1 and DS2 had completed moving all the stuff from the Connex into the milk shed and I had not gone in it yet.   

The shelf that was placed against the back wall was still half empty while stuff was stacked on the floor in front of the other shelves!!!     I had to move stuff around and climb over stuff to get to the rear shelf, then move the 10 five-gallon emergency water bottles on to the empty shelf out of the way so I could get to the shelf with the walker.  The walker box was under the wheelchair ramp.  Had to remove that, then the walker, then replace the ramp.  Finally got the walker up to the house and assembled it. DH used it yesterday and today.  He says he is actually feeling better just incredibly weak.  Since he rarely gets sick, and usually is strong as an ox, this has annoyed him considerably.  He is a bad patient.  Luckily, he sleeps a lot.  Gently placing a banket over him and patting him is all that is needed to soothe him.  Plus cough syrup.  And watching the football games.

DH has been sleeping in the recliner for the past 3 days.  Slept in our bed last night.  I was glad to have him with me, but his coughing woke me several times.  Glad I had 3 nights of uninterrupted sleep before.  He is doing better though and DS1 was finally able to get 2 bottles of Delsym cough syrup today.  We ran out yesterday.  Stores have been out of cold remedies.  If you see cough syrup etc., snatch it up and put it in the cupboard for when you need it.  

I am still coughing occasionally.  DS2 and DDIL2 got a rapid test yesterday and are negative now.  They are still coughing but are much improved - no fever or chills in several days.  DD2 got a test and is positive, DSIL2 hasn't gotten his results back yet.  

We are still coming to get to Texas but now it looks like we might not leave until the first week of February.  I am worried about DH being recovered to drive.  I don't drive the trailer.  The trailer will be back the end of this week, and I will remove the dinette.  DH will still be recuperating so I can get it done without interference.  Then I will pack up the tools and with the help of DS1 load them in the trailer.  The winter clothes will go in a large plastic container in the trailer.   I have already cleaned it out and it can be loaded in the house.  

I didn't order our insulated stuff since Bay said the weather had gotten warm but now I see that it is cold again in TX!  I need to have DS1 order it.


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## Ridgetop

The Plague House seems to be resuming its basic function.  DS2 eft ast night for Lake Arrowhead and 4 days of 24/7 emergency work in the heavy snow.  DDIL2 is taking the opportunity to go to her parents for the week with Robert.  Her father and mother haven't seen Robert for 2 solid weeks.  Her dad is suffering from Robert withdrawal and they need to do an immediate intervention.   

DH is feeling better and says he can walk better now although still using the walker.  He is going to the VA today for a Covid test.  Probably will be negative at this point.  No fever for 3 days, and coughing diminishing.  Needs to build up his strength again.  He has lost 14 lbs, but since he was a BIG guy, he can afford it.  I lost 10 lbs. and can also afford it.  Hopefully I can lose some more before Texas - the home of Buebell ice cream.  

The truck is repaired.  Good news on the trailer - the shop repaired the one corner with water damage that had rotted some of the interior structure.  They thought the other corner might need repair but it had to go to Ekhart for the trailer brakes and wheel bearings first.   Then the trailer went back to the repair shop for the water damage and some rot in the other corner but didn't find anything so will just put everything back and we can pick it up.  Vehicles are good for trip to Texas, other than work I need to do.  

Looking forward to getting the trailer home and getting the banquette out.  The drawer slide and trave lock under one side of the banquette longer works.  I will remove both drawers and will use the good slides on them to repair the kitchen drawers that are having some slide lock problems.  I will use the drawer fronts as cabinet doors for under the bed storage openings.  If I don't get the under the bed storage openings built before TX I can do it when we return.  That will get us ready for our next trip to Texas.  

Later this week I will start packing up the tools we will need, including the electrical tools for electric outlets.  I think I have some wire that will work for it in the shed, so we don't have to buy anything.  I think I have a bunch of new replacement switches and outlets for repairs stored in the shed.  

When we come home from Texas, I want to enlarge the shelters in the different pens.  The small A frame shelter in the main night fold no longer holds all the sheep that are in that pen.  It was pitiful during the rains we had to see them trying to crowd inside the shelter and standing sadly like sardines in a can.  The A frame also has gotten worn away on the ground and water runs inside in a deep puddle.  I want to build a raised rim around the new shelter footprint and fill it with sand/decomposed granite.  Then instead of an A frame shelter, we will use some of our corral panels as supports to which we will attach the corral roof panels.  Instead of a 6' x 12' shelter we will be able to put up a 12' x16' cover using the same 2 panels.  Originally that is what I wanted to do but DH and our sons said we would not be able to walk inside.  Since we don't walk inside the A frame shelters anyway it won't matter.  I just have to figure out how to get my men to think it is their idea to do this work . . . .  There was a time when I could do everything except the roof panels myself.  I wonder if I could still move the stall panels and attach them, then all that needed to be done would be moving the roof panels.  

Time to move sheep around again in the breeding pen.  4 are due end of March and beginning April and have already been moved out.  6 more are due in May and have not rebred so can be moved out.  2 rebred this month and need to remain in with a ram.  3 have never marked and need to also stay in with a ram.  We will remove Lewis and put in another ram next week.  

One yearling ewe has never marked and if she does not lamb this year I am going to do a close up inspection to make sure she is a true ewe, not a hermaphrodite.  She has a somewhat rammy neck.  She may go to auction.  I bought her with her mother last year as a 3 week old lamb.  She has never marked.  Her mother has marked and is due in April. These are Lewis ewes and I love the bloodlines, but these ewes are flighty and have never calmed down.  They are taller and larger than my normal Dorpers.  Lewis breeds annually and I ama not sure that these ewes will breed out of season like my other ewes.  I am not sure I like them, although I love my Lewis ram and will definitely buy another Lewis ram.  I can get those bloodlines that way instead of with these 2 ewes if they don't start breeding to fit my plans.

I am going to get all the shots ready for the lambs, etc. in the creep to do tonight.  The older ones need 2nd vacc and younger ones need 1st vacc.  One still to dock too.  And DS1 says he wants to tag.  This covid has really put us behind schedule.  Time to catch up.  Once the new lambs are tagged, docked, vaccinated, they can be put in the creep with the older ones.  Need to have all the lambs in the creep pen while we are in Texas for ease in feeding.  Mid-March they will go to auction.  Prices should still be good. Easter and Passover both are in mid-April this year.

Also need to clear out freezers and out some of the large cuts in the new freezer in the milk.  That freezer is a special one made to resist extreme heat and cold, being manufactured specifically for use in garages and sheds.  It was out of stock when we ordered it and we were going to buy a regular one but the store said the one we wanted was coming in on a specific date only a week or so later than the regular one, so we waited.  It has an alarm in case the freezer fails and does not hold the temp.  It also is supposed to keep everything frozen for 5-7 days in case of power failure. We figure we will take this one to Texas first and it can go in the barn or in the large workshop we plan to build.  Already put some hams and turkeys that were on sale after the holidays in it.  Need to move more meat into it.  DS1 said we should order extra baskets for it since it has rims to hold baskets in the bottom and the top half.  That will make it much easier to sort through our food.  Our smaller regular freezer only has rims for upper baskets, which we use for smaller items, while all the food gets jumbled up in the bottom.  The other larger freezer has upper baskets and lower plastic partitions to separate food.  Both freezers in the laundry room are jam packed and some stuff needs to be taken down to the other freezer for long term storage.  I also have frozen goat milk, and frozen goat and lamb colostrum that needs to be moved down to long term storage.  I wish now that I had kept our old chest freezer to store dog food and grain.  Gave our small old one to DD1 so if it goes bad, I will bring it home for that purpose.


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## Baymule

February is usually the coldest month. I sure hope we don't have the cold like we had last year. It doesn't snow every year, when it does, its' usually gone in 3 days. I hope we don't get any snow at all this year! I got moving to do
Y'all just keep getting better!


----------



## Ridgetop

Coming along fine.  Got the last pork leg we bought, pork roasts, ribs, along with some beef, whole chickens, all the goat milk and colostrum, etc. moved to the milk shed freezer. Took a better look at it.  The lid is super heavy - must be the additional insulation - and there are 3 levels.  The top 2 levels are baskets while the bottom level has plastic dividers. Very nice.

Got the ram moved out but DS1 says we better mark down all the dates until today as possible breeding dates for Lewis.  The crayon was completely missing from the backing plate!  DS1 says possibly the rain melted or loosened it from the backing.  The backing was still in the harness just the crayon part was gone.  So we will wait another week before putting another ram in and must keep the ewes in with that ram for another 3 weeks.  Not too worried since I am sure some of them are settled.  

The crayon was changed on January 3 and the last ewe marked on 1/13.  So the crayon was still good on 1/13.  The ewes that did not remark were marked 12/21 and 12/22.  If they had recycled they would have marked before 1/13.  There are only a couple of them that may be questionable.  2 that marked on 1/6 and 1/13, and 3 that have not marked at all. So we will put another ram in and see what happens.  If none of these ewes get marked by the next ram, then they will lamb between 6/7 and 6/18. 

I also have to sort out the next breedable set of young ewes.   
Recordkeeping!


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## Ridgetop

Is there such a thing as too many sheep?  

*NOOOOO!*


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## farmerjan

@Ridgetop  what is the brand of freezer that you got with the extra layers of baskets and such?  I am looking at another possible freezer for beef because getting dates is soo difficult that we might have to kill when we can and store for a bit for customers....


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## Ridgetop

GE Garage Ready 21.7 cf chest freezer.  It also comes in 14.7 cf size.  We ordered it before Thanksgiving.  Delivered after Christmas.  It showed as unavailable to order on-line.  DH and DS1 went in to store and were going to order a 22 cf regular freezer which was available.  But when the salesman checked he said they were getting a load of the Garage Ready ones that I really wanted and he could guarantee delivery on those but not on the ones shown as available.  ???   This one wasn't cheap, but the regular ones were only a couple hundred less and with the extra insulation this would work better in the shed.  We also get a 10% military discount so if yu know someone who was in the military they can get the same deal on stuff at Lowes and Home Depot.  Also thinking of our upcoming move to TX it might have to go in the barn or on a porch for a while so more insulation is better.  It actually came in a month early and we picked it up since the delivery dates were confused.

It is about 66" long, and slightly deeper and taller than a standard freezer due to excess insulation.  it also comes in an upright style which is more $$.  I prefer the chest style of freezer since the cold air doesn't pour out when you open the door.  I had an upright and while I loved it for storing my prepared meals, I did not like it for meat cuts since most meat cuts are not designed to lay flat, and they would fall out on my feet!   It can be harder to keep track of everything in a chest freezer, but I try to go through and rearrange everything every couple of months.  Also, I try to keep my premade meals, baking supplies (nuts, choc chips, glacee fruit, etc., baked goods, bread, ice cream, etc. in one freezer while the other is for meat, fish, vegetables, etc.  The Garage Ready freezer is for long term storage of meat, goat milk and colostrum, and multiple lambs.  We haven't butchered any lambs for a year because we didn't have any room to put them.  Now instead of taking 6-month-old cull ewe lambs to the auction, I will take them to the butcher for _our_ use.  

Freezers have shot up in price.  The one we got before this one was a Frigidaire 25+ cf chest freezer when we finished the laundry room.  It measures 76" long.  DH happened to see it marked down to $450.  It was the display model on the floor, and I think it was so large that no one could fit it in their homes.  We would have ordered another one but had nowhere to put it.  We told a friend about it, and he was going to try to get one like it since he already had 2 or 3 of them - they did Farmers' Market sales of lamb, goat, and pork.  As soon as we finished our laundry room, our smaller freezer quit and we had to find another the exact size since I laid out the laundry room reno to fit both freezers, our spare fridge, stackable washer/dryer, and cabinets/shelves.  All the cabinets were installed, as was the washer/dryer so we couldn't rearrange anything otherwise we would have gotten another of the giant freezers.  

I buy everything in bulk and cook in bulk too when making meat loaf, spaghetti sauce, chicken divan, pork chili verde, curry, etc. for the freezer.  That is the hardest thing for me when we are in the trailer.  Since the freezer and fridge are so small, I have to shop frequently.  

The coyotes have been noisy the past couple of nights.  The weather report says expect high winds again now through Wednesday.  Possible showers on Thursday.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> When we come home from Texas, I want to enlarge the shelters in the different pens.


I think you are in the wrong frame of mind, TX is supposed to be your new home.


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## Ridgetop

Sorry - return from TX.  Will be living here for another 18 month off and on between trips to Texas, so it is still home for now.

NEWS FLASH!
DH Covid test is positive.  He must remain home for 5 days then if he feels ok we can leave for TX.  ???!!!  Times have certainly changed in the past year.  Only 5 days to quarantine and no need for anther Covid test!  We won't be leaving here for another couple of weeks. Don't want any relapse leaving us stranded in a trailer by the side of the road!


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## Baymule

With his weakness, he needs to get his strength back before y'all leave. The weakness is such a drain, you don;t feel like doing anything.


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## Bruce

Yep. Sure hope he isn't a long hauler. I've heard of people months, and many months, after recovery hardly having the energy to do more than simple tasks. Then it is nap time.


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## Ridgetop

Nap time, aka "checking the eyelids for light leaks" happened frequently before Covid.  

He is able to get up from recliner alone now, and says he is more stable on his feet.  Stopped using the walker.  I have noticed that he comes to bed early and sleeps late, along with frequent recliner naps.  He is annoyed when he wakes up at 10 am after going to sleep at 9 pm since he usually is up around 6-7 am and comes to bed around 11 pm.  I keep telling him it is because he is still recovering from Covid.  Luckily with the cough syrup he doesn't spend all night coughing anymore so is getting more sleep.  We won't be leaving until second week in February though.  Hopefully he will have recovered by then since he will need to be in good condition to build Baymule's pens and shelters!  LOL    

Went down last evening and vaxed the youngest lambs, mamas, docked ewe's tail.  Will be selling her mama when the ram lambs go to auction.  Her udder attachments are not good, and the abscess on her udder is back.  Drained it but won't keep her.  One boon of originally being heavily in dairy goats is recognizing good and poor udder attachments. Her attachments are failing, and she is only 5 years old.  She is not old but poor udder attachments don't hold up and if her daughters show the same attachment breakdown, they will eventually go to.  I have several of her daughters but have not been entirely satisfied with body type and wool on some of them.  She is a Hijo ram daughter, but I have several other ewes that are Hijo daughters, along with my 2 Hijo sired rams so she can go.  Plenty of that bloodline in my flock at the moment - they are giving me enormous leg thickness, loin width, and length.  Bloodlines are fine, but if you are not getting what you want from an individual, you need to know when to cull.  DS1 actually wanted to send her to the auction several months ago but we decided to let her lamb out first.  We will be taking 7 ram lambs and this ewe to auction when we get back from Texas.  Will keep the ewe lamb.  

DS1 was asking if we would be castrating any of the ram lambs for our freezer and I said no.  We have decided to sell all ram lambs without docking or castrating at the auction. We will cull ewe lambs at 4 and 6 months and those ewe lambs can go in our freezer. 

DH is working on our taxes today.  I have everything done tax wise on our properties for him up through November 1.  I just have to check on everything that has come in for December and January and add it to the figure columns.  Then DH will get the figures from me to stick in the appropriate places on the forms.  This year I did all the paperwork right after our ranch purchase closed.  Ahed of the game!  

DS3 and wife are talking more and more about trying a move to Texas. They are talking about renting our ranch for a year after the current tenants move out.  I told DH that I won't rent the pastures to them because I want to keep my cattle land tenant.  However, they can out up corrals for their horses on the side of the property.  With them renting the house we will go back in our trailer and stay for a month or 2 to work on the place. DS3 can help put in fence posts with his tractor, install cross fencing do the sheep, and put up field shelters.  He is a workaholic and loves to be busy.    They are planning on going back this summer and looking at the property and looking at areas they might want to buy.  Once they are in our house, they will put their house up for sale.  

*MAYBE. * That sounds like the plan but you never know. However, it will be fun to plan another trip back with them and look at property. Surprisingly, they have friends in the Tyler area! If they do come back and decide to buy a place somewhere around Tyler it won't be so far from us. 

Also, with DS3 in Texas DS2 might decide to eventually come back as well.     DDIL2 likes animals and grew up around them in the Philippines.  (She will often help us when we are separating the sheep.)  She loves to garden, and would like to have chickens, etc. DS2 loves to fish so if he doesn't want a ranch, he can look for a place on a lake somewhere close by.  If he wants ranch property, he can lease out the pastures and fish in his own pond.  Maybe I will see my grandchildren in 4-H after all!  DS3 takes his boys fishing too, so they can come to our pond, or Fork Lake.  He also has a pontoon boat.  
Better shut up so I don't jinx this.  

Going down to the tool shed now to start pulling out toolboxes and getting ready to pack tools.  Also have to order some stuff on Amazon for the trip.


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## Ridgetop

DS1 finally went to order my insulated overalls and THEY ARE NOW OUT OF STOCK!!!  So are DH's thermals!!!  I had told him to order last week but he put it off and now of course, it is my fault because I should have done it myself.  I don't order on Amazon because he set up the account and the last time I ordered on my own he was furious because they took his gift cards in payment.  

I found another pair for half the price, but they are nylon ski type overalls.  They will do for a couple years to keep me warm.  If they tear, I can patch them.  Got them in black so I won't scare the cows.  Eventually I will get the pricier Carhart's when we move to Texas.  I have several pairs of thin leggings which will do as thermals under the ski overalls.  I remembered that DH got a double pack of thermal PJs that will do for thermals under his regular overalls so that will work.  He also has about 5 long sleeve T-shirts and thermal shirts as well.  I will toss all of them in the large storage box I'm using for packing our winter wear.  

Starting to gather the tools in a pile ready to load into the trailer after it comes back from the shop, and I have it ready to go.  DH plans to get another load of hay on Friday before picking up the trailer.  He hopes that will be enough that DS1 won't have to use the Connex stock while we are gone.  He is hoping to get through to lower prices in summer.

DS2 went to work expecting to be gone for a week but came home yesterday because the job is finished.  Got home at 10 pm and went straight to bed.  DDIL2 is still at her mom's with Robert.  Just as well since DS2 got up and went left for work at 4 am again.

Finished another set of articles about Bubba and the probems we had with hm in training etc. and sent them i ti The Anatolian Times.  They published the 4 previous articles about Harika and the problems we had with her and our other dogs.  The last one will come out in the next issue.  I had sent the ones about bubba in before, but they were too long so I condensed them.  Also sent some pix.  Problem with sending pix i that either the dogs are far away in the gully and indistinguishable from the sheep or passed out on the driveway or field looking dead.  

 Rika sleeping the sleep of the just after a night of guarding.  I wish I could get a good picture of her looking noble and protective.  She is apparently too busy doing her job to pose.  LOL


 I do have one picture of Bubba looking majestic on the field.  Don't know how I got this since as soon as I approach with the camera for a great shot the dogs leap up and scamper towards me with their tongues hanging out.  Or immediately clean their privates.
 This is Angel on guard where she was posted by Rika.  This is a true story - Rika told her to stay there, Angel wanted to follow them but sat obediently watching the other dogs go into the gully with the sheep bunched behind her.  Rika and Bubba went into the gully and ran off the dogs outside our fence.  Then Rika and Bubba came back, and Rika touched noses with Angel telling her she could get up and go.  These dogs really do talk to each other!
  Really dead coyote parts that Angel brought up to play with.  
The bottom of the gully and back of the property could be littered with dead coyotes for all we know - it is too steep and difficult for us to go there.  The dogs have brought up at least 2 different dead coyote carcasses to play with, so we know they are working.  And we haven't lost any sheep or lambs. 

Every now and then I like to look at these pix and remember the things I have seen for myself to realize how extraordinary these Anatolians are.  

Well back to tool packing.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I had told him to order last week but he put it off and now of course


Come on Ridge, everyone knows NOW is the time to buy swimsuits. Winter wear is sold in August. Clearly no one would need to buy it when it is cold! I bought my insulated Carhartt overalls at TSC in November (for my in-laws to give me for Christmas).


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## Baymule

You just might get your family to move to Texas! But I won't mention that again.....


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## Ridgetop

Friday:
I will watch for summer sales!  If I ever go back to Washington State to visit relatives (not for a while) there is a wonderful thrift store chain that has excellent clothes.  Got a lot of great brands still with purchase tags on them!  I try to invest in winter wear when I am there.  Lots of skiers so lots of good quality ski wear and down vests and jackets.  

In the meantime, I won't be delighting Texans by my imitation of a walking eggplant.   The winter overalls I bought are black.  On the upside they are more slimming.  However, since I intend to wear them over a layer of other clothing, they won't slim me enough. Since only the goats, Baymule and DH will witness my unshapely figure while building sheds and stringing fence, no problem!

Yesterday DH worked on taxes.  He had me give him the information on the Yelm rental expenses.  I put everything together last October, so I had to reread some of the stuff to remember what was included.  Finished that part fast.  Still have to work on the Texas rentals but are waiting on the info from our manager.  Got some of that this am and will compile it for DH.  Then I have a box of docs that I have gone through and pulled figures out of that I need to go over with the tax preparer.  Some refi stuff, as well as the 1031 figures.  We have an appointment.  

Yesterday I got the plastic rolling storage box into the house.  I put all DH's thermal shirts, his overalls, my thermal shirts and leggings, wool socks, heavy pjs, jackets, and gloves in it ready to load into the trailer.  I also got out 2 tool chests and washed them ready for packing with the Skil saw, hand tools, and fence building stuff.  Not sure if we will need much in the way of clamps but will toss in a few of them along with the post levels, squares, etc.  Our battery tools have their own plastic cases that clip together. Won't need a lot of the tools we would need if we were doing renos on a house but Baymule and her son have beaten us to the punch on that!

Only thing left to do is to bring home the trailer and remove the banquette benches and then start loading folding table, chairs, toolboxes, clothing, food, electric heater (saves on propane costs), and other miscellaneous gear.  I also have to remember t bring a lot of yarn so zi can continue knitting banket fr the grandchildren.  They really seem to like those cuddly throw size blankies for watching TV.  Good thing since that is the only thing I can knit.  I really should take some knitting classes.  One of the spinners in our wool spinning class taught me to use circular needles to knit socks.  I still can't turn a heel though, so they are tube socks.  Ugh!  Knitting while DH drives is very calming. 

Saturday:
Got up to TV footage of terrible storm on east coast.  Hope Mini Horses and Farmerjan are ok in Vrginia.  Not to mention Bruce in Vermont!!!

DH said the temps in Texas are in the 70's.  Told him he was mistaken although they might hit that in some areas.  However, not backing out of bringing our woolies. Clothing not sheep.  LOL

DH got a haircut yesterday.  I had offered to do it, but he refused.  I used to cut the boys hair all the time and shear the sheep.  One time when the human hair clippers burnt up I had to use the goat clippers on the boys.  They were perfectly happy with the job.  I don't know why he is afraid of me with scissors in my hand.  Anyway, his hair and beard were so long that he looked like a homeless man wandering around in his sweatpants.  Very sad.  Now he looks really good but is suffering from driving himself and being put for a haircut too soon.  He is back in his recliner under a blanket moaning about feeling weak and coughing last night.  I told him to have cough medicine before bed but NO! he is a MAN!  Testosterone rages in his veins (glands?).  Anyway, my big sweet guy is back in his recliner watching the snowstorm on TV.  The news for next week is showing a huge snowstorm raging down from the north and sweeping across Texas and up through the mid-eastern states.  Might delay our trip another week if there is to much snow on the road.  Probably it will have disappeared by the time we leave, but this will give me more time to remove that banquette and pack.  Our friends have been travelling fo severa months and just got back.  They said there was a lot of snow in Flagstaff AZ on the way home and when they got back to their place in Bear Valley Springs (not too far out of town but higher elevations) their road was snowed in.  Nancy walked in and got the tractor to clear the road.  Then she hit the water pipes!  Massive gusher!  They had to turn off the water for several days so they could get it repaired!  

It is clouding up here and getting colder too.  Not sure if we will get any more rain. I certainly hope so.  The hills are already green and you can really see the coyote trails worn into the gully sides approaching our fences.




  The sheep and Josie the Mule are going into the gully to get the new tender green stuff.  The dogs are working on 3 sides of the property every night and the coyotes are singing to annoy them.


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## Baymule

I'm hoping you won't need the warm clothes, but in February, it's best to be prepared for whatever. 

Chris finished my bedroom. For all his good qualities, trim seems NOT to be one of them. I'm sure he is proud of his efforts, especially since it looks like he put maybe a couple hundred thousand nails in each 7' piece!  They are not mitered, not miter joined, just blunt end to end.  But I'm going to call it good. There is still trim work to be done and you can show me the finer points of proper trim work.

I've got to drag out all my reciepts and get taxes ready for CPA too. This. Week. If I move my piles, I'll never find them again, so MUST get my act together this week!


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## Ridgetop

No problem with doing the trim.  Don't let him do any more.  Trim is easy even if the furniture is already in place in the room.  Just move it out from the wall a couple feet and the trim can go in easily.  I painted the office, laid the new floor, and installed all new trim in the office by moving the furniture back and forth!  With the brad nailer you don't even need room to swing a hammer.  super easy!   I am just disappointed that we couldn't get there in time to do more and help you move.  

The ski pants arrived and I tried them on over my jeans and they fit.  Wearing them over just thermal undies they should have lots of room for working.  They were less than half the Carhart price too so for the amount of time I will have to wear them in Texas until we move there, I am pleased.  Once living in Texas I will invest in a pair of Carharts.

DD2 came over with Baby Annabel yesterday for a visit.  She said that her birth sister, Amanda, and husband are moving to Anna, Texas, next month.  Amanda is expecting her first baby in April or May.  Anna is due north of Dallas although I am not sure how far away that is from us in Yantis.  But we will have surrogate grandbabies in Texas.  And they will have a surrogate aunt and uncle for holidays in Texas so it will feel like they have some family close to them for emergencies.     DD1 said DSIL2 wants to move to Texas but they need to get their finances in order first.  He is also getting a promotion at work so wants to do well there.  Time will tell.

Tomorrow we will move Smalley ram back into the breeding pen with the ewes that might have been bred during the time the crayon fell out of the backing on Lewis.  The last marked ewe was done on 1/13 and we discovered that the crayon had fallen out or dissolved on 1/24 when we moved him out of the pen.  So an 11 day gap during which he might have bred or rebred a couple of the ewes.  The ones that were marked on 12/21 and 12/22 and did not remark before 1/13 are probably settled so they can come out of the pen.  That will leave 5 ewes in with Smalley.  One of the ewes I am wondering about since she has been exposed to many rams and not marked or lambed.  She will be 2 years old in May so she may be off to the sales.  I bought her mother with her at side.   However, her mama is not breeding on the 8 month schedule either.  This White Dorper flock are from Oregon and the breeder only breeds on a once a year schedule since he has a large commercial flock as well.  He is on the NSIP program and I wanted this ewe in the flock for the import bloodlines, but if she doesn't fit my breeding schedule, I won't be keeping this one.  She is larger than my others, and a bit wild too.  I love the ram I bought from this flock and his lambs though so will probably confine future purchases to rams.  At any rate having the lambings spaced out in this group will be better since Iwas worried about having enough jugs for the lambing ewes.  After losing a lamb last month due to having a second ewe in the pen (accidentally stepped on him puncturing a gut) I don't want two ewes penned together in the small jugs.  Looks like I will have lambs coming from March 28 through June.  The ones in the barn now will rebreed in March/April for January sales, and I will be able to separate groups for production in winter for spring sales.  

I have told DH that we need to check with our tax person about this 1031 thing.  I want to find out if leasing the pastures wiwthut the house will fulfill the 1031 rental requirement.  Then we can move to Texas and live in our trailer while we renovate the house - repairs, painting, new shower in family bath (tub only there), and some drywall repairs, new flooring, etc.  Also want to enclose the current roofed rear porch for additional living room space.  We will add on a larger screened in deck off the new living space.  Screening it in will make the deck more usable and we will add ceiling fans too. That may have to wait since we will use the contractor who was the home inspector on our purchase and according to Texas law we can't use him for construction for 1 or 2 years after the inspection date.  DS2 and DDIL2 are fine with renting the house here from us.  They will pay the insurance, taxes and mortgage as well as utilities.  It will still be cheaper for them than renting a 3 BR apt or house, and they will have a lot more space.  It will give us more time to move stuff back to the ranch, and give us time to live in Texas, make friends, and make sure we are happy there without our family.  I am getting anxious to move before DH decides we are too old for this new adventure.


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## Ridgetop

DDIL1 is probably going to home school if the bill passes in California that all children have to be vaxed against Covid.  Her kids already had it last summer.  She is also thinking about starting her own 4-H club in the area since DS3 went to a meeting and said the people were very cliquish and not welcoming.  DDIL1 says that she has heard the same thing from other people that wanted to join and were snooted by current clubs.  She did not know that she could start a new club and is excited.  Particularly after I counted off 10 projects for which she, DS3, and her sister have experience and contacts for leaders.  She did not realize she had so much experience in various areas!  She also knows a few other families with kids that would be interested in joining 4-H and both DGS3 and 4 will talk to their friends in school and encourage them to join.  

If she starts a club, I told her that I would give the grandsons lambs for market classes. They might not win champion since they will be White Dorpers and not black faced long legged stylish lambs, but they will make some money on them without having to spend a ridiculous amount on a club lamb.  Also for the first couple years they will be learning lamb care and showmanship so getting free lambs is a good way to start.  I also told her that if she has a few more kids for the market lamb project I would donate lambs to the club and the kids could pay the club a minimal amount for the lambs.  That makes money for the club, the first timer kids get lambs cheaply, and they can exhibit at the fair. I will claim it on our taxes as a donation to 4-H.  Later when the project kids are experienced, they can decide to buy black faced lambs to go after the championship. Our entire family will go up to watch them show and bid on their animals - or put on "add on" $$.  She was very excited since she did not know you could start your own club with just a minimum of members. Also told her that I would learn any new requirements in record books, do a record book workshop for the club, and help her know how to put together a medal winning record book so she can teach the club members.  Also, will sew up green collars for the girls in the club.  Another small moneymaker for the club getting started.  Maybe my grandsons will be in 4-H before we move back to Texas.  I would like to see them compete.


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## Baymule

Getting here sooner would be great! Some of your family coming too would be even better. From Yantis to Anna is only about 1 1/2 hours. So visiting with your surrogate grandkids wouldn't be a long trip.


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## Ridgetop

Also heard that our niece's daughter is marrying a Texas boy and will be living in Allen TX. Or possibly Athens TX - DH's hearing is getting worse.  Allen is north of Dallas while Athens is south.  Ether is on the eastern side so not too far from us in Texas miles.  She is getting married in Tyler next year or this summer (again DH's hearing) and is sending us an invitation.  We'll see at that time.  At any rate, a couple of relatives and DH's sister and BIL will be coming to see her.  

*Wednesday - Another HISSY FIT!  *
Truck is back in the shop for oil spraying out from underneath when brought 5th wheel home and parked it.  

Then sadness 
A young ewe that we separated out from breeding pen was bred and almost due and got injured when separating them.  She was bleeding bright red when we put her in the barn and next day had a dead lamb born feet first.  The lamb was full term, so I missed writing her down somewhere along the line which is weird because I keep a white board in the office and out everyone on it when in the breeding pen.  However, since a lot of same age ewelings have the same color ear tags (sire's color) it is often easy to misread one. She had a pretty little udder so we knew she was pregnant just not how far along or we would not have messed with her so close to lambing.  Anyway, nice size ewe lamb born dead.  If I had known she was due I would have tried to pull the lamb when she started bleeding but I didn't want to mess with her if she was only a few months along.  My fault regardless for not having proper records.

We also seem to have an extra ewe on the field.  DS1 counted one extra than I hve papers in my book.  It is possible that I pulled a ewe's papers from my book thinking she was sold so now have to go back and write down all the ear numbers so we can double check and identify the extra ewe.


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## Ridgetop

*Thursday - Another HISSY FIT!!! * 
Trailer finally back from shop so went to set up to prep trailer for trip and remove Banquette seating.  Batteries are bad so replaced them.  *!!!  No electrical hookups are working even though plugged into house current.  *Turned on batteries and the slide out worked and the jacks.  They should work on AC current too.  So checked inside - no lights on either AC or DC then the fridge won't work, the stove won't work (electric ignition, hood fan and lights) the outlets work on AC current but the whole ACDC is not working.  I pulled out all fuses and double checked them - good.  Checked everything - the converter is making a small, odd sound, and is getting hot as well.  Might need new converter or when the shop pulled off the siding on the rear, they may have messed up some wiring. Anyway, trailer has to go back to the shop but can't because no truck to tow it!!!  *Why no truck?  IT IS IN THE OTHER SHOP!!! * 

Only good thing is that 18323 - ewe I was worried about because she never bred or lambed actually lambed last night in the field pen.  Happened when DS1 was bringing in sheep to feed.   She was already in night fold lambing.  Had a ewe lamb and DGD1 rushed out to dry it off and carry it to barn with mama following.  Within an hour she produced a ram lamb as well.  Day endedon a happier note.

She was destined for the sale yard because she will be 2 in May and never lambed.  Also never marked in the breeding pen!  However, when we separated them out, I saw that she had a nice udder too so was hopeful.  But again, no marking so no idea when she was due.  These are the last of Smalley's lambs.  Anything born after March 28 is sired by Lewis.  Hope I didn't miss anyone else.  Nothing on the board, but went back in my calendar and sure enough, 332 marked exactly on September 11.  Just was never put on the board, or was accidentally removed.  The lambs are very small, and she is a large ewe.  She was bought as a newborn with her mother so am glad that she has produced lambs so she can stay along with her ewe lamb.  

DH and I are now considering just driving back in our SUV with our tools, winter clothes, and staying in motels.  DS1 is helping me remove the banquette which is good since it seems not as easily done as I originally thought.  However, once started, got to continue and finish the job.  Or replace the paneling.  No!  Not an option!  DH can't fit in the banquette anymore (I barely fit ).  The benches are not comfortable, and the table is too high for comfortable eating.  It's gotta go.


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## Ridgetop

Talking with DS1 and DH about trip.  Hope to be on the road by Tuesday in either the SUV or possibly DS2's Black Dragon.  Have to talk to him about whether he wants us to make a long trip in his truck though.  Also, I don't like the Black Dragon.  It sits higher than our 4WD truck and sometimes I tend to fall out of it!!! 

Will pack this weekend and get everything ready to load.  Coming to Texas.


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## Baymule

About the time y'all get here, next weekend, we'll hopefully be loading up the 500 gallon diesel tank and stand and 9 round bales, along with four 40' power poles to take to Groveton. I know y'all are anxious to go check on your ranch, so go do that. Then we can go to Groveton and have a fence/pen building party! @Hideaway Pines and her husband wants to come join the fun too. No need for y'all to stay in a hotel in Groveton, not that there is one anyway,  Y'all can stay in the house. There is or will be after today, plenty of beds.

There is still lots of little stuff in the Lindale house, but I'll be making trips to Groveton like a ferry boat, until it is all out. 

We can move sheep and dogs and come back with stock trailer and flatbed and move more outside stuff. It seems like the pile is not dwindling down, it's like a cat having kittens. Just when you think you have all the cats neutered, another one has kittens! LOL LOL It seems like I'll never get to the end of the pile!


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## Ridgetop

We will call you when almost there to decide whether to go north or south.  I need to talk to the septic guys to see when they have scheduled the new septic system.  We also have to go to Quitman to turn in paperwork for our property tax AG and other stuff.

Need to be back March 3 for ortho appointment about knee and C3 where there is some damage.  On March 5 I signed us up for a Dorper sheep seminar in Orland (northern California) covering different topics including parasite control.

I got a response from the NRCS about the possibility of funding for farm programs.  
They sent my email to Quitman and I got an email from the man there who said to call him about what is available.  Will do that on Monday.

I sent 3 emails out to different Dorper parasite control breeding programs at different Universities.  UT responded and I will call her on Monday.  Most of their work is with Katahdins but they have some Dorpers and White Dorpers in the program as well.  Figured I need to check up on parasite resistance before moving to the Barber Pole worm capital of Texas.  LOL   According to her email they have greater worm problems with spring born lambs than with fall/winter born lambs.  I want to check with her on this. Also she had some info about frequent rotational grazing helping with parasites.

Then went back through my calendar and found where P9 and 323 were marked and noted on calendar but not on white board. Definitely my fault that we moved P9 so close to lambing and caused her to lose her lamb.       323 is a large ewe but had tiny lambs. Possibly her sire is one that throws small lambs for easy lambing, but they must fast.  I will look him up on the NSIP indexes and see if that is true.  I will keep track of their growth too.  I am going to start checking udders for ligament support since bad udders don't hold up.  Then I will cull ewes with poor suspensory ligaments and bad udders. When raising lambs every 8 months ewes need strong udder support.  P9 can go in with the ram in another couple months with some yearling ewes.  

Annabel is here today while her mother is at work.  She will also be here Monday and Tuesday then DS1 will take over babysitting her for DD2.  DDIL2's dad repaired DS1's car so he will be able to use it to pick up DGD1 from school.  He also picks up DGD2 on Fridays and needs the carseat for DGD3.

DH insisted he saw on the weather channel that the temperature in Texas was 70 degrees!  He refused to believe that Baymule had written it was freezing and below.  This am he decided to prove to me that he was right, and we did not need any warm clothes for our trip.  he asked Siri what the temperature was and at 12 noon it was 34 degrees in Groveton.  Then I made him check in Yantis and it was 31 degrees.  I refrained from going "Neener Neener"!  

Going to go pack some winter clothes.


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## Baymule

Tell your sweetie that it is currently 29F in Lindale and a low tonight of 16F. Yeah, pack him some warm clothing. I'm sure it's 70F in Texas SOMEWHERE, but not here!


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## Ridgetop

Packing some flannel PJ bottoms for him to wear under his overalls.  Also, thermal long sleeve shirts.  If he gets too cold, I can stop at a Walmart or TSC and pick up a pair of thermal long underwear.  I packed all mine so I will not freeze, but he doesn't feel the cold as badly as I do.  

Got the large suitcase packed with most of our heavy stuff, sweats, thermals, overalls, etc. The problem with winter travel is that all the clothes are large and bulky!  I did pack wool socks too.  Any my winter lace up boots.  I will throw the rubber muck boots in the car too. Packing the small overnighter for on the road stuff, meds, and toiletries.  I also have a large rolling duffel bag in which I will put the boots, shoes, extra jackets, etc.  Oh yes, must remember my computer and Yantis files and docs.  Maybe I should bring the heated massage pad I got for Christmas for us to share after we work on building fence. And DD2 gave me electric leg and foot massagers too.  They look like big boots. Probably should throw them in the car as well!  We can all take turns using them!  

DH is thinking about asking DS2 if we can take the Black Dragon (his truck) instead of our SUV.  It has 4WD and sits high in case of bad weather.  Also having another truck to bring more stuff from Lindale and tow trailers will be useful.  The Black Dragon has a tonneau cover over the bed which is annoying to use but will keep everything dry on the road.  

The main problem I have with the Black Dragon as opposed to our darling Twinkles, is that it is soooo high.  Twinkles is high enough with 4WD, but Black Dragon is really tall.  I have fallen out of it several times and just managed to save myself by hanging onto the door! The running boards seem to be slippery.  DH is torn as to which vehicle to take. Black Dragon has heated seats . . . but so does the SUV.  I think Black Dragon also has massage seats.  Not sure but when DS2 took me for a drive I thought the truck was shaking until DS2 told me he had turned on the vibrating seat to surprise me.  I hope the instruction book is in the glove box since we won't know how to turn on and off all the bells and whistles.  Maybe we should stick with the SUV.

Looking forward to meeting @Hideawaypines and her DH.


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## Baymule

Remember it IS Texas, and it can turn out warm the next day after a hard freeze. Along with all the heavy artillery, bring along a light jacket. 

Go take care of things in Yantis first. It looks like we will be closing on the farm this coming week. Then this coming weekend, I'll be moving the fuel tank, don't know which day. Maybe moving hay too. I'll be packing up what is left in the Lindale house and going through the stuff in the portable building. I may make a turn around trip to Groveton, taking more stuff down there.


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## Ridgetop

OK.  Will keep in touch once on the road.


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## Ridgetop

Woke up this morning to DH laying on the floor next to the bed and coughing his lungs out!  

Don't worry, he had dropped his Kindle behind the headboard and was trying to fish it out. Told him to go take some cough medicine.  Then I pulled out the underbed storage box to reach the Kindle for him.  Realized I need to remove all the underbed storage boxes and vacuum under there.  

Then remembered that during the night I had woken up remembering that I forgot to pack the drywall keyhole saw.  Will need it to cut the small hole in the wall to add the outlet in Baymule's BR.  Down to the shed for the saw which was in a big plastic storage box of drywall tools.  Decided to bring along a 5" putty knife as well so those got added to a tool box.  

So happy that when I cleaned up the sheds and sorted all our tools after renovating MJ's house, I labelled all the boxes.     Saved me hours (maybe days) hunting for the appropriate stuff.  I have several large plastic storage boxes containing miscellaneous electrical stuff, another with just wire, and several with drywall too.  That is just in the old milk shed - not to mention the innumerable labelled boxes of renovation hardware and specialty tools in the toolshed.     In spite of DS2 and DH using tools and not replacing them exactly where they got them, most of the tools remain in place and whenever I go in the shed, I put the stuff in the drawers and cabinets.  DS1 puts everything back in place and also keeps his own personal tools in his room.   Smart fellow!  Probably why DS1 and I work so well together.

I packed some jeans and lighter jackets, as well as some T shirts for DH.  Also for me since I can wear my T's over my long underwear.  Fashion statement!  Got to repack the suitcases today since the duffel is empty while the large case is too heavy to lift.    Need to redistribute some stuff.  Also need to sort out my Yantis papers and docs to pack.  Were supposed to receive the tax stuff with paperwork for the AG, etc. in January but it looks like we will have to go to the Quitman tax office and have them pull the paperwork up for us.  As usual before any trip I spend most of my time worrying about what to take.  I even stress about what kind of sandwiches will travel better on the road so we don't have to stop to eat!  So stupid!

Now I am stressing over whether the 12 x 20 tool shed at the new place will be large enough for everything!  There is a small room in the barn though that we can use for a lot of the stuff that is animal related.  DH plans to run electrical service underground to the barn so we will have outlets and lights in the barn and that room.  I can put a freezer and fridge there too.  That will give us storage for the livestock vaccines and meds currently stored in the fridge in the laundry room, as well as cold bottled water. We may need to insulate the room and even put in a fan.

Baymule said that the Connexes will sweat in the heat so we will need to drill air holes near the top of the walls and attach screen over them to keep out bugs.  Then a lot of our building materials can go in them.  I am worried about having enough storage on thus new property.  We plan to put in a large shop building but it will probably cost about $70,000.  Along with the game fencing $50,000 Can we afford this place without selling our California home?  I think once we are living there we will refinance the place to pull out the money for the buildings.  Since we are paying a higher interest rate due to not actually occupying the property, we should be able to take out a higher loan and reduce the interest rate to make it possible.  

We don't want to sell our California home for another year or so in case we have to return.  So much to consider.  All our children and grandchildren are here.  We have enough land that even though hay costs a fortune we could reduce our flock and afford to buy feed.  If either one of us has severe health issues that we need family to help us we may have to return.    Not to mention the freezing winters in Texas!!!     🥶

No time to think about that now - have to lighten the suitcase!  LOL


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## Baymule

Freezing winter usually only lasts a week, 2 weeks is extreme. It’s not pleasant, but at least we aren’t looking at snow for months. 

It might be cheaper to buy new shipping containers here, than pay transport from California. If you decide to go back, then you’d have to pay to move them again.


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## Ridgetop

DS3 offered to haul them back for us.  They were purchased new 2-3 years ago.  They have doors at each end so we can divide them in half for storage needs.  Might pour concrete footings or pad for them, not sure what DH will decided to do.  

Talked to the NRCS in Quitman (for our county) today about redigging the ponds and interior fencing.  He said that they will not help with ponds, but can supply names of persons to call about them.  *However, he did say he said that they will help with interior fencing for rotational grazing! *  We should have him come out and look at the property. Then he will work with us to draw up a fencing plan for the fields and we will submit an application along with the fencing plan. The fencing plan needs to be approved, and a contract drawn up, then when the fed farm budget comes through, they will authorize it for payment. They will pay up to 75% of the national average for fencing costs for however many feet the authorized agent allows. The fencing has to meet the plan you and the agent draw up. The plan has to be authorized and a contract filled out and signed that you will put in the fencing according to the plan. It sounds like it could take as long as a year since the money comes available in the spring. They will NOT pay for any fencing you put in before submitting application, *and* signing the contract.  Also, there are other requirements - # of animal units per acre, and LBS:animal unit.  An animal unit is 1000 lbs. of animal per acre.  So cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, etc. - all would be determined at # of animals to = 1000 lbs. = carrying load on pasture.  Since this is the national average for fencing costs, I figure it might only cover about half the costs but that is wonderful since we have 45 acres!  _ I will check to see if_ _we can do part of the property first then apply to extend the fencing later. _

Very interesting and I think we will try to talk to him when in Texas this month with the idea of submitting the application next summer and drawing up the plans then for the interior rotational grazing fencing.   Pretty excited about this possibility so THANK YOU @farmerjan!

Got my tax papers and AG application so will fill those out and take in to tax office in Wood County with cattle grazing lease, and VA paperwork.  Should be ok and I like to make sure of those items in person.

Talked to the septic guy and he said that he has the permits for the septic but the ground has been frozen.  Thinks he can get a date to do the work in a week or so.  I know DH wants to be there with the electrician for the extra panel or box he wants installed, since he plans to continue the wiring out to the well pump n als to d electric in the barn.

Next talked to Tennessee Tech Amanda Houser about barber pole resistance in White Dorpers.  She is the assistant farm manager and has White Dorpers at the college and of her own.  She gave me some good information about worm infestations and resistance etc.  Next call will be to Virginia Tech about their program.

Repacked the suitcases yesterday.  I think DH and I can lift them now!  LOL  They have wheels too.  DH got the car taken care of so if he decides not to take DS2's truck we are good to go.  Leaving noon on Wednesday or as soon as I get home from the preschool meeting, hopefully sooner.  Figure in the car (or truck) without the trailer we can make 300 miles the first day and at least 500 each day Thursday and Friday.

Couldn't sleep last night thinking of the stuff I need to do before we leave.  Mainly pack the truck/car and file papers un office, etc.  Driving out without the trailer is much harder since usually I load everything into the trailer as I remember them for weeks in advance.  I also have a whole second medicine cabinet of stuff in the trailer, including toiletries, shampoo, etc. so don't have to pack them.  When travelling in a vehicle without my tow-behind-home, I have to remember to pack all that stuff!


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## Baymule

You will be a whirlwind of activity!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> but the ground has been frozen. Thinks he can get a date to do the work in a week or so.


Oh please. Is he planning to hand dig the thing? The ground can't be frozen more than an inch, maybe two. Now up here, yeah it is frozen, likely 2' minimum, could be 3', frost line is generally accepted to be 4'.


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## Ridgetop

At the moment the septic is working so not too worried.  It will get done.  Tomorrow will load the tools and luggage in the truck.  DS2 said to take his truck so I guess we will do that.  Considering sticking a footstool in the back seat with a rope tied to it so I can use it to get into the truck then haul it in after me.  LOL

Tomorrow I will disconnect and pack computer then only things left to load on Wednesday will be the coffee thermoses, cooler with sandwiches, and overnight bag with toiletries.  

On the road again . . . . 🎼


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## Baymule

I can't wait to see y'all!


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## Ridgetop

I was supposed to go with DD2 Wednesday to meeting with teachers to discuss readiness for kindergarten but DSIL2 had the morning free and wanted to go with her.  I was glad to get out of it since we could start for Texas several hours earlier.  Made it to Gallup for the night.  Were surprised that it was only 7:00m, clock in truck said 8:00!  Next day we realized DS2 had not corrected the time when Daylight Savings Time ended!  LOL Learning the clock was an hour off we managed to get into Sulphur Springs around 8:30 pm on Thursday night instead of stopping earlier.     Sure travel faster without pulling the trailer!  On the other hand, pulling our own bedroom behind us has its advantages - no motel bills.

Thursday morning we planned to meet the electrician at the new house, but he couldn't make it till afternoon, so we changed our plans and went to Quitman instead to Wood County Assessor's office.  We took care of the taxes - AG etc. - then did some other errands before meeting the electrician, John.  He hasn't finished the work other than hooking up the septic so we have to come back from Groveton to meet him on Wednesday.  Also met the house tenants, Larry & Vicki, and our pasture tenant, Cody. Cody assured us he didn't need the barn so we can start working on it this summer.  Needs some repairs, and need to work on the tack room - insulate it and install more walls and repair or replace the floor.  We will get it ready to store our equipment.  

I am considering leaving the trailer in the barn this summer and we can rent a trailer to come back in March 2023 with a rented trailer and a load of stock tanks, corral panels, etc.  Need to figure it out.  But we have to come back in March anyway since our niece's daughter is getting married then in Athens.  She and her fiancé are currently living in Tyler and plan to stay in Texas.  His folks live in Athens.  She is trying to convince her grandparents to come out in their motorhome.  The future in-laws also have a camper, and I told her we would come out with our trailer and stay in the same campground.  

Since we have to come back in February/March anyway, maybe we should leave the trailer here and that way we can bring back a rental trailer full of stuff.  Can't use our stock trailer because we have to take the trailer back with us.  Decisions, decisions . . . . 

The tenants might be here longer than a year.  It will take them 4-6 months to build their new home and the land they are buying is still in probate.  Told them no problem since we can't move in before another year plus.  Talked to Cody about only having 30 acres for his cows and he was fine with that.  Said he doesn't need the barn either.  The tenants said they had some problems with the house but repaired them themselves.  I told them that if they needed anything done to call me and I would pay plumber/electrician/HVAC direct.  I hoped to meet with the septic guy but he was not able to come, and his boy was in the junior rodeo the next day so we said we would come and watch him.  Larry (house tenant) said that he and Cody had a big laugh at me.  I asked what the joke was, and he told me that they were laughing because I had called the tenants to tell them not to go in the pasture because there was a breeding bull in with the cows. It turns out that our tenant is a retired cattleman from OK.  Born in Sulphur Springs and came back to retire here.  Apparently he had a big herd of cattle that he bred for the organic market.  

After lovely weather Friday, it snowed!  🥶 Naturally - for the junior rodeo!   As we drove down the narrow road to the arna lots of cars were coming back from the rodeo grounds. Wondered if it was called off but couldn't see tough Texans letting a little snow stop a rodeo. Drove in and found lots of guys sitting in trucks with engines on so DH said maybe it was really cancelled. Nope, lots of little kids on their horses muffled to the eyes with moms and dads turning blue with them. The people in the trucks were between events and warming up with their truck heaters. LOL I grabbed a blanket from the truck and found that there were no bleachers to sit on but found DH a folding chair. He sat down wrapped in the blanket and read his Kindle while I took photos of the kids' events to send to DDIL1. Most of the kids fell off at the chute, but a couple had good rides and stayed on almost till the buzzer. Some of those bulls were really good buckers too. The wind was *icy 🥶 * so we left after watching the pole bending and bull riding.   Went to the Dairy Museum but it is closed on Saturday and Sunday, so will hit it next time.  Hit Walmart for some healthy snacks for DH during the Super Bowl, and Tractor Supply where I got DH his Valentine gift - a bag of peanuts.  He loves their peanuts!

Today we drove around town locating any places we would need, church, Dairy Supply, feed mills, fencing companies, hardware, etc.  The Walmart, Lowes, and TSC are located all together on the south end of town convenient to our place.   Back to motel to hook up computer. Then met Chad (septic) at the house and paid him.  Lower than expected. Agreed that all the cars and trucks leaving the rodeo early yesterday were relatives that came out to watch their family's kids but decided it was too cold!  LOL   Asked if his boy was entered in the youth livestock show February 25 & 26 and he said yes.  Exhibiting a red Beefmaster heifer. Said we would come and cheer for his boy.  His son is not auctioning but might be next year. Since we are coming back next Feb/Mar we will go watch and told him that we would do an "add on" if he auctioned.  Cody's kids did not get their steers halter broke so are not showing this year, maybe next.  

Found out that there are a lot of deer around so can't plant my fruit trees like I wanted since the garden fence is not in.  We need to put up the perimeter game fence first to keep the deep away from the fruit trees or they will become fruit stumps!  Next year.  We are going to try to get the game fencing in this summer.  Located a fencing company in Sulphur Springs that I will call to price it.  Chad gave us the name of a trucking company that might sell Connexes, or alternatively, bring them out full of stuff on one of their flatbeds.  I will price them out also.  So much to do so little time . . . .

Hoping to start moving a lot of our equipment that we are not using back to the property this year.  Getting excited.


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## Ridgetop

So I wrote about my error in recording breeding dates and the 2 surprise lambings. Apparently I need to have a better system!  DS1 called on Thursday while we were on the road to tell me we had another lamb i the night fold.  He was trying to figure out to which ewe it belonged so put it in the sorting chute temporarily.  When he turned around there were 3 more newborns in the pen!  At first, I just laughed thinking he was teasing me, but it appears that 2 other ewes had delivered.  Matching split twins from both of them!  I had also left him the tag numbers of 2 ewes whose lambs could be weaned so he moved those ewes from the creep pen to the field.  He had moved 7088 ewe with month old lambs out to the creep and turned the ewe that lost her lamb onto the field already.   With those moved around he was able to sort the newborns out and move them to the barn jugs with their mamas.  Now he will have to give them shots so he can dock the ewe lambs.  

He had stern words for me about my poor record keeping!    I remembered that those were the 2 ewes that we were not sure had marked or not.  They were on the calendar with a question mark after them.   Oh well, not bad for several years of correct lambing dates. LOL  I was profusely apologetic, and groveled.  Then we decided to blame DH since he often doesn't notice a faint mark when feeding in the am.  So now 5 lambs to take to the auction when I get back, and another 5 to take the following month.  $$$


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## Ridgetop

Back from Texas on Wednesday, left for the sheep seminar Friday, back on Sunday.  

So after taking car of some business in Yantis and Quitman, we met up with Baymule at her place (now Lstewart's place) to hep her finish her move.  DH helped Bay with sorting the storage building and loading the big trailer the Stewarts loaned her.  I went inside and made boxes for all the pictures, then packed up boxes with the items she had ready.  Next we loaded the flatbed trailer with more fencing panels, pipes, timbers, and wire.  It took 2 days to get ready to pull the load to Groveton.  Bays DD came to help and loaded her car up.  We rearranged the stuff in our truck and were able to fit almost everything in the last load.  For a while we thought we would have to make 2 runs.  We still had another flatbed run and the sheep and dogs but had to get pens up in Groveton.

We planned to stay in a motel and drive back and forth to do the loading but Bay insisted that we stay with her.  We would have lost about an hour daily in commuting so we accepted her offer.  We would have slept on the floor but Bay gave us her inflatable mattress and she slept in the recliner.  

The first night there was an earthquake which woke me up!  Turned out that DH needed to go to the bathroom and fell off the inflatable mattress while struggling to get up.  This happened several times and by the time we left for Groveton DH was casting covetous looks at the recliner!  LOL

Arriving at Groveton, it took the 4 of us a full day to unload the trailers.  Seeing all the stuff Baymule had already loaded and taken down herself was impressive.  No wonder her knees are about to give out!  Bay's son came home from Austin that evening and helped us.  The next day we started building the first fence for Trip and Carson.  This was a very small pen around the back of the house so they would have access to the covered porch room.  The next pen was the sheep fold with the 3 arched huts.  Baymule had planned it out so we drove in the T posts and attached the fence panels as we went along.  DH and Bay drove them in. DH started coughing heavily with a lot of exercise or cold air.  He was still recovering from Covid and had to rest frequently. I kept dosing him with cough medicine.   Bay's DS took his tractor and placed a large round bale of hay in the area she had planned between the pens so both pens had access.  Finally those pens were finished.

The next day Bay's DS was home and we decided to go to Houston County which was where their families had lived for many generations.  We needed the rest!  While we went inside to make lunch B's DS took the opportunity while there was no wind to burn some of the cardboard boxes and other rubbish.  When he came in for his sandwich Bay told him of our plan to go sightseeing in Houston County to look at the family land he had inherited from his Dad's family.  He went to check his burn pile while we gathered up water bottles for the trip.  Suddenly there was shouting outside.  Bay ran out and BDS yelled to bring his truck.  Apparently the breeze had come up and we had a problem. Bay drove the truck next door where BDS was struggling to get the neighbor's gate open for the firetrucks.  He needed the tools in the truck to take the gate off its hinges since the neighbor lady couldn't open the lock on the gate.  The neighbor's wife collapsed into Bay's arms sobbing while the firefighters and BDS put out the fire.

Going outside we could see that the small burn pile had rapidly spread across the yard. It was approaching the neighbor's fence on the north and had already burned through the wire fence on the south into the Nasty Neighbor's yard.  DH and I grabbed shovels and began beating out the fire creeping closer to the storage containers.  The Nice Neighbor to the north was out in his yard shouting something to the firefighters.  I heard him yelling at the firefighters, 
"I didn't do it!  I didn't do it!  It wasn't me!"  
Apparently, one firefighter was his brother-in-law and another 2 were his wife's uncles. He told me that he had been one of the firefighters until he got caught setting fires!   He had done time in jail for arson!!!   

The fires were extinguished but the nice green grass that was to be Bay's sheep pasture was gone.  It looked like we had decided to have a big BBQ on BDS' property then and then invited the neighbors!  Unfortunately, the neighbors we invited were the Nasty Neighbors.  The Nasty Neighbor complained to the sheriff about the fence posts being burned and needing to be replaced (not necessary) but that didn't fly since the entire fence was on BDS' property and were his fence posts not the nasty Neighbors!

We decided to just have a quiet night in to recover from the excitement.  The 4 fire trucks and their operators had a good time though.  Apparently this happens all the time according to one firefighter who could barely keep the grin off his face.  These guys are volunteers and love to be called out for a fire so they can drive very fast and use their sirens.  Particularly for a fire like this that did not burn any buidings or injure anyone.  My brother was a volunteer firefighter in Moses Lake when he was in college.  He told me that as volunteer they loved fire calls!  Unfortunately for BDS the fire did reach the back of his property and melted the lights on 2 of his trailers, and scorched the tires on one.

We had gotten tickets for the Greg Gutfeld Show on Thursday evening.  He was in Dallas for 3 nights.  Wednesday was warm - almost 80, but Thursday was cold, snowing in Dallas, and the roads were very icy.  However, Bay, DH and I drove to Lindale and dropped Bay's truck with the flatbed trailer.  DH unhitched the giant cargo trailer we had borrowed, and the 3 of us took off for Dallas.  The weather was icy, but we made good time and got there before noon.  This would give us time to go to lunch before lining up for the performance.  Our instructions were to allow 2 hours to stand in line.  We got a great parking place and decided to walk to the restaurant. First, we went to the box office to make sure that we knew where to get in line.   A very nice attendant sadly told us that due to the weather the performance had been cancelled!!!   

Nothing for it but to fight our way back through the sleet to Sulphur Springs where we had reserved a motel room.  Since we didn't want to do the much longer drive to Groveton after the Gutfeld show ended we planned to stay in Sulphur Springs which was half the drive.  Then we would pick up the last load of sheep equipment and the sheep on Friday morning and go back to Groveton.  After finally getting back to SS we were cold, hungry, and tired.  We had lunch and then did the post office, Lowes and Walmart errands we would have done th next morning.  This saved us time which it turned out we needed since Friday was just as nasty a day as Thursday had been.  

More tomorrow.


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## farmerjan

and now for the "rest of the story".....


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> the Nasty Neighbor's yard


 
Bay doesn't need a nasty neighbor!!!!!!

Thanks for the details. I guess that is why one must stay WITH the burn pile with equipment to keep it from getting out of control.


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## Ridgetop

The Nasty Neighbor is farther away than the Nice Arsonist Neighbor.  We should have bought wienies at Walmart and gone out to sit by the fire and roast them.  Who knew that the breeze would come up and drive the fire like that?!  And the ground wasn't all that dry - it had rained just a couple days previously.  It is a good lesson to plough a large circle around the burn pile before lighting it and stand guard with a hose!  It was sad to see all the burned ground since Baymule's sheep would have enjoyed eating that dry Bermuda grass.



Anyway, tried to get my computer up and running and had a lot of trouble.  Rebooted1 said that it  several times finally had DS1 come to fix it,  He discovered that it had a cracked screen!  Must have happened on trip.  Slight melt down since all business records are on it!  Thought I might have to buy another computer (this one is only 18 months old!) but DS1 turned off the touch screen option which I never use and it seemed to fix the problem for the time being.  He figured that because the screen was cracked it was telling the touch screen option conflicting instructions,  Thank goodness for a computer savvy DS1!  I really did not want to have to buy a new computer just now.  I need the money for gas!!!  $6.00 gallon since we returned!

Meanwhile back in Texas - Got to Baymule's place and got to work.  That woman is incredible!  I couldn't believe all the stuff she had loaded, transported, and unloaded on her own!!!  In addition to the stuff she had help with.  She is *Super Baymule *with super powers for moving!  

After the non-appearing Greg Gutfeld fiasco we went to Lindale the next morning still in the icy sleet  to load the animals and more equipment.  The dogs were so happy to see Bay!  We hitched the stock trailer and DH put it in position to load.  The latches were frozen shut and had to be knocked loose.  I never loaded in ice before and should have realized that we needed to do something about the bad footing on the icy trailer floor.   After getting Ringo and his girls loaded in the front compartment we tried to load the rest of the ewes and lambs.  They started into the chute and then one would turn around backwards and bottleneck.  They did not want to leave their nice covered barn area and get in the drafty clanking trailer.  Did they know that they did not have such nice accommodations at the new place?   

We finally got most of them in the trailer when tragedy struck.  We were loading through the slide gate instead of opening the swing gate hoping it would make it easier to get the ewes into the trailer.  Miranda's rear hoof slipped on the icy trailer lip and her leg slid into the gap under the trailer door just as she tried to get into the trailer.  I won't talk about it anymore since I know Bay talked it about already.  It was heartbreaking and I will never forget the sound of her leg shattering.  Icy footing is very treacherous for animals as well as people.  My heart just breaks for Bay.

While Baymule and her friend rushed Miranda to the vet, Lstewart's daughter's boyfriend helped me load the rest of the sheep again.  First I went and got a rug and draped it over the icy rear step of the trailer for safe footing.  Nothing like locking the stable door after the horse has been stolen.   When Baymule returned we had the sheep loaded in the trailer.  

Next to load the dogs.  Poor Trip was shaking as we tried to get him into the truck under the camper shell.  Lstewart and Baymule lifted him in together.  While I held him in place they got Sheba in.  "Quick shut the door!" I said and Baymule slammed the door down - on my head!     Really need to be quicker when giving those orders.  After we stopped laughing we tied down the camper shell door with bungees and were ready to leave.  Carson and Trip were already in the truck - they were taking no chances at being left behind again!  

Arriving in Groveton Carson and Trip were introduced to their new quarters.  I think they were puzzled at the size of their new home, but it opened into the patio room of the house so they could be out of the rain.  Next we unloaded the ewes and lambs into their side of the fenced pen where they immediately started eating the long dry grass.  Ringo and his girls were next into their pen and they started dining on the hay.  Ringo was not impressed with his new quarters and gave Bay several reproachful looks in the rain.  After she fed the sheep we ran into the house to get warm.  We had hoped to maybe finish the T-posts behind the cargo boxes on the Nasty Neighbor side but it was freezing!  And raining!  And getting dark!  Instead Bay fed the dogs and unpacked some boxes.  

The next day was still wet and cold so we were happy that the fence stringing day had been pushed to Sunday.  I did laundry and packed suitcases in preparation for our departure on Monday.  In Ridgetop tradition these had to be unpacked and repacked due to the changing weather! 

Bay made chili for Sunday and continued to empty boxes.  There were intermittent cries of "Where is . . . ?" Punctuated by vague replies of "I thought I saw it . . ."  as we circled the huge stack of cartons peering into, around, and behind them for the missing items. Every so often there would be a cry of triumph as the missing item appeared where we had looked several times already!  I was not much help as I often thought Bay was looking for something else entirely!  As Bay emptied cartons I broke the boxes down and took them out to the patio room to place in the pile for the next Big Burn. I noticed that Carson had taken the entire dog blanket for himself. leaving poor Trip to sleep on the cold concrete!   

Sunday was dry and Hidden Pines and her DH came early to string fence with us. Meeting them was so much fun.  They are terrific people.  He had brought along all kinds of tools in his truck, including one of the same fence tools I bought for attaching the T post clips to the wire.  Bay and I each had one to use if we could figure it out.  We were going to be on top of this fencing thing until I realized that the hinged tool was trickier than I thought.   Unfortunately, it seemed to collapse like a wet noodle every time I tried to bend the clip with it.  Perhaps if I had put the clips on the right way up first it might have helped! HP's DH showed us how to use the tool but I think I am a slow learner.      I did finally manage to get several clips fastened on while everyone else raced along the wire fastening their clips!  Luckily I had a pair of pliers which I used to clamp the wire, disguising my ineptness with the special fencing tool!   Later I fished the package with the  instructions out of the trash and put it carefully in my tool box.  I will not be beaten by a weird hinged tool that disobeys me.  I sent it for a time out in the tool box and by the time we go back to Texas to string fence on our ranch it better have learned its lesson!  

After we had finished the fencing we all went in to have Bay's chili with Fritos.  Everything she made came from her own beef and garden.  The chili was terrific!  I never had Fritos on chili before and it was a gastronomic enlightenment!!!  I plan to make it that way for my family from now on.  Sooo good!  Too soon Hidden Pines and her DH had to leave. We hope to see them again when we go back to Texas.  Their place with all the work they have done sounds amazing.  

Monday we sadly said good bye to Baymule.  We had to leave for California and some doctor's appointments.  Rushed back for orthopedics appointment on March 3. When we got there were told it was the following Wednesday.  So I told DH we could rush home and hitch the stock trailer to take lambs to the auction. since we couldn't do it the following Wednesday as we planned.  I called the stockyard to find out how late we could get there only to find out that the auction had been held the previous day.  I thought it was Wednesday while it was actually Thursday!   DUH!  However, we could take the lambs in Tuesday and pay an extra day's yardage which we decided to do since the oldest rams were already over 3 months old. So yesterday took in the 4 lambs which were looking very nice.  Had a nice chat with the stockyard clerk.  I asked if they had buyers they notified if I brought in another load and called ahead.  She said they didn't have that kind notification but she knew who would probably buy them - that buyer had bought my others the last couple months. Nice to know my lambs are being looked for.  Will be bringing  another load of ram lambs in either March 30 or April 6 since Easter is late this year.  Will also take the ewe whose udder has gotten bad and her ewe lamb. The ram lamb is ok but the ewe lamb is 6 weeks old and sort of stunted.  If I had been here I would have put her on a bottle, but since she is 6 weeks old now I don't think it would help.  I might pull her anyway and put her in a jug with hay to see if she will perk up and maybe grow a bit more.

Saw the orthopedist today and got the orthopedic surgeon referral for knee replacement.   Doctor looked at my crooked leg (knee juts sideways at a 15+ degree angle from the knee and is getting worse from old injury), looked at x-rays that showed the knee bone on bone on one side with the leg being kinked off at an angle, then at my hip x-rays showing damage to spine from wacky crooked leg and said "Get this fixed before you need spine surgery and a hip replacement as well as a new knee!".  Making an appointment tomorrow for surgical set up.  

Odd thing is that when sitting or lying down unless I have done a lot of standing, walking, or heavy working, I don't have pain.  I can kneel down and squat - can't get up but getting down is not a problem and doesn't hurt much.  Everyone getting knee replacements complains of terrible pain in knees so I didn't think I needed the replacement.  I have noticed when rolling over in bed that the leg doesn't like turning over. It is also getting hard to walk with the crooked leg - I sort of lurch along -  so . . . .    

I hate surgeries - I always think this will be the time I won't wake up and I haven't told my family everything they need to know yet . . . .   LOL  Also worry about who will take care of my sweet DH.  Oh well, life goes on.

DH is very full of "Told you so".  Annoying when he is right.

Since coming back we are trying to figure out how to get all our stuff back there with the cost of gas and diesel.  We might just pay to have it trucked back then meet the movers and put all the fencing and equipment into the barn.  DH plans to buy the supplies he will need to rewire the house and put wiring into the barn here if we can get it since the electrician said he can't get it in Texas without a long wat.  We will bring it back with us. Also going to price no climb and woven wire here since it is getting in short supply in Texas.  DH has decided that we don't need to pay to have expensive game fence installed.  Just need tall fencing for the dogs.  As long as they can't get out they will repel any deer, coyotes, and hogs from getting in.  We have another bitch puppy coming from Erick this summer.  That will give us 4 Anatolians, although Rika is almost 10 now.  I may promote her to yard and lamb jug protector in Texas.  

DH is very upset about the rising cost of gas.  He has decided with the Ukraine situation that we have to "cut back".  At the same time he is running around turning off all lights so we have to feel our way around the house, he wants to stock pile meat!  I told him that we have plenty of meat but really need a garden.  He was excited about plantg stuff but I reminded him that we can't have one due to the ground squirrels.  I may try to order some garden electro netting from Premier.  It has been on back order for the past year but if I order it maybe I will eventually get some and it will be useful in Texas.  Also the solar chargers but not from Premier.  There is a better brand which I will order.  I want one with a high power charge - I can't wait to see those fried ground squirrels hanging from the electric netting!   

I will keep all ewe lambs again this year to see if I can get a good flock of breeding ewes together before relocating to Texas.  I might have them shipped out by livestock carrier since I can't go back and forth several times and leave the sheep to fend for themselves in Texas.  Better to pay for them all to be brought put at the same time.  Or maybe we will bring the rams and dogs in our stock trailer and have the ewes shipped. 

I will have to add to the story of our Texas trip tomorrow.


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## Baymule

Yes you NEED knee replacement! Time to STOP and take care of yourself before you crash and crater into worse shape. 

I go March 24 for an examination. Let's get this show on the road!

This is the wire I bought at the hardware store in Groveton. I plan on using it when I get my farm. You might want to give them a call and see if you can order it direct.





__





						Max-Tight Sheep & Goat Fence | OK Brand
					

OK Brand Wire - Manufacturer of Fencing Products and Barbed Wire




					okbrandwire.com


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## Ridgetop

DS2 encouraged us to take his truck "The Black Dragon" to Texas.  It has a locking tonneau cover to hold our toolboxes and luggage, 4WD and duels in case of snow and ice, motorized extendable trailers, automatic extendable running boards, heated bucket seats with massage, a crew cab for extra passengers, coolers and the detritus of a long journey, and many extras.  DH was thrilled at the idea of driving this sleek newer truck.  On our trip to Texas in DS2's truck we found that driving a new truck with gadgets with which you are not familiar has its drawbacks.  Luckily the owner's manual (all 2000 pages in fine print) was neatly tucked in the glove compartment.

The first drawback came (many times) as we loaded the truck.  Every time you opened any cab door the large running boards slid silently out.  This was fine when getting into or out of the truck but when loading the back seat they slammed into our shins.  We developed a habit of opening the rear door and  jumping backwards to avoid more bruises.  

The Black Dragon had been "raised" by a former owner and ginormous tires added.  This looked cool and had I been 6'6" tall would have posed no problem.  Since I am much shorter, and have a gimpy knee, I prayed each time I hopped up to grab the cab handle and pull myself inside that I would not miss the catch and fall to the ground wiggling like an upside down turtle.  Thoughtfully, I added a folding stool to the back seat of the cab. This came in handy later.

I left DS1 and DH to load the toolboxes I had carefully packed into the truck.  I did not oversee this operation which turned out to be a mistake later.    I had heard some loud arguments and cursing from the men as they struggled with the tonneau cover which proved to have a difficult lock.  First they could not get it unlocked and opened to load.  Then they discovered they could not get it closed since the long pull strap had apparently broken off at some time.  This necessitated someone climbing into the truck over all the luggage to pull the cover far enough back to be able to close and lock it.  More arguments ensued as they finally figured out that the lock mechanism was lose and they needed to hold it in place to lock.  A long piece of parachute cord was added to the broken pull strap to enable it to be closed.  I remained in our room packing suitcases since interfering in "Men's Work" has consequences.  Once the large suitcases containing our cold weather work clothes were packed they put them, the box of boots, and a case of water there too.  Since we were not sure about the water proofness of the tonneau cover I put large garbage bags on the suitcases.  The back seat held my computer, a small cooler, a blanket, wine, our overnight case, my knitting bag, a roll of paper towels, a small travel pillow, my down vest, and about a million coats ranging from lightweight windbreakers to heavy down filled snow gear.  We were ready for all weather conditions. Marv placed his cowboy hat on the dashboard and we were ready to roll.  

Leaving at 8 am we congratulated ourselves on our ability to get out early.  This lasted until we hit commuter traffic ad re remembered why we usually eft either 2 hours earlier or later than 8 am.  Once on the open road we made good time and gas mileage  without a trailer to slow us down.  DH was going 70 in an effort to make it to Texas in 2 days to eliminate a 3rd night in a motel in the road. 

As we drove into the night DH questioned whether the GPS was taking us the northern route or through El Paso.  Since the GPS wasn't up to answering questions, I needed a light to check the map.  As I fumbled for my cell phone DH reached up to turn on the overhead light in the truck.  There was a soft rumbling as the moonroof cover slid open.  "Oops" said DH as he reached up to close it.  The entire moon roof slid open and frigid air rushed into the truck.
"Oops" said DH again, fumbling at the overhead controls.  I slapped his hands away.  "Don't push anything else!"  I said, "You don't know what the other buttons do!"  
 "Ejection seats?"  DH suggested and we broke into laughter.  
With the wind whistling into the cab as we hurtled down the freeway, I found my cell phone and turned it on to find the owner's manual.  5 minutes later we attempted to close the moonroof.  We seemed to find the right button and it finally slid shut but when we tried to close the moonroof cover it would not close.     Finally, after opening the moonroof again and closing we realized that in our button pushing frenzy we had not closed it properly but had opened the moonroof vent preventing the cover from closing. Finally with everything secure we agreed not to push anymore buttons unless we looked them up first in the manual.

Now that we had identified the overhead light button, I continued to read the manual to see if thus vehicle was equipped with any other hidden surprises.  I found the controls for the massaging sets and we played with these for a while.  The seats not only massage your back but also your buttocks.  This would keep our behinds from falling asleep on long trips.

Next we tried to  find a new country station since we were losing ours.  This truck was not equipped with Sirius radio!  A major flaw in cross country trips!  no Willie's Roadhouse, no Golden Oldies, no Fox news, no Country music at all.   We suffered through until we hit eastern Arizona when the Navajo country station came on  The songs were the same and listening to the announcements in Dineh, interspersed with English names and words, was interesting.  We remembered how the Navajo were "wind talkers" during WWII.  The Japanese thought the Navajo language was a code and couldn't break it. These brave Navajo soldiers died before being captured so they would not be forced to break the "code".  I said a prayer for them as we travelled into New Mexico.  

Thursday we discovered that we made better time than we thought since the clock in the truck was wrong!  We pulled into our Sulphur Springs motel at 8pm.  The next day we set out for our ranch.  Our electrician had said the work was not finished so we hoped to catch him there.  Calling him however we found that he was at another location.   He could meet with us in the afternoon so we headed to the county seat, Quitman, to take care of our tax papers.  In the afternoon we met up with John at the ranch to discuss the electric work he was doing for us on the septic and the other work DH wanted done so we could add electric to the barn and well pump this summer.  We also met the tenants of the house and Cody, our cattle tenant.  Apparently Larry and Cody had a good laugh over me calling Larry to "warn" him about Cody keeping a bull in the pastures.  Larry had retired from full time ranching in Oklahoma where he had a large herd of cattle he raised for the organic market!  When Larry told me that I had to laugh too.  According to Larry they did nit think they would be out of the house as quickly as they had expected.  When they rented it they had just sold their house in Sulphur Springs and were going to build in Yantis.  Turns out that there has been a delay in acquiring the property they are purchasing from a cousin since it is tied up in probate.  Although they anticipate the house building itself will only take about 6 months (they are putting up a metal building house) they don't know how ling the probate will take.  Meanwhile they are living rough surrounded by all their boxes and furniture packed into 2 of the bedrooms.  They are good tenants and have done a few small repairs themselves.  We assured them there was no rush since we had to bring back sheep equipment corrals, and fence the perimeter for the guardian dogs.  We are hoping they will be there for another year so the house isn't left vacant.  That way we can get in and do our renovations before we move in the end of 2023, as well as doing the 6-7' perimeter fencing in stages.  

Cody said he did not need the barn at all so we can also use it to store our fencing equipment as we bring it back over the next year.  We will also be able to get in and repair the old tack room in the barn to get it ready for cabinets and shelving.  It needs repairs and possibly a new floor in part.  I have been considering putting the jugs in the barn and using the open covered areas on each side of the barn for outside shelter for the ewes and creep lambs.  We will decide on that later.  Knowing that we can use corral panels to keep the cattle out of the barn to protect our stuff is good news.

Saturday we went to the junior rodeo and commiserated with the parents about the sleet and icy rain on rodeo day after the balmy sunny Friday.  On the way back to the motel we did some shopping, and took care of other business we had to do in Sulphur Springs. Then we got ready for dinner with our great niece Kylee who is living in Tyler with her fiancé.  We had a nice dinner with them and his parents.  She was very excited that relatives would be living only an hour away.  Their wedding is next March.  On Sunday DH watched the Super Bowl game.  He had been afraid he would miss it.  On Monday we went to Lindale to meet Baymule and help with the move.

Once we got everything moved to Groveton I unloaded my tools from the truck.  Marv kept telling me he would unlock the tonneau cover "later" so I tried to do it myself with no luck.  I did find out _*why*_ they were cursing in California as they tried to deal with the tonneau cover lock.  I decided to let the tail gate down and crawled in under the cover.  Good plan except the tailgate was too far off the ground.    Stepping on the hitch into the truck bed was not an option since the tonneau cover was still locked!  But wait, remember my little folding stool?  I go it out and managed to pull myself onto the tailgate.  I had to do the army crawl on my elbows and squirm into the recess of the covered truck bed.  I pulled out 3 tool boxes and brought them into the house.  Going back for the other tool boxes I came up one short.  I had the brad nailer, and the box with the drills BUT the box with the batteries and chargers was not there.  Apparently DS1 thought that the small pile of boxes outside the shed door were the only ones going and did not load the essential batteries and chargers for them.   

As it turned out we ended up not having time to do the moldings and with the rain we couldn't paint them before installing them anyway.  They will have to get done this summer when we go back to Texas.  At least we got the T posts in and gate hung in time for the fence stringing party.

We had a wonderful time with Baymule and really enjoyed meeting her DD and DS. Great senses of humor and fun people.   Looking forward to seeing them again in Texas.  We didn't get down to Leander to see Erick.  It turned out that Kris had been in Palm Springs until the day before we left!  We drove to Dallas and met him and his mom, Beverly, for lunch on our way home.  We got home Wednesday evening.


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## Bruce

Good thing you got back before the price of fuel went up so much! I can't imagine how much a truck like that uses but being jacked with biga$$ tires doesn't help. Maybe DS would like to replace the tires and drop the truck down. I assume someone eventually got the tonneau cover unlocked?

Sounds like it wasn't a bad trip all in all.


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## Mike CHS

This isn't the first time you sent me to sleep after laughing.   I'm glad things got done in spite of some challenges.


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## Ridgetop

It was a very good trip and the gas mileage wasn't too bad for such a large truck.  We did discover with the oversize tires that the mileage indicator is off in terms of proper recording - it records less miles and the speedometer is also off.  DH discovered that the speedometer records speed 5-10 miles less that you are actually going!  Luckily he discovered this before we got a ticket.   Of course in Texas the posted speed limit is just a suggestion.  

One thing I discovered about the Black Dragon when we returned is that the tail gate has a thing you pull out that drops down and makes into a step to get you up into the bed!!!  When DS1 told me abut it on our return he said that DH knew about it!!!  When I confronted him about allowing me to crawl like a snake into the truck bed, he looked puzzled for a minute and then said "Oh yes, I remember now - it does!"  

DS2 has to take the truck in for an oil change and some other stuff and will have the speedometer and mileage indicator fixed.  Everything is under warranty.  The truck came with the giant tires and already raised.  It looks "cool" but we don't like it because it is hard to get into and I have to hang onto the door not to fall out when dismounting!  However it is not our truck and we won't put the money into it to get it lowered and replace the giant tires and rims with smaller ones.  

Since Twinkles is 22 years old, and arts to fix her are getting harder to find, we have been discussing getting another truck when we move to Texas and junking DS1's old Explorer which is approaching 300,000 miles.  The engine is still running ok but bits of the car fall off every so often and DS1 has to reattach them.  

We are thinking about getting one of the new F150s with the big gas engine instead of the diesel.  The new F150s are able to haul more in trailer weight now.  Instead of a crew cab, an extended cab would be fine, with the standard 8' bed and single wheel drive instead of duals.  We would get 4WD because it would be a ranch truck, but that way we could keep Twinkles for heavy hauling and dually applications.  Not sure if we would put ranch plates on Twinkles or not.  That type of truck would still be able to haul 5th wheel and gooseneck trailers and of course our little 16' stick is a bumper pull which it would have no trouble with.  Won't happen until 2023, but DH and DS are happy shopping using the Ford on-line app to build their "dream" truck.  Too bad I will have to pull the plug on some of the extras they will add.  With the scarcity and high price of used trucks, we will probably buy new.

That will give us 2 ranch trucks and our newer Explorer which DH says should last us for the rest of our lives.  I am not so sure since I plan to live forever!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> DH discovered that the speedometer records speed 5-10 miles less that you are actually going!


I wonder what that does to the odometer. 



Ridgetop said:


> The truck came with the giant tires and already raised. It looks "cool" but we don't like it because it is hard to get into and I have to hang onto the door not to fall out when dismounting!


I've never been a fan of "looks cool" and especially not a fan of "sounds cool" (no it doesn't; it is highly annoying and rude). There is no functional reason for it to be that high off the ground, is a hazard to other vehicles if it hits you because it will be way high.


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## farmerjan

Jacked up trucks and big tires don't turn me on...BUT....to someone else they do look cool.  Everyone has their own preferences.  If someone wants to spend their own hard earned money on making a vehicle look "cool"... that to me looks like a waste of money... it is not my place to pass judgement.  The safety thing is one thing to consider, but there are laws and rules for height and needed stablizer bars and such... and around here the state cops get after them and will stop the guys to measure the height and such.  I would rather a jacked up truck that is noisy... and yes, the neighbor has one that drives me nuts when he goes to work at 11 p.m. .... but he is not a lazy dopehead, or out stealing stuff from other people.... so God bless him.  2 minutes of noise as he goes by is his "thing"... people don't like our tractors on the road either...

I could really care less of how a vehicle looks.  I want it to run, be fully functional, get decent gas mileage for me, and to do the job I need it to do.  And age is of no importance to me for a day to day driving vehicle.  But there are ALOT of people that put alot of stock in looks, age, "status quo", being politically correct and all that malarkey.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> I wonder what that does to the odometer.


It records fewer miles on the odometer that are actually travelled so DS2 will have to get it adjusted along with the speedometer when he takes it in.  DH has to add in the extra mileage we drove on this trip for our taxes next year.

I agree about "cool".  I am not in favor of this "look" although we got a lot of compliments on the truck on our trip.  This is a truck that has the raised profile and big tires for youngsters or someone that likes to go off roading - although this is a huge truck in which to go off roading!  I would not want to take it off roading.  However, it came that way and the price was right for DS2.  Eventually when he has to replace the tires he will have it lowered back down again and the rims and tires replaced with standard ones.  DH said that replacing those tires and rims would be very expensive and lowering the chassis back to normal more $$.  Since the tires are new, no need to spend any money until they wear out.

Anyway, we sent 4 ram lambs to the auction this week.  Waiting to see how much they brought.  We have several ewe lambs that were weaned a couple weeks ago to move onto the field.  We need to move the 3 ewes that lambed a month ago out of the jugs into the creep.  Then we have another 6 ram lambs in the barn that we will take the end of the month or first Wednesday in April for the Easter sales, along with the 5 year old ewe whose udder is falling apart.  We start lambing again March 28 with 8111 who is ginormous, OR 5, and then 0439 April 11.  Then 5 ewes due May 15/16 with 2 more trailing off through June 7.  5 of those last 7 ewes are first fresheners.  

I used the Excel program to make up a list of all my ewes.  I use colored ear tags to identify the sires of my home bred ewes, but haven't been able to figure out how to identify the dams easily.  I used the Excell program to list everyone with both scrapie tag numbers and flock numbers (my sheep have a tendency to lose ear tags and my original scrapie tags are so tiny you can hardly read the numbers when holding the tag, let alone in the ear of a ewe that is bouncing around!  The new ones are larger but being able to cross reference the numbers will be very good. Then I added the sire and dams to the list along with any special notes.  The list also makes it easy to ID the dam of any ewe, including those we have bred out of our own home bred ewes.  I am hoping it works and that I remember to keep it up by adding ewes on the computer list as they are bought or born ad registered.    It is much easier than trying to look through all my registration papers to ID them.

Still haven't done the mountain of laundry from our trip or finished unpacking the last suitcase of winter clothes.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Since the tires are new, no need to spend any money until they wear out.


Take it back to TX a few times, that should wear them out 

Tractors have a purpose, intentional noise does not.


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## Ridgetop

Got my check today for the 3-month-old lambs we just took in.  Actually after arguing with DS1 about how many we loaded, we realized that we had accidentally loaded one of 7088's ram lambs that was only 2 months old!  OOPS.  

The lambs went for an average of $210 each - much higher than the last group we took in!  The lowest was $185, $5 more that the last highest price, while the highest lamb went for $230!   

I was considering keeping 2 of the ram lambs in the barn for breeding, but have decided we want the high $$$ instead.  Instead of making a pen for the 2 ram lambs, we can make another breeding pen instead.  That way we can breed 2 rams at once to 2 groups of ewes. I need to figure out when to plan on breeding for next year to cash in on these prices. Easter is late this year so that may be why the March sales are higher.  I need to figure out when the ethnic holidays ar next year as well as Easter so as to have lambs for all of them.  Since we can't breed all the ewes for a single lambing space wise, we will keep breeding in smaller groups for multiple holidays.

DDIL1 texted me that she had a family from the SFV (where we live) buy a lot of chickens and they asked her if she knew where they could buy some Dorper breeding stock.  She wanted to know if I wanted to sell any.  I told her to give them my phone number.  I will need to charge registered prices, but might have some young ewes and an excellent ram lamb to sell if they are willing to meet the prices.  Selling breeding stock would pay for more hay.   Breeding stock has gone way up in price since market lambs are bringing so much. Several of the breeders haven't got much young breeding stock available even for auction.  They are all cashing in on the high lamb market!  

I made the appointment to see the orthopedic surgeon for my knee.  The head surgeon had no appointments until June and the earliest operations were booked into October!  I figured I would see someone sooner.  All the surgeons at UCLA are good and most of them also teach in the medical school.  I had my physical and the blood tests came back not so good.  I will probably have to go on a statin for cholesterol. I am waiting for my doctor to call back and tell me what the tests mean.  The blood work also looked like I am anemic.  Not sure of what the results were telling me, but the bright red *!!!* next to the test results were not reassuring.  LOL  Then I made our appointments for specialists after our physicals.  I was on hold so long that I finally borrowed DH's cell phone and used both of them to sit on hold waiting for the appointment clerks to pick up!  Everything except Orthopedics were different departments with different numbers and appointment clerks.  All of them asked the same questions though which is what took some of the time once I got a living person.  In fact, I spent 6 hours on the phone making 12 medical appointments for DH and myself and still have one more to make tomorrow.  I started out very cheerful but by the end I was getting somewhat brusque!  

DS2 loaned our stock trailer to his friend to pick up a couple cows.  They are Jersey crosses both bred.  When the friend arrived, I asked for his name, address, phone number, driving record, fingerprints, blood type, and a DNA swab.  I really *love* my trailer.
After picking up the cows his friend sent a photo of him scrubbing out the trailer.  His wife texted that he was slightly afraid of me!  LOL  Maybe me standing in the driveway crooning endearments to the stock trailer gave him a bad impression!  They just bought 14 acres in the mountains near Lake Arrowhead and want to use the cows for milk and meat, have chickens and a garden.  Their children are 9 and 7 years old.  The little girl kept loving on Josie the Mule who really ate up the attention.  I will text them the BYH website so they can join.

We have lost a ewe and found a ewe.  We have an Orange tag 31 but have registration papers for an Orange tag 30.  It should be easy to figure out BUT my notes show us retagging a ewe as Orange 31!  Actually retagging a ewe lamb several times.  "No problem", said DS1. "I'll just catch her and check the Scrapie tag number.  That will tell us who she really is." EXCEPT THE SCRAPIE TAG HAS BROKEN OFF!!!    DS1 said he will have to recheck all the scrapie tag numbers to find out if  CART10080 shows up in anyone else's ear.  That is the number that Orange 30 shows on her registration papers.  Since we don't have an Orange 30 in the flock, just an Orange 31 with a partial scrapie tag CAR we are having trouble identifying this ewe.  Pretty sure Orange 31 and the invisible Orange 30 are the same ewe though.  The age is right, sire is right (Orange tag), and there is no other ewe with scrapie CART10080 on her papers.  Just have to check a lot of scrapie ear tags.  We don't have to check the purchased ewes so that drops the number down.  We don't have to check the Purple ear tags, so that drops the number down.  We don't have to check any nursing and just weaned ewe lambs (Green ear tags) so that will bring the number down to only about 5 or 6 ewes out of 42 ewes and ewe lambs.    DS1 will be happy about that.  I think this is a ewe that we retagged twice as a lamb and retagged the scrapie tag too.  i should sell her for the trouble she has caused but she is bred and if she is actually the ewe we think, she is a good ewe and granddaughter of 8040, aka "Leg Fixer".  8040 died of heatstroke and I only had one ewe out of her so I would like to keep this ewe.  Either way, our flock count is accurate, just a problem with identity which needs to be resolved before she lambs since I am hoping for a ewe lamb out of her.

DD1's children will be here for dinner tonight and to work with the sheep - DS1 has to sort out some ewes for the breeding pen and the grandkids can help.  Sort of.  Then I will feed everyone spaghetti.  It is parent-teacher conference night.

2 more loads of laundry to go.  Then tomorrow I have a dental appointment.  Wednesday we have our tax appointment and DH has his hearing test with the VA for his hearing aids.  

DH and DS1 tractored out the night fold.  Tomorrow they will work on the jugs.  We moved the last 3 ewes and their lambs into the creep after moving the older lambs out. The ewes were already moved out to wean the ewe lambs and the ram lambs went to auction.  

Getting ready for another round of lambing the end of the month.  A shepherd's work is never done!


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## farmerjan

Great on the lamb prices....


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## Baymule

Be careful of statin drugs. They have some nasty side effects. BJ was on one and he was literally losing his mind. He had about a 30 minute memory. We had to wean him off slowly and gradually his memory returned. It was not a good experience. Question your doctor and see if perhaps another drug can be used. 

Getting a doctor appointment is almost like trying to set a slaughter date. You gotta book it waaaaay it in advance!


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## Mike CHS

If you look at the list of side affects for statins,  I had just about every one of them.


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## Ridgetop

Ugh!  I will question the doctors carefully about other ways to reduce my cholesterol, if that is the problem.  Too bad they can't just _squeeze _the cholesterol out of the veins like with a laundry mangle!   I would be like "Flat Stanley" in the children's books!  LOL  Maybe it would work to squeeze out some fat too!    Anyway, just have to wait and see what they say.  As long as it wont hold up the knee surgery.  On the other hand the scheduling nurse at ortho surgery said that they were booked out until October for knee surgeries!!!  That is not good since it gives me to much time to reconsider!  LOL

DS2 is home today.  He told DH and me that he quit his job.  We didn't believe that since if you quit the apprentice program they will not take you back and he was just about ready to graduate.  Turned out he had taken his test yesterday and got his Journeyman's ticket so had to drag up anyway.   

He will take the rest of the month off he says. We have several items of fencing he can help with. DH wants to try T-posts on some fencing lengths to make several new pastures for the sheep. That way we can save some forage for them to eat. The hills are green from the little rain we have gotten and our sheep are enjoying the green stuff in the pasture. With a little more rain California would be a paradise! - except for the politicians. 


Lamb prices were excellent and I hope they hold until the end of this month when I send the other 5 ram lambs.  With prices like that I will not grow out any ram lambs as breeders.  Prices will probably drop after Easter.  I need to check all the religious holiday dates for other ethnicities to plan when to send my year round lambs to auction.  By sending them a couple weeks before those holidays I might be able to get better off- season prices.  

Got my 6th load of laundry into the washer this morning.  Have a dental appointment  this afternoon.  DS1's good friend Leen is coming for a visit tomorrow from Reno.  He is the one referred me to the Lab breeder and then went and picked out DD1's Lab pup.  He is also the friend that gave us the ducks for DDIL1 up in Reno.  I will be doing a corned beef dinner (St. Paddy's Day) and sending him home with a couple pumpkin pies. They have been waiting for him in the freezer since Christmas.  He had to keep cancelling his trip.  

Taxes tomorrow!    I gave all the figures for the properties, sales, purchases, expenses, etc. to DH and he filled in the prep pack with all the figures.  DH has everything ready so I just have to bring my receipt box in case I have to look a ng a correction.  After the tax appointment DH has an appointment for his hearing test and aids.  DH wanted to cancel and reschedule but I pointed out that the tax appointment was at 10:30 and the hearing appointment was at 2:45 so plenty of time to make both.  The thought of having to make another appointment gave me cold chills!  

Annabel's FIRST birthday is this Saturday!  We will be having a small party with family. Next week is Robert's FIRST birthday.  His party with JUST FAMILY will be about 30 people!  Both parents have a *lot *of siblings!!!  LOL  Both parties will be here at our house since Robert lives here and DD2 has a small apartment with no parking.  

DS1 said that 7041 has a piece of hay rope twisted around her hoof.  She is limping.  We will catch her tonight and double check her leg.  She is going to the sale yard, but her price will be less if she is limping.  She was fine a day ago so hopefully that is what is wrong.  I don't like to take lame animals to the auction.  Her broken down udder is enough of a drawback to a good sale price.


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## Baymule

You will have to pass a stress test before your knee surgery. No clogged arteries on the operating table!


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## farmerjan

Not sure what a stress test is.... guess I passed one??? All my blood work was good, BP was okay.... no problems with cholesterol or anything... they did a thing with all the little wire things stuck on me... but nothing that I call a stress test... like on a treadmill or anything... guess I did okay since they did replace the knees.  
My biggest thing was that I passed the height/weight BMI... not obese by the "chart" even though I am overweight.  That is my biggest aggravation.  Working on that a bit... watching what I am eating a bit more and hoping now with the nicer weather will get more exercise in general and as they (knees) allow, more specific exercising...


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## Ridgetop

Haven't heard from the doctor about my bloodwork results yet.  Maybe the exclamation points mean something else.   

DS1's college friend arrived yesterday evening and we had a nice dinner.  He is divorcing his wife (no kids).  Apparently, they have had an on again-off again marriage for the past 5 years.  He is the friend that chose Sirius for DD1's family.  He brought his red Lab and you could see the family resemblance between Monty and Sirius.  He liked Sirius so much that he has a puppy ordered from Sirius' sire and Monty's sister.   Leen does a lot of duck and bird hunting in addition to deer.  Told him he could come and shoot all the hogs he wants on our property.  LOL  He is planning to buy abut 1,000 acres in Montana or Dakota in another 2 years.  No buildings on it, just for hunting, and he wants some river frontage. Nice guy, it was enjoyable seeing him again.

Went to the dentist Tuesday.  YUCK!  Lots of Novocain and a tranquilizer in the morning. Teeth began aching when I got home so took aspirin then Codeine.  That put me out for the rest of the day and night.  Talked i y sleep all night about putting in the fence in Texas according to DH.  Not surprising since Codeine does not knock me out, instead puts me into a talkative half sleep.  According to DH I couldn't decide whether we would need 10' T posts or 12' T posts ???  and also H braces.  No wonder I woke up in the am and was still tired.  Then off to the Tax Preparer, and then home since DH had several hours before his hearing appointment.  Turned out the hearing aids that the Westwood VA said were broken were not broken at all, instead the charger was broken.  All this time and he could have been hearing fine!    Anyway they ordered him new aids and chargers.

The ewes are sorted out and 7 are in the breeding pen waiting for Moyboy to go in tonight.  The pregnant ewes are out on the field with the young stock.  We will be taking another group to the auction on March 30.  DH set himself another hearing appointment on April 6 in spite of me yelling that that day was taken with the auction!    Hope he gets his new hearing aids soon!  March 30 should still be ok for good prices.

Next lambing group of 11 will lamb between March 26 and June 7.  3 are repeat lambers and the others are all first fresheners.  The 7 being bred are experienced ewes.  The next groups to be bred will include more first fresheners again.  We are almost at the point to need 2 breeding pens since we need to breed these first fresheners to different rams.  I think that all lambs born between October and December I might all go to the auction to increase sales money.  Ewe lambs born between April and October can be kept for breeders before going to Texas.  Then before relocating to Texas, I will go through my flock and cull heavily.  No point paying to transport lesser quality breeding stock.  I plan to pay the fee and sign up for the flock exam by the Dorper association.  The examiners will grade your flock 1 through 5 based on many points.  The highest grade is 5.  Anything less than 3 for a ewe and 4 for a ram is not recommended as breeding stock so won't be going to Texas.  

I have to look up Baymule's fencing thread and print some of it off for DH and DS1.  I am pretty sure that we need to put the T-posts into the ground at least 2', then every so many feet one in at least 3-4', then an H brace every so many feet.  Need to look up how many feet, etc.  DH has decided that we will put in the Texas perimeter fence ourselves to save money.  I like the idea of saving money.  We can add some wire at the bottom to discourage any digging in or out.  The Anatolians don't seem too interested in leaving their premises so unless they decide to chase some very determined predator they will not leave the yard if it is fenced at least 6' high.  We could also put in the posts to be 7' high and run a hot wire along the top.  I am not sure what size T-posts we will need - at least 8' for a 6' fence.  Or 10' and put them in deeper.  Got to check it out.

It was supposed to rain yesterday but instead it warmed up and has been nice and sunny. We were hoping for more rain but it looks like our rain is over for the year.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> You will have to pass a stress test before your knee surgery. No clogged arteries on the operating table!


My life is just one big stress test!  Why do I need another?!


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> My life is just one big stress test!  Why do I need another?!


Then you should ace the stress test! You already have lots of practice.


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## Ridgetop




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## Ridgetop

Up early this morning waiting for the coffee to brew.  Everyone was up late last night except me.  DH, DS1 and DSIL2 went to help a friend of DSIL's move.  She is an older lady whose son died.  She had put her house in her daughter's name and the daughter sold the house and moved her mom into an apartment.  Then she and her husband split so she moved in with her mm.  Then they got back together so the husband moved in and they kicked the mom out to another apartment!  So soap opera.  Another reason why you should keep everything in your own name!  Anyway they went to help DSIL2 - h dosnt have a truck anymore, his died.

Yesterday DH and DS2 also took DSIL2 down to the semi-truck driving school to sign him up for commercial license training.  When DS1 took the training it was about $1800, when DS2 took the training it cost $3000, and it is up to $4,000 now.  They both paid half of the cost to get him the commercial license training.  While there is talk of them paying back the money, it won't matter. Besides he needs to be able to support DD2 and the grandchildren.  Since he has no family (as such) to look after him I suppose we now have to step into that position.  Family, we look after our own. 

Not much happening yet today.  We don't have Annabel or Sirius (the Lab) for babysitting today so maybe we can get some fence building done.  We need a post driver.  We watched a couple U-Tube videos on fence building yesterday.    One guy was putting in high tensile fencing on metal posts.  He had a big crew of several fence companies there for the Fence Building Day video and was putting in about 1800 feet of fence.  They were using a motorized winch to tighten the span of fencing.  I wonder if we could rent one.  If not DH has always wanted one for the front of Twinkles.  Sigh . . . . More toys.    Several good lessons about how to splice wire fencing.  Also saw a couple of new T-Post clip designs and tools to use on them that looked good.  Might get those.  First we need to try driving in some T-Posts to finish off the pens we are trying to build on this steep hillside.  We don't have a lot of work to do to finish them so if no one decides to work on them I will drive to Lowes, buy the fence post driver, and shame them into doing it by trying to do it myself in full view of them!  I am not sure it will work, but I might be able to get the posts in myself which will work just as well.  I used to do everything myself until I got several injuries and was laid up.  It is hard to get back into doing stuff after that.  Then I spent about 6-7 years renovating all the apartments, then moved on to MJ's house, then back to our house and remodeling the garage into a 5th bedroom and laundry room.  Got to get off my behind and back to work on pens, shelters, and feeders.  Can probably build several wooden feeders much cheaper than it will cost to order the metal ones and go get them in northern California.  Eventually I can order more Shaul's equipment when I can deduct it as farm expense.

Speaking of farm taxes, I will make an appointment with a farm tax specialist in Sulphur Springs or Yantis this summer to discuss the issue.  I need to know hw to set up my books.  Our tax person has no idea and said that she doesn't think we can show the current equipment as farm gear since we did not buy it new after filing the tax return???!!!  However, she did admit that she had no idea about farm taxes.   I am also going to do some homework online to check out any grants or money that is available for "Women in a Man's Field" type of businesses.  I think there are some grants out there and I will apply for some.  If I need some sort of degree in animal husbandry, I will check to see if I can study and take a test in lieu of a degree considering the number of years I have been raising livestock.  Experience and actually having the working farm premises should count for something.


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## Ridgetop

DDIL2 is at work and DS2 is babysitting.  This should be a happy daddy/baby bonding exercise but unfortunately, we are finding out that Robert has never been left alone in his life.  Robert will be 12 months old in one week and not only does DDIL2 wake him up in the middle of the night to nurse him, but then she sleeps on a mattress next to the crib with him instead of returning him to his crib and going back to bed.  DS2 told her that at 6 months he needed to be sleeping in his crib so she bought a roll up mattress so she can sleep next to him on the nursery floor!  This is so wrong in so many ways!!!  In addition, her parents put him in their bed for naps and sleep with him, so he has never slept alone!  He is completely spoiled about playing in the playpen, and only is happy when being held by his mama.  I don't know how this will end but told DS2 to go to the pediatrician with DDIL2 and Robert and talk to the pediatrician about this.  Maybe the pediatrician can point out to her that this is not good for the baby or their marriage.  When baby #2 comes along Robert will be so jealous he might be dangerous to any new baby.  If baby #2 comes along since Robet sleeping with them is a real good contraceptive method!  Well, I can't do anything about this since she has parents and sisters who enable the behavior.  Her siblings are not married and have no children and since several of her sisters have decided they want to be Lesbians, this may be the only grandchild.  I don't want to get involved.  I want to leave all my grandbabies and children behind and go back to Texas!  And work on my sheep ranch.

I have looking into any possible grants or special low interest loans for women farmers/ranchers.  I have to be one of a group identified as underserved or discriminated against.  Do women qualify anymore?  Or do I have to be a woman identifying as a man identifying as a woman?  DH would qualify under the Veterans' Act.  I will look into that.  It is possible that our ages would count against us in which case we might qualify as underserved groups as aged persons.  

Better go down to clean out the jugs for the next group of ewes coming on to lamb this month.  I also want to figure out how to redo their metal hay bins to have a box at the bottom to prevent the hay from dropping all those nutrition rich leaves of priceless alfalfa out onto the barn floor.  Currently they are just hay bins with open bars curving under.  I know there is something I could figure out, just have to think about it,  The next ones I buy, I will not go cheap - I will buy the ones with the grain box attached underneath for the extra $125.  However , I am sure I can figure out how to make a shallow box of wood to attach to the hay feeders with wire to make them work better.  And for less than $125 each.  I probably have some bits and pieces of left over lumber and plywood in the shed that will work.  I need 5 of them.  I also want to get some 3/8" plywood to cut into 24" widths to wire on to the portable chute sides to made the chute walls look solid.  That will help the sheep not to turn around in the chute and made a sheep jam.  Really annoying since our current chute runs between several horse panels which are 5' tall and hard to work through.  Once in Texas, we might cut some of them in half vertically to get 30" panels for chute walls.  They will make semi-permanent chutes.  

I wish I could clone myself so I could just work with ME who knows everything and would need little or no instruction on what to do!  Not only would we be able to do everything in record time, but between the 2 of us we would have one good body with which to do everything!  Mybe I could clone myself several times and really get a lot done!  On the other hand, we would all want to be the boss!  

Going down to the barn now to check things out.


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## Baymule

Yes! Make a tray for those hay bits! Then the stinkers can jump in it and poop/pee in it. Or at the very least, back up to it and leave little brown pearls in it. 
Let me know how that clone works out for you. It sounds like a good idea if you can pull it off!


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## Margali

@Ridgetop The part that seems crazy is sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of the nursery. And dad not having enough baby time so baby is used to dad. Baby needs to get used to snuggle to start nap then grownup leave.

The rest, well... You basically described my setup.  I co-slept with side sleeper crib while nursing. Then baby transitioned to cot setup next to bed where we could pat back if he was upset. Then cot at other end of bedroom, then bottom bunk in their own room, We baby wore the whole time to. @Baymule can tell you my three kids are okay. They are 9, 5, and 3.


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## Ridgetop

Probably ok eventually, but only ok with his mom and since they live with us, and baby screams every time one of us has to hold him not OK.  His dad is getting tired of never having his wife in bed with him too.  Also not good for _their_ relationship although I stay out of that.

I _am_ really tired of living with my children and grandchildren and ready to move to Texas. Figured out why i want to move far away - I am tired of children using my home as dropping point for items they don't want to store themselves. Or take to Goodwill. Tired of babysitting when someone needs or wants to do something unencumbered by children. Tired of taking care of sick children when parents have to work. Tired of cooking for 5 adults every day. Tired of doing dishes and cleanup for everyone. Finally, just plain tired. DH bought me some iron yesterday so I can start taking it in case I am anemic. Left message for doctor to call and discuss bloodwork but no return call. 

Today at 2:30 is Annabel's First Birthday party.  Hamburgers and hot dogs on patio with cake to follow.  I got up early and got a cup of coffee for DH and one for me.  Then we both read our books in bed until around 8:30 when DH got up and had breakfast.  I stayed in bed finishing my book until NOON!  Got up, showered, washed my hair, dressed, got phone call from DD1 asking if we had a cone collar for their dog who got neutered.  I asked why they didn't get one at vet and she said DSIL1 was too cheap (sorry, economical) to pay for one.  Told her that Angel had ripped her cone off and then chewed it up last year.  

Then I went into my lovely formal living room.  Not a pleasant sight since it held 3 large car seats, a large cardboard box with a guinea pig house, and a toddler bed. Another large cardboard box was on the dining room table filled with cardboard egg cartons being "saved for DDIL1", along with a lot of miscellaneous stuff randomly shoved on the table or the floor around it!  Also some empty shipping boxes that were stuck in there after the baby stuff was removed from them!  They don;t even take the boxes out to the trash!!!   

I muttered stuff that I cannot put into print and dragged the toddler bed down to the shed where it will go into the loft.  Then put the guinea pig house in the laundry so DD2 (for whom it was made) can take it home after the BD party.  Dragged some plastic storage boxes down to the shed along with DS2's folding sawhorses which were sitting outside the door.  Once in the shed I realized the ladder to get into the loft was missing so I went to lo0k for it.  DS1 said he knew where it was and fetched it forme.  I was going to shove the stuff into the loft but he did it for me.  Including the Jumperoo which I had put away a couple weeks ago.  I had also asked DS2 to take the toddler bed down and put everything in the loft since apparently the toddler bed was brought over for his son.  While we were in the shed DS2 brought down the box with the guinea pig house and said it needed to be oiled before going to DD2.  He got snippy when Ii told hm to go do it right now and I got even snippier.  Poor DS1 got the brunt of my complaints while doing all the stuff I had asked DS2 to do.    Anyway, got to go finish clearing the dining room table and floor.  Really disgusted that the kids figure they can just clutter up my house with their junk!  
dragged the toddler bed


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## Baymule

When parents run away from home..........


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## farmerjan




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## Ridgetop

Yes, I want to run away from home and go live on my own little farm.  Maybe alone.

Pulled out the Wood County Soils book I got from the County extension agent several years ago.  Looked up the type of soil we have and then looked up what that type meant as far as growing, building, percolation, etc.  Seems like good soil, silty loam with enough clay to hold T-posts, not too sandy or too heavy.

I started pricing 6' woven wire and 10' T-posts today for the perimeter fence.  DH says we can put it in ourselves.  If we start this summer, we might be able to get it done in the next 2 years.  I will also price other fencing companies.  The first one estimated $75,000 to fence the perimeter of our 45 acres with game fence!  I suppose we could come up with that much, but do we need 8' game fence?  Maybe we only need 6' high tensile fencing.  And if we fence only half it would be cheaper.  And if we do it ourselves, even cheaper.  I have to figure out how far apart to put the H braces in the span of wire.  As you can see from the property survey map, the property is L shaped with one long side running along Hwy 154. The house is in the far right corner with the barn behind it. The 2 ponds are behind the barn leaving about 30 acres of open Bermuda pasture to the left.  My original plan was to fence in the approximately 15 acres of the short arm with the house, small shed, and barn, leaving the 30 acres of Bermuda for the cattle lease or for cutting for hay for our use.  However now I see that 15 acres would include the ponds and Baymule has warned me about letting the sheep drink from the ponds due to the possibility of liver flukes.  Between the Barberpole worms and liver flukes, I would have major parasite problems so now I don't want to let the sheep have access to the pond.
I



Instead I am considering fencing the house area, barn, and a smaller part of the short leg avoiding the ponds, then fencing across the front pastures for my rotational grazing pastures.  The problem there is that I would need to pump water to the sheep from the well situated between the house and barn on the right side.  We were planning to put in a storage tank since the well casing has pinholes in it and the well water tastes of Sulphur.  I could drill another well since the property is sitting on a good aquifer with excellent tasting water but that will cost $$$.   A storage tank would allow the water to dissipate the Sulphur so the taste would not be bad.  Also it would allow me to fill the water troughs in the various pastures without continually pumping from the well.  We could connect solar panels to the well for pumping.  Another possibility is to see if the well can be relined somehow.  At one time there were 5 wells on this property so the water is there.   The house is connected to community water.




The 4 short sides average 800' each.  The long highway frontage is +/- 1,500' while the long side front to back is 1,728'.  The continuous borders are about 6,500' of fencing.  I will need H braces both ways at each corner (forming an L) and at each gate opening.  I will also need to place H braces at intervals in the fencing spans to maintain the strength. The fence has to be a minimum of 6' high for the dogs.  I can get no-climb woven wire in 6' height.  The soil is a good sandy loan with a clay base so T-posts should work well if we stretch the wire tight and provide good corner bracing without trying to wrap the corners.  The T posts should be driven into the ground at least 2', so a minimum height of 8' would be needed for the T-posts.  I will need several gates in the perimeter fence.  

The interior fences for the sheep don't have to be 6' tall.  They only have to be 42-48" tall and have dog openings that the sheep will not access.  One problem will be the dogs going after the cattle tenant if the interior fences are 42-48".  And he has to get in to feed his cows or take them to market.  This problem means that I might have to fence only part of the perimeter with 6' fencing and leave the part for the cattle unfenced except for the 48" barbed wire cattle fencing there now.  Doing that may be tricky since I have to leave Cody access to his cattle somehow.  I could allow access on the far right side of the property between the house and the property line that would circle around to the back for Cody.   Or as the flock grows I could divide everything into rotation pastures that would ensure the grass stays 4" high, since I was told that Barberpole only climb 3" up and that would help with control of Barberpole.  At 5 sheep per acre I could conceivably run 200 head of sheep.  However when you consider nursing ewes and lambs, that would divide the number by 3 down to 50-60 ewes and rams.  I would like a balance of about 50 since I will have to dry lot the open ewes when feeding hay instead if pasture.  Possibly less if I want to rotationally graze and not feed hay, or cut the hay on my land for winter feeding. 
Lots to plan out.


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## Ridgetop

Started cleaning the barn jugs today.  They need to be dug out and limed.  Filled 2 large barrels then DS1 found me and scolded me.  Said he planned to dig them out this week.  I told him that he better hurry since we have 2 ewes due on the 26th, and another on the 28th.  Running out of time.

Put Moyboy in on Friday evening and he marked Snowflake yesterday.  So lambs in March, May, and August.  Not sure what that will do to our plan to come to Texas with DS1 to start fencing.  Might get back in June and July.  But I won't now about my knee surgery till April 5 anyway.  I need to call the doctor again tomorrow since I didn't get any response to my call about my blood tests.  

Annabel had her birthday party yesterday SHE IS 1 YEAR OLD!l  Robert was very fussy today.  Every time she put him in the crib he screamed until she went back and picked him up.  I went to my room and shut the door.  Robert will be 1 year old March 26th.  Getting to be a big boy.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> but do we need 8' game fence? Maybe we only need 6' high tensile fencing.


I suppose that depends on what you are trying to keep out?? If you don't mind deer jumping in and possibly becoming dog food, I don't think you need an 8' fence.


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## Ridgetop

Having deer become dog food would cut down the feed bills  but I will have to find out if it would be illegal for the dogs to "take" a deer if it jumped inside my fencing. I don't think the dogs could get deer tags since they couldn't pass the safety tests for gun or bows. Don't want them tossed in prison because they can't pay the fine!  

DS1 cleaned the rest of the barn jugs today.  He limed them and sprayed for flies really thoroughly.  Tomorrow he will get out the table saw and we will make the boxes to go on the bottom of the jug feeders.  We will attach them to the feeders with wire.  

Had a fellow from one of the houses below on the road come up to ask about buying a lamb.  He said he wanted a BBQ lamb but when he saw the 50 lb. lambs decided they were too small and asked about a larger one.  I told him I would sell a 60-70 lb. lamb for $400.  I would prefer to just take everything to the auction but if he will pay that much fine with me.  Then he asked if we would butcher it for him and I said no.  I did give him a name and address of someone that would do it.  He said he also has some rother Armenian people that sell lambs.  I asked him why he didn't just buy from them and he said that he thought ours would be better.   ???  Anyway, I told him I would call him in a couple weeks so he could come pick it up before the auction for cash.  Told him I wouldn't hold it after auction day since prices are up for easter.  Planning to take the lambs and the one ewe on April 6.  DS2 said he would drive down with me since he needs to sign the books anyway and it is close.  If he doesn't want to go I will just take them myself.  DH scheduled an 8:00 am hearing test for that date after I told hm it was the day we would go to the auction.  Said he didn't hear me say that!  Obviously going to fail the hearing test!  

Spent a lot of time today pricing fencing material and T-posts.     Found 8' posts at TSC for $7.69 while the 10' posts are 13.79!  Almost twice as much for an extra 2'!  I suppose we could do a 6' fence instead of an 8' fence.  Deer are not a big concern - I just want the dogs to remain inside the fencing due to the location of the house on the highway.  The wire is also very expensive for 72" wire so we are considering using 49" wire and then adding some lightweight wire on the top for a visual barrier.  Maybe  with a hot wire although hot wires seem to fail even with a good charger.  But since the hot wire would just be for extra deterrent it probably would not matter.  These are not Pyrs.  

Figured out that the total running length of the perimeter fence will be about *6,800* ft! That does not include any interior fencing for rotational grazing pastures.  Those fences will not need to be 6' high so the T-posts will be cheaper because they will be shorter.  But we will still need posts for H braces, fence posts, more gates than the perimeter, etc.  I have finally convinced DH that we need to bring all our cross arms with us to use for H braces.  They range from 8' to 14' and are 4" x 5".  They are also creosoted so they won't rot in the ground.  We have a lot of them in various lengths from the pool decking we took down and will bring all of the with us. Tomorrow I will go down and see how many are on the hillside to bring up.  We used them for our original fence before putting in the big fence.

I plotted how many H braces we would need - 8-10 corner braces, if we put H braces every 100 feet in a run, we will need another 70 H braces.  I can't find the thread abut fencing where Greybeard gave the footage for that.  If we use Hi Tensile fencing and stretch it tight we can get away with using T posts every 20 feet?  Anyway, I figured out we need 400 T-posts, 160 8-10' wood posts for the H uprights and 60 6' posts for the cross braces.  This is assuming I use 3 verticals and 2 horizontals for each corner brace.  It will be expensive, but much less that $75,000.  Maybe I will get some other bids but considering that fencing 5 of our 6 acres with 5' high 3 rail welded oil pipe and no climb cost $20,000 20 years ago, probably fencing 45 acres with game fencing is not that bad at $75,000.  Fencing the 45 acres ourselves at the prices I have gotten already will coe to over $20,000 with us doing the work.  

I also checked with a few equipment places in Sulphur Springs to see about renting a power post driver.  None available so I went on line and checked the prices to buy one. Prices to buy ranged from $350 to $1200 (and up), depending on the brand, maker and power so not so awful considering the amount of fencing we have to put up. The ones in the $500-700 range will also drive metal pipe and wooden posts.  With the amount of fence we will have to run, it will pay for itself.  There are some that you can pull behind the truck and operate with a bunch of hydraulic stuff.   I would love to get one for DH but they are super expensive, complicated to operate, and more than we need.  Some operate off a pneumatic air tank, but the tank needs fuel to operate out in the field.  The hand held gas operated ones will be fine although we will have to stand on a ladder or something to get up high enough to use them on the 8'-10' posts.  Maybe stand on the truck or trailer.  Putting in the shorter rotational graze pasture fencing won't be as bad.  

DDIL2 is trying to get Robert to go to sleep in his crib.  Not sure if it is working since yesterday he screamed bloody murder for several hours till she gave in and got him.  Went to his other grandparents today.    DS2 tried to take care of him last night and he screamed hysterical until finally he took him to their bed and Robert jumped our of hi daddy's arm to him mama and immediately shut up.  DDS was not very happy.  Might not be so bad but they are sleeping in a double bed so space is tight and apparently Robert is a kicker while asleep.  I don't say anything and luckily DH is so deaf that he doesn't wake up to the screaming.

Tomorrow I have to finish removing the banquette from the 5th wheel trailer.  I started it then went to Texas so need to finish tearing it out of the trailer so it can go back to the shop for the non working electrical problem.  We will need it for this summer.   We will use a bridge table and a couple folding chairs and it will be more comfortable. 

I got a call from Joslyn Adut center about starting up the bridge again.  They want me to set up the club.  Severa members have passed away over the past 2 years.  At least we don't have to wear masks, produce vaccination cards, or negative tests, and we can serve coffee, so I will see if anyone wants to come back.  Then we will have to set up a Board, etc.  Guess I will send out an e-mail to the old board and anyone else I can reach.  It will be nice to play again, but dealing with cranky old folks!  UGH!!!


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## Baymule

T-posts every 20 feet? Oh heck NO! Only if you want your fence to fail. 10 feet spacing, maximum, 8 feet is better. TSC wood posts are crap and rot out in a few years. They are plywood peeler cores. The bigger ones are ok. 

There is a post treatment place in Alto, called Hicks. You can order by the bundle or truck load. Skip TSC! 

Buy a fence post drill to go on the back of a tractor. Chain post to front end loader, pick up and drop in hole. 

Check out Branson tractors in Sulphur Springs, they will make a package deal for you, be sure to include a trailer to haul it on.


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## Baymule

Your Source for Branson Tractor Packages – Big Tex Tractor
					






					bigtextractor.com


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## Baymule

https://hickspost.com/contact-us


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## Ridgetop

Began pricing materials yesterday.  Today I called around and got a couple fencing contractors.  Only talked to one so far, checked his references which were good.  He does mostly Wood County.  Talked to him over the phone and sent him the survey with measurements and told him what we wanted.  He said that a 6' hi-tensile fence should be plenty for keeping the dogs in and hogs out.  He does welded metal H braces.  He said 8' T-posts are ok but he installs an additional 10' vertical post every so many feet to stabilize the fence since he feels 2' in the ground is not enough.  Time till install is several months due to backlog of work which is ok with us.  If his bid comes in ok I will have him install and we will do the interior pasture fencing.  Still getting a power post tamper though.  

DS1 finished the rest of the jugs this morning.  He had to dig them out since with all of us getting Covid we did not do a good cleaning job since Thanksgiving/Christmas.  We are definitely putting the jugs inside the barn instead pf in the lean-to sheds at the ranch so we can use the tractor to clean up.  So tired f 30+ years of cleaning our deep bedding in our 24' x 36' barn by hand and dragging either wheelbarrow loads or trash barrel loads up 4' to the driveway.  DS1 said we will set up a compost area where we can use the sheep barn debris for fertilizer in the garden or on the fields once it composts.  DS2 was doing some woodworking so I explained what i wanted in wooden feed boxes to attach to the metal hay feeders.  He said he would try to do those for me - or at least one to see how it works - today.  I am going out to the trailer now to pull out more of the banquette.  

Still haven't had a cup of coffee yet - keep reheating my first!  Going to reheat it again!


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## Ridgetop

Got the price list from Binford Fence Supply for ordering the stuff in TX.  Prices are double what I priced at Home Depot and Tractor Supply for T-posts!  Waiting to see what the bid will be from the fence company.

DS1 helped me remove the banquette seats which was a more difficult job than I expected. They did come out without damage to the walls and floor.  The walls need a little scrubbing, and the carpet needs to be cleaned.  I was able to save all the oak veneer pieces so I can install them over the areas where the exterior storage doors open into the trailer. We won't need the doors now.  Since the banquettes are gone so is the storage.  I can cut a piece of insulation to fill the opening and then attach the veneer to the wall and apply oak trim to look like a chair rail.  Also will need some small oak base shoe to cover the bottom seam of the wall.  Next plan is to remove the sofa bed.  Very uncomfortable to sit on, let alone sleep on!  I will replace it with a recliner for DH.  Removing the dinette area gives us a lot more room for some storage bins and a folding table and chairs.  So glad we are doing this ourselves since the RV place would have charged several thousand dollars to remove it, let alone the cost of the recliner!  Have to shop for that I guess.   Next project is to use the drawer fronts from the banquettes to make cabinet doors to access the under bed storage without having to lift the mattress and platform up.  The storage under the bed is nice, but having to wrestle the platform and mattress up, then balance it on top of my head while trying to put things away or get things out is a real nightmare.  Also probably good for a segment of "Funniest Home Videos", particularly the time I lost my balance and fell into the storage area with the platform trapping me half in and half out!     Good for a laugh now, not so much then!

By framing openings and cutting them out of the bed frame base, then attaching the drawer fronts with hinges, I can make the area closer to the head of the bed easier to access.  It will be good for storing shoes etc. now that we don't have the drawers under the banquettes.  Storage in a trailer is always at a premium!

Might also do something about the TV opening too.  It was sized for a large old fashioned box TV instead of a flat screen.  I can frame in a shallower area and install a larger flat screen TV.  Then cut through the back of the closet partition into the empty space behind the new wall and use that area for storage.  The TV space backs up to the closet in the bathroom.  That project will be for next year since I don't want to rip too much out of the trailer at one time.  Better to live with the trailer using the recliner and table and chairs for a while to decide about the TV area.  I also want to see if there will be room for a small electric fireplace in the trailer for winter heat.  We already carry an electric heater but a fireplace heater is so cozy.  Another project . . . . 

Tomorrow I will go out and clean up the trailer.  Right now my back and knees hurt.  Knees from kneeling to remove the banquettes, back from same.  Came in thinking I would be able to lay down but had to feed Annabel since DH said she was spitting out everything he was giving her.  Turned the high chair around so she was not blinded by setting sun and she ate just fine.   Really Gampy?!   Passed her off to DH with a bottle after she ate.  I can hear her out there being a little fussy but her mom will be here soon so no point in putting her down for a nap.  Time for e to lay down and put my legs up.  I was heading for the bedroom when DS1 grabbed me to show me how he finished the banquette removal, then fed Annabel, then checked to see if the estimate was in on the fencing.  Now to go lay down and take some aspirin!  Before fixing dinner.


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## Mike CHS

I'm happy that I am past all of that but I enjoy reading your actions.


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## farmerjan

. You might want to ask the fencing company if they would give you a price to just drive the posts.  Many of them around here will do that also and they can do it A LOT FASTER since they do it for a living.  Might be more sensible for them to drive the posts, and then you can put up the fence as you want/need.  Just a suggestion


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## Baymule

You are wise to get the exterior fence put up and do the interior fences yourselves. I like @farmerjan 's idea of getting them to pound the T-posts in too!


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## farmerjan

I  was thinking mostly about the wood posts for the driving, brace posts and all that... but to get them to put in all the posts in lines etc would be good.... won't know til you ask.


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## Ridgetop

I priced the T posts her in California but could drive them back with other stuff little by little.  Tractor Supply priced 8' posts at $7.69 and 5% discount for orders over 400.  Priced 10' posts at $13.79 with 5% off for orders of 400.  Bid from Binford Fence came in with 8' T-posts at $13.49 and 10' T-posts at 18.45 each.  Then they priced the treated pine posts 4" x 4"s at $24.96 for 8' and 10' at $33.42!  I am currently waiting for the bids from the fencing contractors to see what they will estimate for putting in the 6' hi tensile wire and posts.  If it is somewhat reasonable, I will have it installed instead of dragging materials to TX and installing it ourselves.  Also we might as well get it up in a reasonable period of time - if we do it ourselves, it will take 2 years!  LOL  We can do the shorter interior fencing (at least part of it) ourselves once we are back there.  I'm still buying a power driven post driver!    It can be DH's Christmas gift!  LOL

The price for using the 10' length T-posts bought in Texas would be $2,100 more just for the posts.  I haven't priced the 4x4's since I am checking how many cross arms we have available which would be better to use and we already have them.  These cross arms are the posts they use on the top of power poles to hold the wires.  They are treated posts measuring 4.5" x 5.5" and range in length to 14'.  We built our barn out of them.  We could probably get more from the training center since they are always looking to get rid of used ones.  We would have to truck them back to Texas, but DH figures if he starts hauling the gate and pen panels back no, he can also bring the posts back at the same time.  It would be a "turn around" trip with him and DS1.  If we have the fence installed we will still bring the cross arms back with us since we can use them to build pasture shelters, etc.

We had a good discussion with DS1 yesterday about the fencing and rotational grazing fencing and DS1 surprised me by saying he would have to start reading up on pasture and rotational grazing!  He knows plenty about sheep husbandry but not so much about rotational grazing.  Like he said, our current "rotational grazing plan" is to encourage the sheep to eat it all down to a scorched earth type look!    

DH suggested we have larger pastures and not rotate the sheep but DS1 pointed out doing that would result in the sheep concentrating on eating only the most delicious plants and leaving anything they didn't like.  He compared it to a child eating cake or broccoli.  And we would have to mow the pastures.  I plan to have him go to the meeting with the NRCS when we line out our rotation pastures.  Also to be present with the Extension agent meetings regarding the number of AUs to put on the pastures.  He agreed he would be interested in going to some of the seminars put on by TX A&M and the Extension office.   

DH is considering driving to Texas and renting a trailer there, bring it back to California, load it and return.  He said it might be cheaper to do that than rent one in California.  I told DH that if he did that we should leave the trailer in the TX barn this summer, rent the trailer in TX, fill it with Bermuda hay instead of traveling to California empty.  I told him that if he did that we can accustom the sheep to eating it before making our move.  We also will bring out alfalfa on several trips so we can transition the sheep over to the new diet.  We can make several trips before bringing the trailer home.

Got to go out and finish cleaning up the debris from the banquette removal in the trailer. Also have to bag up the cushions to keep them nice in case I need the fabric and cushions to repair or replace any fabric on the sectional couch I am keeping.  The sectional couch seats lift off to great accessible storage.  I need to clean off the walls and spot clean the carpet.   DS1 and I need to check out the sleeper sofa to see how to remove it from the trailer.  We think it must come apart somehow since there is no way they got it in there through the door.  

I need to have DS1 separate off the ewe that is going to the auction so I can give her some antibiotics.  She is not moving well.  I might move her back into the barn and put her lamb back in with her since he is scrawny.  I should have left her with him in the creep.  Didn't know what I was thinking.  Actually, I should have taken her and both her lambs on the last load to the auction.  Again, don't know what I was thinking!


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## Baymule

Rent a trailer? Why not just buy one? Don’t you have a stock trailer now?


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## farmerjan

2 magazines that will help with getting to know grasses and rotational grazing... Acres USA is more for the overall knowledge of everything ag...and is more about organic farming... but has a ton of info.... Stockman Grass Farmer is dedicated to learning, using and understanding everything related to GRASS FARMING... which is the basis to good rotational grazing and more.  Got o every seminar that you can manage with any ag or extension related group. Most are free, some charge a nominal charge often because they include a meal.  You are going to a different climate, different soil types and different grasses... and the different conditions will create a learning curve with parasites too.


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## Ridgetop

Absolutely!  I plan to attend all seminars, etc. on pasture and sheep. (I actually like going to them!)  I have already learned about Barber Pole worms in east Texas  , and Baymule just warned me about letting the sheep drink from the pond due to liver flukes!  

Between the freak tornadoes and snow storms hitting Texas and the disgusting parasites waiting to attack my helpless sheep, maybe paying astronomical prices for hay, water and gas is not so bad.  At least here I now what to expect - earthquakes, devastating wildfires, and liberals!  

Discussed my perimeter fence plans with Bay yesterday and she was firm on removing the current exterior cattle fencing since it is currently full of small trees and brush.  She is going to go look at it for me on one of her trips to Emory and let me know if she thinks it should be removed.  If I don't take it out, she said I should allow a 15' offset to allow for brush hogging and spraying green briars on the new fence to avoid damage.  Once I get the new fence estimates from the 2 fence companies (both of whom used to be in business together and have the same 5***** ratings - gotta love small towns) I will have to go back and ask for another estimate based on them removing the old fence and putting in the new fence.  I also have to hunt down the neighbors on either side (no houses, just cattle grazing on one side and hayfields on the other) to talk about tearing out the fence to put in the new.    Will this aggravation never end?!  It would be so much easier if we were already still living there!  Can't get any good help from DS1 since his reply is always that he hasn't seen the property so has no idea about redoing the fence since there is existing fence.  He has great ideas about new pasture fencing, buildings, etc. but is right - he needs to see the property.  At least he is interested now in what will be built, attending seminars, and running the sheep ranch on pasture.  DH said that his early disinterest was because he probably didn't think it would ever happen.  

I wish we could walk the property lines to look at the fence instead of just Google map pix which are too far away to really be of use.  I hate the thought of having to wait until this summer to put in the fence since fencing materials are shooting higher every day!    We will have to put a lot of money in the property to get it the way we  need it. Fencing, a big new shop building (with bathroom), repave the driveway, large carport for 3 cars/trucks since the existing carport will only hold 1 car, eventually digging a new well, and some remodeling n the house.  Once we're back there we will have to refinance the property to get the money to do those things.  The good thing will be refinancing will lower our interest rate a lot since we will be living there.  Right now our interest rate is for business property.  

Went on the Old Dominion website and they have suspended their home moving packages (like Latestarter used) due to high demand!  Apparently they can't cover everyone that needs moving services so we are back to square 1 on that score.  However we can borrow DS3's flatbed trailer (18' I think).  And we do have our 16' stock trailer which all the panels except the 24' 4 bar and the 8' x 12' galvanized horse corral roof panels will fit in.  All the other portable panels are 12' and smaller.  Still have to look up livestock transporters and check rates.  Might have to just bring the sheep back in several trips or buy a gooseneck double deck trailer for them - depends on what is cheaper.  Could also leave some of the younger ewes here with one dog and come back in several months to pick them up when one of the show or auctions is happening.  Pick up some new stock at the same time.  Who said that?!  DS3 comes across good trailer deals occasionally so we can let him know we need a 24-30' covered trailer.  DH is thinking about replacing some of our furniture in Texas instead of bringing it all with us.  But that will cost $$$$  

Anyway, had a bad night last night.  Knee was swollen up at least twice the normal size and looked like a small watermelon!  Couldn't hardly walk and the ankle kept giving out too.  After DH and I were in bed I was just falling asleep when he asked if we had anything for his sore back where he tweaked it loading manure barrels in the truck.  For the first time in 50 years I did not leap out of bed and rush to get him some aspirin.  My knee hurt too much so I asked him to go get it himself.  After 5 minutes of instructions on _where_ to find the aspirin bottle (in the medicine cabinet) he finally took his aspirins and came back to bed.   Gotta love my sweetie!  LOL

The rest of the night I kept waking up thinking about the ranch fence, had nightmares about my sheep getting sick, combined with constant visits to commune with nature - I really need to stop drinking lots of water after 9pm.  I get busy during the day and don't drink anything then am dehydrated by bed time.  I rehydrate between 7 and 10 and - you know the rest!

Today I have to wrap and remove the banquette cushions from the trailer, and also remove all the oak veneer into the shed for use when the trailer returns.  Also, when it returns DS1 and I will figure how to remove the sofa bed so we can get the trailer ready for a return trip to Texas.  

Still don't know when surgery on my knee will be scheduled.  Ortho appointment on April 5 then we will schedule TX trip around surgery.  Maybe DH and DS1 can make a couple trip with equipment while I am laid up.  Grandchildren can feed curing summer under my supervision.

DGD1 had First Confession (Reconciiation) yesterday.  With Covid no First Communions were held in past 2 years so this is her big year. Have to shop for the First Communion DRESS AND VEIL.  Like a wedding!  She has shoes from DD2's wedding so DD1 and DD2 are planning big shopping trip for THE DRESS.  DDIL2 might also go.  I will go and treat my girls to lunch.  This is a family tradition since my grandmother.  Lots of fun for all of us.  

DD1's dog is still coming over 3 days a week and whenever the family wants to go do something.  They don't want to crate him all day but at 7-8 months old he should have a kennel run.  Their fence is good although not really high enough in one area, but the coyotes might still come in after him.  We are getting tired of picking up his poop though and also our dogs are locked out of the front yard in case they decide to eat him.  Yesterday he found a plant t and dumped the dirt al over the lawn - the fake lawn - which will require sweeping it up and washing it off!  The family is not happy about that.  Then after DS1 picked Elizabeth up from school he had to drop her off at home with her dad for First Confession.  Then DS1 picked her brothers and brought them home where the did some light work for us (bringing wheelbarrows of sheep manure and bedding from the barn to the compost pile).  DD1 called to see about picking them up and I told her they were still working so she went home and told DS1 to bring them home after they ate dinner.  I was making dinner.  DS1 and the boys came in 10 minutes later and he had a fit about having to drive them home because he is using so much gas to pick up and deliver DD1's children.  Called her back and she was already home and did not want to come get them so after some yelling and shouting on the phone he had the boys finish their dinner, then loaded the boys and dog and drove them home.  It is only 5 minutes away and if it was not dark they could have walked it through the hills, but it is really getting to be an imposition on our family since she doesn't offer to give us any gas money.   DS1 is driving about 70miles round trip picking u ad delivering Elizabeth to her home or our home 5 days a week.  Then add in the occasional pick up at the boys' middle school which is 10 miles the other direction, that comes to another 20 miles for those trips maybe twice a month.  Lots of gas even in the Explorer which get better mileage.  Told DH and DS1 they need to ask for gas money and they agreed.  Whether DH will is another thing.

Forgot to load this before I went out and finished cleaning out the debris from the trailer, putting the veneer pieces, cushions, and tools in the shed, etc.  It is ready to go to the shop now for the electrical problem.  There was a beeping continuously for a while so I had taken the alarm out and disposed of it.  Then the beeping started again!  I couldn't locate it until now when I found a CO2 alarm hiding around the corner.  I pushed the reset button to see if that was the problem.  When trailers are shut up for a while and not aired out, they can start to smell.  Particularly when your adult children leave garbage in them after using them as guest rooms.    If pushing the reset doesn't fix it I will replace it with the new one I bought.  I have to put up the new smoke alarm too.  I will wait until the trailer place finishes fixing the electric problem.  Hopefully not anything too severe.  I looked at the sofa bed and could not see where to disassemble it, but did not look that hard.  When it comes back DS1 and I will get in there and move it around to check it for disassembly.  Then it can go to the Goodwill.  Or maybe e should wait until this summer and wrap it in plastic with mothballs and store it in the tack room of the barn.  That way we would have a temporary couch when we come back and the tenant is gone.  On the other hand it might just become a giant mouse and rat warren!  Probably better to send it to Goodwill here and just buy something back there.  Or we can do our camping thing with blowup mattresses (always good for a laugh), folding camp chairs, and recliners.  

Checked out the ewe that has the bad udder and she has been limping on her front offside leg.  When we separate out the ewes that are due to lamb in the barn, we can catch her and i will check her foot to see if she has something in it.  She has dried up now and is going to the auction on April 6.  Her ram lamb has been weaned for 2 weeks, but is scouring badly for some reason.  He is also undersized.  I will catch him and give him some pink stomach stuff for the diarrhea.  He is also going to the auction on the 6th but probably won't bring much.  I also want to catch her sister and check her eyelids.  She has a huge bloated looking rumen and I cant decide if she is just a ewe with huge capacity or might be full of worms.  No one else looks bad though so?  

I am going to look for a livestock transport hauler now and see what they would charge so I can decide if we should be considering buying a second livestock trailer.  I will also check prices on aluminum gooseneck double decker trailers.  Just for laughs and giggles.


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## Ridgetop

Trailer prices!


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## Ridgetop

Good news on liver fluke information - friend Erick will let me have some Pilgrim geese and Indian Runner ducks for the ponds.  He says the Indian Runners are little cannibals and will eat all the snails, and any other creatures.  The geese will be good for keeping the ponds clean of water plant growth that can choke the pond's oxygen, cause algae buildup and kill fish by preventing oxygen to permeate the water.  I was planning to put a small fence around the pond perimeters anyway to prevent sheep from drinking fluky water so the fence will also keep my Anatolians from eating any geese or ducks until I can train them to leave the waterfowl alone.  So excited since I love geese and ducks.  Cleaning the ponds will encourage fish growth and health.  

Heading off soon to the Shadow Hills Presbyterian Preschool Trike-a-Thon in which 4-year-old granddaughter is participating.  Soon DGS5 and DGD3 will go there.  First my youngest DS2, and DS3, I taught there, and then DGS1 (age 14), his siblings and cousins followed.  How many years have I been going and contributing to this fundraiser?  When I am in a wheelchair will they let _me_ compete? I will cheat - motorized wheelchair!  

I am attaching some print outs from the sheep seminar we went March 5.  There is a good 2 page article about breeding and lambing basics by Wes Patton who is a retired AG teacher at Chino State College.   The veterinarian speaker, Dr Brownfield, passed out a 1 page list about "Establishing a Vet-Client-Patient Relationship".  With all the conversation about prescription drugs and the unavailability without prescription of our previous over the counter livestock drugs these days, I figured I would post this too.  The other 2 pages is what was covered in the seminar if anyone is considering putting one together.  Everyone who came to speak donated their time and the seminar was free.  


 Had a hard time with this and now I see that the scanner recorded this as being on legal size paper!  Hopefully everyone can enlarge it to read.  The Vet page got on twice, once in full size so I left it.  Blame it on my computer (or on the operator skills).  LOL

Heading to the Trike-a-Thon.  DD2 is here, needed a bike helmet for DGD2, will take the 3 e have in case someone else needs one  Preschool might have some.  Taking folding shairs.


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## Ridgetop

Back from Trike-a-Thon and ran into a childhood friend of boys.  Debra's youngest son around same age as DS2.  His older brother was same age as DS1.   Mom has had early onset Alzheimers for a long time, but I used to teach with her at the preschool and she was a good friend.  Between us we knew everything (almost) our boys got up to in middle and high school.  LOL  Good spy network!

DS2 and DS1 invited Andrew to bring his girlfriend and come to the party.  They were at preschool to cheer on her nephew.  I told her to bring her nephew who is in DGD2's class. His older brother Jeff is coming into town to visit at the same time so told him to bring Jeff and his kids.  Jeff's kids are the same age as DD1's.  DS2 and DDIL2 are renting a bouncy house, water slide (inflatable), and having a huge BBQ tomorrow for baby Robert's birthday.  Lots of relatives and kids will be there.  We have to keep the sheep penned, and Bubba in the barn during the shindig.  Not sure about the mule if the older kids want to go out on the field, since her corral is keeping the field troughs and extra equipment from running away.  She is friendly though so not really a problem.  

DS2 is finishing the feeder boxes for the jugs.  Got to put 3 ewes in the barn tonight.  OR5 has a vulva shaking like thinset jello!  Her udder has not bagged completely yet so hopefully we will catch her before she lambs.  8111 is due 3/28 and is normally on time, then BL13 on 3/31.  0439 is not due until April 11.  I checked my book just in case.  

Didn't post this earlier either!  Then got busy filing in the office - big mess after tax time. DS1 is fishing the barn jugs - has to use a pickax because the ground compacts so hard. He wants to get everything up so he can lime it tonight.  Leaving it pretty late but if they lamb in the overnight pen we can transfer them tomorrow morning.  Weather has been hot and evenings are pleasant.  He has to fill the wheelbarrow then wheel it up the ramp 4' above the level of the barn and then out to the field to dump it.  All the manure barrels were filled.  I use the manure barrels for raking and shoveling up the dropped hay and manure.  DS1 is getting up the compacted urine soaked stuff below.  Can you believe that the children and I used to do this monthly for 30 years?  DS2 and DS3 were dragging small carts of muck up the ramp and out onto the field when they were 5 and 6 years old!  Can't wait for Texas and using a tractor blade to scrape this up in the new barn!  I don't want to wait to move for another year.  If the tenant moves out before then, we will move in and start working on the property even though we won't be able to transfer residency yet.
  Digging hard pan  Ramp is to right, then out gate onto field and dump on edge of gully.  If we stay another 500 years we might fill the gully and have a flat level lot.  LOL
  Here is our wooden farm gate after 6 years.  Cross piece was gnawed by horses and Josie the Mule waiting for supper.  They lso ike t lean on the gate - even the support wheel did not help.  
  DS2 went on line Wednesday night to TSC to order this gate.  They had ONE in stock so he and DH drove over right away to get it along with some barn lime and 4 mineral blocks.  The next day DS2 got hardware and he and DS1 replaced it.  It is much lighter than the wooden gate so they decided it didn't need a wheel.  The ground is pretty uneven too so they were afraid it would not work right.  It is getting dusk, dinnertime so the yearlings are waiting to be fed.  
 Here are the feeder boxes DS2 made and attached to the metal hay baskets to stop hay waste.  The hay baskets are only 18" wide to fit in the jugs, but the ewes waste half that pricey alfalfa onto the ground.  More if the hay is very dry and brittle.  We were using hanging buckets for grain when we fed it to new milkers, but these little boxes will do the trick as well.

Speaking of which we need to refill the Connex with hay.  DS1 says that we use 1/3 to 1/2 as much hay when we are feeding a larger group of sheep than when we feed ewes separately in the jugs so my goal will be to get the ewes out of the jugs an into the creep pen by the time their lambs are a week old.  We will have to vaccinate and dock in that time.  Speed everything up and save on hay expense.  The ewe feeder in the creep pen (the portion where the ewes live) is large enough for 7-8 ewes and we feed hay in the creep for the lambs.  Currently we start them in a large tub feeder on the ground but I think we need to build a lamb hay feeder in the creep.  The tub feeder is ok and we dump the left over hay into the ewe feeder am and pm before feeding the ewes.  Then we fill the tub with fresh hay for the lambs.  The ewes eat the stalkier stuff just fine.  But there is still hay spillage and waste in the lamb creep.  My goal is to be more efficient and economical this year.


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## Ridgetop

Anyway, got the 3 ewes that were due last week into the barn on time but still no lambs. OR5 has a mega wobbly vulva but the lambs will come when they come so . . . .  Only one of the ewes is a first timer.  The boxes DS2 made for my hay baskets are working great. The stalls are staying cleaner.  

Still trying to decide what to do about the fencing.  Have not gotten an estimate from either fence guy yet.  I think we need to go back and be there when the fences go in so we can pull out the T-posts and save them for the interior fences when we put up the rotational pastures.  Both Bay and Erick said we need to remove the old fence and bulldoze the rubbish small trees, shrubs, and any briars.  Since we have to do that we should be back there and do the fencing in sections.  The fencing on the side of the property where the house is located does not have as much brush or trees on the fence line.   That side of the fencing would be easiest to fence first and go back to the property line then over  around the ponds and back to the front enclosing the barn and over to the side of the driveway up to the front.  I think.  We don't need the entire 45 acres fenced just yet.  I might fence in sections and let the cattle tenant remain even after we are grazing the sheep.  We will have a lot of work to do in the house on renovations, painting, new flooring, and some kitchen stuff.  

DGD1 raked the 3 jugs out today (with the 3 ewes in them) and DS1 shoveled everything into a barrel.  If we do that every couple of days, (and every day after the lambs arrive) we can avoid having debris build up requiring using a mattock to remove the layers.  With just one ewe in each pen and daily raking and no hay dropping into the pen, we won't get that solid layer of pee, hay & poo that is so much effort to remove and so heavy to carry up the ramp to the field.  Can't wait to have a tractor accessible barn, creep, and jugs.

Checked my calendar and I have another date for 8111 showing her to be due tomorrow with OR5 due the following day, and BL13 due on Monday.  Of course, if they had been left out in the big pen when it rained they would have lambed in the mud just to be contrary!  Saturday I will call the fellow who wanted a lamb to see if he wants to come up and get one for the price I quoted.  Wednesday the lambs and 7041 go to auction.  After Wednesday the creep will be empty and we can dig out those 2 sections of the pen and get ready for the next 3 ewes and their lambs to move into that space.  One ewe due on  April 11, then no one due till mid May.


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## Ridgetop

Been a week since I posted anything and lots has happened.  Got contact info for properties on either side of Yantis ranch and sent letter to one owner about fencing. Other property was sold and the new owners are planning to build 5 acre ranchettes with homes on the 40 acre hay ranch.  Not too happy about that but it does change our plans too.  Now instead of doing too much expensive fencing, we will do  much less.  We will not change the windows out to dual pane.  I will change out the patio door from a solid wooden door to a dual pane garden door that will give  view to the back yard and  open onto the patio.  We might add more patio space.  Then I will paint out the dark wooden paneling in the living room and the kitchen cabinets which are good flat face wood cabinets.  I will take out the peninsula which has no storage under it and replace it either with an island or peninsula with cabinets underneath and possible bar seating.  I need to replace the 1972 Harvest Gold Formica countertops anyway.  I will also replace the old bathroom vanities and Formica counters with new ones with granite tops.  The tub in the family bath is brown - 1972 remember - and I will either have it refinished or remove it and replace it with a cast iron tub.  I need to install a shower since there is no shower plumbing in that bathroom.  

Depending on what happens with the housing development next door we will stay for several years and then decide whether to sell and move or?  This is a good reason to keep our house in California and rent it to our son and daughter in law for a couple years.  

Sunday the fellow who had kept me dangling about buying a ram in November called again.  I told him that I had several young rams again and would be taking them to auction on Wednesday.  He decided to come over immediately with his wife. They were very nice people.  We had to lock Bubba in the house while they looked at the sheep.  He bought a 3 month old ram and a 6 month old eweling.  I collected the cash and signed over the registration papers on the ewe but had to send off the paperwork to register the ram.  Once I get the registrations papers back, I will send them to him with instructions on how to transfer both to himself.  The ewe he chose is a very nice ewe out of one of my Utah ewes.  Both DS1 and DS2 helped him choose between the 4-6 I had available for sale.  Some of my ewe lambs are not for sale since they will go into my breeding flock but I had some really nice closely related (on their mothers' sides) that could be sold.  He wanted one of the really young lambs but they had the same sire as the ram and we talked hm out of buying half bro/sis to breed as a start to his flock.  He couldn't take the sheep home since they had come over in a small car.  I offered to deliver them on Wednesday since we were going to the auction anyway, but his driveway is hard to get into with the stock trailer so he decided to come get them himself.  I told him we would have them ready for him since we had to pull the ewe lamb off the field and put her in the barn.

Monday, did laundry and cleaned.  Tuesday we had to get up early to get to Santa Monica by 8:00 for my ortho appt.  Annabel was here - so sweet and happy.  She is getting her 2 top teeth finally.  She has cut down o the amount she eats so she must be in a stationary growth pattern right now.

Wednesday we had 3 Dr. appts.  First was my ortho appt and the surgeon said I definitely needed the replacement since the knee is causing the leg to angle out so far. Also it is affecting my walking, posture, spine, hip, ankle, etc. etc.  so ok I will go under the knife.  He thinks he can straighten out the leg with the knee replacement so that will take care of the other joint problems.  His scheduling nurse will be calling to schedule the surgery date.  He thinks probably June although maybe as early as May As long as it is the end of May that will work - I have 6 ewes lambing in mid May.  I figure I better do it as soon as possible before I chicken out.

Then DH had appointments with cardiology (to make sure the Covid did not mess up his heart).  The doctor has scheduled him for an echo and another test.  One of the tests he has to do in the hospital since he is 12 lbs. too heavy for the testing equipment in the office!    He was not happy to find that out.  I scheduled those tests for May 5 when i already have an appointment in Santa Monica with my oncologist.  We like to go together so we can use the diamond lane and save on gas.  Our parking charges for the 3 appointments Wednesday came to $28.00!  

The next appointment was for DH at gastroenterology.  I won't bother telling you about those problems.    DH has to have some sort of test where he breathes into a selection of tubes then they check it to see if he has something called SIBO.  Or maybe that is the name of the test.  It is some sort of condition that is easily treated with a course of antibiotics.  Hopefully the test will be positive and he will get the antibiotics otherwise they will have to do more tests.  

So finally back around 5 pm.  Before going inside I checked on my ewes in the barn to see if they had decided to lamb and sure enough OR 5 had a head sticking out!  I ran inside to change out of my going-to-the-doctor clothes and into my pulling-lambs clothes  DGD1 came with me to the barn - she loves to help rub the newborns off and is a big help.  I tried to pull the lamb out but he was stuck tight.  Only the giant head was out.  His tongue was blue and his mouth was cold.    The lamb was dead.  It still had to come out so I sent DGD1 to fetch DS1 to help.  DS2 was cooking dinner and DH had no clue what was going on since he can't hear anything.  DS1 held the ewe while I lubed up and managed to get one foreleg up and out.  The lamb stuck there. The ewe's vulva was starting to tear.  The lamb's head was terribly swollen.  I used more lube to coat his neck and everywhere I could reach inside.  Then DS1 switched places with me and I held the ewe while he pulled the lamb out.  There was a popping noise when it came out and he was afraid he had broken a leg but since it was dead, that wasn't a big deal.  DGD1 was very upset that it was dead but then she said I think it's alive it moved.  We thought it was just the normal settling after death but she was right!  Unbelievably the lamb was still alive!  Quickly I grabbed it by the rear legs and swung it gently upside down.  I checked to make sure the mouth and nose were clear then DGD1 moved into position and started rubbing the lamb gently.  I checked the ewe who was exhausted and really not interested in her lamb.  She really didn't look good but there was no other lamb in her.  She just stood with her head hanging down.  This was her second time lambing - she had twins the first time.  This was a single ginormous ram lamb!  DS1said he had checked the ewes in the jugs about half an hour before we got home and nothing was happening.  She had not had the lamb's head stuck for too long.  His nose and mouth was clear of membrane, and quick action was able to save him.

The lamb still did not look good.  It was alive but not really responding or breathing well.  DS1 had me check its legs to make sure it was ok and nothing seemed broken. Luckily, since I had just swung it around upside down!  But then I am the mother who assured her 10 year old son that I could fix his broken navicular bone by massaging it!   Anyway I decided to try the trick I had seen Dr. Pol do on TV with calves that he pulled that were very weak and not moving.  I got some water in a bucket and sloshed it over the lamb's head and it worked!!!  Thank you DR. Pol!  A second dose of water and the lamb came wide awake.  He was still very dozy but was alive.  Now to see if there was any damage to him.  His cord was still bleeding so we iodined it and clamped it.  He still could not get to his feet and we were not really happy about the way his rear legs were shaking and trembling.  He still had not nursed since he could not get to his feet and his mother was still very down.  I came up to the house and left DGD1 on guard - she kept running up to give me updates on him until her daddy came to pick her up.  I warned her that the lamb might die overnight since he was so weak.  

No sooner was that crisis over than the sheep buyer showed up to pick up his lambs. I had told him that he could turn around his horse trailer on the field but instead he had built a cage on top of his truck and decided to tie their legs to transport them.  DS1 brought the sheep up for him but we said he had to tie their legs himself since we did not want to be responsible for anything happening.  They came up in halters and were fairly calm until they realized they were being tied up and shoved into the weird cage! Then the ewe started to freak out and the boards started to crack.  The ram lamb got scared and banged into my bad knee and bent it a bit but I was braced and did not go down.  However, we got them loaded and he tied up the back.  He only had about a15 minute drive and left, very happy with them.  They were very nice animals and will do well for him.  They have good blood lines and will blend together well.

Later I had DS1 go down with me to try to milk out the ewe.  I had decided to give the lamb a feed of colostrum with a bottle along with a dose of Vitamin E and Selenium paste.  While I washed the ewe's udder and vulva I noticed the lamb was  struggling to get to his feet!  Nothing wrong with him other than his completely swollen head which looked like a furry ball instead of a lamb.  He was bruised too and the skin behind his ears, on the top of his head, and around his eyes was purple. But he was on his feet and heading towards his mama.  She perked up every time he let out a loud baaa so I decided to leave them alone and see what happened in the morning.  As I was picking up the bloody messy towels the ewe realized I was between her and her lamb and ran into my bad knee from the back.  Luckily I grabbed the jug side and was able to recover.  I limped up to the house and took aspirin.  In the morning the lamb was fine and had nursed.  The ewe had passed her afterbirth and seemed to be feeling better. One down and one or two more to go this month.


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## Ridgetop

8:00 am Wednesday morning DH went off to the VA for his hearing test and to pick up his new hearing aids.  

DS2 and I were going to go to the auction while DH was at the VA since DS2 had to go down to sign the IBEW union books as a Journeyman.  The auction is halfway there so to save gas we were going to do both in one trip.  We loaded up the remaining 4 lambs and the older ewe with the poor attachments who I was sending as well.  She is a good ewe but I haven't been really happy with her offspring and poor udder attachments are hereditary.  We had to wait for traffic to clear before leaving so DH got home in time to go to the auction with DS2 and me.  He said he could actually hear with the new hearing aids which was a great thing although you couldn't prove it by me since we were in the diesel with the windows down and no one could hear anything on the freeway.  Why did we not just turn on the AC you ask?  The AC was not working.  It worked _before_ the truck went to the shop for the other items but now it just blew hot air.  So a miserable trip to San Bernardino in the heat with the windows open attempting to get some air flow to cool down the interior.  I am of the personal opinion that every time we take the truck to the shop they disconnect something so we have to bring it back for another $1,000 repair and a stay of 2-3 weeks!  DG is furious about the delay in getting his truck back while I am furious about the constant repairs AFTER we have had the truck in the shop.  We will probably have to get another truck but are waiting until we no longer have a car payment.  We want t buy it in Texas at the local dealer so we can bring it in for repairs, etc. locally.  This time we will get a gas engine since they are lasting much longer these days.  

At any rate we unloaded the sheep at the auction.  About a dozen horrible skinny range goats and about 10 huge old Suffolk rams.  No lambs, and it looked like mine was the only ewe there. We took in three 2 month old rams weighing abut 45-50 lbs. and the older but slightly stunted 3 month old ram lamb also about 50 lbs.  Hopefully I will get good prices on the lambs.  Next Sunday is Palm Sunday.  Traditional Hispanics buy a lamb or kid before Palm Sunday.  The kids play with it and make a pet of it then they slaughter it for Easter dinner.  Old tradition and I used to sell a lot of bottle kids back when we had dairy goats.  Prices were very low back then.  Since we are close to Easter I am hopeful even though my lambs are younger.  With the higher cost of hay I might start taking in the ram lambs at 2 months old if the prices are ok.  Normally we just pull the ram lambs at 3 months and turn the ewes out onto the field, keeping the ewe lambs in the creep for a week or so before sending them out into the field as their mothers move to the breeding pen.  We will see when we get the check.  

So leaving the auction we went on the second half of the journey to San Bernardino so DS2 could sign the books but when we arrived the hall was closed for lunch!  With the trailer in tow we went over to get lunch and returned to et in the truck waiting for the hall to open again.  DS2 came back out and said the medical for his CDL needed to be updated so he would have to get another physical.  By now we were all hot, sweaty, tired, and cranky.  My knee was starting to ache from being in the back seat even though DS2 had moved his seat as far forward as possible.  

Finally home and I went to take a shower, lay down, and put my leg up.  BUT DH came to get me to go over the tax return and sign it.  Since we were doing that I had him give me some of the figures I needed for my annual report I have to submit to the NNN mortgage holders.  This is a miserable report that I have to fill out every year listing all our financial information, insurance policies, properties, etc.  It is the equivalent of filling out all the paperwork for a mortgage.     Every year!

_Now_ could I lay down and rest my knee?  NO!  DS1 wanted me to tell him which ewe had lost both her ear tags.  This should have been a no brainer since we had found 8219's ear tags on the field.  But things are never easy in the world of sheep and particularly not easy in Ridgetop world.  

After a discussion growing more acrimonious on both sides, we trooped into the office and proceeded to stare at the white board behind the door.  This board shows which ewes are in the breeding pen, which are bred and when they are due, and which ones have delivered, when, and what.  DS1 insisted 8219 was not the tagless ewe in the barn because she was in the breeding pen.  In that case she might be either 8174, 8192, or 8189, had he checked her ear tag?  No.  DS1 went back out and wrote down the ear tag numbers of everyone he could find.  Back inside we went through the paperwork.  Unfortunately our sheep seem to lose ear tags frequently.   Possibly they get them caught on the feeder bars.  In any event we have to retag them.  In the case of purchased sheep we retag with our own scrapie and flock numbers.  Although the tags don't match their registration papers, that won't matter unless I sell them as registered ewes and have to provide the registration papers.  At that point I will pay another fee to register the ear tag number changes.   In the meantime (since one ewe has been retagged several times!) we simply make sure to keep the retag number with the registration certificate.  Since I keep these in a binder in page protectors, we can just write down the new tag number and slip the paper into the page protector.   I will continue to register the ewe's progeny using her registered number.  HOWEVER, problems can arise when retagging.  The new numbers are written on small scraps of paper and usually handed to me when I am:
1.  In the shower
2.  Chopping onions
3. Doing dishes
ETC.
This can cause problems.  

DS1 returned with tag numbers written down.  Another discussion ensued as we compared ear tag numbers with the white board again and then with the registration papers.  DS1 insisted that we had sold BL14 since she was not out there in any pen. He was also missing GR 27.  GR 27 is one of Snowflake's twins.  He insisted that we had disposed of her.  I insisted that we had not.  I had just seen her in the pen 2 days ago. When I said he must have missed her he said that his count of numbers and sheep was correct.  He demanded that I account for the missing ear tag numbers.  He insisted on seeing the registration certificates and we would compare them to tag numbers.  OK.  When we were done matching up certificates and tag numbers, we had several missing sheep while there were sheep in the flock wearing strange tag numbers.  DS1 was getting very annoyed, and I was getting a bad headache.  I went back to the office and got my weight sheets.  Sure enough TWO ewe lambs had been retagged before leaving the creep.  When comparing the green numbers we found one registration showing retagging.   Once that ewe lamb was identified we had only one extra green ear tag in the flock which must be GR 27.  DS1 had the scrapie number which matched.  We remembered that one of Snowflake's lambs had a completely split ear from losing her tag in the creep.  The lamb with the tag number we couldn't match had a split ear. One identity crisis solved.

Another registration had not been shown as retagged either - since it was the only orange tag that was different on DS1's list it was easily noted down.  Now on to the identity of the ewe in the barn jug who had lost both her scrapie tag and her flock tag. She was a large ewe and first I thought she was 8219 since we had those ear tags. However, the white board showed 8219 to be in the breeding pen which DS1 insisted was correct.  Since this tagless ewe had come off the field she was obviously another ewe.  Back to the registration papers.  Who was the mystery ewe in the barn?  Finally I pulled up the registration certificate for Blue 14.  She was out of my Axtell 18003 ewe. DS1 insisted Blue14 had been sold.  I said that was Blue 15.  I said I would not have sold her because she was the only ewe out of 18003.  I had sold 18003's last lamb Orange 27 on Sunday.  With DS1 complaining abut my poor record keeping, we went back to the white board which showed BL14 had been bred in December, was due in May, and had been returned to the field in March when the breeding ewes were changed out.  In that case I said who was in the barn?  The ewe in the barn must be BL14.  At that point we had identified every sheep.  

DS1 proceeded to scold me for 15 minutes about the importance of keeping good records.   I agreed that I needed to make a better attempt at record keeping.  In my defense, I said, when we tag and vaccinate I have to juggle the needles, find the tags for DS1, keep track of which lamb belongs to which ewe and write all the information out so I can transfer it to the Applications for registration.  DS1 is always in a hurry and it makes it harder.  I pointed out that this is why we should set up a chute so we can run the sheep through and check ear tags regularly.  DS1, who has always fought me on this, now agreed that we needed a better way of handling the sheep so we could keep better records.    DS1 is now taking ore interest in the whole sheep operation.  Maybe since we have started selling for better prices, or maybe because he sees with the move to Texas we will be a business, he has suddenly become more interested in some of the aspects.  He has even started discussing some of the fencing for rotational grazing.   

Today he came up with a way to keep track of the sheep in each pen which can be transferred easily to the ranch operation.  He went to Office Depot for supplies.  He bought magnetized printable sheets that I am to print out with the sheep numbers - both flock and scrapie numbers.  ("You type fast, Mom, it won't take you long.")  He bought a magnetized white board and plans to divide it into sections for the breeding pen, ram pen, large field, jugs, and creep pen.  He will put the individual magnetized numbers of each sheep in the appropriate section.  Then he will move them around as necessary to show where they are.  When I said that flat magnetized strips might be difficult to move, he decided that he would make holes in them and I could loop a piece of ribbon in the tag number color through it to give him something to grab. Fine with me if it means that he is interested in the paperwork.  

In the meantime, he retagged Blue14 and she is back on the field.  And DH keeps going around telling everyone to speak softly.  I guess the hearing aids are working since he can hear us taking - whether he understands what we are saying is another matter.  Or maybe he just prefers not to understand . . . .


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## Ridgetop

This chart system of DS1's may be getting too intricate.  He has adjusted the size of the magnetic labels several times and I keep having to retype them to see if they are right. I also pointed out that we need to classify the ewes in the field pen as open, bred, or juniors too young to be bred yet since that will be one of the things we want to keep track of.    Working on it . . . .

Made my doctor's appointments for the knee surgery.  I scheduled it for May 19, hoping to have all the May lambing done by then.  If I have to pull any lambs, DS1 and DH will have to lift the ewe onto a table.  LOL  I will have  DS1 cut back on their feed a smidge the week before they are all due to keep birth weights manageable.  The surgeon's assistant will tell me what time to be at the hospital.  Reporting times start at 5 am and run 2 hours apart to 2 pm.  Sounds like they just feed you through a conveyor belt for surgery!  Hope they put me on the right conveyor belt.  I would hate to wake up with a penis.    Got an appointment for the surgery preop to talk to the surgeon and the pre op with my GP.  According to the surgeon they don't keep you in the hospital.  You have to walk 150 steps around the hospital ward then you can go home.  No anesthetic either - some sort of spinal block which sounds horrible and more painful.    Then they send you home with some sort of thing in your thigh to numb the pain in your knee.   Can't dwell on this since already I am wondering if walking is that necessary to me or if I should cancel the entire procedure.  
I need my hair cut badly and the lady who does it is out of town till April 21 so I may have a go at it myself.  It is really horrible - long and sticking out in places.  I will get an appointment with her when she comes back and she can fix what I do to it.  

Hams are on sale this week for Easter for 99 cents/lb.  Probably get at least one.  DH picked up some Porterhouse steaks for 5.99/lb.  Cut 2.5 to 3" thick!  Not a problem since I removed the bone and then cut the steaks horizontally in half.  That gave me 2 1-1.5" thick steaks from the small side.  Then I cut the long side vertically to make 2 pieces 1-.5" thick each.  The long sides I cut in half giving me 6 nice steaks from each Porterhouse.  We are learning to eat less beef at those prices - smaller portions.  The days of a whole steak per person are over!    This makes us sad since we are big carnivores.  

I do have a lot of pork in the freezer which I will be using in the InstaPot.  I can cook it with gravy, BBQ sauce, or Tomatillo sauce for chili verde.  The instaPot wil be getting a lot of use.

DS2 has a friend who just bought 2 Jersey cross breds.  One is has calved before the other is a heifer and daughter of the cow.  Both are supposed to be bred.  He doesn't know what breed bull was used.  He and his wife are very nice but have never raised any livestock before.  DS2 tried to help him but couldn't tell him much at work.  I am going to have DS2 give him the BYH network address to join and maybe get some help from some people.  He plans to get some pigs - some rare breed which he has heard is the least genetically improved or something since they are into producing completely "natural" food for the family.  hey just bought about 20 acres or so in the mountains near Lake Arrowhead.  This is steep terrain and any pastures will be small meadows.  Snow but minimal rain.  I will have DS2 pass on the BYH info.  He says they know nothing and need help.


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## farmerjan

Ridgetop said:


> This chart system of DS1's may be getting too intricate.  He has adjusted the size of the magnetic labels several times and I keep having to retype them to see if they are right. I also pointed out that we need to classify the ewes in the field pen as open, bred, or juniors too young to be bred yet since that will be one of the things we want to keep track of.    Working on it . . . .
> 
> Made my doctor's appointments for the knee surgery.  I scheduled it for May 19, hoping to have all the May lambing done by then.  If I have to pull any lambs, DS1 and DH will have to lift the ewe onto a table.  LOL  I will have  DS1 cut back on their feed a smidge the week before they are all due to keep birth weights manageable.  The surgeon's assistant will tell me what time to be at the hospital.  Reporting times start at 5 am and run 2 hours apart to 2 pm.  Sounds like they just feed you through a conveyor belt for surgery!  Hope they put me on the right conveyor belt.  I would hate to wake up with a penis.    Got an appointment for the surgery preop to talk to the surgeon and the pre op with my GP.  According to the surgeon they don't keep you in the hospital.  You have to walk 150 steps around the hospital ward then you can go home.  No anesthetic either - some sort of spinal block which sounds horrible and more painful.    Then they send you home with some sort of thing in your thigh to numb the pain in your knee.   Can't dwell on this since already I am wondering if walking is that necessary to me or if I should cancel the entire procedure.
> I need my hair cut badly and the lady who does it is out of town till April 21 so I may have a go at it myself.  It is really horrible - long and sticking out in places.  I will get an appointment with her when she comes back and she can fix what I do to it.
> 
> Hams are on sale this week for Easter for 99 cents/lb.  Probably get at least one.  DH picked up some Porterhouse steaks for 5.99/lb.  Cut 2.5 to 3" thick!  Not a problem since I removed the bone and then cut the steaks horizontally in half.  That gave me 2 1-1.5" thick steaks from the small side.  Then I cut the long side vertically to make 2 pieces 1-.5" thick each.  The long sides I cut in half giving me 6 nice steaks from each Porterhouse.  We are learning to eat less beef at those prices - smaller portions.  The days of a whole steak per person are over!    This makes us sad since we are big carnivores.
> 
> I do have a lot of pork in the freezer which I will be using in the InstaPot.  I can cook it with gravy, BBQ sauce, or Tomatillo sauce for chili verde.  The instaPot wil be getting a lot of use.
> 
> DS2 has a friend who just bought 2 Jersey cross breds.  One is has calved before the other is a heifer and daughter of the cow.  Both are supposed to be bred.  He doesn't know what breed bull was used.  He and his wife are very nice but have never raised any livestock before.  DS2 tried to help him but couldn't tell him much at work.  I am going to have DS2 give him the BYH network address to join and maybe get some help from some people.  He plans to get some pigs - some rare breed which he has heard is the least genetically improved or something since they are into producing completely "natural" food for the family.  hey just bought about 20 acres or so in the mountains near Lake Arrowhead.  This is steep terrain and any pastures will be small meadows.  Snow but minimal rain.  I will have DS2 pass on the BYH info.  He says they know nothing and need help.



 Why do people buy bred animals and have no prior experience?????  Buy something already with a calf, get a feel for  milking, get used to a beef animals already knowing what to do with a calf.....??????  Let's hope that we ( "BYH" people) can help get them through this.....
They are probably paying through the nose for some "genetically improved "  whatever???? pigs too.... Some days I just get to where I wonder????


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## Baymule

Yes! You are getting your knee surgery done! This has been needed for quite some time and finally you are taking care of YOU. Do your therapy! I finally was able to leave a message for the scheduling nurse about changing my surgery date. Now if she calls me back! 

Why not tattoo numbers in your sheep’s ears? Then if the tag comes off, you still know who she is. Get some plain tags and write the number in indelible ink to retag with same number. 

Your white board sounds confusing even on a good day.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> This is a good reason to keep our house in California and rent it to our son and daughter in law for a couple years.


But no longer, the capital gains taxes will kill you otherwise. 



Ridgetop said:


> One of the tests he has to do in the hospital since he is 12 lbs. too heavy for the testing equipment in the office!


Are you putting him on a weight loss diet? He didn't look particularly heavy in the pictures at Bay's place.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Are you putting him on a weight loss diet? He didn't look particularly heavy in the pictures at Bay's place.



No he has actually lost a few lbs. but their office equipment is not full size for generous framed and big boned persons.  LOL


farmerjan said:


> Why do people buy bred animals and have no prior experience????? Buy something already with a calf, get a feel for milking, get used to a beef animals already knowing what to do with a calf.....?????? Let's hope that we ( "BYH" people) can help get them through this.....
> They are probably paying through the nose for some "genetically improved " whatever???? pigs too.... Some days I just get to where I wonder????



I am always amazed at the people that run out and buy an animal, don't know how to care for it, and then wonder why it doesn't thrive.  I will get DS2 to text him the BYH website.  I thought about it after they were here to pick up the trailer and DS2 mentioned that they wanted to buy some rare pig breed "because it has not been commercialized and will be more genetically natural"?!  HUH?  Oh well, I will get them the info.

My other bugbear (apologies to anyone out there who has done this) is people that go to a livestock auction and buy sick animals because they feel sorry for them and want to "help" them.  

To everyone out there DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE VERY EXPERIENCED IN THAT SPECIES!  When inexperienced people do this they end up with problems.  Often they pay more in vet bills than they would have paid to buy a high quality registered purebred animal from a good breeder to start with.  

Farmer Jan and her DS can do this because they have been in the farming business for years and know what to look for and what to avoid.  They are also not opposed to culling those animals if they are not thrifty or don't produce well.  The people that spend over $1000 in vet bills on a sickly cull grow attached and keep it as a pet, letting themselves in for more expense down the road.

I am not opposed to people having their farm animals like pets.  We have had a lot of them imprint on our hearts and become pets over the years.  We spent money on vets and cried when they died.  But we did not go looking for trouble in the first place by shopping for milkers or meat makers at the stock auction.    

TO ANYBODY WANTING TO GET STARTED, FIRST DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT IN YOUR ANIMAL - MEAT, MILK, WOOL, SHOW, ETC.  Then read all about the species, its needs in housing, expense of feeding, shearing, local availability.  Talk to everyone you can find who has the species and find out all you can.  Finally, decide on the breed and locate breeder(s) and do more talking with those persons.  Last thing is to pull out the wallet or checkbook.

AND MAKE SURE YlOU HAVE FENCING AND HOUSING FIRST!

Getting down off the soapbox now.  Again I apologize to anyone who has brought home a sickly animal out of pity and spent money to pull it through.  You have a bigger heart than I do.

So this morning should have been a good day but it turned into a terrible one.  I woke up very early thinking I heard newborns bleating on the field.  (this happens occasionally.)  Jumped up and ran to check everywhere.  Finally I checked in the barn and 8111 was cast with lamb head poking out.  Went to check and it was another huge lamb.  The head was stuck with the nose out and no feet.  Tongue was purple and mouth cold.

Let me advise you in retrospect what I should have done -  *I should have pushed the head back in and found the forelegs.  *
Instead I maneuvered the head out - no forelegs. Got DH into the barn to hold the ewe and found a foreleg but couldn't find the other one.  Also wasn't sure if this foreleg belonged to this lamb or if there was a twin with its leg out because it didn't feel right.  You all know the horror stories about _those _mix ups.  Half an hour of pulling later, with the ewe continuing to collapse onto the barn floor, I went up for DS1.  He couldn't get the lamb out either!  This was bad since DS1 is super strong.  6:30 am and we had been working for half an hour.  I called the vet whose emergency line said they were not available and Dr. Dyck was on call.  His service advised that he only did equines and wouldn't come out.  I have had him before and he is a real d*** anyway so . . . .  

Back to lubing the lamb and ewe and trying to find the other leg, interspersed with bouts of DS1 trying to pull the lamb.  We kept getting 8111 to her feet and she kept insisting that she should lay down.  Finally, between them DH and DS1 got her up and we put a stool under her to keep her upright but she kept moving around off it.  They put a towel under her belly and tried supporting her on that.  The towel kept moving up to her armpits allowing her to sit on the lamb and my arm.  It felt like the lamb was rolled sideways, but that should not have mattered since it was facing head out.  Something was keeping this lamb from getting past the pelvis.  That other front leg might have been twisted and was keeping the lamb stuck.  I needed to find and pull the other leg out.  So back inside with more lube.  She went down again.  So I had them roll her onto her side as I lay on the ground with my face in the barn dust.  (Ranching livestock is not for the squeamish!)  My arm was halfway up to my elbow in the ewe.  The change in position was excruciating as she started to contract grinding my arm into her pelvic bones.  OOWWWWW !!!  With my arm still inside the ewe I traced the lambs body around to the other side and pushed the lamb a little to straighten it.  At that point 8111 struggled to her feet and my arm fell off!    

No, it didn't, but I did lose my position in the ewe so I switched places with DS1 and he tried pulling again.  This time I must have gotten enough lube inside her to allow the lamb to slide a bit.  With DS1 pulling and me working her by now hugely swollen vulva over the lamb we managed to get the lamb out.  8111 was totally exhausted and laid there.

DS1 swung the amb around but no response nor was there any response to cold water.  The umbilical wasn't bleeding so we knew it was dead.  Huge ewe lamb but at least 8111 survived.  At one point we considered shooting her and cutting out what we thought might be twins.  Luckily we were able to get the lamb out without going to those extremes since the lamb was a single and was already dead.  This was a repeat breeding that had produced a drop dead gorgeous daughter, P5, so I was quite disappointed but at least I can repeat this breeding and hopefully she will twin safely next time.  I have had 3 very nice daughters out of her and a very nice granddaughter. I keep all her offspring.  She has never had any trouble lambing before. 

Having checked to see if we could revive the lamb, I went back in to see if she had another lamb inside.  Sometimes the larger one impedes the second and you have to hurry to pull it out too.  The birth canal can get so crowded by both lambs that it causes the impaction.   When I checked I couldn't find another lamb, but as I knelt behind her with my hand up her vulva 8111showed her gratitude for relieving her of all that pain by dumping the remains of the amniotic fluid and a huge afterbirth in my lap.    Did I mention that raising livestock is not for the squeamish?!   

Now up to the house to shower to get ready for the next item on the calendar.  A funeral of one of our bridge friends.  Wonderful woman, completely heathy, who suffered a sudden blocked artery in February and got a stint.  She ate healthy, did pilates, and walked daily.  In March she fainted in a movie theater with her significant other, went in the hospital with arrythmia and was dead in 2 days without recovering consciousness!  She was only 78.  Very sad and yet a lovely ceremony with heartfelt testimonials from friends and family.

On the way home from the memorial and reception DH dropped me off to meet my 2 DDs and DDIL with DGD1.  We had to shop for a First Communion dress and veil for DGD1.  I had not known this was planned for this date since DD1 had announced the date at 8 pm the previous Sunday on the group text.  Since the kids are often just teasing each other and sending memes I don't always check it for anything important. DD1 was not happy to hear that I would be going to a funeral instead of First Communion Dress Shopping so she put off the time by several hours to accommodate me.   Although the shop owner said this was their busy time, there was no one in the shop for the first 2 hours.  During that time DGD1 tried on 5 dresses and 3 veils.  Remember she has had practice from her Flower Girl dress days.  Then the floodgates opened and people started pouring into the shop! DGD1 tried on 2 more dresses.    The choice was cut to 3 of them, and gradually whittled down to 1.  Then the dress which DD2 liked but they did not have in the right size was found on the mannikin in the window and the owner of the shop whipped it off for DGD1 to try.  Oops! The previous favorite which DD1 and DDIL liked was suddenly overshadowed by that dress. The veil chosen by DDIL, which everyone liked, was found to look perfect with it.  THE DRESS had been chosen and it had only taken *3 and a half hours*.  DDIL silently gave thanks that her son would only have to choose a white suit in 6 years.  LOL  Not too many choices there!  While I had joined them after 3 pm, they had met earlier and gone to lunch so they had all been gone from their families since 2 pm!  

DS1 and DH were watching Robert.  What could have been 6 hours of non stop screaming had been averted by our discovery on Friday that Robert's new favorite toy is a bright blue plastic glass.  He also was happy when confined to the kitchen instead of the baby jail.  When we realized this we had opened the jail sides so he could go in and out on his own with the baby gates blocking the kitchen doorways.  He had also perfected his walking skills on Friday and was perfectly happy walking around holding his large tupperware glass.  I was surprised to find that Robert is quite cute when smiling and laughing.  I usually never see him other than frowning, or screaming so it was quite a change.  I could grow to enjoy him.


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## Baymule

I’ve never pulled a lamb. Finally this year, I used one of those long plastic gloves to see if Ewenique (you call her the black bitch) had another lamb inside her. She had a huge single ewe. She never singled before, didn’t expell the afterbirth and I was worried there might be another lamb. Nope. Then she expelled the afterbirth, but not in my lap. I’m not as talented as you. Too bad about your lamb, but like you said, try again.


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## Baymule

I’m sorry about your friend. At least she was healthy all her life and did not die a sickly, painful lingering death. It’s no consolation, because you love her and miss her. 

Sounds like a fun shopping trip, time well spent. When is her First Communion?


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## farmerjan

I went to the funeral of a friend's husband on Friday, very tough.  59... they had been together for 42 years, first love, married 36..... it is going to be hard.  Welder by trade, got cancer, survived the chemo, and a surgery and then it just fell in on him.   So I have not had a great week either.  I can relate. 
 No pulling any babies, but have a calf that DS said is a twin... my longhorn had it, DS tagged it, 2 days later sees longhorn with another untagged calf and she won't let the tagged one nurse... it was stealing off a couple other cows.  So, a part-time bottle calf???? Got a bottle in it yesterday... will try supplementing a bottle a day if it continues to steal... got a WITCH cow that has more than enough milk for 2 and don't think she will let me work with her enough to get this one grafted on her... she is a jer/hol so all dairy and has a NICE udder... but a major attitude....
Bless your heart for the shopping trip... better you than me... NOT MY THING.....


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## Ridgetop

Today is DH's birthday.  Was going to make a ham and have everyone over but DD1 said no that everyone would take daddy out.  All the kids and grandkids met at Granada's at 5:30 pm and we had a great time.  The waiters put a big sombrero on DH's head while they sang happy birthday in Spanish and he had a Cadillac margarita.  

After dinner we came home and DS1 went out to feed in the dark.  He came in to tell me that we had a lamb on the field and I needed to come out.  Thinking I would have to pull another after the last 2, I changed into my sweats and went out but DH had already moved the lamb and ewe into the barn jug.  It was another large single - 3 in a row - and this one was a ewe.  Luckily the ewe did not need any help even though this was a really big lamb.  All 3 of the ewes with huge singles are second and third times lmbers which is really strange!  And they are all out of Lewis who usually doesn't throw huge lambs either.  However I don't think I will be able to register her since she has a black spot around one eye.  Cute but I need to read the disqualifications again to make sure if amount of color is a percentage thing or a complete disqualification.  If I like her I will keep her as a commercial ewe for Texas.  At least she has a name already - "Spot".  

After I iodined her cord, I could hear DS1 yelling at Bubba on the field and went up to see if Bubba had stolen a lamb.  Nope, he thought the lamb was still somewhere around and was trying to drive Josie the Mule away from the sheep pen.  Josie the Mule wanted her dinner so she was trying to kick Bubba.  He had been very good with the ewe and lamb so he is apparently trustworthy with ewes lambing in the field now.  Thank goodness.  DH was calling the dogs to feed them and Rika would not come in at all until the ewe and lamb were in the barn.  So all done lambing until next group of 8 due May 15.  

All 8 are first timers so I wonder if I should set off my surgery one week to make sure that everyone lambs and doesn't need any lambs pulled.  Of course I don't have to kneel down to pull lambs, I can always sprawl in the dirt of the barn!  LOL  Maybe I should leave them all out on the field to lamb and just move them into the jugs afterward.  Since the weather is nice now it won't be to cold or anything.  Since the dogs are good with the mothers and lambs during lambing and since the ewes seem to want to come up and lamb in the night pen, it may be less stress on them.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> Then she expelled the afterbirth, but not in my lap. I’m not as talented as you.


What talent!?  Disgusting was more like it!  DH and DS1 backed away from me as I cleaned my hands and arms under the hose!  Clothes straight into the wash pile!  Yuck!  Bubba and angel cleaned it all up for me in the barn.  At least with those dogs you don't have to dispose of afterbirth!


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## Baymule

Happy Birthday to your DH! You should have your kids take you and him out to eat more often. It sure beats you doing all the “celebration” work! 

That’s good on the new lamb, good that the dogs were fine with lambing and good that you didn’t have to pull it. Spot will make a good ewe, registered or not. 

If you have ewes lambing and you’ve just had knee surgery, you will NOT be sprawled out in the barn, where all kinds of germs could infect your knee. You already know this, what are you thinking?


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> If you have ewes lambing and you’ve just had knee surgery, you will NOT be sprawled out in the barn, where all kinds of germs could infect your knee. You already know this, what are you thinking?


Wrap it up in plastic?  I have a roll of moving plastic - the kind you use to wrap upholstered furniture.  Like giant size Saran wrap!  LOL  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Easter was lovely, the kids jumped in and did everything.  I was crafty  and stayed in my room moaning about my leg.  LOL  Wonderful day with Eater egg hunts on the patio and cries of warm - warmer - cold - boiling hot!  echoing as the kids hunted for the hidden eggs.  Robert enjoyed finding the eggs then throwing them like a ball.  Luckily they were plastic eggs!  He is walking really well now.

Pulled the ram out of the breeding pen due to him imping on a rear leg.  Checked him out and his hooves are too long and breaking off.  I really need to do some hoof trimming but the hooves are so hard that I can't cut them.  I think I will save up for one of those electric hoof trimmer/grinders.

Opened 2 bottles of dry wine for dinner and one was corked.  Waste not, want not though, so I strained it into the Insta Pot and used it to slow cook a chuck roast. Amazingly tender!  

Finally finished my annual report for the NNNs . Went to print it out and it fractured into several pieces somehow and refused to fit on the pages! Got DS1 to fix it and he reminded me that I couldn't use that particular template since it would not print in Word. *6 hours of work wasted!!!   *However, since I had done all the additional schedules to attach, redoing it in the proper Word format only took 3 hours! Told DH I was going to leave him and become  nun so I wouldn't have to do this anymore.  He was sympathetic about the wasted work, but not about my entering a convent.  He reminded me that we like to cuddle and it is not allowed in convents.  LOL  Made a resolution to do it earlier next year but know I won't since I get most of the figures from our tax return information.  

DS1 says now that I have finished that chore we can work on his magnetic sheep board.  We need to vaccinate and dock this week.  He wants to wait until Frankenram is 2 months old to castrate him.  He will be going into our freezer since we only have one ram lamb.  Too much gas money to take one lamb to auction, so band him and let him grow to butcher weight  Won't take long as a single.  

I did not get as much as I hoped for the ram lambs I took to the auction.  The auction lady said prices were shockingly low for the 2 weeks before Easter.  I did get a good price for the ewe though.  The nest group will be ready to go about the first of August.  I will check prices in July to see if they are better then.  If we get mostly ewe lambs and the auction prices are low more ram lambs can go into our freezer.      The ewes breeding now will have September/October lambs and the next batch will be November lambs.  Those will sell in November/December and January/February and so on.  

Had heavy rain last night - really pounded down.  Hopefully it will give us some green stuff for the sheep.


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## Baymule

I have two ram lambs weaned now. One I want to keep for awhile, the other one is showing promise of scurs,, has hard little nubbins . What to do with them? I need to visit auction barns in the neighboring area just to see if goats and sheep sell well, or at all.


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## Ridgetop

Scurs appear sometimes.  Had abut 4 lambs with scurs last winter out of rams and ewes that had never produced any scurs before.  i have a ram with large scurs and none of his lambs have any scurs.  Actually I *had* a ram with large scurs - he knocked one at a time off over a period of a year fighting with the other rams.

Are the rams identical in conformation?  Both are out of Ringo, but who are the dams? Choose the best conformation or bloodline one to keep regardless of scurs.  Since this is going to be your emergency cover ram you might want to determine the number of related ewes to each ram and everything else being equal chose the one that is related to the fewest ewes.  If your registered ewe throws a nice ram, you can then register that ram lamb and replace the unregistered ram with the registered one out of the registered ewe.  He will be the least related to the flock since he will only be reated though the sire's side.  

Don't forget to check size of testicles.  Sounds dumb and sexist but top bull breeders always advertise testicle size on their bulls when selling.  According to registration standard Dorper rams *must* have minimum testicle circumference of 30cm at 10 months of age in sitting position.  ("Sitting position" is flipped on butt with spine of sheep tilted backward against your knees with forelegs restrained in air.)  Small testicles are a cull fault in all male breeding animals.  

As to auctions in your area, call the different auctions and check what sheep and lambs brought that week.  They will usually tell you approximate prices.  If they are too low, and diesel too high, put him in your freezer.  No point taking just one to the auction if prices are low.  Call different slaughterers in your area to find out when they will have butcher dates.  Our guy here said with the prices of meat and diesel/gas a lot of producers have stopped selling private butcher steers and are taking full loads to the auction.  Probably also due to feed costs.  He had 19 customers cancel butcher dates in the past month.  They usually bring in several animals at a time.

DH called around and alfalfa has jumped to $20-25 per 110lb. bale!!!  I tried to warn him to get several loads last month, but he insisted that prices would go down.  I even made him read Farmerjan's hay price writing but he waited and now they went up.   He is calculating now how many bales (800+) he will need to order and buy this spring and summer to get us through the year to summer 2023.  First he said he will fill the connex, the barn, and the stock trailer.  I pointed out that he cannot leave hay stored in the stock trailer because we have to use it to take the lambs to auction.   That threw him for a moment.  I told him that we needed to clear out the area between the connexes and store the hay bales on pallets with fine gauge wire around the bottoms to keep the rabbits and ground squirrels from eating the bottom bales. Then tarp it down on the to and open sides of the connexes with heavy weights on too to keep the tarps in place during windy weather.  He is "going to think about it".  He is a man, he has to think about it until it becomes his idea.  LOL

I think that I will rent to my cattle tenant next year on a month to month basis so we can begin the move back to Texas around the first of the year .  Hopefully that will get us back there with plenty of pasture.  DDIL2 is quitting her job the end of this school year and plans to stay home with Robert.  With her staying home DS1 can come back to Texas in the fall (needs to be after my knee PT is over) to see the ranch and help us fence and repair stuff before bringing the sheep and dogs back.   

I also want to get Wes Patton to come down and grade my flock.  The Dorper grading system runs from 1 to 5, with 5 as best.  Anything lower than a grade of 3 will be sold off before going to Texas.  No point in transporting any sheep that are cull quality (ewes lower than 3, rams lower than 4) with me.  The Dorper Breeder Association brings over graders from Australia and south Africa twice a year and flock owners sign up and pay a fee based on half day or full day (adjusted by number of animals) to have them come out and grade the flock.  (We did that with our dairy goat herd too and it was really helpful.)  With Covid no one could come from those 2 countries and with travel restrictions the program was paused.  Australia and South Africa still have stiff travel regulations and have not been able to get anyone from those countries to come over for the program.  Wes Patton is a Dorper judge and longtime breeder and will be able to grade my flock for me.  I want to make sure that I am on the right track with my breeding program and selection of replacement ewes.  I have about 6 yearling home bred ewes that I am really excited about and a couple more coming along.  My purple tag girls are super sweet natured too and pretty friendly so I will be keeping all of them.  I really want to get a professional opinion on them though.  All the lambs due in May will be purple tags.  Each of the rams is assigned a color tag and his daughters are all tagged with those color tags.  That helps me to see how each ram's get look compared to the get of the other rams.  Some grow faster than others, and some retain more wool which I don't like, but they all have good points about them so I really need professional help here.  With the cost of alfalfa I don't want to waste $$$ feeding lower quality animals.  Once they are on pasture, the cost of feeding them goes down and I can carry more individuals as strictly meat producers.

Finally got my desk cleared off and my filing done.  Next job is weeding.  I went out and tried to weed today and was shocked at how hard it was to get down on my knees and how much harder it was to get back up!!!  Luckily I don't have a lot of weeding to do since we had almost no rain.  DS3 has a lot of rolls of fake grass left and will give us some so we can install them on the remaining dirt areas (old veggie garden disaster), and the front slope where the fake grass will act as dirt retention.  I also want to plant some plumbago shrubs along the front slope.  They grow huge, spread slowly with shoots, are almost indestructible, and have pretty flower clusters ranging from pale to dark blue almost year round.  I just hope the ground squirrels won't eat them when they are small.  I would like to plant some orange and yellow lantana on the front slope but again not sure abut the ground squirrels.  Both plumbago and lantana once established are pretty drought tolerant.  I have several large areas of plumbago that are never watered and do very well.  Rosemary is another pretty shrub that is drought tolerant and has really pretty bluish purple flowers.  It also smells good and I use it when cooking lamb.  However, there is nothing I hate so much as spending a lot of money on plants (super expensive now) and watching the ground squirrels devour them to the ground.  I have noticed the ground squirrels out and about on my field and even on the road to the house in mating pairs.    They are digging burrows around the place again and we even found 2 burrow holes under the edges of the fake lawn.  DH and DS1 filled the burrow holes with cement.  Those miserable *****s are asking for the trap to be set up again. I'll talk to DS1 about it tomorrow.


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## farmerjan

@Ridgetop , I am sorry for you that the situation with the hay is where it is at this point.  And no disrespect, but your DH is being just plain thick headed... there is NO WHERE in this country that the cost of hay is going down.  Look at the drought areas... there are even parts of FLORIDA in drought conditions.  Look at the wild fires that recently have destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres... some of it dry rangeland but alot of it is grazing land and crop producing land such as hay ground,  as well as the numerous towns that have been burnt nearly to the ground.  In Texas  there are 68 fires raging at present with 333,000 acres involved... OK 38  with 78,000 acres... and the list goes down from there... Neb has one large fire over 30,000 acres, KS 11 with 24,000, AZ, NM, CO all with 10,000 acres EACH involved... even MISS has 10 fires with over 8,000 acres... yep, sweltering humid MISS...  and the current report I saw has CALIFORNIA with 157 small but fierce fires with over 4400 acres involved... 
We went to a bull sale yesterday, local farmer that sells 10-20 a year.  I heard no less than 5 of the buyers talking about cutting their herd sizes with the high prices of cull cows, and the lower average prices on bulls this year.  This farmer is cutting way back on his fall calving cow numbers due to the high cost of feeding through the winter... You can read about the sale  in my journal.... but we are preg checking some more cows, especially the ones that came up open to the bull and we put back with the 2 bulls 2 months ago... anything that is not at least 35 days bred is going... regardless of how much we like them... got a few other cows that are "eh" okay cows, that are going... We bought 6 replacements that we had no intention to buy... because prices were down some.  Nice YOUNG cows with calves and already bred back.... 
We have cut our cow numbers about 25-30 overall in the last 2 years....

Our local extension agent made up a chart for the cost of making hay 2017 compared to 2022... If I were competent with a computer I would scan the one page in... but I am not... suffice to say that his comparison was an eye opener.... 
2017....the cost of ownership of the equipment;  interest, depreciation, taxes, ins;  $30 per  4x5 bale...... add in the operating cost of making the hay;  repairs, fuel, lube, twine,  labor....$20.... add in the fertilizer @ $80/acre made it cost a total of $62 PER round bale... figuring fuel cost was 2.75/gal and interest @3% for financing......
2022 ESTIMATE costs went up to  $32 per bale for the ownership end....$25 for the operating cost so now $57/bale... add in the fertilizer.... The SAME fertilizer program will cost $160/acre.... making the cost of the same round bale (5 years later than 2017) at $80/bale... and that is figuring $4.25 gal for fuel and interest at 4%... and repair costs 40% higher than 2017.
And we all know that even with the reduced cost of off road diesel, it is more than 4.25 gallon right now....  
It will cost a little less per bale with an increased number of bales up to a point to where a farmer has to upgrade his equipment to handle the increased number of bales.  
This is all based on a 40 yr old, 100 hp 2 wh dr tractor; for cutting and baling... a 25 yr old 60 hp 2 wh dr tractor for tedding & raking, a 10 yr old mower conditioner and a 10 yr old round baler.... making 250 bales a year.  mowing a total of 60 acres hay gound in this area. 
We mow around 250 total acres a year, make in the neighborhood of 1200+ round bales of 5 X 5 rolls, and about 500 4x5 rolls.. we have 2 balers.....both over 20 years old.....but the mower is less than 5 years old because we trade in every 5 years... the replacement costs of parts by 5 years is so high and the trade in values are so high that we wind up with a "new " mower every 5 years for about $5-6,000.....after the initial one we bought in the beginning.  The mowing tractor he mostly uses is the Agco... about 120 hp... it is early 1990's... the one I mostly rake with is a ford 4600... made in 1975-80... 60 hp.. 2 wd... that's pushing 50 years old... the rake is about 30 yrs old...the balers are over 20 years old.  
DO THE MATH... it is costing a kings ransom to make hay... that is why many of us have cut our numbers some and gone to more rotational grazing where we can... but on rented ground and places with no fences or water... we have to make hay... and we have to feed hay in the winter....
For places that irrigate in the western states, and make hay as a crop to sell, water is being cut back or cut off to farmers... that reduces yield... that makes the cost per bale go up and the need to sell for more per bale.  Most all western alfalfa is irrigated ground... the weather is perfect for making the hay since it seldom rains on it during the season... alfalfa is a very demanding crop to make... mowing every 27-30 days... and the alfalfa leaf hopper can destroy it in 3 days.... the timing on alfalfa is TIGHT.....the weather has to be right or it gets too old and tough and the leaves shatter and fall off the stem....
We don't grow it.... because we cannot be available to make it when it needs to be made with working other jobs... and the weather here does not always cooperate.  Most all farmers that grow it here chop the first cutting because it is so hard to get it made right... then hope that the weather is drier to make 2nd or 3rd cutting....
Better get all you can get right now... it is going to get worse until we hit a real DEPRESSION... not recession.....

@Baymule can you reprint the links here that you had on SS about all the fires and destruction of the food processing plants... put it in your journal or in a separate thread... I would like to see a separate thread along the lines of the Shortages thread on SS... to reference back to for things like the cost of haymaking, the food/bare shelves in stores and such.... People had better start to wake up to what this gov't is doing and get prepared... if it never comes then WONDERFUL... all you have is a bunch of food and supplies extra to get you through...


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## farmerjan

Another thing I would like to say and this is in no way being disrespectful to you... be careful about the month to month leasing to the cattle farmer... since he has already been there he might go for it... 
Honestly, we would not.  You cannot just be told that you have 30 days to get your animals off a place... you plan your stocking rates, the way you put animals out to breed in groups, all that... Here, you cannot pull a lease from a farmer before the term is up... and we will not sign leases for less than 1 year for the first year and then for less than 5 years... unless the place is say, for sale... and it is agreed to.  But if a place is for sale here, the new owners cannot pull an existing lease from a farmer... the land gets sold with the understanding that the lessee has rights to keep the lease for at least that year.... If the person that has the lease does things like fertilize and such to improve the grazing land... as we do fertilize grazing land... they are entitled to the value of the fertilizer in the grass... there are always exceptions... and if the person leasing agrees that is good... but make sure it is in WRITING.... 
We have a place that is going to be sold... and he told up that up front before DS signed the lease.... we do this on a year to year but there are provisions for us to have right of refusal yearly in the overall 5 year lease agreement... the man's wife passed away a year ago... it is a very "picky" demanding situation... but the ground is good and the land is cross fenced and waterers and we rotational graze and the fences are 2x4 no climb horse fencing... kept up to the "nth degree"... he kept a section on his side of the driveway that is actually a separate piece of property that he kept 6-8 steers so that he got his ag deduction there,  but with back problems this year we are going to have that piece too since he is going to have surgery and cannot take them on this year... complicated and spelled out to the last little detail.... but regardless if he sells it tomorrow... the lease goes with the property and we have it for this year....
Just realize that if the "cattle guy" has animals there, if you decide to terminate his "lease" he might be hard put to move his cattle... might not have grass or pasture elsewhere to put them... might be saving the "home place" for his winter pasture ... whatever... I realize it is your land... but "tenant farmers" have rights too... and you sure don't want to make your new neighbors mad...


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## Baymule

The never ending battle of ground squirrels! We have tree squirrels here, gray ones and red ones. They can be destructive too, shoot ‘em with a 22, they are delicious fried. LOL

Instead of putting your cattle tenant on a month to month, go ahead and negotiate a reduced acreage agreement. Uncertainty of a month to month May run him off all together and you don’t want that. 

On my 2 ram lambs, the one with scur /horn buds is a grandson of Miranda. The other one is a grandson of Ewenique. Ewenique’s grandson is actually the bigger and better looking of the 2 right now. My flock is heavy on Miranda’s genetics, so far, the Ewenique ram is the one I favor. 

DS and I were discussing fence and shelter placement and kicking ideas around. Then he mentioned just moving what I have right now and setting it back up. I thought about it and decided on that. I don’t want to build something and regret it later when I’m living there. Since it’s the smaller piece of property, maybe temporary shelter is the way to go. Put up the main barn on the other side of the driveway. I can fence a section, move Quonset hut shelters, put up another cow panel hut or two, cow panel pens again and MOVE. Put in the big furniture first. Beds, appliances, living room furniture and see what fits. Then fit in the smaller stuff and get rid of what doesn’t fit. 

Oh joy. Move shipping containers and block up those 40’ monsters again. Gotta EMPTY them first. More joy.


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## Baymule

@farmerjan you and I are on the same page on the cattle tenant, you are able to give greater detail and reasons why. 

I’ll start a shortages thread in the next few days. DS is leaving Tuesday or Wednesday for a 2-3 week job in Louisiana. So I may wait until he’s gone. That is a good idea, shortages in agriculture will be serious to members here.


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## Ridgetop

Farmerjan:  You are right about the month to month with the cattle guy.  However, I don't need the entire 45 acres, especially if I cull my flock to smaller numbers.  So maybe instead of leasing him the entire 45 acres of pasture I will just lease the 30 acre side without the barn, giving him access to the pond for watering his cattle.   I talked about that last February and he said he didn't need the barn so he would probably go for that. 30 acres of good Bermuda grazing would still be a good thing.  He doesn't fertilize the pasture, but he only grazes cow calf pairs - doesn't cut hay.

I think we need to cull heavily anyway with the cost and possible scarcity of getting hay.  DH's regular hay guy told DH that as soon as a load comes in it sells out immediately.  DH is looking at buying a complete field of alfalfa like we used to do with the dairy herd.  The other hay company said they would arrange that and store it.  I really don't think the cost will go down though.  I keep trying to explain to DH that different parts of the country have flooded out or droughted out by bad weather but his testosterone keeps getting in the way of the little woman knowing anything.  It was so much easier when I did the feed buying.  Of course with the dairy herd, we fed a lot of grain to the milkers so I drove to the mill once a month and bought it by the truckload.  DH took over the hay buying years ago when he learned abut 1st and 2nd cut protein levels and we used to buy 2nd cut alfalfa by the field.

I don't want to, but if things get too expensive, we will move to Texas and live on the ranch for 2 years to convert it to our principal residence for tax purposes.  If the economy is bad for lamb production, or taxes change, sell out the sheep flock, young guardian dogs, and ranch equipment in an online auction sale.  Then sell the ranch itself and move back to California to our old house or a rental.  Or even buy a large 5th wheel and live in that on the California property or in a nice trailer park.  Or travel around in the 5th wheel as long as we can. 

DH is 79 and I will be 72 (this information is highly classified- now that you know your lives may be in danger LOL).  Even with DS1 doing most of the heavy work, the $$$ investment in equipment and fencing is intense.  By the time we actually get moved DH will be turning 80, and I will be 73.  How many years do we really have left to do physical farm and ranch work anyway?  

Age has really snuck up on us, probably because we adopted DD2 and started raising young school age child again when we were in our 60's.  While that may have "kept us young" in mind, our bodies did not stop aging.  BJ's passing was a shock last year and made me realize how old we really are.     Having two 1 year old grand babies makes it feel like we are younger than we are because most people start having grandkids in their 40's and 50's.  We are way past that.  Carrying DGD3 is getting harder for me.  Of course, that could be because of my knee and back.  She is a healthy eater, and DS1's nickname for her is "Thunder  Thighs the Stink Maker"!    Hopeful lifting her will get easier after my surgery but it makes me feel old that I have trouble picking her up off the floor.  She still prefers crawling since she can go faster so when she starts walking she may slim down a bit.  

I just realized I sound very depressed - maybe I need my Prozac adjusted!    I need to starting looking on the bright side - DH and I play a solid cutthroat partnership bridge game, we have our health, our children and grand children are healthy, we all enjoy being together, money is tight but manageable, we enjoy traveling together, and are planning more trips after the knee surgery.  

On another happy note DD2 and DSIL2 were prepping for a court custody battle gain for DGD2 and GOOD NEWS!  Turns out the baby mama was hiding her income and inflating her expenses to include all living expenses for both her and her new husband who makes good money!!!  To avoid going back to court (and an angry judge) she has agreed to joint custody and no child support!  DD2 and DSIL2 are thrilled.  I told DD2 that if they had gone to court the judge might have made her repay most of the child support for the past year since she told the judge she had not been working when she was working all year and earning a nice paycheck.  And they had the child for half the week anyway, were paying the preschool tuition, doctor and dentist bills.  However, they are just glad to have the joint custody worked out so they get alternate weekends, and no more child support.  They already had the child half the week anyway.  Maysie starts kindergarten in August as well so that lightens the load with no preschool tuition until Annabel turns 2.

DDIL2 has quit her job as of the end of this school year and will be home for the summer and next year freeing us up to travel with DS1 to Texas so he can see the ranch.  He is planning to take a Trade Tech welding class in preparation for the ranch. Also says he may take some AG extension classes in Texas on hay production, etc. Sounds like he may be looking forward to the ranch and taking over the sheep flock. Of course, on the ranch in Texas he will have more authority and responsibilities and that always makes a difference.  

I guess I have cheered myself up a little.  I just won't think about the cost of hay for a while.  Oh yes, and make sure to take my Prozac!


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## Baymule

Ok so you are old. So what? You aren’t dead yet and if you die, you won’t be worried about anything anyway. Live your life the way you want to. Do what you want to while you can, as long as you can. Y’all worked hard all your lives, you have earned the right to do whatever the heck you want to.


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## Ridgetop

UPDATE!
Last night DS1 arranged a family get together at a restaurant.  (Korean BBQ - never been, won't bother going back although half the family seemed to like it.  Mostly meat which you cook on a grill in the middle of the table yourself.  My motto - It is not "Going Out To Dinner" if mom has to cook anything.  LOL

Anyway after dinner DDIL2 tool Robert outside first.  We all followed slowly and met up outside to say good bye.  When we all outside saying our goodbyes I noticed that Robert's shirt now read *"I'm Going to be a Big Brother!"*  DS2 and DDIL2 like to announce things that way.  It took everyone about 5 minutes to realize that they were announcing a second pregnancy!   So Grandbaby 9 will arrive sometime early December.  DD2 and DSIL1 both congratulated themselves on noticing from how she was eating that she was pregnant.  Both of them are 38 so knew they had to getting baby production done fast.  Come Christmas our house will be even more crowded!  Time to move to Texas and rent the house to DS2 and his growing family.  

We can always leave our current 5thwheel here and buy a newer one to keep TX as our home base to travel the east coast, deep south, and northeast.  Or buy a new large one to kee here in California to stay in when we visit.

I did suggest to DH that we move the property line between our home and the empty lot and build on an "in-law" annex.  He didn't like the thought of spending the money.  
When we move to Texas for however long it will be, we will have to store our good stuff - china, paintings, furniture and antiques, - to give DS2 and DDIL2 room for their growing family while they are renting the property.  We might leave a dog and some sheep here as well.  The fencing is in, and keeping some sheep here will prevent fire growth.  All to be considered.  At least the office is the smallest room next to the MBR and is painted a pretty turquoise with nursery jungle border so won't need much to return it to a bedroom.  It was the nursery for the oldest grandkids when we were babysitting 5 days a week full time.  It also has large cabinets built in behind the door as well as a closet, so lots of room for clothes, toys, bedding, etc.  Just need closet doors back on it for a bedroom - easy peasy.  Or they could use it to place the crib in or other furniture to increase the bedroom size.  It is the smallest BR, 11'6" x 10'9". That way Robert's dragon bedroom room can grow with him using the youth bed that DD1 dropped off here while we were in Texas.  I wrapped it up and DS1 put in the loft. 
It even has a mattress.  And the style of the youth bed matches the crib and changing table.  

Sometimes it seems that our children are plotting on us!  May I should start packing NOW!  At least this feeble elderly couple have someplace to go.  LOL  We won't have to park the 5th wheel under any bridges!


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## Baymule

Congratulations on the blessed event! That’s only 9? That won’t do! You need another one to make it an even 10!

Leaving a few sheep would be a good idea, but would anyone keep up with breeding/lambing? Might be better to leave a few wethers. And which dog? Who could you part with? 

For your return trips to California, remodel the barn or a couple shipping containers for an under the radar apartment. No taxes!


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## Ridgetop

Thinking along those lines.  

Apparently, the new pregnancy was not planned.  Not using any birth control.  Even though still partially nursing didn't her mom or doctor warn her to use BT since the possibility of getting pregnant increased as the baby started eating other food than nursing?!  Didn't DS2 realize he should use protection?!  Breeding animas for over 30 years he should have recognized the risk!!! I guess my hands off policy of advice was wrong - should have sat them both down and had THE TALK!


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## Bruce

My step mother found out that breastfeeding wasn't a form of birth control. Daughter 1 born March 8, daughter the following February 14.



Baymule said:


> for an under the radar apartment. No taxes!


Oh Bay!!! I sure wouldn't want the city to find out about an illegal apartment.


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## Ridgetop

Not to worry about an "under the radar apartment".  LA allowing people to convert garages without permits for MIL apartments.  Some of our state reps believe that single family homes are "immoral".  Actually, more people they can cram into the cities the more taxes they can get.  The fellow at the bottom of our road just remodeled the barn into a 3 story house.  He built a new pole barn in his corral.  Originally anyone that added on more than 750 sf had to widen the road but not this guy.  

If we get too old or unhealthy to stay in Texas alone, we can move back here.  I figure we could add a 3 car garage here then remodel it into an small MIL apartment legally without a permit.   Already considering how to go about that if DS2 decides to buy this place eventually.  The acreage next door is 306' wide while our house property is 105' wide.  We can pay a fee to move the property line over to make our house property 200' wide and still have a sellable 200' lot next door with easement access.  With the additional 100' and given the way the house lays and is built, we can add on to the house on that end and still have room for DS2 to add a pool.  We can keep the additional acreage and run a few ewes and a ram to do fire clearance on the property and provide meat.  When we are gone the kids could sell the 200' lot.  

However, the water situation here has gotten to the point that we might not return. The new water regulations are allowing 50 gallons daily for each person living in the home. This amount includes drinking, laundry, gardening, lawns, cleaning, bathing, etc! In 2023 that amount will go down to 42 gallons daily.  We also heard that the city council is starting regulations to get rid of all livestock.  This will include any livestock/pet related businesses including possibly even the zoo!


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## Mini Horses

Ridgetop said:


> However, the water situation here has gotten to the point that we might not return. The new water regulations are allowing 50 gallons daily for each person living in the home. This amount includes drinking, laundry, gardening, lawns, cleaning, bathing, etc! In 2023 that amount will go down to 42 gallons daily.  We also heard that the city council is starting regulations to get rid of all livestock.  This will include any livestock/pet related businesses including possibly even the zoo!



So how will they allow this water usage...month to month?  Use or lose? Carryover from month/bill, however they designate?  

How could you delete pets?  Why?  What about service animals? Is this just within the city limits?  Any grandfathered?  This just sounds insane! 

I'd not live there!  😡. Eliminate coyotes first.


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## Baymule

I cannot fathom why, for the life of me, why ANYONE wants to live in a Gestapo failure of a state. 

How many of those politicians that think single family homes are “immoral “ have their extended family living with them? And people actually vote for these loonies? They can stay there, durn sure don’t want them moving to Texas, or any other state that values freedom. 

You have two ponds on your farm in Texas. Hahaha, you’ll be shipping water back to your kids in California! They will have to come visit so they can wash the car, get a drink and take a shower! LOL


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## Ridgetop

Talked to a Dorper breeder in northern California last night.  Although he has lots of pasture, he can't irrigate - not enough water.  His house well is running almost dry too. He said that where he is that the state wants to put meters a=on everyone's well to limit how much water well owners can pump.  

Gov. Jerry Brown had enough money (voted by the voters in taxes and bonds) to build new dams and catch basin facilities as well as desalinization plants but instead Brown spent it on his "high speed railroad".  The HSR ran out of money and won't be built anyway.  No one wanted a high speed railway which was supposed to go from San Francisco to Palmdale and then to Las Vegas.  It was just another bad thing by liberal governor to rip off the people of California.

We didn't get the winter snows we needed, all the lakes and main rivers are well below normal levels.


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## Baymule

That is just pathetic.


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## Mike CHS

We have a daughter that lives in Reno and they are passing all kinds of water restrictions. Her husband is talking about buying some acreage, but she is trying to talk him out of it because of potential lack of water down the road.


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## Baymule

How many ruins of ancient civilizations are there, the people gone or dispersed, because of drought? 

How come their weather changed? Where’s the skeletons of old gas/diesel burning automobiles? Where’s the abandoned coal burning factories? How in the world did ancient people procure their own global warming and destruction of their way of life without burning fossil fuel? 

WHAT A BUNCH OF LOSERS!!!!

They could have been driving a big smoking, choking, pick up truck, belching black smoke!  But they had to have caused global warming for their weather to have changed so drastically, right? It’s all their fault, right? The only thing I see wrong with ancient peoples is the lack of politicians blaming the people for the droughts that destroyed them.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> LA allowing people to convert garages without permits for MIL apartments.


But they then tax them? 
I guess maybe not since without a permit they wouldn't know.


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## Ridgetop

Oh no, they will tax them somehow.

DH just saw online that in Calabasas the County is putting meters in the water lines to cut off water after 80 gallons per day for the entire household!  A lot of those homes out there are giant mansions!  Also a lot of horse properties.  Our water is being limited to 50 gallons per person in the household.  Glad we are making plans to leave the state.

I can't use any aspirin from now until after surgery on May 19.  Had my general practice pre op on Thursday, EKG and chest x-ray.  Was glad to find that my heart was still beating and my lungs still work.  Was even happier to hear that the anesthesiologist will knock me out before doing the spinal for the surgery.  WHEW!  From the way the surgeon talked so cavalierly about a spinal it sounded like they would just do a local and plunge the needle into my spine.    Glad to find out that I will know nothing.

May lambing has snuck up on us with the arrival of the first lamb in the bunch.  A nice ewe lamb at dusk today arrived in the breeding pen!  Her mother had marked again in January for a due date May 31.  Obviously, she was one that marked originally when the crayon had fallen out of the holder.  

Tomorrow we will have to rearrange our pen situation.  DH suggested that we move the 4 rams down to the front (breeding) field.  Then we can sort out all the ewes that are due this month and move them into the ram pen where if they lamb it won't be hard to catch them and move them to jugs. The 3 weaned ewe lambs can be turned out onto the field.  I will hold back the ewes that should be bred now until July since we will be heading for Texas in September or October after I finish PT on my knee.  I don't want any ewes lambing during the time we are gone since we are planning to bring DS1 with us to see the ranch.  DD2 and DDIL2 will be watching the sheep for us and I don't want them to have to deal with lambing. I have ewes bred for September lambing so once they have lambed we can head for Texas.  If I breed ewes in July they will lamb in December when I am back.

DD2 is leaving early tomorrow morning for Anna, TX, to help her birth sister with her new baby.  This is Amanda's first baby and he is very colicky.  Amanda has no relatives to help her.  Her adoptive mother and father are living in France and her MIL is not able to come apparently.  She is very stressed and it is affecting her milk so DD2 is flying back to help her.  She will be there 2 weeks.

She stayed this weekend to be here for DGS2's birthday on Friday, DGD1's First Communion yesterday, and DSIL1 found her a cheap flight early Monday am.  DD1 is having DGD2 for a sleepover 2 days then the birth mother will have her.  We get the guinea pig for 2 weeks while DSIL2 is working out of town.  We are also on call for emergencies with the school.  

DD1 and DD2 are planning for the entire famiy to take a cruise to Alaska next summer.  Not sure how it will work out since no one will be able to watch the guinea pigs (they each have one) and the dog will have to go in the kennel.  Bubba might have to go in the kennel or if we are in Texas, possibly to Erick's for boarding if DS1 comes on the cruise.  He is not sure he wants to do that since he isn't fond of the ocean.  The girls are determined that the entire family should go.  We will have to see if they can talk DS3 into a cruise as well since he is not interested in being on a big ship on the ocean for a week "with nothing to do".  LOL


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## Baymule

Thank you for helping me yesterday to figure out what date I can now reschedule my knee replacement surgery to. and then the following 2 weeks in rehab. It must all happen around lambing!   I want to be completely moved before surgery because I don't want to have to figure out how to move stuff after surgery. Nope. Not interested. So once I FINALLY  close on the farm, I'll do my kick it in high gear thing and get it done.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> The girls are determined that the entire family should go.


Are they planning to pay for everyone? Or planning for YOU to pay for everyone?


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Are they planning to pay for everyone? Or planning for YOU to pay for everyone?


Nope!  They are all telling everyone now about the cruise so everyone can start saving and budgeting for it.

So last night I wrote my piece in the middle of the night after being awakened just as I was dropping off then not being able to get back to sleep.  

I realize I just noted that we had a ewe drop her lamb last evening but did not give a full description of the typical Ridgetop fiasco that followed.

DS1 was feeding at dusk and came up to tell me to get my iodine and towels since a ewe had just dropped a lamb in the front pasture.  He figured I would just pick up the lamb and he would chivvy the ewe behind as I coaxed her up the path across the yard and into the barn.  Yeah, right!

Unfortunately, he did not see the lamb until he had fed the ewes in their feeder so naturally no one wanted to leave the pen.  While I got my equipment he shut Bubba in a jug in the barn out of the way.  The ewe did not want to leave her flock mates.  She kept running between the lamb and the flock at the feeder and DS1 could not get her to move up to the gate.  I picked up the lamb and moved up near the gate but mama could not figure out where the lamb was.  The lamb was just born, the cord was wet and dripping, so there was the possibility of a second lamb since there was no afterbirth yet.  DS1 made the decision that we would go eat first then come back and move the ewe and her lamb/lambs.  I iodined the cord and left the lamb with the ewe while we went up to dinner.

DS2 had smoked a tri tip on his Trager BBQ for a nice Mother's Day dinner, and we had been dishing the plates when DS1 called me to come out.  So we had a quick dinner - tri tip was excellent BTW, and then dashed back down to try to move the ewe before it got completely dark.  Naturally we didn't make it.

After fruitlessly chasing the ewe around the feeder several times in the dark, DS1 decided to run her up through the narrow catch pen alley.  It was no itch dark.  I had wondered why he hadn't done this the first time but when I suggested it was told just to take the lamb and move up to the gate.  Sometimes it is just easier to let DS1 get on with it and fail.  

Finally he got the ewe in the alleyway.  I had the lamb ahead of her but it was completely dark now and she couldn't see the lamb although she could hear her and was searching.  Unfortunately we are talking sheep here and she kept looking in the opposite direction.  By now Josie the Mule who thinks she is an LGD was extremely upset by the bawling of the ewe and the bleating of the lamb and had circled around the sheep pens and was trying to get into the front pen.  Just as the ewe and several flock mates approached the gate into the alleyway Josie banged the gate shut with her nose.  Thank you Josie.  

We needed more bodies so I went up to the house and got DS2.  Now he and DS1 chased the ewe around the feeder until they managed to get her into the alleyway.  I proceeded up the alleyway with the lamb and gradually DS1 got the ewe halfway up and shut the lower gate.  DS2 ran around the sheep pens and blocked the exit to direct the ewe into the driveway and the ramp down to the barn.  DS2 took the lamb and placed it on the ram.   It kept screaming.  Josie the Mule aka LGD was very worked up by now and tried to charge past me into the yard.  I yelled at her and waved the towels I was carrying.  Josie backed off but kept charging up behind me when I turned back to guard the opening.  As I kept shooing Josie away she became so excited that she turned her butt towards me and threatened to kick me!  First time ever and last time too! Furious I yelled at her not even to think about it and whacked her on the butt with the towel.  She moved away but was not giving up.  DS2 came up from the barn to help me drive Josie off.  DS1 still had the ewe running back and forth in the alleyway bawling. Josie was hysterical.  The lamb was screaming.  Just another day at Ridgetop.

Josie was back out onto the field but she was still trying to get to the ewe and lamb. As I moved a panel across the opening Josie pushed past DS2 and into the yard where she zeroed in on the lamb standing on the ramp to the barn.  She rushed down the ramp while I screamed at DS2 to protect the lamb from her crushing hooves.  DS2 made it to the lamb at the same time Josie did and as I watched in horror, Josie stretched her head down to the lamb.   Was she going to kill it with her strong teeth? Stomp it with her hooves? Neither, instead she took a couple of sniffs at it and DS2 snatched it up.   DS2 chased her back up the ramp onto the field and put the lamb into a jug for safety.  While DS2 kept Josie back I started for the halter which DS1 had told me not to bother with.  Why do I listen to others when I know _*I*_ am right about these things?  

Coming back with the halter Josie managed to break away into the yard again.  This time she veered over to the narrow path between the old garden and the fence along the alleyway.  Following her I managed to get the lead rope around her neck while DS1 and DS2 yelled at me to get away because she was too wild.  Before I could get the halter actually on Josie freaked out and decided that she needed to go back on the field. She knocked me over and only my hold on the halter kept me upright as she dragged me along for a few steps.   Unfortunately the path was too narrow to accommodate a wild mule and me so I dropped the lead rope and let her rush past. Bursting through the gate she proceeded to knock over the barriers DS2 had just put in place for the sheep for the sheep.     As she went past DS2 caught her and dragged her away with the rope that was still around her neck.  I went to help him put on the halter for more control since she was really upset by the screaming lamb and the bawling ewe. He already had it on her so I went back but just as I returned to block the alleyway gap the ewe got away from DS1 and to the tune of shouted curses got through the gap onto the field where she disappeared into the night.  

DS1 went off after her with a flashlight.  Josie was trying to pull the halter rope out of DS2's hands and he did not want to tie her anywhere since he was afraid she would pull the gates  down.  Josie the Mule is a big powerful girl at 16.3 hh.  While DS1 wandered in the dark on the hill searching for the ewe, and DS2 tried to hold on to Josie, I went back into the house for reinforcements.  DH would not be able to walk around in the dark on the hillside but would be able to calm Josie down while she was tied to the fence.

We could trace DS1's location on the hillside by his shouted curses and bobbung flashlight.  I asked if he wanted the lmb back in the alleyway and he said yes so I retrieved the lamb from the jug and brought it back out.  By now DS1 had the ewe in the alleyway again.  he moved her up the alley and just as we thought she was going to exit onto the driveway where her lamb was still crying for her she took a wrong turn and knocked over the second barrier and was off into the darkness again.  

DS1 was not happy with us.  In silence we rebuilt the barrier.  In silence he wandered off into the night again searching for the ewe.  Slight noises on the hillside and imprecautions let us know that this time he had found a couple hazards and had not avoided a fall.   DDIL2 had now come out to assist us.  I left her in charge of the lamb while DS2 brought over a heavy duty horse corral panel.  I tied it in place with a hay rope and we stacked the other panels against it.  DS1 was returning with the ewe.  She was tiring now, as we all were.  I was tempted to just leave her in the alleyway with the lamb but there was no water there.  They way it was going she would excape again while we brought her a bucket!

The ewe came in sight   the alleywayfollowed by DS1, limping.  Prepared for another break out we waited.  The ewe veered into the yard and into the ramp.  Quickly we closed the field gate behind her.  At least if she got loose in here we had a better chance of catching her and moving her into the barn on the driveway.  This time though she ran down the ramp and into the barn as if trained.  DDIL2 snatched up the lamb that the ewe had left behind and we ran down to shut the barn gate and lock both in a jug.  Silently DS1 and DS2 removed the barriers and put them away.  DS1 staggered in to take a shower.  DS2 returned to his video game.  DH came in with Josie's halter after turning her loose.  Another successful roundup at Ridgetop!  

When we move to the farm first thing we do is build an alleyway with gates that we can move the sheep through from one place to another without all this excitement!!!

The main problem was that it was dark.  We don't like moving sheep when it is dark because they don't go where we want them to.  During the daylight DS1 can move any number by himself but not at night.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Nope! They are all telling everyone now about the cruise so everyone can start saving and budgeting for it.


And will anyone who can't ot chooses not to save up that much money get kicked out of the family? 
Sorry but it sounds kinda aggressive to me to push everyone to go on a cruise whether they want to or not.


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## Baymule

At least you will be able to set up a real nice barn, working pens and chutes in Texas. No more crazy round ups!


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## Ridgetop

No one HAS to go.  My children just have more fun if all their siblings are there with them.    DS3 and family probably won't go.  DS1 doesn't like being on the ocean (or even at the beach) so may not go.  I am leaving it up to them to decide who wants to go and who doesn't.  They can all figure out what they want to do.

Yes, Bay, we are hoping we can get a better set up in TX.  This dog and pony show is getting old here on this steep hill.  

DS1 moved the rams into the front field yesterday and moved all the ewes out onto the large field.  This weekend he will separate out the ones that are due next week into the old ram pen which is smaller.  They will stay in that pen until they lamb then be moved into the jugs one at a time.  They won't be allowed access onto the field and gully so we will be able to grab them and move them more easily into the barn.   

My friend Erick texted me about another friend that needs to buy a place for herself, her goats, and Anatolians.  She wants to be near Tyler instead of Austin BUT she needs somewhere _*inexpensive*_. I texted back that I didn't think there was anywhere inexpensive in TX anymore! Then I went on line and looked up property for sale in Trinity, Houston, Hopkins, Wood, Delta, and Franklin Counties, and northeast counties property. Very little available for less than $400-500 K for even 5 acres or so with even a mobile home on it. Hardly any 20+ properties for less than $600 K.   I will give her Kris's number and also the agent in Sulphur Springs, but don't know if she will find anything affordable.  She is a restaurant chef/cook and needs to be close enough to a town to find a job.  Finding a job shouldn't be that hard, but finding property she can afford to buy will be.  He said that she is selling her home but I don't know if she will have enough $$ from that.  I didn't think she owned a place.  

I think Bay and we got the last good buys around.  She may need to look in Oklahoma.  He's going to have her call me so I can give her the scoop on AG property requirements.  At the prices I am seeing for even small lots, it looks like we could shave off 5 acres from our 45 acres every so often and sell for a good price if we need cash!

Played bridge today and the cards were not kind.   Playing in a tournament Saturday so hop t have better cards (and play better too).  The wind has been blowing strongly today.  Temps are down quite a bit.  It would be pleasant if the wind s=was not so strong and chilly.  I made a slow cooker lamb stew today while at bridge BUT came home to find a POWER OUTAGE!  Hope it cooked enough before the power went off at 2pm.  Put in carrots, onions, potatoes and when the power came back on turned the slow cooker back on.


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## Ridgetop

Another night of falling asleep reading, then as soon as I turn out the light my eyes pop open and I can't go to sleep!  

Bridge Tournament this Friday afternoon after DR. appts in am.  Heading straight there from hospital.  DH wants our Bridge bags that I made years ago - names and card suit appliquéd on them.  Haven't used them in 3 years so had to hunt for them.  Found where I had stored the duplicate boards, additional packs of cards for the boards, bidding boxes, etc. but no bags.  Finally, after several hours I found them packed in the bottom of a plastic container holding purses and bags in the top of my closet.  Now we have to fill out our convention agreement which ACBL has now replaced with a new one that i can't find downloadable anywhere.  Will have to get several copies at the convention and fill out there.  Also need to remember to make lunches for us for Saturday, bring bottles of water, and our hang on writing boards for scoring. Problem is that the pencil groove is on one side for righties and the other for lefties but I can't remember which side is which!   I will give DH (the rightie) his choice.  

DDS tomorrow, then open house at the preschool in evening.  DGD2 goes home with aunt DD1 for sleepover.  (DD2 out of town.)  Uncle DSIL1 takes her to school in am.  Friday 3 sets of medical tests for DH starting at 7:30 am.  Ugh!  My surgical pre op at 11:00 am.  (Same hospital)  Tournament at 2:30 pm 60 miles north. Home, then back to tournament Saturday at 9:30 am lasting all day. Sunday DGD2 goes back to DD1 for sleepover and school run next morning.  Sunday and Monday 6 ewes due to lamb.  Tuesday mani/pedi appt to look good when covered by surgical sheet while ortho surgeon slices and dices knee.  I wonder if I can have him throw in some liposuction. At least we don't have to show up before dawn for the surgery on Thursday - check in is at 11:30 am and surgery at 1:30 pm.  Supposed to be an outpatient surgery so home that night maybe.  Will probably sleep Friday and Saturday recovering from anesthetic.  Hopefully ewes will get on the ball and lamb uneventfully before Thursday.  

DD2 currently in Anna, Texas, north of Dallas.  LOVES TEXAS!  Hopefully a convert.


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## Baymule

Outpatient? With knee replacement? That's a major surgery and they want to kick you out the same day?     You need to bang their pointy heads on the wall and knock some sense into those morons. That is not right, at least an overnight stay. I'll have to stay for 3 midnights to qualify for going to rehab, medicare rules. More boring time wasted.

Glad your DD2 loves Texas. She'll probably be moving in her near future.......


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## Ridgetop

I thought they would at least keep me overnight, but doctor said not.  DH says since the surgery will be at 1:30 pm they might keep me overnight. Plus I have to be ambulatory before they can discharge me.  DH is working n getting medical supplies including the machine that bends and straightens the leg.  DH had one of those and it helped when he was home for PT.  Also there s a machine that yo fill with ice and water that pumps it through a cuff you place on the knee to lower swelling.  Got to check that out too.  The LADWP Employees Association will obtain and deliver those items then pick them up again.  We will get the prescription/authorization for them on Friday at the surgical preop.


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## murphysranch

My almost 92 year old Mother plays bridge. And duplicate too. She's been playing since she was a teen. Covid brought an end to the numerous bridge clubs plus everyone was passing on. 

She's even played at the San Jose Bridge Center where Life Masters play. She's that good. I never learned tho - no interest and no time.


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## Ridgetop

It is a fascinating Partnership game.  With a good partner by the end of the bidding you will pretty much know what your partner has in their hand and from their what everyone has.  The most difficult thing to learn as declarer is to set up a way back and forth from declarer's hand to the dummy.  Cutting yourself off from the dummy will lose you the game!  A lot of people think you have to know and use all sorts of "conventions" which are bids cueing your partner about your hand.  However, you only need a few basic conventions to communicate with your partner and win.

When we are too old or decrepit to be able to ranch with our animals, we will still be able to play bridge and play in tournaments.  It keeps the mind very active!


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## murphysranch

I'm sure that is why Mother will outlive all of her four children!!


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## Ridgetop

And be sharp as a tack while doing so!  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Two more ewes have dropped split twins now, 5/16, and this morning, 5/17. 

OR10 had hers yesterday and S1 had  a problem retrieving one of them from Josie the Mule who has decided that all new lambs born on the field are now hers.  She then protects them from the mama by trying to drive her away.  Much bad language as DS1 had to chase the lamb down the gully side with Josie trying to get the lamb.    He had already put the other one in a jug so I filled a water bucket and hay feeder. He had me check over the second lamb since it had rolled downhill a ways and was filthy.  I had to hose it off a bit and dry it, cut the extremely long cord before dipping it in iodine then put her in the jug with the mama that had escaped from Josie and gotten into the barn.  Her brother was already there screaming for breakfast.  This morning they were both up and  nursing.

This morning  BL16 (formerly tagged as BL14) had a set of split twins during the night in the night fold. They were easy to capture and move into the jugs. Already cleaned up and nursing. Again DS caught one, handed it to me to take to the jug. I filled a bucket with clean water and filled the feeder with alfalfa while he captured the second one and led the ewe into the barn. This was easy peasy!  Why aren't they all?  

Anyway, I told him to feed everyone in their pens and lets see who goes next.  We still have 3 due now while one of them remarked and might lamb in June.  However, the ram second marked another ewe for June 1 an she delivered May 8!  Go figure.  Sometimes these rams get frisky with already settled ewes.  

Having these ewes lamb makes me feel a lot better since up to now the 4 ewes that Lewis settled only singled and I was wondering if these would even lamb since they didn't look very big and with minimal udders.  I was beginning to wonder if Lewis at age 6 was beginning to shoot blanks.  I plan to buy another Lewis ram but not quite yet.

The person who bought the hay farm on the side near the house in TZ sent me a lot plan.  I told him that I was interested in the lot in the back that was surrounded by 2 sides of y property/  The price for the 4.4 acre lot alone?  $85,000!!!  Trying to find out how much he will charge for the house and lot together.  Probably close to or more than $500K!  

Might be cheaper to build a little house ourselves on the back of the property, or just live in the current house and renovate.  

Almost ready for surgery on Thursday, May 29.  SOOOO angry at all the running around they have you do before surgery!  Here is my medical schedule for the last 2 weeks.

2 weeks before surgery pre op with GP, bloodwork, chest x ray (in *another* *location*), then needed Covid test Next, pre op with GP, bloodwork, chest x ray (in *another* *location*), then needed Covid test but GP won't do this test, have to go to *3rd location*! 

Had root canal Thursday 1 week before surgery to make sure everything taken care of.  Found out from DDS that I have to come back in a month for a crown over the root canal!  Also need to be on heavy antibiotics since she found an infection, but said it should be cleared up before surgery. 

Got call to get another blood test potassium level is low.  Told GP was coming in on Monday could I do it then?  Fine says DR don't need appt.

Friday pre op with surgeon assistant.  More x rays of leg to make sure they put correct size knee joint in.   Gave me special body washing stuff to remove all microbials from body. Must use every day for 3 days before surgery, then put on cleanly washed clothes and sleep in newly washed sheets. *Must do this every day until surgery.  *Next week Covid test. Told surgeon assistant about antibiotics for root canal and was going Monday for Covid test.  Dr. said all ok.

Monday at GP with DH.  Can't have the blood test because I must have appt.  Even though there is an order for it, Dr. said come in for it today, and DH has appointment they won't do it at same time.   Must come back at 2:00 pm. His appointment is at 11:00 am. Also she checks and says I need Covid test, but *not today*, Monday, must return *Tuesday *with appointment to special Covid test place.    She makes me an appointment for 1:50 pm, Tuesday.  But she says go between 7:30 am and 11:00 am and they will let you drive through.  This entails rescheduling of my nail appointment but Thu moves other people around for me.  She is so sweet!  

Got call from hospital telling me to watch special surgery videos.  What videos?  Oops!  She will send them right now.  Then she says I was not supposed to have any dental work done for 3 months before surgery.   And 3 months after!  Now I need a letter from my dentist that I am ok to have the surgery.  Called the office and we can pick letter up Wednesday afternoon.  

Tuesday I strip the bedding, and throw all my pj's for next 3 days into wash.  Then DS1 brings over lambs from night fold for iodine on cords - nice little set of split twins.  Write info on white board before we leave at 6:30 am to get to Covid place to see if we can be seen early in the am. No one is there so we drive right on through for 10 second test.    Home to move bedding into dryer.  Make pot roast dinner.  Then make bed with assistance from DS2 and DH.   Set table and take shower with my special washing stuff.  These bottles come labeled 2nd day before surgery, last day before surgery, day of surgery, not sure if they have different ingredients or are just labeled for those persons that can't read the printed instructions in the package.

Using the clever hourglass timer packed with the bottles, I shower, turn off the warm water and proceed to lather up while standing in the cold air.  Then turn the timer over and just stand there until the sand runs through.  Then turn on the hot water and scrub off all the scrubby lather that was allowed to dry on my skin for 2 minutes.    Put on the freshly washed pjs and serve dinner.  

Tomorrow morning I strip the bed and wash the sheets along with an outfit to wear to the hospital.  Then we pick up the doctor's letter for the surgeon, then play bridge, then I heat up the left over pot roast for the family, and repeat the entire shower experience.  

Thursday strip the bed and wash the bedding, do the shower thing again, then  we go to the hospital at 11:30 to check in for the slice and dice which will start at 1:30 pm.  The nurse that called to verify all my info today said that they might not put me under before the spinal injection   since they "need to make sure that I don't feel any pain in the knee" ???!!!.  He did put in my chart that I would need Lorazapam for anxiety to relax before the anesthetic.  Do ya think? 

Then he says to me that I will need to be up and walking before 5 pm on Thursday so I can go home.  The 5:00 pm send home is because that is when the outpatient clinic closes!  

I am beginning to regret this more and more so if you hear on the news that the police are pursuing an elderly woman running down the street in a hospital gown with her ancient buttocks hanging out, it will be me!   
The only thing keeping me from cancelling right now is that the knee is hurting a lot and wants to collapse under me.  That, and DH and DS1 threatening to tie me up and deliver me to the hospital like a parcel.  

I did manage to borrow one of those toilet chairs that goes over the toilet with arms to help you up.  DH will pick it up for me.  I have a walker.  I also have a bell to ring for help but DH is too deaf to hear it and no one else will bother.


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## Ridgetop

Another update on surgery.  DH picked up letter from DDS okaying surgery.  Then got a call from anesthesiologist re my potassium level is super low.  She called GP who called me and is prescribing potassium. Need to pick up the prescriptions and take double dose today before surgery and cut my blood pressure (water) pills in half.  Then after surgery continue with potassium and have another blood test in 2 weeks.  Found out that the low potassium levels could be causing my glucose levels to be crazy high, and also causing me to retain water in ankles - which is what the blood pressure pills were supposed to be getting rid of!!!     So blood pressure pills (I don't have high BP anyway, just low BP alternating with normal BP) could have been causing the potassium levels to fall causing the water retention which the BP pills were proscribed.  Can anyone say oxymoron?!  And why did they not catch this since I have been complaining about water retention for several years now?!!!!

Then the anesthesiologist said that they are not knocking me out before stabbing me in the spine with a jumbo needle.   But  will give me something to "relax" me.  😨

The wheelchair is looking better and better.  

Sheets and towel in washing machine again.  

Maybe I should convert to Christian Scientist.


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## Baymule

You are SO BAD!! Hey y’all, I was talking to her on the phone awhile ago, telling her about my new ewes. We were discussing breeding schedules and me moving, getting the survey and so on. I’m gathering up registered ewes, BEFORE I close on the farm and move, because if I don’t get ewes now, they will all be sold and I’ll have to wait until next year. Ridgetop commended me for thinking ahead, that I could breed next spring and that would be about the SAME TIME I’D FINALLY BE MOVING! Then she broke into peals of laughter. I had just taken a big drink and I spewed. Lucky I was outside! We laughed like hyenas. 

Then we talked about her surgery tomorrow. I’m glad she is getting her chassis jacked up and a new knee run in under her! It’s about time! It’s way past time! After she recovers she’s coming to Texas and give me a hard time. I’ll be having my knee surgery about that time. Ridgetop I bet you’ll be dancing around on your twinkle toes, showing off, while I’m pushing my Walker around. LOL

Love you, have a good surgery tomorrow!


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## farmerjan

Best of luck with your surgery.  Hoping that the rehab goes smoother than mine.  I am getting around pretty good except get tired real quick as the muscles, ligs and tendons are getting some real workouts.  I don't stop to think about doing things and just do them and then realize that my body is saying, hey, we're not used to that... in protest.


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## Finnie

Thinking about you today, Ridgetop. Reeeeally looking forward to your next update!


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## murphysranch

Yes, even tho I'm new, thinking of you all day.


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## Baymule

I talked to @Ridgetop last night. She was her usual happy self. She had just got home, and said her leg is straight now. She was a little loopy from the pain meds, but she’s loopy anyway, so not much difference. LOL LOL

She was all about my new sheep and when they are coming to Texas, them moving, and plans for the future. Now she will have a good leg to stand on! She was dreading the knee replacement surgery but now is relieved that it is done. She will soon start therapy, she thinks for 3 months. 

Her family is around her, I heard a discussion about getting her a bell to ring when she needs something. It better be a big cow bell because her DH can’t half hear. LOL

Surgery went well, she is home and looking forward to getting back on her feet and doing the things she loves to do. She mentioned getting her Walker and going to to check on her sheep……. Can’t keep a good  shepherd down!


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## Mike CHS

When she posted about DH not hearing well, I was thinking she could get an air horn.


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## farmerjan

Glad to hear that it went well and lucky to be home.  It helps when there are others to help.  I had such a good experience with the ankle replacement, and when I came home I was quite mobile... the knees as you all know was something else... but they are getting along and I am still not sorry that I did them both since they no longer hurt to stand on... just the tightness in the right with the tendons.  But I think they are stretching out more... whether they like it or not !!!!!Getting up and getting going is a great thing for her...I know I was happier when I was up and walking more.


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## Mini Horses

Well, crap....I thought she posted the the 29th!!!!  No.  Hope you're doing well -- after those "happy meds" wear off!  🤗


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## murphysranch

I've been wondering how she was. thanks for the update.


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## Ridgetop

Thanks for everyone's kind wishes.  So nice to hear from everyone. Just read the messages today.

Yes! I need an airhorn! DH said to just call him on his cell phone when I need him but he "accidently" leaves it in the bedroom with me.   It's the thought that counts and maybe that is why I am now able to get in and out of bed on my own, clump to the kitchen on my walker  and scrounge for food, etc. Apparently the attention span of husbands caring for bedridden wives is *ONE* week and no more. _Note to self: No more surgeries requiring more than 7 day recovery. _While nursing homes may not be ideal, at least they feed you 3X daily, and eventually the nurse comes after you push the buzzer 50 times or so. LOL I am still on my walker. I would try walking with my cane, but can't find it. DH cleaned out the car and truck and said it was not in either vehicle.  I am sure I will find it in month or so.  LOL  But OMG!!! This surgery is horrible. Mainly the PT to bring back the motion. Oxycodone handles the pain part fine until you start the PT.  Ice helps the swelling too.  Speaking of those good drugs, I am only taking them when I do the PT exercises.


*FARMERJAN SHOULD GET MULTIPLE PURPLE HEARTS, MEDALS OF VALOR, AND ANY OTHER MEDALS AVAILABLE!!! How she managed doing both knees at the same time is incredible. She is my hero!!! *I am a wuss and really do need to “suck it up”!

Here is my story:
*Thursday, May 19   *Knee Replacement Surgery day. My agreeable show up time of 11:30 am, with surgery scheduled for 1:30 was abruptly rescheduled the Wednesday afternoon for THE CRACK OF DAWN aka 7:15 am check-in in at UCLA Hospital in Santa Monica.   Since the drive is around 1.5 hours in morning traffic, we left at 6:00 am. Arriving at the hospital we went to Admissions where I signed multiple forms absolving the hospital and doctors of all liability ranging from loss of life to an ingrown toenail. I was then tagged and sent to the orthopedic wing in a wheelchair. DH was allowed to accompany me, probably to prevent me from changing my mind and making a break for freedom.

Once arrived at the ortho surgical unit, I was taken back to get into a hospital gown. Again, probably figuring the sooner they had me in a backless gown and hooked up to tubing I was less likely to escape. Once immobilized by the IV, cardio wires, oxygen finger monitor, etc., DH was allowed to stay with me while I  whined that "this surgery might be a BIG mistake". DH kept telling me that the knee surgery was necessary if I wanted to be able to walk. I countered that argument by pointing out that I was fine as long as I stayed laying down.  

I interspersed his pep talk with instructions as to who was to inherit my jewelry, personal items, and family heirlooms.  As to my funeral, I wanted Amazing Grace sung, my sons, sons-in-law, and grandsons to carry the casket, red roses and if my children wanted to hurl themselves into the grave on top of my casket that would be a nice touch.  I did not appreciate DH laughing openly at my concerns. 

The anesthesiologist came in to discuss the procedure. He assured me with a grin that they would be doing the procedure under *A LOCAL SPINAL BLOCK! WHAT!!!*  Until then he had seemed a pleasant young man, now I noticed the slightly deranged look in his eyes. There was also talk of a needle being inserted into a nerve that would block pain, some sort of tube in the knee after the surgery, etc. Finally, getting a word in edgewise, I told the anesthetist and nurses that I suffered from anxiety and panic attacks and had a prescription for Ativan. They then assured me that they would give me “something to relax” me before I went in to get the needle in my spine.  I told them the sooner the better and regretted not taking a double dose of Ativan before leaving the house.

Finally, the dreaded moment arrived.  DH pried my fingers from his hand and they wheeled me into the white room.

Bereft of DH, I resigned myself to the care of the masked attendants. (You know they wear masks to avoid later identification.) Transferring me from the gurney to the operating table they proceeded to sit me up and drape me over some form of equipment in order to inject me with painkillers in the back. First a shot of Novocain type deadener before the hugely painful spinal shot. I had warned the anesthetist that I had prior spinal surgery which can cause a problem for a spinal anesthetic. The anesthesiologist and his assistant (possibly named Igor) proceeded to stab me in the back about 20 or more times. (I know it was at least 20 times because I had DH count the scabbed over holes when I got home.) Each time he poked the needle in he asked if I could still feel the needle. Each time I said “Oh Yes!” Finally in tones of deep regret the anesthesiologist informed me that they would have to use a general anesthesia and knock me out. As I sank into oblivion I muttered thankfully, “There is a God and he loves me”. Bliss!

Coming to, DH informed me that I now had a marvelous new knee. Lucky for him I was deeply sedated with Morphine and other pain killers and he was out of reach. Sometime later the physical therapist arrived to get me up onto my feet. I was told that I could stand up but my good knee didn’t hear that and promptly collapsed. I dimly remember being seized by several pairs of hands before I hit the floor and encouraged to try again. Several tries later the nurses, DH, and the doctors agreed that I should stay overnight in the hospital. No rooms were available, so I spent the night and next morning in Out Patient Recovery. Very peaceful. Every so often I was given delightful drugs to banish the pain.

Next morning the general anesthetic gradually wore off and by lunchtime the PT folks were able to get me up in the walker. I was instructed to do a series of stretching exercises 3X daily and to go to PT immediately on my release. The PT/Nursing Coordinator removed the Ace bandage that was keeping my leg from falling off. DH and I were happy to see that the surgeon had been able to straighten my leg. Innumerable prescriptions and medications were handed over. Instructions both oral and in written form were handed over along with written and pictorial exercise instructions. DH helped me into my clothes, which is when I realized I should have worn a loose dress instead of the loose pants I had thought would be easy to put on. Wrong, since apparently you can’t bend your knee after this surgery. I was also handicapped by the needle in the nerve in my upper thigh which was attached by tubing to some sort of mechanical pain killer pump. There was also a larger drainage tube in the incision which was also attached to some sort of mechanical something. I was directed to leave the needle in place until Sunday evening at which time it could be pulled out. Oh Yay! The drainage tubing had to stay in for a week at which time it had to be removed. Luckily that large tube was only attached through the dressing, not actually into the wound. Later we found that both of these devices, along with their tethering tubes, had to be carried with me whenever I got out of bed. One last dose of blessed pain killer was administered, the IVs removed, the wheelchair appeared, and we were off home with our goody bag of instructions and medications.

Arriving home, I found that my darling sons had retrieved DH’s wheelchair, and set up the ramps into the house. I was placed in the chair and rolled to my bed where I found that not only could I *not* bend my leg, but I also couldn’t lift it onto the bed either! DH obligingly lifted my leg for me, and I happily retreated into slumber for another 36 hours.

When I woke up I tried calling the PT to set my appointments. No answer. I left a message for them to call me. I later found out that I was a day off and while I thought it was Monday it was Sunday. Monday, I received a call from PT that I had missed my 9:00 am appointment. ??? Apparently, UCLA had badgered them into setting this appointment but no one thought it necessary to notify ME about it! After a ridiculous 3 days of calls, rescheduling, etc. I found out that the appointments were set for a PT facility 30 minutes away by freeway instead of in Burbank which was 15 minutes away surface streets. Another round of rescheduling since where you have your original assessment is where you have to continue for therapy. Oy Vey!

*June 1  * I have retreated from pain killers every 4 hours round the clock to just a couple daily. I am able to get into and out of bed alone and am able to maneuver around on my walker. I am doing the exercises every day but they are horribly painful. DH times them for me but thinks it is helpful not to count the number of times I do them correctly. I have to count for myself, or I end up doing several sets more, or feel bad that I can’t do the full number. Bad DH, no biscuit. Actually, since he has done this twice already, having him to cheer me on and encourage me is good. I must elevate my leg at least 8 hours daily “toes above the nose” and use ice packs to control the swelling and pain after exercises, per hospital instructions.

*June 5* Saw the surgeon Friday and he was pleased with the range of motion I had. First actual PT session will be Monday. Missed a week due to holiday weekend but had my assessment a week after the surgery so they have some Range of Motion figures to compare.

*June 6* First PT session today. Got a few more different exercises today. Knee is very swollen and discovered that I have been doing too many knee bending exercises and too hard. I guess I have to cut back degree of bend I have been pushing for.  

So all going well with the knee now.  On to other things - I will be catching up on everyone's journals.

Had a ewe lamb born the day of my knee surgery and a second ewe lamb born a week later.  t's possible that the last 2 on my chart didn't settle.  No matter.  This morning DS1 harnessed Smalley Ram and sorted out 6 ewes to go in with him.  There are another 6 or 8 but they pushed past the gate at the bottom of the sorting pen and escaped onto the field.  He will sort and move them down in the breeding pen tomorrow.  

Can't wait until we are in Texas.  We are planning to sort the sheep into breeding flocks and will just move the chosen ram into that field when they are ready to be bred.  So much easier to bring one ram than move a dozen ewes.  It will also make it easier to flush the ewes to be bred before introducing the ram.  Now when flushing we end up graining the entire flock.  

We ended up with 5 registerable ewe lambs this lambing cycle.  One additional ewe lamb has black rings around her eyes and it is too much black coloring to be registered.  I will hold on to her though since she has good bloodlines for meat and will keep her as a commercial.  

The dogs are shedding their undercoats badly and look like the Dorpers with their left over tufts of wool.  Both the dogs and the sheep look like they are suffering bad cases of mange!   About one third of the adults are completely clean shed though so that is good.  The rest range from a narrow mohawk to a wide mohawk while a few are carrying too much wool down the sides.  Eventually those carrying more wool will be culled out in favor of slick shedders.

Anyway, not too much else going on here since I am not terribly mobile at the moment.  Time to start catching up on what everyone else has been up to.


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## Mini Horses

So glad you are able to post!  Can't keep ya down   

I'm sure the knee is painful!  .  In 6 months you'll be glad you had it done!


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## Ridgetop

Probably will be happier since I was starting to walk on inside of ankle!  Lower leg was at a 30 degree cant.  Surgeon straightened it nicely.


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## Baymule

I’m glad you’re back! I love the description of events. It makes me look soooo forward to my knee replacement surgery! Or maybe not….. Hahaha! I’m glad you are doing so good, you’ll be back in your sheep pens in no time!


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## Ridgetop

DO NOT REMAIN AWAKE WITH JUST A SPINAL!  
I was talking to my neighbor who had her knee done last year and she had the spinal anesthetic.  She said she was awake during the surgery and while she didn't feel any pain, she could hear everything.  She could hear them sawing the bones and then knocking in the spike that holds the lower portion of the new knee in the lower leg bone.  She said it sounded like house construction!  Just the description made me want to pass out!  Go to sleep and when you wake up it is all over!    

Having gone through this I am readying a care package for Baymule now. She will need extra refreezable ice packs, and a wedge pillow to rest her leg on ("toes above the nose") when she goes home from rehab.  In rehab she will need a bedjacket (some of those places keep the AC super cold to prevent germs, and possibly a clip-on battery-operated fan for her bed (in case the nursing home keeps the temp too warm).  I have another month to get well and firmly back on my leg then I will start collecting the emergency supplies!  LOL  Oh yes, and a bicycle basket for her walker to transport the ice packs from the freezer to her bed and her elevated knee pillow.  It is very hard to carry stuff in one hand when you need both hands on the walker.  I try to keep a large plastic grocery bag with handles to carry stuff back and forth.  

Yesterday I was up at the computer for about 4 hours with a car trip to go vote and my leg swelled up like a balloon!  I couldn't do any exercises because it was so swollen I couldn't bend the knee!    Better this morning but still slightly swollen and I am trying to intersperse computer time with leg in the air time and ice packs.  Bed is boring but better than the swelling.

Three of the ewes in the breeding pen have marked.  DS1 says I need to redo the breeding and lambing board since it is out of date now and we have to add the 14 ewes we just moved into the breeding pen.  I will have to find time to get that erased and rewritten with lambing dates from last bred ewes, and breeding dates for new batch of ewes.  

Talked to a Dorper breeder in Tennessee who said his grass is over knee high from the rains.  Asked him about Barber Pole and he said his first year he thought he would have to quit, but then he started testing and culling heavily and now his flock is pretty resistant.  He only worms once or twice a year now with no BP problems.  He also said that prices last Easter were about $4/lb on his fall lambs.  He said this was the first year he didn't keep any ram lambs since the weaned market price was almost what he would sell a registered lamb for after adjusting for feeding to 12 months!  With a 3 month breed back he made more selling them at 3-4 months for meat!  

We are having the flock inspected and graded this year.  Luckily the scheduling family had to change our dates since originally we were scheduled to pick up the inspector June 4.  I did not even see the email until June 6!  However, they had to put it off to July 5-7 which is perfect for me to be on my feet and get ready to house and feed the inspector for 2-3 days.  No shearing or hoof trimming required since they want to judge them in their natural state with little or no upkeep.  The amount of wool cover and shed is also taken into consideration.  The only work needed is that all the sheep that have lost tags and been retagged must get another tag with the original registration #.  We just slap in another tag and change the tag numbers in our files.  Naturally the tags need to match the registration papers so I am ordering some blank tags and a marking pen.  The inspector will only do inspections on registered animals over 10 months old.  But the inspector will also look at young stock and give opinions.  I am really looking forward to the inspection and learning a lot from the inspector while she is at our house.  She is a licensed Dorper judge and evaluator from South Africa.

Then I found an email telling me that the West Coast Dorper sale would take place on the weekend before I found the email!  No bidding and buying for me this year!   I wanted another ram and planned to sell one or two of my rams.   I have a lot of youngsters out of 3 of my rams and was considering buying another.  I guess I will have to wait till next year.  Actually, the West Coast Dorper Society is thinking about moving the show back to northern California next year so we will g and maybe I can pick up another ram cheaply.  Lots of rams at the show and sale that go reasonably, while ewes go a lot higher.  While doing my knee exercises, I will practice my split second timing with the auction bidding card.  I could go to the West Coast Dorper show in Reno in July, but I'm having the flock inspection and in the heat don't want to drive 10-12 hours to Reno.  I can wait.

OK back to bed and the "toes above the nose" position for another couple hours.  I can feel my knee swelling!


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## Baymule

You need a laptop! Then you could have it in bed with your toes above your nose! 
A care package! That's just what I need when I get home from rehab! Ouch! Your swollen knee didn't like the 4 hours in the car! Hope the swelling is down now.

That is exciting on the inspector coming to evaluate your sheep! I know you can't wait for that!


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## Ridgetop

I forgot to include the Blue Bell ice cream!  Oh NO!  Any stores that do deliveries?


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> I forgot to include the Blue Bell ice cream!  Oh NO!  Any stores that do deliveries?


Delivery? Out here? Not happening!


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## Ridgetop

Going to add books to your care package.  There is only so much you can do laying in bed in the nursing home.  Especially when you have to keep your foot higher than your head to control swelling!

DH has arranged for several companies to come and give us a bid on putting astroturf on the dirt area where we had the "container garden" last year.  What a waste that was!  The dogs now dig in the dirt to make comfy "beds" and scatter the dirt all over the walkways, etc.  Combined with our field that is also all dirt, the dirt blows into the house and keeps it dusty and gritty.  Hopefully by putting astroturf on the dirt area between the driveway and house, we can control the dirt a bit.  The overhang would make a pleasant sitting area on the patio if it wasn't for the dirt.  If it doesn't cost too much we will have it installed.  There is supposed to be a $3.00 rebate per square foot from the water company but last time they wouldn't do it without inspecting first, etc.  We will have to see how much it costs.  It is only about 30' x 30' but will make the entire driveway and barn area look so much cleaner and prettier.  It will be worth being able to sit outside on the eastside of the house in the afternoon and evening.  

My knee finally returned to its normal swollen size and I have been exercising it a lot in smaller doses.  I got some new exercises from PT that I have been doing - going up on tiptoe, and standing on one foot at a time.  I am also working on forcing my knee to bend tighter by using one of the elastic exercise bands to pull my foot up to my thigh.  
OUCH!    But it needs to be done to get the movement back in my knee.  The normal pain level except when exercising isn't bad and I only need the heavy drugs (oxy) for PT and after heavy exercising.  I found my cane so will try to be on it next week for PT.  I don't feel as secure on just the cane but am trying it around the house.  I can put all my weight on my new knee now though so that is good.  I still can't spend much time sitting or the knee swells up so closing off now.


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## Bruce

I hope you get over the "recovery hump" soon Ridge!


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## Baymule

That is sounding good! Of course I’m watching your progress with great interest, heading there soon myself. 

Yeah, I’ll need books. Anything to occupy my time. I don’t do “down” very well. Like @farmerjan I’ll go to rehab for 2 weeks. Not looking forward to that! 

Leaving this morning for Corpus Christi to spend time with my granddaughters. DD and husband are leaving when I get there. LOL I’ll be back Thursday. Chris will be working on son’s house while I’m gone. Supposed to close on farm a week from today.


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## Margali

Ridgetop said:


> We will have to see how much it costs.  It is only about 30' x 30' but will make the entire driveway and barn area look so much cleaner and prettier.  It will be worth being able to sit outside on the eastside of the house in the afternoon and evening.


In my area, I see rolls and rolls of used astroturf on FB marketplace. From what I understand, too worn for professional football field is still good enough for homeowner's use. Something to consider?

Glad the surgery went well and recovery is proceeding a pace.


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## Mini Horses

So sounds like you need to use a laptop and stand by the kitchen counter....you can practice shifting weight on legs, typing and stirring pots for dinner...all at once!


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## Ridgetop

DH arranged to put in artificial turf in the yard between the barn, driveway, and house.  That is the area where we lost the tree several years ago, and the site of our so called "container vegetable garden" aka "Ground Squirrel Buffet".  It should keep the house cleaner, and make the yard look very nice.  One more item to cross off the "Beautify the house list".  This company will install the turf we are getting from DS3 for the old pool area as well.  They will instal "gopher mesh" under the artificial grass to prevent gopher tunnels and holes up through the artificial turf.  Apparently, the gophers (and ground squirrels) can chew up through the base of the "grass" and make holes in the "lawn".  It will look very nice when it is done.  

I am having a lot of pain when I do the knee exercises.  The tape that was glued to the wound to help glue the skin together has almost all fallen off.  (The instructions said it would come off in 1-2 weeks but it has taken more than 2-3 weeks.  Only one small patch left to go.  The scar site is sore to the touch.  The healed cut feels like the skin is pulling open each time I bend my knee.  Painful.  DH is pleased with the amount of bend I have in the knee and says I am doing very well.  I have been doing bending and straightening exercises all morning and took an Oxy for the pain.  Healing is super boring!!!

Got my blank ear tags today so as soon as I get the special marker.  I had to order it from another source since Premier was sold out of the black markers.  I can start filling them out once the markers arrive.  I will need to go through my registration book to find the sheep that have lost tags and mark the new tags for replacement.  At least now whenever a sheep loses a tag, I will be able to replace it with the same number instead of using a new numbered tag.

I still have to send in my Jeffers medical order.  I need to order 2 boxes of 100 syringes.  I go through them fast since it takes 1 syringe of CDT for every ewe that lambs, 2 for CDT for each lamb a month apart, plus an extra one for the Tetanus Antitoxin for the ewe lambs for docking.  I also have to order another Tetanus Antitox and Jeffers doesn't carry it.  

Trying to get everything I need before 2023 when the USDA stops us being able to order meds for our livestock.  Finding a vet who will let you order meds to  keep on hand is difficult.


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## farmerjan

I get most of my syringes through Ebay... and get them fairly cheap.  Most are "medical surplus" supply places.  I have about 6 or 8 boxes of 100 in different sizes for the cattle.... mostly 3, 5 and 10 cc.... getting the needles is more of a crap shoot, sometimes there are lots available and sometimes not.
We reuse the syringe part, just not the needles.  No reason to use separate syringes for the same stuff in them.  I'd do a little more shopping around.  Hamby medical supply seems to stick with me but mostly it is off the wall companies that buy surplus lots and then sell them.  They are usually all in sealed plastic/paper packages.  Sometimes in individual sealed plastic containers.  Needles have all been in boxes of pull apart separate plastic/paper or individual needles with the twist off end so you don't even handle the needle as you put it on the syringe. I use 18's  1/2 or 5/8... and 16's 1/2 or 5/8.  Have a few in 1 inch needles;  and a few 20's in 1 inch.   Also have a few 1 cc syringes for when we are doing tetanus toxoid for the bull calves. 
That makes me think I need to see about getting a few more cases to have on hand and see about a few more boxes of needles.


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## Ridgetop

I have a box of 5cc syringes for antibiotics, but mainly use the 3cc with a 3/4" 22 needle for vaccinations.  I find the smaller needle is better for the young lambs who don't have much muscle for IM or area for a sub Q.  I order the all in one disposable syringe and Luer lock needle.  If the ewe or ram jumps using the slide on needle I have had the needle pull off and lose the vaccine.  I used to buy 1cc for the tetanus antitoxin but now I just use the 3cc.  We only use the antitoxin when docking ewe lambs - the ram lambs don't get it.  By the time we castrate any ram lambs to grow out for our freezer, they have had 2 doses of CDT which protects them from tetanus.  I only vaccinate about 5 ewes with up to 10 lambs at a time and like to use individual syringes so I can count them out and not miss anyone.  I am pretty small time compared to the number you work at a time. Eventually, I might look into one of those pistol shot type syringes that you just attach the bottle to and set the measured dose but you would have to replace the needle each time and the single use syringe and needle option is almost the same price as the individual needles.  I do have a Slap Shot but prefer to just vaccinate with a regular syringe.  

Wednesday 
Yesterday the PT person bent my knee for me.  OUCH!  He said I have good range of motion but is working on extra bending.  He also said that eventually they will work on softening the scar tissue.  I am already massaging the scar tissue area with lotion since it is somewhat painful.   The nerves must be regenerating since occasionally I get a terrible stabbing pain in the new knee area.  I understand that nerve regeneration is what causes that sort of pain and eventually it will stop when they are healed.  

DS1 is outside removing all the gardening and other stuff we have to move for the installation of the "faux" turf.  Sounds better than "fake"!  LOL  The rolls of grass will be delivered Friday and they will start installing either Friday or Monday.  Installation takes 2 days.  I wish I could go out and clean off the patio on that side of the house and move everything away.  Once the grass is installed I would like to set up the patio and move some of the furniture over to that side of the house.  We have a roll of 42" woven wire that we were gong to install here but now I think we will just take it with us to Texas.  We also have a few T posts left as well from when we raised the height of the pipe fence.  

Thursday
Doctor's appointments
DS1 removed all junk along area where new grass is to go.  Last night DS2 helped him pull out the huge raised wooden bed planter.  Tomorrow the grass is supposed to arrive.  Monday installation?

Friday
PT again.  Getting good range of movement but still painful and stiff.  DH wants me to lay on my stomach and have him help by tying one of the elastic bands around my ankle so I can pull the foot back and increase the amount of bend in the knee.  Have to see how that goes. 

I have decided that as soon as the grass is in we will go ahead and put in the quart countertops and the new gas cooktop.  The cooktop has been in the storage Connex for 2 years while I put off getting the countertops installed.  Maybe I can choose the colors and have it done while we are in TX leaving DDIL2 to deal with it!  LOL  Probably not.  Just have to decide do I want plain white, gray, marble design, or ?  I definitely want quartz instead of granite since so much less upkeep.  

I have been walking with a cane today but after sitting at the computer for an hour or so I had to go back to the walker.    Knee stiffened up too much to support me.  I will walk it out.


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## Baymule

You will have to post pictures of the new "grass" when it gets installed. 

I'm glad your therapy is going good, it's important to get that range of motion, keep up the good work!


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Does the faux lawn come with a warranty? Or at least a repair/replacement plan if the squirrels do attack?


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## Ridgetop

2 years on the install, 10 years on the product.  We had 2 small places on the existing "lawn" where they tried to burrow out.  The did it at an edge and just lifted up a small flap.  We cruelly filled the hole with concrete.  

Next project here will be the kitchen countertops.  DS2 has offered to pay for those since he, his wife, and 14-month-old Robert have been living with us for a couple years.  Up to now I have declined but now I will accept the offer.

This knee surgery is very depressing.  I go from being pleased that I will have a properly working knee again to depression that I will never be completely 100% well.  Probably my goal is too optimistic - considering my age I should probably scale back to 80 or 90% well.


 I called OK fence company in search of 60" or 72"high fence wire and was told that they are not making that height right now.  There is such a run on the 48" size that they are concentrating on that and have halted manufacture of the 60".     I had decided that 5' would be sufficient since the dogs don't want to leave the exterior of the property.  Angel is the only one who will try to get out when closed in a small pen and it is only to rejoin her beloved flock.  So I will stay with the 8' posts, put in the 48" wire and run hot wire tape on the top off the posts.  The tape is more visible for the dogs and i only need it on the perimeter of the sheep area.

I won't fence in the entire acreage just yet. I hope to fence 15 acres for the sheep and let Cody continue to use the other 30 acres for his cattle.  The barn will be within my 15 acres along with the well and I will put in a tank to hold the well water.  The pond is far enough in the middle that I can fence around t for Cody to use for his cattle.  That will eliminate the risk of liver flukes for the sheep.  I have a smaller pond on my side and will fence that off and put ducks and geese in it to clean out liver fluke snails (ducks) and keep the pond clean of invasive weed (geese).  DH is still insisting that we take out a loan and spend *$80,000+* to have game fence installed around the entire property.  I am holding firm on doing the fencing ourselves.  The dogs will keep out hogs and deer, and they don't want to leave their flocks to wander.  (Thankfully they are not Pyrs! LOL) The properties on either side of us are fields with no homes - 40 acres on the Sulphur Springs side was purchased to be developed into homes, but in view of the economic situation he has changed his mind.  The other 200+ acres on the south side is owned by a livestock auction owner who leases it to graze his cattle.

The front of the property does border on a busy highway, but by fencing across the front of the house yard and down the driveway with different taller fencing (wrought iron?) and keeping the dogs mainly to the back I think we should be ok.  I figure on using the 8' wrought iron panels and posts you can buy at Lowes.  I put the wrought iron pool fence in myself around our old Doughboy and pool deck here and it was pretty easy.  That would look nice in front and be easy to instill.  If worst comes to worst, I can take those panels with me since they are just bolted onto the posts.  LOL

Gas prices are what are now worrying us as the greatest cost of our move.  $5+ in Texas and we just saw $7 in Santa Monica!  Might have to invest in several wagons and mule teams and come back on foot like real pioneers - only going east!


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## Mini Horses

Ridgetop said:


> This knee surgery is very depressing. I go from being pleased that I will have a properly working knee again to depression that I will never be completely 100% well. Probably my goal is too optimistic - considering my age I should probably scale back to 80 or 90% well.


Just as a point of discussion ....what was your % of "100% well"  before the surgery? Then. Let's not discount the improvement, or at least coming decline, in overall structure...ankles, hips, back, ability to walk. Your sheep deserve your continued health benefits!  of course, there's DH and other family that would prefer your walking, not rolling a wheelchair!  That makes 90% look real good in my book!  

Hang in there!!!  Like I told my mom when she could no longer walk due to knee...you waited too long!  Could have been done. As her other knee was.


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## Ridgetop

Actually, I am doing well with rehab and walking.  DH says I have almost full range of bend in knee and am improving daily.  Scar is still very tender not surprisingly.  I am massaging it with Vaseline to encourage it not to shrink since bending the knee hurts the scar more than the muscles.  I am just having a pity party from not being able to leave the house and do normal stuff.  Since I am in bed mostly I do exercises constantly.   I am now using a cane and can walk short distances without any support although I like having furniture to hang on to for balance.  I can stand on tip toe and am starting an exercise to alternate standing on only one foot.   I am just a depressed wuss at the moment.


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## Mini Horses

Ridgetop said:


> am just a depressed wuss at the moment.


One who is doing GREAT!!      Just remind yourself that recovery takes way longer than surgery....keep on keeping on!!


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## murphysranch

About 11 years ago, I tripped over our McNab BC dog. He cut me off and flat like a plank I went on the concrete carport.

Next day, at the walk in clinic in Angels Camp CA (tiny town in the Sierra's), they announced I was scheduled for surgery. I had smashed my patella to smithereens. Off to the nearest big city. So after 4 hours of surgery, where the excellent surgeon was able to stitch my patella back together instead of using a cadaver one, I went home. I was in a full cast in a wheelchair for 3 months. I couldn't even get to my knee!! I missed seeing my leg!

After the removal of the 5th cast, I had to do all the things you are doing now. PT, a brace that would be tightened tighter and tighter every month (range of motion), and then a year later, another surgery to take out the pins, bailing wire, carabiner clips, and kitchen faucet. In fact, one pin migrated and is still in there, somewhere.

Eleven years later, I cannot kneel on that knee, its got no strength, so therefore I use my right leg alot more. If I'm on the ground, I look like a giraffe trying to get up. 

I'm a candidate for a new knee in about 5 more years. So hang in there. You'll be running in circles in no time with a new lease on life and a whole new thankful feeling that you got it done! That you made a wise decision! That your new days in Texas will be glorious with the ability to walk and do what you used to be able to do!! Hang in there. I understand......


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## Baymule

What @Mini Horses said! You were getting to be in real bad shape and getting worse. Now at least you are getting better!


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## farmerjan

Can I contribute to the pity party?????

I still cannot kneel on the knees and looks like probably won't be able to... even kneeling on the left one on the bed is just at the edge of TOO MUCH PAIN.... and the lack of strength is driving me nuts.  But then everytime a farmer tells me how much better I am walking and that they think I am doing great...I just bite my tongue about the not being able to kneel.  
Don't stay in bed... Get up every hour or so and at least do 15 min of walking... walk like you are MARCHING , to get the knees up... my biggest problem is not lifting the knees enough and I tend to trip on things... It doesn't have as much to do with the angle of bend as making yourself pick up your feet... I still tend to not pick up my feet like I should... and I did before the replacements.  

The best thing is they don't hurt to stand on and I really can walk without being in agony....nerves across the front of the knee are just very sensitive.....

I need to lose weight now.... serious weight.


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## murphysranch

^^this...The alligator incision still causes shocking deep pain if I accidently hit it with something. Its the raw ends of the nerves.

When my now 31 yr old son was an infant, I accidently swiped a blade across my left thumb at the joint. Stitches and big thumb bandages. Even now, if I knock that part, the pain is excruciating. Again, raw ends of nerves. UGH>>>>

I wonder if there are any exercises we all can do to strengthen our legs, since its impossible to kneel and get up off the ground?


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## Bruce

Squats maybe?


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## Mini Horses

I believe @Ridgetop will be at PT more regular soon...we can assign that question to her. To ask them!  And how to get up after you fall. 

 With one almost good knee maybe you can do but @farmerjan had both at once😳. Then practice it....when healed enough.  It IS something to consider and a need...l have been knocked down by animals and my knees are good!  I can get up.  Y'all need to learn and practice.  It's serious, even if you're laughing now.  Roll to a fence and pull up?  Now, that could be messy!! 🙄

I can see sitting. Legs bent. Then onto one knee.  But if rebuilt knee won't let your weight be acceptable....hmmm.  yeah. It's an issue.  I might have to roll around and see what might work. 🤔


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## Baymule

@Ridgetop @farmerjan @murphysranch 

Y'all KNOW I have an appointment to get my new knee installed September 28??? Y'all do NOT sound encouraging !!!! Thanks a LOT for that! 


I can get up, but have to stick my butt up in the air, hands on ground and push up with hands. I can't kneel on my knees now, it hurts too much. Can't squat down either. @Bruce, been thinking of doing squats, at least however far I can squat and be able to straighten back up,  to strengthen knees before surgery, thanks for the knock on my knucklehead.


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## farmerjan

One of my exercises is to do "squats" against a wall;  back against the wall and just go down a little,  standing.  Just go down a little. work on getting down a bit more...   Works on strengthening the thigh muscles and helps with the knees... muscles, tendons, ligs, quads... Yes it does help.  And it is hard and tiring...  But the not being able to kneel on them is driving me nuts.  Funny thing was I could kneel on them before...didn't hurt once I was on them..unlike most everyone else has seemed to have that problem.  But the standing and walking was so painful....but yeah, if I get down on the floor... and you contemplate HOW to get down on the floor since you can't kneel down... I have to have something that I can get up to, and pull up and get the legs under me but not on the knees... NOT FUN and not pretty... I contemplate getting down that low all the time.  And this weight is NOT HELPING at all....


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## Baymule

We are just a bunch of darned turtles on our backs, legs and arms waving in the air!


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## Ridgetop

Thanks for the kick in the pants, y'all!  I am walking more and WITH MY CANE!  No more walker!  I do tend to lay down a low, since sitting and walking much makes the knee swell, but I am getting up and walking more now.  Also doing a lot of exercises bending and straightening the knee in bed, etc. that have to be done laying down.  Some pf the new exercises from PT I am doing at home.  Getting up on tiptoe 20 times, then shifting from foot to foot 20 times, and calf stretches on the bad leg 20 times are the 3 new exercises I have added to my repertoire.  I also push my knee to the maximum bend every time I sit in a chair (or on the toilet).  I am supposed to do the knee bends 3 times a day but this way I can actually do them a lot more.  I do the tiptoe stretches in my bathroom since it has a chin window with a view of the sheep fold and pasture so every time I go in the bathroom I do those and the shifting ones.  I do that anyway to look out and check on the sheep so win, win.

I am now getting up and getting dressed every day instead of staying in my loose PJs.  I make the bed and instead of being IN bed I am laying on top of it to put my leg up on the foam support ("toes above the nose").  I am starting to get backaches from laying down so much so will have to do some sit ups to strengthen the back muscles.  I still have to limit my sitting at the computer to about an hour at a time then go and ice my knee to reduce the swelling.  I am running out of TV programs even with Prime and Netflix though!  Only so long you can read or watch TV.

I haven't had to take Oxycodone for a week or more now.  I was taking it when I went to PT but don't need it now.  Off the blood thinners and back with aspirin and ibuprofen as well.  

Yesterday the therapist measured my bend and straightening out of the knee and was very pleased.  I have 120 degrees bend (need to have 130 degrees), and only lack 2 degrees for the knee to lay flat.  Two visits ago the PT said that they would eventually work on softening the scar tissue around the surgery site by massage so I started massaging Vaseline into the scar and massaging the surrounding area.  The therapist said that it showed yesterday with much more pliable scar tissue so that was good.  I wanted to use Vitamin E cream but DS1 couldn't find it at the drug store.  I will try to order some on Amazon.  I used Vita E cream during all 4 of my pregnancies and have no stretch marks so hopefully if I can find some to rub in it will help heal the scar.  

The scar is still very painful to the touch and hurts when bending the knee.  Probably because it is stretching the still healing skin as I exercise and bend the knee.  But considering the fact that I had surgery only 5 weeks ago, I am on the mend and seem to be getting the movement back quickly.  

The therapist massages the thigh muscle on the outside of the leg and really pushes on the muscle causing a lot of pain.  He says it needs to be stretched so I grit my teeth and just try not to moan too loudly.  No pain, no gain.  

Haven't tried kneeling or getting down onto the floor.  Getting up out of a low chair is still difficult so if I fall down I will just have to roll along till I can get someone to find me and get me up.  

I have figured out how to fence the property to a 5'/6' height.  By using 8' T posts, and 48" wire then applying a shorter height wire on the top half of the posts we will have 5-6' fencing.  We can connect the 2 pieces of fencing together with cage clips or small hog rings.  I told DH we could use chicken wire on top for sight value for the dogs, but he said it is not strong enough.  Putting up 30" woven wire should be doable.  I also think that 5' fencing would hold the dogs since they are not jumpers or climbers.  Or diggers.  I could also add a strip of electrified tape instead of wire along the top of the posts with a Gallagher solar charger.  The tape will give more eye barrier and the hot tape will control any desire to climb over.  They are not Pyrs after all.  LOL


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## SA Farm

Keep up the scar massage with the E cream. It takes at least 6 months for a scar to heal, so if you keep it up, hopefully you’ll have a smaller, healthier scar and a better chance of kneeling with, at least, less pain than someone who didn’t keep up with it.
(Learned from a plastic surgeon who I, of course, didn’t listen to and have a very ugly scar now lol)


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## Ridgetop

Found the Vita E cream on Amazon.  Good price so am ordering some.  I did struggle into the trailer and found an old jar of Vita E cream which had been there so long it had separated in the heat. Brought it in and stirred it up then refrigerated it.  Will use it until the new stuff arrives.  The reviews on the Vta E I am ordering had a bunch of 5* reviews from people that used it after knee replacement surgery so it should be good.  An added bonus was that it is also reasonably priced.     I can mitigate my ugly scar without being poor!  LOL

Yesterday I was able to do some cleaning around the house.  Living with DS2, DDIL2, and DGS5 Robert, age 15 months is beginning to get tedious.  They order a lot of stuff from Amazon and leave the empty shipping boxes in the laundry room.  When they are finished with stuff the baby has outgrown they just leave it around!  DD2 is unhapy because DDIL2 has packed up a bunch of toys including se that were DGD3's personal toys.    These are toys that DD2 and I have bought just for Annabel when she comes over to be babysat.  Also ut anything they don't want at the moment in the dining room on the floor.    Not enough storage in this house for all the stuff they buy and bring home.  When I went to the trailer there were two huge cartons in there that DS2 bought for DDIL2 that he had to store!  i think I will suggest that he rent a storage unit for his stuff and empty one of his little storage sheds into it.  DDIL2 will be bringing a lot of boxes home from her school soon since she has given her notice and will not be working until after baby #2.  She used one of the storage sheds for that stuff last summer but now it is filled with more of their stuff.  They need either their own place or to rent a storage unit for their wedding presents, etc.  If they do that they can use the emptied storage shed for the stuff they are accumulating now.  And for the outgrown baby equipment.  DD2 has brought some of her outgrown baby equipment over for DDIL2 to use and it has been sitting on the front porch for a month!  I can't take it down to the shed loft and it is not fair to expect DS1 to do all this clean up and storage for DS2.  I am just  !

Anyway, I sorted out a bunch of stuff that needed to be removed and DS1 took it to the shed.  I still have more to do up here and have started moving some of the baby stuff to the nursery.  (2 giant stuffed dragons, and the bottle sterilizer, and a few items like that.  DDIL2 is from the Philippines and still boils the water she gives to Robert!  That means that the pot she uses and the large thermos she stored the boiled water in are continually on the counter.  Then there is another large plastic box of bottles, cups, special dishes she uses for Robert, and DS2 is now on a diet.  That means that his special vitamins, recipe book, scale, etc., also live on the counter. This leaves me very little counter space to cook or prepare food on.  I hate having anything, including appliances on the counter and makes me nervous when I go into the kitchen.  One reason why I spend a lot of time in my room with my leg up.  

Doing better standing and walking short distances without the cane.  Last night I even made dinner!  Just vegetables and  hamburger patties but I was able to actually stand in the kitchen and cook!    This morning I did dishes and cleared out the fridge too - getting back to some regular activities.    Oh yes, and I can sort the laundry and put away the clean clothes if someone else loads the washer and dryer.

The "grass" was installed and looks nice.  Much cleaner than the dirt.  The dogs immediately baptized it with a large pile.  LOL  Next I have to clean off the patio and move some of our patio furniture over to that side of the house.  I will need help with that since there is a lot of stuff to move around, most of it too heavy for my new knee.  And needing 2 hands to move - I need a 3rd hand for the cane.  I can sort out some of the smaller junk that has just been left there though.  Some of the tools that need to go to the shed can be grouped to be taken down by DS1 and DH.  DS2 uses tools and then just walks away leaving everything where he finished with it. We are all getting annoyed with him.  On th other hand, we need him and Kathleen to be here while DH, DS1, and I go to Texas in September to put up the fencing.  

I have decided to order the T-posts from TSC in Sulphur springs and have them delivered to the property.  They can unload them into the barn.  I will also get a couple of farm gates from TSC to enclose a section of the barn where we will store the fencing supplies.  If we don't get all the fencing up in September we can store the stuff under cover and out of sight.  I can also put  hasp and lock on the tack room door and store stuff inside there.

This weekend we have to retag some of the sheep that lost their tags and were retagged already since the new tags don't match their registrations papers.  The blank tags and pen arrived, and I wrote out the numbers from their papers.  This has to be done before the inspector arrives on July 5.  With me still unsteady on my legs we will have to run them through the chute and the squeeze so DS1 can cut off the first retag and then insert the new in the hole.  I might be able to get DSIL2 to come help.  He likes learning to work with the sheep with DS1.  

Now that I am feeling better and able to walk more, I keep seeing stuff I need to do and working myself up over not being able to do it!  Before the surgery, I still couldn't do some of the heavy work because of my bum knee, but now it is fixed I expect to be able to get back to doing stuff!  It is a psychological trap for us go-getter types!    OK Ridgetop - take a tranquilizer!  LOL  Time for my knee exercises - as soon as I check the back patio for anything I can clean up.


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## Ridgetop

Got new glasses prescription 2 weeks ago.  Haven't had new glasses in 4 years.  Current ones were scratched and cloudy, so I had to take them off to read anything.  Went today with DH to pick up new prescription.  Putting on the new pair I was thrilled that I could now see and read. Then, as we turned to leave the store, I caught sight of an old, wrinkled woman in the mirror.   

OMG!  It was me!   Where did those wrinkles come from?  In my old glasses I saw hardly any wrinkles! I was congratulating myself on holding up well for my age. Now I am going to slather on the special face cream guaranteed to remove wrinkles. Luckily the new Vita E cream that DS1 just ordered for my knee is supposed to be good for wrinkles too. I better have him order more, *lots* more!

I hate these new glasses!


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## Baymule

Amazing what new glasses can do! Looking on my driver's license, I am supposed to be wearing glasses, but I haven't worn any in years. The last pair I had, kinda got messed up. BJ and I were loading hogs and I had a habit of putting them up on my head when they got annoying, which was most of the time. They fell off. I didn't miss them until a couple of days later. By that time, they had got run over and were smashed. Never got any more, maybe I oughta look into that.......

Y'all just need to hurry up and MOVE. Leave all the crazy behind and let them all figure it out. But I can tell you this, when you go back to visit, you will be appalled at what "they" have done to your house!    You'd probably be better off if you didn't go back inside and just stay in your RV and let them come visit you!


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## Mini Horses

Sounds like your physical and emotional have come to terms!  Improvements happening.😊👍

Oh. It's not the glasses but, the mirrors!  I often wonder who's in my house. 🤣. Do they sell vit e in 55 gal drums? 🙄🤔🤭. A "soaker" size...jump right in!


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## Baymule

Yeah, how about a link to that vitamin E cream? Seeings as I'm gonna need it coming up soon.......


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## Ridgetop

https://www.amazon.com/Fruit-Earth-Vitamin-Skin-Cream/dp/B00E4MK3X4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pb_opt?ie=UTF8
		


Well in my usual boneheaded way I overdid again yesterday and now am having trouble walking.  I can look forward (not) to another day flat on my back, leg in the air, and ice on knee (after some computer time and getting a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast.  And a coffee refill).

Yesterday, still annoyed about the state of my house, I came out at 7am, made coffee and put dishes in the dishwasher.  Not many so decided to clean out the fridge, dispose of the old leftovers, and put the containers in the dishwasher.  That filled it up - no idea how long some of the stuff had been in there -May 29 maybe?  LOL) - so turned it on and did a load.  Walked through the house picking up stuff and putting things away.  Got on the computer for a couple hours or so - some BYH and some business work.  Then went outside to the back patio (between house and barn where new "grass" was installed) and sorted through some of the stuff left laying there for who knows how long.  Found about 5 sheep halters, put them away, then took 2 portable folding halter racks to the barn and found a place for them in the barn.  Then heard a lamb screaming in the creep and only saw 1 ewe so went back up the stairs from the barn and around to the other side to turn on trough water.  Still couldn't see the ewe but there was one on the other side of the wire fence looking a bit lifeless so back around the barn and down 2 sets of stairs to the lower milk shed where I found the flock had relocated from the large field to the shaded area below the milk shed.  They a ran back out to the large field.  Then saw the missing ewe come running up the hill.   So back inside and went to lay down since knee was hurting and swelling.  Ice and exercises for a couple hours.  Then DH got me to go get glasses.  Walked a block from parking to location to pick up.  Had that scary experience with the OLD WRINKLY woman in the mirror. Came home and lay down for an hour.  Then up and made a corn pudding with leftover corn for dinner and got the hamburger patties ready.  Corn pudding in the oven, DH, DS1 and I went to back patio and started cleaning.  I sorted and tossed junk away.  DS1 moved everything that needed to go to shed, barn, and milkshed.  DH helped and then swept patio and washed it down.  By now my leg was really swollen and hurting so I came back in to check corn pudding just as timer went off.  Back out and DH and DS1 told me they didn't want me to help anymore so I came back inside and iced my knee.  By this time it was badly swollen, and I could hardly lift my foot off the floor.  July 1 is second visit to surgeon and will have x-rays taken first to check on progress. When the knee gets so swollen, the leg looks crooked again.  Hoping it is an optical illusion due to swelling.

Today I am under orders from DS1 and DH to stay off my leg and in bed with knee up and iced.  This weekend we need to tag the new lambs and turn them into the creep out of the jugs.  Then we need to band the 2-month-old ram lamb we are keeping for our freezer. And over this weekend we need to retag the flock members that lost tags.  2 weeks until the inspector comes to evaluate the flock, and that needs to be done.  I also have to either find the pop-up shade or borrow one from DD1 for the inspector's visit.  

In the meantime, I am applying wrinkle cream twice a day in a fruitless effort to remove wrinkles.  Luckily DH's new glasses must not be that correct since he says I still look good.   He's my sweetie!    I have found that I still look like I am in my 30's (OK OK, 40's!)  without my glasses.  Unfortunately I can't see where I am going, so have decided to avoid all mirrors.  Like a vampire.


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## Baymule

Sounds like you had a pretty good day, but now you are paying for it. Laying in bed with your leg up has got to be driving you batsh!t crazy. That’s the part that I’m not looking forward to. 

Your family is so used to you being this whirlwind of activity that they don’t realize that it puts you down until you are down. You don’t tell yourself no and they don’t either. Try to do a little each day. Build up your strength for when the inspector comes! 

You know, it’s perfectly ok for you to give orders and supervise!


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## Ridgetop

A day and a half in bed with ice and the swelling has gone down a bit.  Still swollen and doesn't want to bend due to swelling but another day or two with minimal walking and exercises should take care of it.  Like DH said I want to be back to the way I was when my leg was working and straight.  Need to be willing to go slow on recovery.

DGS1 came up yesterday and helped DS1 tag lambs and move them from the jugs to the creep. DS1 plans to retag the sheep with incorrect tags so they will be ready for the inspector.  I said I would come out and hand him the tags and he shouted at me that I wasn't allowed out of bed!    He assured me that he would be able to take out the wrong tags and put in the correct ones himself with help from DGS1, DS2 (if he doesnt have to work) and DH by using the chute and squeeze if necessary.  He said I need to keep resting and exercising the knee so I can be up and out when the inspector comes.  I need to hold the record book with the papers in it for her.  I also need to be outside with her to discuss the different sheep, take notes, and hear comments.  I have two weeks to recover from the overwork on the knee and get back on track to healing.

Back to bed.


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## Mini Horses

Well --- they are looking out for you, maybe better than you are.  HOWEVER.       it's a real shame that they didn't get some things done FOR you, before you got into trouble! 

I'm with Bay, give orders and supervise!!  Smack 'em with your cane if need be!


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## farmerjan

I feel for you but I didn't have the swelling problems that you seem to have.  Guess I should be thankful for that.  It just hurt with the bending more due to the extreme straightening of the right knee. 
I still get more swelling in the left ankle than the right after being on them all day though.  

That Vit E cream is also on Ebay for about $1.00 a 2 pack cheaper,  with free shipping from several places.  I hardly ever use Amazon as I can mostly find better deals on Ebay.  Just fyi.... 
My scars are very good, thin and not hurting much...a little "tight" across the front of knees.... just the kneeling.  Trying a lidocaine cream, think "numbing",   before I go out to the garden and kneeling with the left knee on 3 flakes of straw bale with right leg bent and foot flat on ground ( think position a guy gets down on "one knee" to propose)...... somewhat bearable... still want to get down and kneel and "crawl" my way down the rows to weed like I used to....
I am almost 9 months out ; from the replacement surgery... not much strength in the right one though...
Using an "exercycle" a bit in the house to make the right muscles work more...sit on a stationary chair and using it.


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## Ridgetop

The heavy swelling has gone down after 3 days.  My own fault for overdoing.  So swollen that it was hard to do my exercises and bend the knee.  The scar stretched so much when the knee was swollen that it really hurt badly.  Now that the swelling is down, I can do the stretching and bending exercises better.

This morning I went out on the field with DH when he fed the sheep.  I used my cane and was able to walk easily, although slowly.  I did not get in the way of the sheep when DH opened their gate!  Think cattle stampede on a smaller, but just as dangerous, level!    He told me to stand way back which I did.  Noted a couple that have not shed but have ginormous butt muscle which is good.  That combo is not promising for my culling program though.  It might be either/or when it comes to keeping heavy muscle or shed.  I will have to see what the inspector says and what these ewes' daughters do.  I might be able to keep the muscling and breed in the shedding.  Depends on what is hardest to achieve.

It has been hot here - in the high 90's, and humid which makes the temp feel hotter.  Temps probably won't drop for the inspector, so need to plan for am and evening inspections.  Since all ewes are out of the jugs, maybe we can take a couple jugs down, run the ewes into the barn from the field and she can inspect them there.  Three rams are in a smaller pen and be inspected in that pen.  I will have to discuss the inspection plan with DS1.   Since she is from South Africa she may be used to high temps.  She is coming from Spokane which is in eastern WA which gets hot too. When she leaves, she will be flying to another flock in Reno.  She will sleep inside on our LR sofa bed with A/C.  Have to figure out some meals for her that will be easy to prepare - have to check the freezer. and maybe take her out one night.  That only leaves 2 lunches, 2 breakfasts, and 1 supper.  Can probably handle that with the Instapot.  DS1 will make breakfast and we'll use cold cuts and potato salad for sandwich lunches.  Will get in a cheesecake or something for dessert.  I will email the arranger to make sure about dietary restrictions.

Tuesday and Thursday this week I have PT.  Friday see the surgeon with xrays for him to check recovery.  Hope the knee is ok and healing well.  D0n;t want to have gone through this for nothing.  It is not like I can return this knee joint and have the old one put back!   

My potassium level is back to normal with the potassium supplements.  I also stopped taking the blood pressure pill that were causing the potassium depletion according to the doctor.  I didn't have high blood pressure, I had low blood pressure and those pills were supposedly to stabilize the readings.  However, when I read the problems associated with the low potassium, it showed severe lack of potassium caused diabetes glucose problems, along with interference in kidney function.  Since I was retaining water the doctors kept increasing the dosage of the blood pressure pills to try to monitor the water retention.  With the potassium level back to normal, my glucose levels (which were showing pre-diabetic levels), and ankle swelling has decreased - probably due to return of kidney function.  Incredible what the lack of a specific vitamin or mineral can do to you.

About 12 years ago I had severe abdominal pains, joint issues, and exhaustion.  I got so weak that I was using one of those electric carts to grocery shop, fell asleep as soon as I sat down, could hardly walk, and DH had to drive me everywhere.  After several weeks of constant blood work, the doctor discovered a severe lack of vitamin D was causing all my physical problems!  Because I tan well in the summer and spend a lot of time outside he had not tested for a Vitamin D deficiency.  That was around the time a couple medical papers were written saying that Caucasian women could suffer a lack of Vitamin D no matter how much time they spent in the sun! Now they check Vitamin D routinely in women middle age and older.  

Anyway, better go check the freezer for spaghetti sauce - an easy meal with salad and garlic bread. I can make more sauce in the Instapot if not enough frozen.

Time to get off the computer, check several posts, and then go put my leg up again.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> My own fault for overdoing.


I suspect there is a somewhat fine line between "as much as possible" and "doing too much". Glad you are recognizing "too much", now recognize it BEFORE it happens!


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## Ridgetop

Update on knee replacement surgery.  No shaving for 3 months due to risk of infection in joint from a nick!  I look like a cactus!  

I tried to deforest my legs with duct tape, but it did not work. I look like an Italian woman from the 60's.  I remember being amazed living in Italy as a 12-year-old that _women _actually had armpit hair! DH had no problem with not shaving since he had a beard for both his knee replacements.  I can't even get a wax job because I can't lay on my stomach with my knee yet.   

I have a date with my razor on June 19th.   Or to get waxed - depends on what surgeon recommends when I see him on Friday.  This may be the worst part of the replacement recovery.     I have hidden DH's glasses.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I tried to deforest my legs with duct tape, but it did not work.


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## Baymule

What about Nair? Just keep it away from the incision, so you’ll have a hairy stripe…..

For a meal for the inspector, you could make lasagna now and put it in the freezer. Make tacos one night, grill hamburgers, salad, potato soup, garnish with chopped green onions, bacon, cheese, serve with garlic French bread. I’m just throwing ideas at you. 

Hello Dolly Bars

1 stick melted butter
1 cup crushed Graham crackers 
1 cup coconut 
1 cup pecan pieces 
1cup chocolate chips
1 can condensed milk

Grease 9x13 pan. Spread Graham crackers, pour melted butter over it. 
Sprinkle evenly coconut, then pecan pieces, then chocolate chips. 
Pour condensed milk over, making sure to cover all, evenly. 

Bake at 350F for 35 to 40 minutes 

Cut around edges to loosen. Cut into bars while still warm.


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## WyoLiving

Those Hello Dolly Bars sound wonderful!  I wonder if those are the bars that show up at the church socials that I love so much.  I'm too quiet/shy to ask who made them or what they were so I never got a recipe, but I love them!!  Always grab a couple for myself.  DH won't eat anything with coconut, so I would have to eat them all myself...  Can you freeze them?


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## Ridgetop

Saw the surgeon on Friday.  

HE SAID I CAN SHAVE MY LEGS!  
I can stop saying "Grazie" and "chiao" and have cancelled my Italian lessons.                         I can also go in the pool.


The surgeon is super happy with my progress, knee movement, and range of motion.  Saw the x-ray of the joint.   DH says he plans to get me a second knee, 2 hips, and 2 ankles so I will be able to live forever and take care of him!     The surgeon is soooo handsome.  Too bad his patient looked like an old wrinkly cactus.   He is married with a couple small children.  Lucky woman.  

Getting my paperwork ready for the Dorper flock inspector.  ADSBS sent me a box with the grading tags and paperwork for the inspector to fill out.  I don't have to put the tags in the ears so will just put them with the registration papers.  My sheep lose their tags so easily I don't want to lose one of those tags.  All unused tags must be returned to the Association and they will send me a check for the postage.  DS1 was outside with DH this morning discussing how they will run sheep.  He also told DH they need to unhook and remove the squeeze in order to use the other chute.

DGD1's birthday tomorrow.  Have to get her a small gift to open to go along with the check.  Have stopped shopping for toys and am just writing checks.  I do have a Barbie doll put away that I can wrap for her.  DD1 still wants me to make her a dollhouse with the furniture I made for her.  We use a large IKEA shelf unit and put up wallpaper, carpet, etc.  I enjoy making it.  Made a huge one for DD1, and for my niece.  DD2 was too old for dolls when she came to us, but when she was smaller I made her some doll furniture.  I think she still has it.  When DGD3 is older I will make one for both DGD2 and 3 to share.


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## Baymule

WyoLiving said:


> Those Hello Dolly Bars sound wonderful!  I wonder if those are the bars that show up at the church socials that I love so much.  I'm too quiet/shy to ask who made them or what they were so I never got a recipe, but I love them!!  Always grab a couple for myself.  DH won't eat anything with coconut, so I would have to eat them all myself...  Can you freeze them?



Yes you can freeze them. You can also make half the pan with coconut and the other half with no coconut.


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## Mini Horses

Those bars sound . Freeze?  Oh, he// no....plow on through them!!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> The surgeon is super happy with my progress, knee movement, and range of motion.


Excellent news!!!!
And frankly I don't care if your legs are hairy or not  Being able to walk is what is important.


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> Excellent news!!!!
> And frankly I don't care if your legs are hairy or not  Being able to walk is what is important.


I told her she could sheep shear herself a cute little poodle cut…..


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## Mini Horses

Another ten yrs and you won't need to shave.  Hair stops growing. 🤣


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## Bruce

Unless you are male and ear hair is a given!


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## farmerjan

Guess that is one small benefit of some native american heritage... very light , next to no hair to have to shave... and getting older so even less  YAY


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## WyoLiving

When does hair stop growing?  Is this really a thing?  Does that include facial hair?
Maybe I still have something in life to look forward to.


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## Bruce

Not ear or eyebrows apparently. I turned 65 something over a year ago and suddenly my eyebrows seem to have a steady supply of fertilizer!


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## B&B Happy goats

Bruce said:


> Not ear or eyebrows apparently. I turned 65 something over a year ago and suddenly my eyebrows seem to have a steady supply of fertilizer!


65 something ......don't  forget your nose hair and ear hair !


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## Bruce

Did I not say "ear and eyebrow" ????? Other than turning white I see no nose hair changes.

The white that started on my head has been migrating south.


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## B&B Happy goats

Bruce said:


> Did I not say "ear and eyebrow" ????? Other than turning white I see no nose hair changes.
> 
> The white that started on my head has been migrating south.



Well you are getting near about 70 my friend, EVERYTHING heads south....!


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## murphysranch

I'll be happy not to have to shave my legs monthly. (zero in the winter).

But unfortunately, my chin has picked up the slack...........


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> Not ear or eyebrows apparently. I turned 65 something over a year ago and suddenly my eyebrows seem to have a steady supply of fertilizer!


Alpaca poo? Balding men everywhere will want some!!


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## Mini Horses

Just wait. -- you've gotta few years.   I have 10+ on you guys, I'm telling you, it happens!   . Little touch up every 6 months or so. 🤷🙄


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## Bruce

Baymule said:


> Alpaca poo? Balding men everywhere will want some!!


Fortunately I've not landed face first in the paca poo so it can't be that


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## Ridgetop

We had a very quiet July 4th, with millions of fireworks all over the SFV - most of them illegal.  Very pretty though.  

Colene, the South African Dorper judge and inspector, has just gone to the airport and is heading to Reno to judge the Dorper show there, then on to Utah for more flock inspections, and then to Cookeville, TN, for another big Dorper show before returning to Capetown.  She is a lovely person and a lot of fun as well as a wealth of information on breeding, flock maintenance, etc. etc.  She said that she had sold her farmland and moved her cattle, sheep and goats, to other stud farms since she had to move into town for safety.  Too many white ranchers are being murdered by the blacks in South Africa.  Horrible.  She also said that they lose a lot of giraffes every year due to lightning strikes!  Because they are so tall they apparently act as living lightning rods!  

Anyway, on Tuesday, July 5, we headed to the Burbank airport to pick up Colene from her arrival at 2:35 pm.  I had told the planners to book her on Alaska to Burbank and they had sent me the flight numbers.  Their email did not give the airline so I gave the flight number to the Alaska person at their counter to find out what gate to meet her at.  Was told the flight number was not theirs?!   They checked and 15 minutes later were able to tell me it was a Southwest flight number which should be met at the other side of the airport!   I really wish the email had stated on which airline they had booked her!  I will have to send a review to the arrangers since it also did not have any contact information for her.   I headed to the other side of the airport and no Colene.  I did not know what she looked like, but I had made a sign which I kept waving at people who hurried away from me (in case I decided to hit them with my cane?).  After walking back and forth across the airport my knee was beginning to ache badly.   Thank goodness it was Burbank airport and not LAX which is the size of a small city and 2 hours from our house.  Burbank Airport is not large but still I walked at least 3 miles by the time I went back and forth several times from the baggage claim and Southwest unloading gate area to the Southwest counter at the opposite end of the airport.  On my cane.   At the Southwest counter I asked if the flight had been on time and got a different answer each time - yes, no, and who knows.  I love the airlines.    Not!  Finally, on my second trip the lady at the Southwest ticket counter told me that they could not give me any information about the flight, or if the passenger was on it, or even if it had left San Jose because (a) I had not booked the ticket, and (b) I was not the passenger!    This is ridiculous since if I was the passenger I would know if I was on the flight. right?   Finally, I had to call home and have DS1 look up the phone number for the people in Tennessee who arranged the inspection. They had to call the person in Georgia who booked the flight. Those people texted me a copy of a letter from Southwest saying that the flight was *delayed for 5 HOURS*!  At this point Colene was still sitting in Spokane WA waiting for her delayed flight!  Marv had been circling the airport since we didn't want to pay $30 in parking.  I called him to come and pick me up and we went home - it had taken an hour.  A few hours later I got another text forwarded from Colene that she was getting on the San Jose flight right then and would arrive in about 1 hour.   Burbank is only 15 minutes away.  Back to the airport and picked up Colene who said that the flight from Spokane was cancelled, and she had to wait 5 hours at the airport.  She was afraid she would miss the connection in San Jose but was able to catch it.  She kept apologizing for the delay and making us wait, but I told her I was worried that she was wandering around the airport looking for me!  

We got home and walked around our place a bit and looked at some of the sheep.  Then showers, dinner, chatting, etc.  DS2 made hamburgers.  We sat out on the patio for a while.  We were surprised to find that in South Africa they don't use any guardian animals.  Their main predators are hyena packs and jackal packs BUT their ranches are too large.  Hyenas are the worst since they hunt with their cubs and the cubs maim and injure as many sheep or lambs as the adults kill.   

Next day we started inspection of the flock around 7 am.  The weather was very pleasant and remarkably cool, and we finished all 4 pens around 1:00.  Back inside for lunch.  I had made large bowls of crab salad, chicken salad, potato salad, and green pea salad which I served with avocado and croissants. These are my go-tos for summer to avoid cooking.  

Dorper inspections have 5 categories on which the grades are based: 
Conformation
Size and Growth
Distribution of Fat (Dorpers have uniform fat covering - pockets of            fat are not good )
Color Pattern/Color - in Dorpers (black heads) color in any shades            of brown instead of black, or color anywhere except head and          neck is downgraded heavily.  In White Dorpers the pigment             of eyelids is checked and lack of pigment or any other black             spots are heavily downgraded.  Pigment is important since               lack of pigment can lead to cancers. 
 Covering - which is wool/hair combination, type of wool/hair  and          pattern of wool/hair growth on the body,  The belly must be             clean.  The South African standard does not call for complete          shedding since some wool covering protects the sheep from            sunburn and thorn bushes.

Each of these 5 categories have 5 levels of scores.  Then all these scores are combined into a Type score.  Only Type 5 and Type 4 animals can be tagged with their score number.  Type 3 and under receive a recorded Type number which is registered with the Dorper Society, but are not tagged.   Type 3 and Type 2 animals are good commercial flock sheep, Type 1 should be culled from Dorper operations.   Only sheep over 10 months old can be tagged.

Colene inspected 31 sheep, 4 rams and 27 ewes older than 10 months.  She also looked at the 6-8 month old lambs and 2-3 month old lambs.  She really liked the young lambs and said that as of now they should become Type 5 which made me extremely happy since ost of them are home bred.  She recommended that we keep one ram lamb that she said was really beautiful.  He has been docked South African style now - tail banded and then cut off with a knife below the band!    She said that in South Africa they don't dock too early since the sheep are out on the veld until they do a round up.  They often don't dock until 2 months old and this is the method they use - band and cut.  We also tagged him to register.  I gave him an extra dose of CDT.  Two of the 6-8 month old lambs will be culled.  One for too little eye pigment which we will sell.  The other we plan to slaughter since she has a recurrent rectal prolapse.  

Of the 4 rams she loved Lewis.  She said he had a perfect head and neck, his forequarters were also perfect.  He would have been a 5 but she felt he needed a little more meat in the outer twist so he is a 4.  Smalley was also a 4, with good length of body and depth.  He had the meat in his twist but  she would have liked to see a longer, more elegant neck on him.  Axtell got a 3 - due to lack of pigment, and needs more length.  Moyboy got a 3 since she felt he needed more neck as well.  However, he is the sire of 5 ewes that received Type 5 so I discussed it with her and she agreed he should stay in the flock for a while longer since he produces much better quality than he is himself which is a big plus in a ram.  I will eventually replace him.  I will repeat the breedings that produced those Type 5 ewes.

Then on to the ewes.  One purchased ewe received a cull score due to bite (overshot) and too many tiny black spots.  One home bred ewe received a cull score for bite (slightly undershot) but was in other respects a very good ewe.  One of my home bred ewes received a 3 based on poor eye pigment although again good body type.  All of them will be sold.   

5 of my remaining 10 purchased ewes received 5s, and 5 received 4s.  Very good news.   

*Best of all 8 out of the remaining 14 home bred ewes received 5s!  The other 6 ewes received 4s!  And the 6-8 month olds and younger lambs she felt would be 5s as well.       Colene picked Snowflake out of the flock at first sight and said she was a "perfect ewe".  5s all across the board!*

My breeding program looks to be producing good quality sheep so I am thrilled.  She liked them and said that they all had great uniformity of type which is what you look for in a breeding program.  We still don't plan on showing, but at least I know that I would be competitive.  Colene has the reputation of being a very strict grader too.  And knowing that my sheep are conforming to the South African ideal is the best news since their standard is the strictest.  

Back again, just sold the 4 ewes and Axtell ram.    I told the buyer that I would breed the 3 older ewes first to Smalley.  The buyer will pick up in a month, giving them time to remark, by which time he will have his pens up.  It is our hay supplier who is buying them and he will use the fallen surplus hay to feed (broken bales, sweepings, etc.)  5 hay eating mouths will be gone in a month.  Any ewes he gets will be able to be bred to Axtell next year.


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## Mini Horses

congrats!!!   You're doing great!!!


I think we deserve a picture of Snowflake!!   

There are those who produce better than selves!   Just hide him🤫.


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## Blue Sky

murphysranch said:


> I'll be happy not to have to shave my legs monthly. (zero in the winter).
> 
> But unfortunately, my chin has picked up the slack...........


I refer to that as misplaced eyebrows. I’m misplacing everything else


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## farmerjan

That is great about the grading.  It helps to have a totally objective person to look at them... especially since you can get to where you "see things" that are good,  or not,  after awhile...and it goes to show that the direction you are going is really the right direction.  Your instincts and understanding of the breed is obviously very much on the mark.  KUDOS to you.
And selling 5,  so less to feed, and good for someone with a commercial flock to raise some good animals for meat purposes.


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## Baymule

Wow! Grade 5’s!!! That’s awesome!!! You are doing great with your breeding and picking really good sheep at auction.


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## Ridgetop

A cure will be coming.  Animal pix are difficult since they turn at the wrong time or shift their legs or whatver to make the picture look like the animal is misshapen!

5's and 4's!    Just have to keep it up now!  Hope the little ram lamb we kept will be a good producer since I won't be buying any more rams for a while.  DH and DS1 have forbidden the purchase of any more sheep until we move to Texas.     Colene and I tried to convince them we should go to the Reno show with Colene, but they were adamant NO.  maybe the fact that we were using our cell phones to look at some rams for sale gave them idea that I might have bid!  LOL

I will try for a pix of the little ram lamb too since he is very nice. Long and elegant with tons of width and thickness which = meat. He is busy screaming for his mama at the moment and wearing a path into the dirt floor of his stall.  Luckily he is getting hoarser and hoarser every day.  He was 3 month old on July 5, the day she chose him as a keeper.  I will try to weigh him tonight.  The other lamb she picked immediately from the creep was the ewe with the black Cleopatra eyes.  One side of the facial black eye outlines have completely vanished.  Her other eye marking has faded down to one small mark.  If it fades out I can register her eventually.  

Anyway, DH called John the Electrician in Yantis and is buying the necessary electrical stuff to rewire the house when we get back there in September.  John also has a guy that we can hire to help us put up the perimeter fencing and dig the ditch to run electrical to the barn and the pump.  Then we will buy and install a water storage tank.  Even with the pinholes in the well casing which produce the Sulphur flavor, storing the water in a large tank will allow the Sulphur to burn off.

Speaking of Sulphur Colene told me that she uses yellow Sulphur when switching pastures or introducing new sheep to new pastures.  She gives each sheep a large tablespoon of Sulphur powder by mouth to avoid bloat.  I never heard of this.  It is easily available in South Africa, but not so sure where to get it here.  Will check Amazon.

BTW. With the situation in South Africa of white farmers getting shot and killed by blacks, many farmers are interested in coming to this country to work on farms here.  If anyone is interested, I will let her know.  I told DH that we should put a trailer on the property and for some help with our sheep they could live there in return for help with the sheep.  Free housing is worth a lot, but since we don't have that much work to do, the person could then work for others as well or get a job in town.  We certainly can't afford to pay 40 hours/wk minimum wages at $15/hr!


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## Ridgetop

"Cure?"    I think I meant a "couple pix".  My computer often decides to replay on its own.  I need to be strict about proof reading!


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## Ridgetop

Just watched the Western States Dorper Association show online.      2 very nice rams that I would like to bid on   BUT I know those breeders and they will have a high reserve on their animals.  I will watch the bidding tomorrow and see what they go for, but need to wait for another show when I can go in person.  I do have money from my recent sheep sales to bid with - as long as DH doesn't know.  But then I will have to load the trailer and sneak up to pick up the ram.  Hard to do and he will find out.  Besides it is more fun to bid in person.  Besides I have a lovely little lamb ram in the barn to use next year.  And I want to use Lewis and MoyBoy more before replacing too many rams.  Good rams are always out there, so are excellent rams - they just cost more.  I'll start saving.


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## Ridgetop

My knee is doing better.  I forget sometimes to get into bed by sitting then swinging up my bad leg first.  We have a high bed which I usually get into by climbing into it on my knees - ouch!  But lately I have been able to do it.  I also was able to squat down to clean the toilet in the bathroom.  Unfortunately, I almost couldn't get up again.  I considered calling for help but remembered that DH was at the grocery store, DS1 was working on sheep pens, and DS2 and DDIL2 were at work.  OOPS!  Bad timing.  Then I considered trying to roll out of the bathroom and over to the bed but to what purpose?  I wouldn't be able to pull myself up there.  Then I remembered the shower behind me had handicap bars.  I was able to reach them and haul myself upright.  So glad we replaced that tub with a walk-in shower with bars for DH when he had his big knee operation.  LOL   I will have to start working on squats and lifts eventually.

The Dorper show from yesterday is being televised on the internet.  Not too many sheep entered, but easy to place the top winners.  If anyone wants to see it, go to 








						Western States Dorper Show 2022! - Willoughby Sales | By Willoughby Sales | Western States Dorper Show 2022!
					

506 views, 1 likes, 0 loves, 0 comments, 0 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Willoughby Sales: Western States Dorper Show 2022!




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The sale will also be on line this morning at 10 am.  You can find it at https://www.showbarnflix.com/watch-live at 10:00.  Scroll down the calendar to July 10 and click it there.  If anyone wants to see a Dorper show.  Only a few White Dorpers there.  DH, DS1 (unwillingly), and I are considering taking some young lambs next year.  If we take spring lambs we won't have to shear!    I will take DGD1 to help show.  She is only 9 but better than her older brothers because she likes the sheep and is not afraid to get her hands dirty!  LOL  DS1 says he will have her brothers clean pens, but to work with the sheep we need Elizabeth!  LOL  

When showing breeding sheep 2 people are allowed in the ring - one to hold the sheep on halter and one to set up the rear legs.  Easier than 4-H shows where you don't have the animal in a halter, and have to stack it by yourself.  LOL

I am going to watch the first part of the WDSA auction this morning on my computer.  It starts at10:00 amwith White dorper rams.  I remembered that I had some sheep money put away from selling that ewe and ram lamb a number of months ago.  I checked and that money is still there so l have a good amount for a ram.  Unlikely that the owner of the 2 rams I want at this sale will have forgotten to put a reserve on them, but I will be ready if the price stays low.  You never know.      (I am a disobedient wife.  I should have remembered to leave out that part of the vows.   )

The little ram lamb in the barn is just as nice as ever so I go down and look at him to console myself for not buying another ram at the sale.  DH says I can't just buy ONE (like the potato chip).  I told him that since the ram is half your herd, when I buy ONE RAM it just seems like I am buying 15 ewes.  

DH talked to TX Electrician John and wrote out what we needed to rewire the house in September.  We will buy it and take it back now and lock it in the barn tack room.  John also said that when we come back in September that he has someone who will help put in the fences.  Also help run the electric to the barn and well underground.    Feels like it is getting closer.  

My cattle tenant texted that there is a "No Burn" ban across Wood and Hopkins counties. The grass is very dry and the small pond has probably gone dry. That is the pond that the cattle had trampled the banks and I wanted to dig out anyway.  The large pond still is good.  The fence on the south side has been replaced (part of his responsibilities as tenant).  The house and barn are on the north side and that is the part we will be fencing for ourselves and the sheep.  

Colene (South African inspector/judge) said that she saw a lot of sheep flocks in this country being contained inside 2 strands of hot wire.  She said that the sheep learn fast not to approach the wires.  I thought about using hot wires to make the paddocks for the sheep allowing the dogs to run around the inside of the perimeter fence to keep all the sheep safe.  We would only need permanent gates and ways in and out of the paddocks for the dogs that way.  Much cheaper and would eliminate the need for keeping a couple dogs in each paddock.  

We are leaving for Texas on the 22nd July.  This is just a quick turn around trip to take Bubba to Erick.  Erick will use him for breeding and collection until we move to Texas.  He wants to keep Bubba's genetics in the tank since he says a lot of Anatolian breeders are breeding "soft" dogs.  Erick feels that LGDs that are too soft (friendly) are not able to stand up to serious predators like cougar, bear, etc.  By the way, apparently there is a bear running around in Lakeview Terrace - the town across the wash.  Not surprising, since the wash connects directly with the Angeles National Forest.  With this drought the cougar, and bears follow the deer out of the mountains.  Haven't heard about any cougar - they usually show up in late fall, and the bear is several miles away across the wash.  

We will be getting another puppy from Erick next winter or spring.  He is breeding 2 lovely bitches in August/September.  We can pick up our new baby girl when we come out in March for Kiley's wedding.     We will be a dog down until our Texas move without Bubba. 

 Rika is 10 now and had to go to the vet because she was not eating.  Not losing any weight but had a lump under her jaw.  She also wants to come into the house more now.  Always a worry in these LGDs.     However, needle aspiration of the lump showed a fatty tumor (not dangerous) and she is eating again.  We figure she caught and ate some wild rabbits. The danger is always that the rabbits may have eaten poison bait or been sick.  However, she is feeling better and back on her food.  At 10 she is slowing down. Angel is 4 and is a good guardian but we will miss Bubba.  Hopefully Rika will still be up to training the new puppy next spring.  Sometimes older bitches get cranky with young dogs.  Hopefully, Angel will come into her own.  We tend to overlook her with Rika and Bubba on the scene, but they trained her and she is good.

DGS5 is walking everywhere and climbing onto things too.  Got to watch him like a hawk. If he gets outside, he makes a beeline for the sheep barn.  He is FAST!  DGD3 is finally walking.  She was such a fast crawler that she didn't want to walk since it was too slow. LOL  Now she is toddling everywhere like DGS5.  They like to follow each other around. Heaven help us when they turn 3!  DDIL2 is starting to get over her morning sickness.  In her case it was evening sickness, and the smell of dinner cooking would set her off.  She is starting to feel the baby move which is when, according to my grandmother, morning sickness stops.  Her dad's birthday is coming soon and they are doing the gender reveal then.  DD2 is saving all her baby girl clothes and Lolo (DDIL2's father) is hoping for another boy.  

With ll the cleaning, cooking, and sheep inspecting, I was on my feet a lot last week and my knee has just now Saturday mostly laying down with my toes in the air and ice on my knee.  The problem is when you overdo and it swells up, it takes 2-3 times longer for the swelling to go down that it did for it to swell up!  One leg is normal and the other one is twice the size!  Oh well, I can always cheer myself up by shaving my legs!


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## Baymule

How many weeks now since surgery? 
I’m glad that you are doing so good. So good in fact, that you “forget” and over do it. LOL


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## Ridgetop

Surgery was on May 19 so almost 2 months.  

Should have bought the ram I particularly wanted.  Had the money but as a GIFT for DH I held back.  He went lower than I expected, and low for that breeder and bloodlines.  And for his quality.  

There is always next year when we hope to have built our flock to even better quality.  I am keeping the ram I already have from that breeder.  That ram only graded a 3 *BUT 5 of his 6 daughters graded 5!  *He produces better than himself.  Not all of his daughters that graded 5 were out of grade 5 ewes either, most of them out of 4s and one out of a cull ewe!  So (with the pretty 3-month-old boy in the barn) we still have 4 rams.  That little guy is super long with an elegant shape, lots of meat.  Next year is soon enough to buy another ram.


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## Ridgetop

* WOW!!!*
Weighed 3 month old weaned ram lamb born April 5 that Inspector/Judge said to keep as breeding ram.  !!!*Weighed 88 lbs*!!!  Alfalfa fed only - no grain or supplements.

Weighed 3 month old ewe lamb born April 10 that Inspector/Judge picked out as exceptional conformation - she weighed *77.8 lbs*!  Again alfalfa only, no supplements.

Here I was thinking that my lambs were only weighing 50 lbs at 3 months.  I need to start weighing again.  If they gain like this in Texas, I will wean at 2 months/50 lbs.  LOL

The mamas of these 2 lambs went to the breeding pen and have already gotten small marks on them from ram!  Hopefully they will settle and not remark, and can go to buyer in 3 weeks.


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## Ridgetop

Four ewes in the breeding pen have not marked at all.  I need to check and see if I mistakenly left them in there and they have been served by the previous ram.  Need to double check ear tags against my list.  DS1 wants to replace the crayon since in this heat it may have melted or gotten clogged with dirt even though it is a "high heat" crayon.


----------



## Ridgetop

Although the 4 ewes were not marked, they _were_ in the breeding pen with MoyBoy for the month of 3/16 to 4/16, so it is probable that they bred but did not mark because the crayon got clogged with dirt.  I have marked the first and last possible dates of lambing with MoyBoy on my calendar.


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## Ridgetop

Got another 100 bales of alfalfa delivered this morning.  We are feeding 2.5 bales daily.  Need to get to TX and grazing.  The hay delivery was a sore spot with DS1.  He told me to arrange for it to be delivered on Saturday because he had some old stemmy bales he wanted to use up first.  He told DH _not_ to order it.  I called and left a message.  I got a call saying they were loading the truck NOW to deliver the hay.  DS1 was really annoyed and called DH to tell him.  There are too many chiefs on this ranch.  I have backed off to let DS1 decide when we need hay, etc.  He has 30+ years of experience with raising club lambs and breeding.  He told me that going to Texas and raising sheep is fine with him, he just doesn't want to show sheep.  That would entail shearing and I don't blame him not wanting to shear.  If we decide to take anything to a show, it will be junior lambs that don't need shearing.  The little guys are much easier to handle too.

DS1 seems to be getting more interested in heading to Texas since he is also disgusted with the crime, drugs, etc. that are right out in the open even here in Shadow Hills.  This morning he stopped at the 7-11 at the corner and some guy sitting in his car was smoking marijuana on a bong!  DS1 was not impressed.

We just got back from Lowes.  Lowes is not the store it was when we were doing all our apartment and home renovations.  They don't have the moldings, or cabinets they used to have.  They have discontinued a lot of the stuff we used to buy and are not carrying the good stuff under their store brand.  Instead, they are carrying high name brands which are twice the cost.  Really disheartening.  I will go to Contractor's Warehouse and see if that place has the moldings that I need.  I wanted some batten molding to cover the seams in paneling for when I put the oak panel pieces in the 5th wheel to cover the access doors that used to open under the seats of the dinette.  I salvaged the paneling from the dinette booth.  No batten moldings, hardly any oak moldings at all.  Really disgusted.  Finally found a flat metal floor bridging piece in oak finish that will screw in.  Maybe.  Not sure.  Will have to match it up and if no good return it.  

The nice woven blinds they used to carry that I needed to replace the mini blind in DS1's room are no longer carried at Lowes.  I can get a woven blind, but it is a Levolor and will cost $189.00!!!  For a 60" wide window!!!  The last blind like that I got was only $39.00!!!  Two years ago!!!     Lowes was my "go-to" store but not anymore.

Came home and on the way up the hill saw what looked like one of my ewes in the breeding pen sprawled out on her side.  She looked dead. DS1 went down to check and said she was not there anymore.  DS1 said she was either ok, or another sheep had dragged her body off and concealed it.   I hate it when they sprawl on their sides looking dead! Bad sheep, no biscuit!

DH called and said he was on his way home from dentist.  He was going to go by Costco and get a BBQ chicken for our trip to Texas.  NO!  NO!  NO!  I had told hm to get it next week since that is when we are leaving!  No point getting a BBQ chicken a week ahead of time!  I had told hm that 3 times already!     Sigh . . . .  

Good news on Rika who had not been eating.  All her bloodwork came back good.  The lump under her jaw is a benign fatty tumor.  The 3/4" lump on one toe is also benign but might have "spindles" that could eventually turn to cancer.  They thought we might want to remove it. Rika is 10.4 years old.  Anatolians are very sensitive to anesthetic.  If we remove the lump which might or might have cells that could in future turn cancerous on her toe I have to confine her so it does not get dirty and infected.  Confining an LGD to "light duty" is almost impossible.  The surgery to remove the toe lump could release any cancerous or future cancerous cells into her body.  The cells might not be malignant.  The cost of the surgery would be in excess of $1200.00 -$1500.00.  Really have to consider whether to take a chance on releasing possibly future cancer cells into the healthy dog's body or to let it go and not take any chances with my healthy 10.4 year old dog.  Have to discuss it with DH.  

Called the AKC today and got Bubba's DNA number.  I had sent in the DNA test kit when we had him collected 2 years ago but never received the documentation from the AKC.  Discovered it when making copies of all his paperwork for Erick.  Bubba is heading to Texas to stay with Erick for a while until we move to the ranch.  Apparently, the AKC had a wrong address on it and it was returned.  They are sending it out to me again.  Erick will need the number when he has Bubba collected for stud purposes in Texas.  

DH is trying to figure out how to get to Leander, Texas, which is a 22 hour drive from our house without spending more than one night in a motel.  And without arriving at Erick's place in the middle of the night.    So far he has had several ideas - one of them being that we will drive all night long for 22 hours.     Not happening.  I figure we need to stop twice on the road in order to arrive at Erick's in the middle of the day to introduce Bubba to the property and other dogs.  Particularly since we will be traveling into TX time change of 3 hours later than CA time.  That means we will be arriving 3 hours later than the 22 hour drive time because of the time change.  We can make it home with only one night on the road because we have an extra 3 hours traveling west.  DH also wants me to drive while he sleeps.     DH does not sleep while I drive.  Instead, he remains awake to criticize my driving until I nearly go off the road!  He _hates_ for anyone else to drive him.  Even when he was so sick with the staph infection, he was practically unconscious, he complained about my driving on the way to the hospital ER!   Nope, we will stop for the night.  Twice.  Bubba will be fine in the motel room.  We won't leave him alone and will get takeout food before checking in.  For the first night we will have food that I will pack in the cooler.  Brought in the medium small suitcase today to begin the packing marathon and see if we need a larger case.


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## Baymule

I’m so glad Rika is ok. Me, I would not disturb the place on her toe. At her age, she is nearing her life span. Let her live it out a happy dog. Had I known Trip had cancer, I wouldn’t have tried to save him with torturous cancer treatment. I would have given him pain meds, if needed, but I wouldn’t do to him what people have to suffer through. Not to mention the initial cost then treatments that would make her miserable. You know about it, watch it, it will be what it is. 

Can’t wait to see y’all! Yes, spend 2 nights on the road. Use your knee as an excuse! STOP! Knee hurts!! I’m guessing y’all will spend a couple of days with Bubba.


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## farmerjan

Traveling with the knee replacement it is imperative that you do not spend too much time in one position.  You should take a few extra breaks to get out and walk around also.  They won't hurt so much being still, but then all of a sudden it will get so stiff that it will HURT being in one position.  I KNOW.  And a car is going to be smaller than the truck for movement.  
DO NOT sit for any long length of time... blood clots can still happen.  They suspected one about 2-3 months into my rehab at home, got checked and not... but still.....I don't panic but I was careful.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> Particularly since we will be traveling into TX time change of 3 hours later than CA time.


For your planning purposes, there is only 2 hours difference between CA and TX.

I agree with Jan, don't push it given you NEED to keep your leg moving.


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## Ridgetop

We will stop to do walk arounds.  We discussed when to leave again.  DH said that he would come home from his dr appt on Thursday and go straight to bed for a nap.  Then he said he will get up at midnight and we will drive through the night to avoid the desert heat.  I said DH can't drive through the night since he come to bed at 9:30 pm most nights because he is so tired.  He said he wakes up at 3:00 am and can't go back to sleep so might as well drive.  I said since he sleeps till 3 am we could just go to bed and get up at 3 am and leave, no nap.  Icy silence in the car from DH. It will work out.

After PT went across the street to Petco and bought a cloth muzzle for Bubba.  We have a large rubber one but it is not comfortable on him and e ates wearing it.  We only need one to go from the car to the motel room and during potty breaks at rest stops and truck stops.  Don't anticipate any problems, but don't want any either.  The XL was the largest they had and when I tried it on Bubba it wouldn't go over his nose!  I wil return it after next PT visit.  Got DS1 and we measured Bubba's muzzle.  15.5" upper circumference, 12" lower circumference. Upper length 5" and lower length 6".  Went online and finally found one that would fit.  It should arrive Sunday or Monday.  Taking Bubba and Angel to the vet early am Monday for their annual shots.  All Bubba's paperwork is copied and ready for our trip.  

Got the suitcase out and will start packing.  Won't need much since we will only be gone about 10 days and wearing shorts and T's instead of heavy winter stuff like last February.  Sandals instead of winter boots.  No heavy coats.  We will be bringing a 40lb bag of dog food to start Bubba out at Erick's, and a loaf of Red Barn.  Also have to bring some folding camp chairs when visiting Erick.  Cooler (possibly 2) pillows and blanket in case we have to stop for a nap (per DH).  Also bringing our electrical wire for the house in Yantis, a drill, driver bits, hasp, and padlock for the tack room door in the barn.  We will lock up the wire there.  DH said we should give it to the electrician, but I said he won't want to store it since he's not planning to get into the attic of the house to do the work till September when hopefully the weather will cool somewhat.  The other thing is that if anything happens to him how do we prove that $1000 worth of electrical wire, etc. belongs to us?  We'll just lock it in the tack room.  It will be safe since to get to the barn you have to go past the tenants, through the cattle, and know that the wire is locked inside a room in the barn, then jimmy the lock and hasp off.  Not happening.  
DH said we could just bring it in September, but I told him that we would have lots of other stuff to bring back in September including tools for running fence. 

New idea for getting to Texas sooner - Rent- A- Fence!  6' chain link panels that bolt together like horse panels.  They can go up to contain dogs and sheep while we are installing permanent fencing.  Will check into it.


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## Ridgetop

Now have decided to drive as far as possible first night, then nap in the car in a truck stop.  2nd night in motel in Leander.  With the car we can park far to the end.  With Bubba in the car we will be safe.  Another reason to park far to the end of all cars and trucks.  He has a massive bark and may decide that he doesn't want any other cars around us.  Not worried about his barking at other people but really don't want to fall asleep and be awakened by a humongous bark in our ears.  

Have now packed our suitcase with our clothes.  Also have a box into which I am tossing all the other stuff as I gather it.  DH suggested taking a laundry basket into which all the extra stuff can be collected in one spot in the car.  DS1 suggested putting the back seats down to give Bubba more room but I vetoed that.  I need that back seat space for easy access to the coolers.  Also don't want 160 lb. Bubba crawling across the front console to imitate a lap dog while driving through Texas at 70 mph!  He can make do with the 4' x 4' SUV cargo space assigned to him.  We put in a moving pad to lay on and bringing some chew toys.  Knowing adult Anatolian behaviors though, by the 2nd day he will have shut down being away from home, (and not for going to the semen collection vet)! He may not even eat on the road.  Some adult Anatolians stop eating when removed from their home territories.  We are bringing 5 gallons of our own water and will be feeding half meals.   Bringing 2 coolers to house our lunches and breakfasts for the first day, along with a lot of bottled water so we don't have to stop long when getting gas.  I guess I will go out to the shed and get the moving pad.  Having everything already collected to load makes things easier and makes sure I don't forget anything.  Won't need snow chains this trip!  

DSIL1 stopped by this am to borrow a couple of our dog X-pens.  They are going for an overnight campout and the dog has to be penned or on leash.   Loaned him 2 pens which will make a 6' x 6' pen and an old sheet to clip on top to prevent jumping out.  It is a psychological barrier, but also provides shade and I drape it over the west side of the pen to provide extra afternoon shade.  Sirius will be comfortable in the pen, and they will take hm into their tent at night.  They don't anticipate leaving the campsite unless they go on walks and then will take the dog on a leash.  Told him to take 1 gallon of water from home to blend with the campsite water.  

Better check my list and get the moving pad.


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## Ridgetop

Received the histologic results of the needle biopsy on Rika's toe lump. Had to look up "hamartoma", "fibroplasia", and "mesenchymal stromal cells".  Scary sounding names for abnormal cell growth that is benign and normal in dogs.  Just a collection of fibrous cell growth that is not dangerous and has taken 10 years to show up.  Always pays to ask for a copy of the test results so you can look up everything yourself.  Doctors love to use medical jargon to scare pet owners into unnecessary and expensive treatments.  Rika's biopsy results reported "*rare* spindle cell with *minimal* atypia". Looked up "spindle cells" which can be cancerous cells which can turn malign. In normal speak - not cancer. And from what I read, at 10.4 years of age my sweet Anatolian bitch will die of old age before needing chemo or surgery.   Thank goodness.  Rika can become the yard and house dog in Texas if she decides to retire.  Or can be the lambing pen guardian.

Up and down all day yesterday as I read my list and ran back and forth retrieving items for the trip.  After starting to pack a small bag with our toiletries, meds, etc., graduating to 1 bag apiece, I then realized that by taking a slightly larger bag we could pack everything in it and only have 1 bag for all that stuff.  So the final gathering of items:
1 small carry on size suitcase (zipper extended)
1 small gym size duffle with shoes, toiletries, meds, knee elastic excercise        band, ice pack bags, etc.
40 b. bag of dog food (for Erick to transfer Bubba over to his brand)
Moving pad for Bubba to lay on
2 leashes and muzzles, feed and water bowls, chew bones, 1 tube of red  Barn soft food


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## Ridgetop

Oops!  Hit wrong button - here is the rest of list:

Bubba's paperwork, AKC, DNA, CHIC, Semen collection, etc.
Several gallons of water (Bubba)
Febreeze (Bubba - long trip in car with windows up for AC)
2 folding chairs to sit in yard with Bubba and Erick
Cooler with ice and bottled water, Cooler with ice packs and food (us)
Pillows and light blankets for night in car
Small tool bag with drill driver, etc. for Yantis 
2000 feet of electric wire for Yantis if it will fit
Thermos & travel mugs
Knitting bag, Kindles, phones

This will take precise packing in back seat of car.  Bubba will ride in the rear cargo area of the SUV on the moving pad with his chew toys and bones.  Luckily I have expertise in packing for fairs with 40+ dairy goats, Books of registration papers and entries for each child, 2 milking stanchions, milking machine, milk and shaving equipment, feed, chairs, tack room supplies, show equipment, shovels, rakes, muck buckets, feeders, water buckets, med supplies, stall signs, etc., in a 16' stock trailer.  Also packing everything a family of 6 needs for a week of beach camping in a 12' Lance camper (with tents for the children) or a week at the Fairgrounds with several sets of white show clothing for Fairs.  Can you believe 4-H kids have to show in white pants and shirts?  Those rules obviously not designed for mothers who have to present them in the show ring spotless with no laundry facilities.  

No wonder I have relied on lists for years!  Do not sneer at "THE LIST"! (DH's idea of packing for a weekend away is to throw a toothbrush and fresh pair of underwear into a paper bag!)  

We are now ready to take off Thursday night or Friday morning.


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## Ridgetop

Bubba and Angel got their shots yesterday but now car is full of dog hair!  DH said he will take it to carwash and use the vacuum to remove all hair.  Wednesday evening we will pack electrical wire rolls under the seats.  Wire is heavy but don't want to wait till Thursday evening to do it.  Thursday DH will not get back from doctor till at least 5/6pm.  I will have to pack car then so want the heavy wire already loaded.

Off to PT now.


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## Ridgetop

Bought 2 small battery fans to use inside the car during the trip to keep Bubba cool.  They are camping fans with batteries that recharge through the car phone inputs.  Also packed a can of lavender scented Febreze for Bubba.  Started on his oral hygiene plan with the mint flavored biscuits, guaranteed to cure bad breath in dogs.  He likes them so that is half the battle.  No need to hold him down at great risk and brush his teeth.  He does not like any muzzle, but too bad.  it is only to walk from the car to the motel room and while walking him at rest stops to potty.

DH took the car to the car wash and vacuumed out the back which was full of hair from the 15 minute trip to the vet.
  Maybe we should pack some masks after all!  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Camping fans didn't arrive so went and got the one battery operated one from the trailer.  Not as good and not rechargeable, but it will do.  Food cut up, bagged and in fridge to be put in cooler tonight.  Bottled water refrigerated.  Everything ready to pack this evening when DH returns from doctor appointment.  DS1 and DS2 will help while DH naps.  DH also went to Petco during my PT today and got a new shedding glove.  He gave Bubba another brushing.  I will give him a spritz with Febreze before loading him, and he has been getting breath biscuits every day.  I wonder if I should bring a small jar of Vicks Mentholatum to dab under our noses.  I understand it is popular in coroners' offices to block the odor of decaying bodies.    

See you guys in a couple weeks.


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## Baymule

Y’all drive safe! I’ll see y’all soon!


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## Ridgetop

For those of us who knew we were gone, we are back from our quick trip to Texas!  For those of you who didn't notice we were gone, we are still here.  LOL

We started at 2:00 am and drove 19 hours straight through t Ft. Stockman. The next day we started early and drove on to Leander to meet Erick and deliver Bubba.  Bubba was very good on the trip, although he would not drink or eat much.  Once out of the car and on a leash while we sat with Erick he rapidly drank almost 3 gallons of water. These dogs do not do well traveling from their territories.  In the motel he stationed himself in front of the door and did not move the entire night.  Unfortunately, the bathroom door was right next to the entry door so frequently during the night I would hear exclamations as DH's foot hit 160 lbs. of Anatolian.  Knowing he was there I scuffed my feet slowly along in the dark until I felt fur.  Bubba was very good.

The trip there and back with all that driving was hard on my knee.  Even stretched out it began to ache badly.  Then I figured I could bend the knee and rest my foot on the dashboard to exercise the knee so I did that frequently.  Then later I found I could rest my foot on the dashboard with my leg stretched straight.  Got to do more exercises now that I am home though.  

Once out of the car, we took it easy introducing Bubba back to Erick.  He was on leash and Erick made no moves towards him.  Anatolians have to decide when they will approach you after they decide that you are not a danger and need killing to protect their owners.  Eventually Bubba went up to Erick and sniffed him then put his face up to Erick's.   Everything was great until he let out a low growl.  Pull him back and start over.  Erick was very surprised since he never had an Anatolian do that.  Bubba then turned his back on Erick and lay down relaxed.  We discussed why the dog would do that.  He had shown no sign of aggression, and it was very odd.  Later when Erick went to shower and dress for dinner, he realized he was wearing the clothes in which he had been working with his male Anatolians.  It was possible that Bubba had caught their scent and was voicing his disapproval of them rather than of Erick.  This was proved to be correct when after dinner (in clean clothes) Bubba was affectionate with Erick.  

Next step we moved him into a pen in the back of the property next to the one he was born in.  There were goats and 2 other females in that pen.  They immediately started barking at him, one very aggressive, the other less so.  Bubb just looked at them calmly.  He was on new ground and it was not his place to oppose their warnings.  There was another female, Dikkat, in his pen for company.  Erick chose this pen and bitch deliberately.  Apparently, Dikkat is a very dominant, bossy bitch who likes to beat up everyone else.  Erick said that he keeps putting larger dogs in with her so they can teach her that she can't bully other dogs.  Although she is over a year old, Bubba was about 12" taller at the shoulder and looked like a monster standing next to her!  She liked Bubba and started playing with him.  Bubba stood there wondering why this little dog was jumping all over him but was a gentleman and tolerated it.  Eventually he began to play with her and they ran around for a while before coming back for more water.  

We continued to sit in the shade and watch their interaction.  After about an hour the bitch decided to show Bubba that she was the pen boss, snarled at him, and tried to attack him.  Bubba, with an expression of disbelief, gave a low rumble.  Erick approved of this and said it was appropriate behavior not to immediately jump on her and kill her but to tell her he didn't like it.  The bitch kept trying to attack Bubba and cow him into submission.  After a couple of deep rumbling snarls and a display of male annoyance, he finally knocked her aside.  She returned to the "fight" and we left the pen in case the 2 dogs decided they were fighting to protect their own masters.  

We went out to early dinner with Erick and then returned to his place to see how the dogs were getting along and feed.  After his chores, Erick fed the two of them. Bubba was still not completely settled, and did not obey my back off command when we tried to enter the pen.  This meant that we had to squeeze through a tiny opening.  Erick scolded me vigorously for not teaching him properly to back away on command.    My weak protestations that "he does at home" were ignored.  I apologized for ruining Bubba, hoping any other poor training would not be too obvious.  Erick is a stickler for proper training of Anatolians.    Bubba had half his normal helping since he was still not acclimated.  He did not eat it all and the bitch decided she would finish it off.  Bubba didn't mind, which we took as a good sign.  He investigated her bowl and had a bite or two of her dinner.  After a visit with the two of them when Dikkat started getting pushy with Bubba again we left them for the night.  We were coming back in the morning to spend some time with Erick and Bubba to make sure they were ok.  At the gate I got another scolding about my poor Anatolian training.  Eric informed me he would work on that with Bubba.    Yay!!!

Erick was very pleased with Bubba's size and bone.  He said Bubba had an even better head than his sire.   Erick absolutely fell in love with him.  I had told him that he could breed him while he was with him. Erick originally said no since he was so closely related to his own dogs.  But after seeing him, his conformation, and his temperament, he has decided to search for some dogs that would go well with him.  He said that Bubba was not an aggressive Anatolian at all.  DH said he sure seemed like it when the UPS man came around.  Erick said we had not socialized him properly.  I admitted my fault again.  Apparently, we have ruined our dog.   We left for the motel with plans to return the next morning for more socializing with Erick.

After our late lunch we went back to the motel and went to bed.  We were tired from the trip.  Early next morning we had breakfast at the complimentary breakfast bar where DH picked up about 6 pieces of sausage for Bubba.  Off to Erick's to feed the dogs their breakfast.  Bubba was impressed with Erick for bringing him sausage.  Erck was pleased that I hd taught Bubba to be gentle when taking treats.  (One training I did right.  LOL)  We spent some more time with the dogs while they ate and watched them getting acquainted more.  Again, Dikkat tried to attack Bubba and again Bubba just knocked her down and ignored her.  Erick said he had a lunch date with a friend whose mom was only in town that day so we went to Walmart to pick up a couple things, and then back to the motel for a swim and a nap.  We decided not to go back to Erick's that night unless he needed us, but he called and was very pleased with Bubba' behavior.  We agreed to meet the following morning for breakfast with Bubba again and then we would leave for Baymule's place.

Next day bacon was on the menu, so we loaded up on bacon for our  visit.  Erick was thrilled with the bacon and ate some himself.  DH had added 2 fried eggs as well.  Since we had to access Bubba and Dikkat's pen through a pen with 2 bitches, both of them got some egg.  We had to fight our way into Bubba's pen again since he was so happy to see us. another scolding for me.  Bubba was happy to see up and happy to see Erick too.  Erick said that Bubba's temperament was wonderful, NOT aggressive at all.  After some bacony goodbyes, we left.  Bubba tried to scrabble at the gate, so we went further away to chat before leaving.  

Everything has gone well.  Erick says Bubba is not aggressive and that the person must have antagonized him.  Once we move to Texas we wll fetch Bubba to his new home.  Much joking about whether Erick will let us have him back or not.  DH's fear is that Erick will fall in love with Bubba and not want to return him!  

Anyway, with Bubba safely established at Erick's, we drove to Groveton. Her new place is wonderful!  25 acres of grass on a private road with nothing to hear but birds and the chewing of the cows.  I loved it!  Her new house is adorable.  Great layout with an additional mud room built off the original laundry room.  Nice size rooms with porches on front and back allowing shady and breezy sitting space both morning and evening.  She has lots of things planned for the property and is going to have a blast carrying them out.  AND NO THORNY VINES TO REMOVE LIKE IN LINDALE!!!  

We planned to help Baymule for a couple of days putting up fence. But once there she refused to allow us to work out in the sun.  I need to mention that the week of our trip was the HOTTEST week Texas has seen.  UGH!  🥵🥵🥵   Thank you Bay!   

Instead, DH, aka Master Mudder, filled the seams in the walls (where Baymule had removed the stripping) with joint compound.  Once those are filled with drywall compound and sanded she can spray the walls with Kilz.  Then her guy can texture the walls.  I measured and cut the vinyl flooring to line the kitchen cabinets.  I found out that I can actually kneel on my new knee!   I had to do it very carefully.  But unfortunately, I found that I couldn't get back up!!!  Luckily, I was able to semi-crawl-roll over to the folding camp chair and lever myself up off the floor!     Painful but doable.  I remembered that one of those sponge kneeling pads for gardening was what I forgot to get at Walmart!  Would have been much more comfortable.

Poor Bay and her neighbors worked outside on the fencing in the heat. Two days broken by evenings of showers and collapse!  But got it done, mostly.  Best part was 2 days of fun with Baymule!!!  

Next, we headed north for Suphur Springs where our motel is.  Yantis if the sort of town that you blink and it is gone.  They do have a post office and coffee shop.  Otherwise, if you want anything except bait you drive the 10 miles into Sulphur Springs.  We had a lot of electrical wire to drop off at the farm for when we come back in September.  Our electrician said he wouldn't send anyone into the attic to run wiring since they might die of sunstroke.  Not a joke.  In that heat it would be all too likely. However the wire is there is the temperature drops before we get back in September.  

We met the tenant ad sat out in the back yard under the trees with a lovely breeze.  The trees on either side of the house really keep the temperature down a bit.  She told us that their probate and lot split was finished ad they had even gotten their survey.  Since the land was nt i their name they could start looking for a contractor to put up their house.  They are doing a metal building.  She thought they might be finished by December.     I figure more like end of January or February.  No problem since once they are out of the house we can start bringing truckloads of corrals, wire, pasture water barrels, etc. out faster.  We will be going back in September and will bring some stuff that we can fit in the 5th wheel trailer (where I removed the banquette). 

Once the tenants are out of the house, we won't need to bring the 5th wheel and can bring back corral panels on a flat bed.  Then we will rent a tractor and tractor out the barn which is filled with old cow doo-doo.  We will just dump that to one side for future use in the garden.  Then put up the corral panels to prevent the cattle from getting into the barn.  That will give us some where to store our loads of livestock gear.  We can buy blow up mattresses and leave folding chairs and a card table in the house ad go back and forth with loads of equipment.  We will use DS3's flatbed trailer and either rent or buy a large enclosed trailer to pull with DS2's truck.  That way we can have 2 loads of equipment coming back at one time.

We did have a bad episode when we opened the door to the tack room which had been empty when we were there last and found it had been filled with junk.  The doorway was blocked by a large dolly that seemed to be stuck.  I got inside and tossed some wood to the side to free the dolly to allow DH to remove it.  Then I started tossing lumber and junk to the side to allow me to walk inside a few feet.  There was an old wire shelf inside and I cleared off the rubbish on it and we loaded the rolls of heavy wire on it.  Then I put a hasp and padlock on the door.  Not necessary since only the cows go there but I figured I would do it anyway.  I don't know where that rubbish came from since I don't remember seeing it there last year.  On the other hand, considering the amount of rubbish on all the other properties we looked at it might have seemed cleaner than it was.  LOL   Another shock was when the tenant said that the only stuff in the storage building that was his are a bunch of fishing poles and tackle boxes.  He said he found that shed full of junk when he moved in.   So we will have to rent a dumpster and do a bunch of clean up before we can utilize that nice shed.  

On the other hand we were able to measure the distances DH needs to run electric to the barn and well.  He plans to put it in underground.  We also measured the barn, and the living room and kitchen of the house so we could decide what to bring back.  There is also a nice built-in pantry i the kitchen that you don't see at first since it is fitted into the paneled wall.  The kitchen cabinets are solid wood and in very good shape.  I don't intend to gut the kitchen since all the appliances are in the right spot, and the cabinets are good.  There is a sort of breakfast bar sort of peninsula *with no storage* that will come out.  With that gone I think there will be enough room for an island.  If no island, then another peninsula with cabinets underneath.  I will paint the dark paneling in the living room though since it makes the interior too dark.  I need to install a shower in the family bath over the tub and then tile above the tub all the way to the ceiling.  I am going to see if I can find a bathtub refinisher and have the tub refinished in white.  The family bathroom tub is currently brown.  The dark green tile in the MBA is pretty, but the grout is disintegrating so I will have to regrout it.  If I can find a tub and tile refinisher, I will probably have that shower tile refinished in white too.  I used a tile refinisher to do the bathrooms in the apartment and they came out looking brand new.  I will remove both vanities in the bathrooms and replace them with new ones with granite tops.  Neither vanity has any storage underneath.  Instead, they both are built like a lady's vanity table to sit and apply makeup.  I want the storage - it's too late for makeup for me.  LOL

Back later.


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## murphysranch

Welcome back!!


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## Baymule

Glad y’all are home, now try to get some rest!


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## Ridgetop

"R E S T" 
4 letter word not allowed to be spoken in the Ridgetop household.  LOL

Very odd to be home and not greeted by our big Bubba.  Haven't seen Angel at all, but did catch sight of Rika catching a few winks yesterday.  My sweeties are having to double up on the protection work without Bubba.  

Took it easy coming home.  Spent 2 nights on the road and pulled into the driveway around 2:00 pm on Tuesday.  Got the car unloaded, unpacked the coolers, did the laundry.  Did not cook dinner although had been bombarded by texts from my children about what delicious meals I could cook for them.  LOL   Bunch of jokers!

DD2 is very upset about doctor's visit with Annabel.  Apparently since 16 month old toddler is not speaking words clearly, obeying directions, and cuddling full time with parents instead of constantly being on the go, pediatrician has frightened my daughter by telling her to have Annabel tested for autism!  It took me several hours to calm DD2 down.

I was a preschool teacher for many years, and did daycare for many more.  I myself identified an autistic child in my 2 year old class, another with delayed development, and a 3rd with Tourettes.  Not to mention my own 3 boys with language related learning problems.  (All 3 of my sons are college graduates by the way.)  I also identified DD2's learning developments stemming from fetal alcohol syndrome and got all of them the appropriate help.  

DD2 apparently told the pediatrician that Annabel does not communicate with words (she babbles like any other 16 month old), does not like to cuddle (wrong, she cuddles appropriately, just prefers to investigate anything and everything around her - she is a very active baby), and does not lead her parents by the hand (or was it that she doesn't want them to lead her by the hand?), and she doesn't obey instructions.  OMG!  SHE IS A NORMAL TODDLER!  

The pediatrician sent home some paperwork for DD2 to fill out about how Annabel behaves to identify her as autistic.  I told DD2 not to fill it out herself, rather let me and DDIL2 do the observations.  DDIL2 is a preschool teacher with a degree in early childhood education.  She works with disabled children as well.  We discussed the pediatrician's theory and compared it to what we had seen in autistic children and found none of the tell-tale symptoms of autism in Annabel.  Autistic children don't like noise, don't like to be touched, do not like interaction, and will sit alone doing repetitive actions.  Annabel enjoys interaction, loves to be cuddled and tickled, is into everything, and when playing alone does not repeat any actions.  As to her not talking - she babbles constantly.  I would like to sock that doctor for upsetting DD2!  

One thing though is that since Annabel has a 4 year old sister who is constantly talking to DD2, and also playing with Annabel, it is possible that DD2 has not noticed how much Annabel talks.  With an older sibling, younger siblings tend to grow without the constant acknowledgement of first time actions.  

Kathleen and I will check Annabel out, but we would have noticed any sort of behavior not on par with her age.  Soo mad!

At any rate, that little rant over, I can now get going on developments here.  DD1's MIL is in town for a while, and they came over yesterday.  Her health is not very good, and she is upset that we are moving to Texas.  She lives in Pittsburg and is considering moving to California.  Her other 3 sons and grandchildren live in Pennsylvania and Maryland.  She says the weather is bad for her arthritis.  Apparently she is upset that if she lives here we will be gone and not able to help her get around - driving her places, etc.  While I like Cindy a lot, I really don't want to have to take care of her and have to get her to the doctor etc.  She can't drive anymore and the roads and traffic here would terrify her.  However, I think this is just talk on her part.  Her younger sister lives in San Jose and she would probably live with her.  Her sons found a nice apartment in an assisted living community but when a place became available she refused to move.  Two months later she demanded to know why they did not get the place for her!  Her home is falling apart around her, needs enormous repairs, is in a bad neighborhood, has no resale value, and the only bathroom is upstairs which is very hard for her with her arthritis.  She doesn't drive so has to take the bus everywhere.  I told DD1 that the brothers should have just taken the apartment and moved her in regardless.  She would have been angry for a while, but it would have worked out once she was there and saw how much easier it was to get around.  She is Chinese and the sons are first generation American so they follow Chinese tradition of not only taking care of her but being obedient.  She is becoming more difficult as she gets older and has more health problems.  Very sad but we are planning to go play MahJong next week and visit.  She is a very nice person and is just not able to get around and do the stuff she used to do.  

Time to remove the ram from the breeding pen.  I also need to call Rafael and have him either pickup his sheep or deliver them.  I also have to arrange a date to take 3 lambs to the butcher.  That will get several mouths off the payroll.

I am starting to go through the freezers and use up stuff.  Three freezers and all full.  Oy Vey!  Where will I put those 3 lambs?!  Then I have several ewes lambing in August, and a couple the first week of September.  That will take care of lambing until the big rush in December.  I also have to move some of the yearling ewes and open ewes over to the breeding pen and put in Moyboy.  Since the majority of his get rated 5's I figure i better use him a good bit and produce more high quality ewe lambs for the flock.  I am also considering entering the Western States Dorper Show in May with some junior lambs.  Hardly anyone shows junior lambs so that will be a good opportunity to introduce some of our homebred stock.  The animals in the show go through the auction too.  If any lambs are exceptional keepers, I can put a high reserve on them.  However, my theory is sell high and just breed more.   I won't be taking any rams, just ewes.  Good ewes are always in demand at these show/sales.  And my lambs will be competitive.  I just need to get DGD1 to learn how to show them.  She wants to do it but not sure if her parents will allow her to go and miss a day of school.  Maybe I can talk them into it if she writes an essay about her experience.  

Next job here will be renovating the 5th wheel.  I need to put up the sunshade and set up the table saw.  Got to find the roll of insulation in the shed and cut 2 pieces off to fill in the door areas that were access to the under-banquette storage.  Then I will take the oak paneling I removed from the banquette and trim it to fit on the wall to cover those openings.  Once that is done, the trim I salvaged from Baymule's reno pile will go on and it will be done.  I am so thankful that Bay had those pieces of oak and white batten still available!       I couldn't find anything here even to buy, and those pieces were free and exactly what I was looking for!  DH couldn't figure out why I was happily loading them into our car, but I explained.  While he remained puzzled, after 50 years he doesn't question my peculiar ways anymore.  

Little Robert is just like his father - he is a climber.  DS2 looked up from his reading the other night to find Robert balancing on the back of the recliner - standing.  Got to him just in time.  Yesterday he got hold of his bubble gun and was blasting soap bubbles all over the family room.  The bubble machine had been up on the counter and we couldn't figure out how he got it until we noticed him pushing his horse over to the sink and standing on the back of it.  I had to remove a lot of other items from reach.  DS2 could climb like a monkey - nothing was safe.  Robert is no longer walking.  Instead he is running everywhere.  While we were gone DS2 and DDIL2 put all the child proof latches back on the cabinets. Toddler time has hit Ridgetop (again).  Time to remove everything within reach of 2' tall people.  DH's magazine table is no longer safe either.  

Back to physical therapy today.  I hope my knee passes muster for the therapists.  I think I actually have more movement in it although I wasn't able to do as many exercises while on the road as I normally do.   

Supposedly we will get some rain from a tropical storm from Mexico this week.  DS1 said we got a little last week.  We got some on the way home going through New Mexico and northwest Texas.  We came home through Amarillo.  DH said it would be cooler than the southern route through El Paso.   108 degrees! Silly boy. There _are_ clouds outside, but often they go past us and drop rain elsewhere.  

Rain in August is very rare here unless a big tropical storm hits Mexico. Or we take our roof off the house to replace it.  Each time we have removed the roof to replace it we have had several days of heavy downpour.  We cover the furniture with plastic and take cover in one room with just a few buckets.  Normal Ridgetop luck!  

Got to go make coffee.  6:30 am here.


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## Ridgetop

Still peeved about doctor's words to DD2.  Looked at the chart they were using showing "developmental milestones for 15 month olds.

One was "Can they imitate scribbling with a crayon"  Hah!  What stupid mom gives her 15 month old crayons or markers unless she likes cleaning rainbow poop or scrubbing walls?!

Here is another about language readiness "Can the child say complete words?"  AND "Does the child make 2 word sentences?"  What planet did this doctor come in from?  

My child's first word at age 22 months was "No!" closely followed by "dog". Some ambitious moms may identify nondescript babbling as words, but PUHLEASE!  2 word sentences?!  

DD2 is feeling much better now since we went through the list and proved that Annabel is completely up to date on everything except for her mastery of the dictionary and art.  The doctor had the nerve to write "Delayed language and social skills!"  I wrote my own clinical observations on there - no I did not call the doctor names although I wanted to.  Her sister and sister-in-law were also annoyed at the doctor's chart.  As to social skills, she is very friendly with everyone and even when 15 month old cousin Robert hugs her in a choke hold or bites her she is very nice to him.  She does push him away if he comes at her with his mouth open and his teeth bared, but that is just good sense.  Robert is a fierce biter.

Anyway, I forgot to describe our trip to and from Texas.  19 hours on the road the first day.  Then another 5 to Erick's.  Returning to CA was easier and we spent 2 nights on the road.  Still exhausting though.

DS2 is going to Texas for a military reunion with his unit.  Wives are not allowed so DDIL2 will fly out to meet him 2 days later with Robert on 9/18.  DS1 will fly out with her to help with the luggage and baby.  DS2 will rent a car and ick the up.  His reunion is in Houston but they have not decided where DS1 and DDIL2 will fly to.  Then DS2 and DDIL2 will visit her relatives in Wichita Falls and do some sightseeing in TX.  We will pick up DS1 and take him to see the ranch.  Then he will travel back to CA with us in the truck and 5th wheel.  DH, DS2, and DS1 are all involved in the question of what airport to fly into.  I have distanced myself from that argument since not only can I not make myself heard (incredible I know   ) but I also don't care.  As long as we are in Texas during September we will catch up with them somewhere.  

Right now I need to work on the 5th wheel, sort out the ewes that are due to lamb, and replace the ram in the pen with those ewes needing to be bred.  Actually I just need to work up a calendar of when this is all to happen.  DD2 will be staying here watching the sheep and feeding while DS1, DS2, and DDIL2 are in Texas.  She has watched me pull lambs so I will leave my book with illustrations for her to refer to, and she can call and I will talk her through it if necessary.

Now I just need to get Rafael to pick up his sheep.  Otherwise, if he leaves them too long I am going to ask for board what with the cost of hay!  Hopefully he will come get them soon.  The 3 ewes are bred (or at least exposed for 2 months) so they need to go.


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## Baymule

Flying into Houston, Hobby Airport is on the South end of Houston. Bush Intercontinental Airport is on the north end of Houston, accessible by both Interstate 45 and 69. 

If flying into DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) I think you want Love Field. Not familiar with DFW, I’ll have to check on it, but you want the airport on the south side.


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## Baymule

Annabel autistic? That doctor must be getting a kickback on putting children on disability. She sounds like a normal child to me!


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## Ridgetop

Since she interacts excitedly with everyone, enjoys noisy interactions, babbles and is a very active child, etc. our family had decided that DD2 should change pediatricians.  On the other hand, Annabel is DD2's first baby so it is possible that she misunderstood what the doctor was referring to as "words".   Annabel is very active and into everything so probably at the next visit the pediatrician will diagnose her s ADD and prescribe Ritalin. Sometimes I think that doctors just look for things to scare new parents.  Just tell them their active children are normal.  As far as ADD and hyperactivity do parents and doctors even understand what normal activity is for a child?  Remember when we were kids, we were out the door and riding bikes, playing softball, etc.  No watching TV all day or playing video games.  With so much TV and video games and cell phone games most parents would not recognize normal childhood activity and are eager to jump on a diagnosis.  A diagnosis of some problem means they are not at fault for just turning in the TV and video games and letting their kids sit all day!  

Sorry for ranting - I am remembering when DS3 broke his navicular bone skateboarding.  (In humans it is in the thumb.)  I asked the doctor how soon before he could resume normal activities and when the doctor asked what they normally were I told him - feeding 5 horses, feeding 50 goats, helping bottle feed another 50 goat kids, etc. (DS2 did all the milking) the doctor looked panicked and suggested that he take it easy for a week.  DS2 has insisted to this day that DS3 broke his hand on purpose since it was kidding season and milking was in full flood!  LOL  In fact DS3 showed his goats in a cast at Great Western Fair in Tulare and won Junior Champion.   I guess the doctor thought all kids just sat around the house all day!  

Anyway, a busy day today.  Robert won't sleep in his crib and Annabel wont sleep in the small portacrib.  Robert is sleeping on a mattress on the floor instead so . . .  DDIL2 and I are going to remove the toy storage bins from the nursery and set up the toddler bed in their place.  Annabel can sleep in the crib Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and Robert can sleep in the toddler bed.  Just as well since his new brother (yes, another boy joins the clan) will need the crib eventually.  DS2 has been declaiming that his next child will be named Thor.  I think to tease his wife but we have all jumped on the bandwagon and are calling the future child Thir, Thorkel, and Baby Thor.  LOL  The toy storage bins will go in the famiy room in the baby jail.  Robert doesnt play in the baby jail when it is locked, but he treats it like a personal toy room by swinging open one panel then going inside and carefully shutting the panel behind him.  

We need to keep the baby jail intact because when Annabel exhausts us we put lock her in the baby jail.  Sometimes for her own protection when Robert is around because he wants to hug her around the throat in a choke hold until she turns purple.  He also likes to kiss her which she views with suspicion since he has bitten her so many times in the past.  Toddler play.  Half assault, half affection.  The baby jail also acts as a ginormous toy box.  

DS1 says P1 (our very best with all 5's and most beloved Snowflake) has another abscess on her rear leg.  It is ripe and needs to be drained this evening.  Then medication in the hole.  She is due to lamb in another several weeks so I will have to be gentle.  Luckily, she is very tame.  She gave us beautiful twin ewe lambs first time out, and Colene loved them. Hoping for another ewe lamb from her.  She is bred to Moyboy who gave us 5 grade 5's out of 7 ewes.  

The ram lamb that Colene insisted we keep looks great.  He wasn't docked at 3 months old and I was afraid he was too old but she said they do it all the time in South Africa at that age.  She banded him, then grabbed a sharp knife and lopped it off below the band!  Wow!      I gave him a booster of CDT.  Just before leaving for TX I didn't like the look of it - very red and swollen below the band so gave him 6 cc of penicillin just in case.  DS1 said the tail fell off the next day and the little fellow looks lovely now.  We just have to set up a separate pen for him so the mature rams don't kill him.  We will put a couple of the younger bred yearlings in with him to keep him company.  They are smaller and being bred he won't pester them.  He can't go out on the field with the ewe lambs as a ram so that will be the best arrangement.  I won't breed him until he is a yearling.

I am seriously considering halter breaking (or having DGD1 do it ) the younger 2 month old lambs and eventually the November/December lambs in anticipation of entering the West Coast Dorper show.  Now that I know I won't be laughed out of the ring for their quality, I am anxious to see how our lambs stack up against other breeders.  And even at the starting auction price of $400-500 maybe make a little money.    With so few White Dorper ewes in the show the last two years, they might even go higher.  One can only hope.

Got to make an appointment at the butcher for the 6 months old that had the disappearing/reappearing rectal prolase.  I thought I would take the 2 remaining ram lambs but checked and they are inky 2 months old.  However, I might take them and have them butchered and cut into quarters for DS2 to roast on the Traeger.  He is checking if he can do it.  One trip with the cost of gas is all I want to make, and the auction is in the opposite direction from the butcher.  And prices are down in the summer on lambs.  I could ait until just before we leave for Texas.  I really don't want to wait 2 months until we return.  Weanling milk fed lamb is delicious.   

The barn is set up like DS1 did it for the inspection with a 10 x 20 pen where DS1 took out the interior jug dividers.  That will be a good size training pen for halter breaking the ewe lambs.  The end of the month we need to put the jug dividers back in place for the lambing ewes and Elizabeth will be back in school.

Yesterday I went to PT in the am, then accompanied DH to the doctor for basal cell cancer removal.  He had one done before the Texas trip and had 3 more to do.  I went in with him and the doctor was very cool.  He has a lot of doctor friends in Texas and loves country music.  The doctors sliced and diced DH to country music.  LOL  They asked if I wanted to wait outside, but I wanted to see their scalpel technique so said I would stay.  Learned how to do surgical knots - mine always come apart as soon as I have finished sewing up the cut.  Then they had to remove the stitches from the previous surgery and unfortunately the site had healed over one of the stitched so the doctor came back in and had to do a bit of cutting to remove it.  I told the nurse that I would have just scraped away the new skin on top and cut it out.  She said "Ow".  DH amused himself by making faces of excruciating pain while she was working to upset her.     We must have been a big hit with our joking since they all told us it was a kick to work with us and to hurry back - apparently most people cry.  Two more excisions to go.  

DD2 stayed for dinner last night.  Just the 4 of us.  I made a casserole and we had enough left for tonight.  We had just finished dinner when DD1 called and wanted to come over with her boys and her MIL.  They had been to Santa Barbara Zoo all day with DS2, DDIL2, Robert, DDIL1, and DGS3 and DGS4.  DSIL1 had just taken DGD1 to her first soccer practice, none of them had eaten and DS2 and DDIL2 were not home yet so o told them to come on over and I would feed them.  They wanted to play MahJong.  DS2 and DDIL2 arrived from the zoo trip, also hadn't eaten. So I served 6 people dinner.  Then we played MahJong.  DSIL2 arrived from work - no food left but he is a finicky eater and didn't want casserole so no problem there.  DD@ bathed Annabel in the kitchen sink, Robert attempted to "play" with Annabel.  Annabel resisted.  Everyone ate supper and a great and noisy time was had by all.  I sat in the recliner after serving dinner because my back had started to spasm.  DD1 cleared the table, DD2 and DSIL2 went home, we played MahJong.  Eventually DGS1 and 2 wanted to play MahJong so I gave up my spot, emptied the dishwasher from the first go round and did another load of dinner dishes. Then they called me to come play.  I took another 3 aspirins.  DD1's MIL, Cindy, is going back to Pittsburg next week and they wanted us to go over this evening.  Told DD1 I couldn't do evenings since I get too tired. DD1 never starts game time until about 9:00 or 10:00 pm and I like to be laying down relaxing by then.  So we agreed to go over today after lunch. Long day.  

We will be leaving for Texas on September 4 and plan to arrive on the 6th or 7th.  Got a lot of flack from DD1 about us being gone on September 3 - DS2's BD, and Maysie's family BD party.  Swore we never mentioned being in Texas in September!  She can be as deaf as her daddy.  In his case it is physical, in hers she just doesn't listen to anything she doesn't like!  She still says we never told her we were going to move to TX!  Only for the past 5 years!!!  Getting to TX by the 7th we will drop the 5th wheel trailer and meet Baymule.  Got stuff to do with her.  Then up to Sulphur Springs to drop off some stuff at the farm.  Guess I better get the trailer ready for that trip since it is only 4 weeks away!


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## Ridgetop

Well, we were supposed to go to DD1's house "after lunch" to play MahJong, so at 1:00 DH started muttering we should have already left.  This is a man who sits in the car gunning the engine 20 minutes before any departure time then complains because you are "not ready".  Knowing DD1 and her ideas of time, I told DH to call her to see if she was ready for us.  Naturally she was not since DSIL!, the grandkids, and his mother, had gone to karate. Then they were going to go shopping at Costco (warehouse store).  Had DH tell her to call us when they got home for us to go over to play MahJong.   Got the call after 2:00 and played until 7:00.  Put a pork roast in the Instapot before leaving.

My knee was really hurting by then, and I suddenly remembered that DS1 wanted me to drain an abscess on P1.  We rushed home and he moved her into the barn.  She is huge!!!  Will deliver lambs any time now.  Her first due date is next week.  DS1 suggested we drain it tomorrow, but I didn't want her to go into labor burst the abscess and get all that poison mingled with placenta, and babies, etc.  We drained the abscess.  Same place on stifle as last year.  There was some scar tissue from having burst a bit the year before since I was out of town and couldn't drain it in time.  However, emptied it, washed it out with iodine, then put antibiotic with a syringe into the empty pocket.  I sprayed the area with Alumashield to keep flies off and she is in the barn now.  I will check and see if I can give her some Penicillin so close to lambing.  After checking online, looks safe.  I will give her about 10cc this evening when I check the abscess for more drainage

DS1 is setting up the table saw for me to work on the trailer.  Hoping to get it done fast. Then DS1 will have to help me with installing a drawer on one side, and access door on the other in the base of the bed.  The base of the bed is just open storage that you have to lift the mattress and wooden platform to access.  🏋️‍♀️  😖  And you can only reach in about 2' from the foot to reach stuff without help holding it up.  If DH holds it up, I can crawl in and get to stuff.   If I install access to the head end of the bed platform we can reach in from there for stuff, much easier for old people.   Now I just have to get to work on it.  The molding Baymule gave me will be perfect for the bed cutouts too. Measured it on the table end and it is perfect!  Both size and color of oak!


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## Ridgetop

Cut the paneling from the banquette to remove the arched tops on the 4 pieces I plan to use and make it a straight edge to fit together.  I clamped the 2 pieces together and ran painter's tape over the area I wanted to cut to avoid splintering on the thin paneling.  Worked like a charm BUT forgot to measure the width of the area the 2 pieces will be going on so the pieces I wanted to install are too long.  I realized this _AFTER_ the table saw was folded up and put away.   So tomorrow I have to get it back out, measure, and cut the 2 pieces again to the width I need.  Once the paneling pieces are cut, I can pp them with my brad nailer, and then use the hand miter saw and box to cut the moldings I got from Baymule.  They are too fragile to use a power saw.   

Just as I was finishing up the cuts DD1 came by with a car load of 12 year old boys on their way to 6 Flags.  DGS2's birthday gift was to go with 2 friends.  They were dropping off DGD1.   DD2 had already dropped off Annabel for babysitting.  DGD1 ran inside to play with her.  A couple hours later DSIL1 came by to drop off his mom.  While Annabel napped we taught DGD1 (9 years old) how to play Chinese Mahjong.  She won the first hand for lots of chips!!!  After several hours she was tired of the game and went to watch cartoons.  I started dinner and put on a musical for Cindy, DH, and myself to listen to while I was cooking.  DS2 and DDIL2 arrived home and we sat down to eat - just in time I remembered that DGD1 was in the back bedroom watching TV.  I quickly set her a place!  LOL

Tomorrow we will send the older eweling onto the field.  I told DS1 we could remove the ram from the breeding pen and put the little ram lamb in with the bred ewes.  They will keep him company for a while with no worries about breeding.  We need the 2 jugs that those young lambs are occupying for the ewes that will be lambing this month.  DS1 says he still has to dig out the pens before we can bring in lambing ewes.  He better get on it P1 is due on Wednesday!  It has gotten back into the 100's again.  Normal for August.

The kids are all going back to school on Monday.  Summer vacation only lasts 2 months these days.  When I was a child it lasted 3 months but they have extended the Christmas holidays and give them a whole week at Thanksgiving.


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## farmerjan

Saw the sign out in front of the elementary school here and school starts on the 16th... Tuesday next week.  Since it is so hot this time of year I see no advantage to getting out in mid-to-late May and then going back when it is stifling.  Back when I was in school, even up to when DS was in school... they got out mid-June, according to the number of snow days used... went back right after Labor day... got  a couple days at Thanksgiving, a week at Christmas,  a week in Feb for "winter" vacation, and a week at Easter for "spring" vacation.  But again, we did not get all the other days off all through the year that they get now... Oh well.  Things change.
  So glad with the way the world is going that I don't have kids in school... but then again, with what they are teaching them, mine would not be in school, but would be homeschooled or in a private school teaching history and actual grammar, and life skills too as they got older and ALLOWED to be JUST PLAIN KIDS.... and learn right from wrong and RESPECT and MANNERS and  Responsibility and not think that they are privileged or ENTITLED to anything...and that if you don't do your share you don't get any benefits....


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## Ridgetop

I agree.
abut 25 years ago LAUSD decided to try year round school thinking that kids wuld nt forget the lessons they had been taught over the long summer break.  The kids went to school for 6 weeks than had 2 weeks off, back for 6 weeks and 2 weeks off.  This did not work.  One reason was that keeping kids in school during July and August - the hottest months - was causing heat stroke since a lot of older schools  did not have AC in the classroms.  So the district decided to do an emergency measure to install AC.  Guess where they installed AC first?  The downtown offices that already had AC got an AC update.  Then the beach communities (where the homes normally don't need AC) got AC.  Where was AC instllled last?  The San Fernando Valley with its 3 digit summer temps!  The kids went to school from 7 am to 12 pm, had to bring bottles of water, and were sent home for the afternoon.  

Naturally parents that worked had no vacation daycare because these schedules meant no summer camp.  AND no school had the same schedule which meant that parents had one or two kids in school and one or 2 kids at home at all times.  No one could go on a family vacation, kids and teachers in the Valley were suffering from heat stroke.  Parents were about to revolt after the first year.  Luckily the schools decided to return to the old schedule after 18 months.  This shows that the education system is run by very stupid people.

Anyway, today DS1 got the table saw out again and I cut the paneling to the right width.  Then after holding it up and looking at it with the molding I realized I needed a vertical filler strip.  With DS1 holding the end of the 8' piece I ripped off 1/2" for a filler strip.  Then I decided to rip another 1/2" piece and glue it to one edge of the flat molding to make a cap molding for the paneling that is being applied as wainscotting.  This will make sure that there are no gaps and it looks professional.  Yesterday was the first time I have used the table saw in a couple years.  Haven't lost my touch!    Came out perfect.

I turned on the AC in the trailer so I can work out there later during the day and it won't be too hot.  I need to put the insulation inside the door access areas, brad nail the paneling onto the trailer walls, install the vertical molding and the cap molding.  Then I have a new trailer interior for my eating space.  I did consider using the banquette table top and installing it on swing up braces for a table, but that would only give us 3 eating spots and I would rather use a card table and folding chairs which would give us more comfortable seating for 4 when needed.  When not needed we can push the table into the corner and have 2 seating spots.  I will keep the tabletop for future use though.  Once the paneling is installed with the molding, I will work on the under-bed storage access panels.  If I don't like the drawer installation, or if it won't fit, I will just reinforce the bed box and cut door holes.  Then remove the drawer fronts and hinge them on as doors.  I will need to install some catches to hold them closed while the trailer is on the road moving.  The last thing to do (and one that I might not get done before our September trip) is the rebuild of the deep TV cabinet.  There is no rush on that since the TV is a deep one and works fine so why spend the time and money just now.  Found out that the wedding is March 3, so will make reservations at Best Western in Athens. TX.  We will just drive down for a day or 2 in Athens for the wedding from either Yantis, or the RV park.  RV park options will be much wider in February/March since we won't need a pool.  LOL   Hopefully, the tenants will be out of the Yantis house so we can start renovations.  If they are not out by February, we will come out for the wedding and stay during March for the renos.  Still working on the fencing estimate and installation.

P1 looks like she might be getting a little discharge starting before lambing.  Like usual, the ewes look like they are about to burst instead of going into labor!


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## Ridgetop

Oh dear!  I am guilty of not measuring correctly for the trailer paneling.  Went out to check the glue on the cap moldings I put together and clamped.  Decided to leave them till tomorrow am to dry and do the next set in the morning since those will dry fast in the heat. Then I went into the trailer to turn off the AC.  Noticed that the 2 windows were different heights so decided to measure the wall under the window again.  One side fine, the other side not.  
That long wall window is taller than the side window and the distance from the floor to the sill is only 26".  Oops.  I cut all the paneling for a height of 30".  I have some smaller pieces of paneling that can be pieced together to make the end panel and save the larger pieces.  No problem there - I just have to cut them down.  The other 2 panels are 30" tall and I have to cut them to 24" tall instead of the 30" I originally cut them.   24" allows 2" for the cap moldings.  I hope the wainscoting will look okay that short.  I could leave the side paneling taller to the 30" height but then I would not be able to match up the cap moldings in the corner.  Grrrr!  Just as I thought I was ready to start nailing up the paneling tomorrow.  At least the table saw is still set up.  And I have to cut off more wood not try to glue more on!  

I am anxious to get this done and hope it will turn out ok.  There are brad holes and nail holes in the paneling from where I removed them from the banquette, but I can fill the holes with oak filler after the paneling and moldings are up.  I have some other small repairs to do to other moldings in the trailer that are working loose too.  The trailer is 15 years old and has held up well for all the use we have put on it.  I like to keep the interior repaired and DH makes sure the exterior and the equipment is kept up.  Hopefully this will last us the rest of our travel trailering life.  

DS1 moved the older eweling out to the field, and we still need to remove the ram from the breeding pen.  I called Rafael to pick up his 5 sheep last week and he said he would get back to me for a date.  I will call again in a few days and offer to deliver them. I want out from the feed cost.  5 mature sheep are consuming 2 flakes of alfalfa per day which equals 1 bale every 5 days.  One bale of alfalfa costs between $25-30/bale.  They have been here in the breeding pen for a month so that is about $150 in hay.  I should have figured out an amount to charge him when I offered to breed them for him but forgot.  Either he picks them up this week or I will have to charge board for them.  Keeping them here is not the problem, the cost of the hay _is_.  Rafael is my hay guy and he plans to feed them on the wastage (broken bales, etc.) which will not cost _him_ anything.  I have to feed my expensive alfalfa.  

DH said I have to get camp reservations for September for DDIL2 (in a KOA cabin) but can't let me know when DDIL2 will be flying to TX.  Or which airport they are using.  DS2 has not made reservations yet so . . . .  ???  I can make reservations in Rusk if they are flying into Houston.  I can make reservations in Pleasant Valley if they are flying into Dallas.  Just let me know since those 2 KOAs are several hours apart!

The PT is very pleased with my knee.  He says I have full range of motion already.  I see the surgeon again on the 23rd.  Maybe he will release me from PT.  I do all the exercises at home that they have given me, but maybe I need to keep going until we leave for TX to get more advanced ones.  I could get 3 or 4 more visits in before we leave on September 4.  I don't think they will ok any more visits when we return the beginning of October.


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## Ridgetop

Well, first cap rail came out perfect so glued my second long piece of cap rail together this am.  Just took it apart and put it in trailer.  

Then came in and took care of some business correspondence, filing, etc. in the office.  

Next out to the trailer again to recut the paneling to the right sizes.  Considered just cutting around the window frame but that would entail multiple angle cuts in the cap rail. DS1 insisted on cutting the panel pieces for me.  Apparently he has forgotten I taught him everything about cabinet work. However, if he wants to do it for lil ol' me, go for it!  Then put the cut pieces in the trailer and turned on the AC so I can work in comfort in another hour.  Put the leftover paneling in the shed since I can use it to make Barbie furniture for my granddaughters.  

This is the year for Elizabeth's Barbie Dream House.  Two 6' Ikea bookcases 30" wide x 15"-18" deep.  These two shelf units will hold the living room, kitchen, dining room, family room, MBR, nursery and kid's rooms, an outdoor terrace, and a stable for the Barbie horses.  The Barbie family also has a sports car although I cannot remember if it is a VW or not. Namby Pamby Ken is NOT Barbie's husband.  She has her choice of 2 muscular GI Joes, complete with weapons to protect the mansion and family. They live in Texas of course.     They have a lot of children (someone has to clean the stable).  Maybe I should fix up a space for GI Joe's man cave, complete with gun rack.  I will also have to start looking for a stuffed deer so I can make a trophy for the wall.    Most of the furniture we already have from DD1's Barbie house.  I made most of the furniture including a Swedish fireplace.  Now I will have to do another house and make more furniture for DD2's daughters.  I really enjoy decorating these houses.  I use scrapbooking paper for wall paper, floor tiles, and carpet samples and upholstery samples for carpets.  I never really liked playing with dolls as much as I liked rearranging their furniture and decorating the house.  LOL  Forerunner of things to come?  I even remodeled one doll house decorating it with paint and popsicle sticks to look like an old English Tudor when I was young.  Not a roaring success but I was only 12 and not allowed access to power tools!  

I need to remember to take pix before and after redoing the trailer.


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## Baymule

Pics of doll house please!


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## WyoLiving

Making a doll house just to rearrange the furniture is what I would do.  Barbie would never even move into her house.  My sister had barbies and played with them a lot, but my Barbies were only used for manikins to create clothing and modeling said clothes before my cousin had to have it for her barbie.  Her parents were usually fighting, if not drunk and fighting, so she spent a lot of time in her closet playing with her barbies.  I was always more of an outdoor activity girl, like falling out of trees...


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## Ridgetop

Doll house pix will be forthcoming once I get to work on it.  Probably after the September trip to TX.  Can't waste summer weather working inside.  Also have to get the bookcases. DD1 was supposed to get them last year but it looks like I will have to go with DH to get them.  Ikea was out of everything a year or so with Covid and you had to get in line at 8am to enter the store when it opened.  They only let in so many people.  Luckily, they had "senior" days but standing in line for up to 2 hours to be let in and be told the item was out of stock with no restock date was not happening.


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## Margali

Ridgetop said:


> Also have to get the bookcases. DD1 was supposed to get them last year but it looks like I will have to go with DH to get them.  Ikea was out of everything a year or so with Covid and you had to get in line at 8am to enter the store when it opened.  They only let in so many people.  Luckily, they had "senior" days but standing in line for up to 2 hours to be let in and be told the item was out of stock with no restock date was not happening.


Ouch, many IKEA items you can buy online as "Pickup at Store" even if they won't ship to you. Worth a shot? I LOVE, LOVE their IVAR system. Looks nice with a basic coat of stain and infinitely adjustable. The peg and solid wood shelf can take being stacked full of hardbacks. They also flat pack for moving.


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## Ridgetop

Love that they will come apart and flat pack for moving or storage.  And can be added on to for more.  I will have to go online and order the bookcases for pick up.


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## Ridgetop

Another update on trailer reno.  And another glitch.  

I got the paneling up on the walls.  DS1 cane out to hep me.  Neither of us can kneel down. I can sorta-sorta for a few minutes but not long enough to do more than 3 brad punches.  DS1 went to find me a camp chair but it was too high for me to lean over and brad nail at the floor level.  Maybe because my back is out and I am wearing a back brace?  So Ds1 went and hunted up a stool for me to crouch on.  He wanted to take away the camp chair but I need it to lever myself back into a standing position.   

Once all the paneling was u on the wall I checked the cap strips for fit.  Here is where the glitch comes in.  Capping fits perfectly EXCEPT the strip is too short by about 6".      I know I measured width of the paneling pieces and the length of the strip and it was fine so what happened?  Oh gosh! The strips are not the same length!  I measured the long one and it fit but made the cap strips out of the 6" shorter pieces!   

Found the long piece of molding and measured again and it is ok with a couple inches to 45 at each end.  I had one short piece of molding (it broke in transit) which I had ripped two 1/2" pieces off either side.  (The molding is 1 3/8" wide.)  The short pieces had uneven ends so I 45ed them to overlap and glue them on the long piece.  This necessitated putting the portable miter box together.  No problem since I will have to use it later to 45 all the corners when assembling the capping on the paneling.  I hope that I will have enough molding to finish the project.  If I don't have enough for the base of the paneling, I have some light-colored base shoe in the shed I can use.  I need to use molding to cover the horizontal seam and the vertical seam.  If I don't have enough molding for horizontal molding, I guess I will have to pull the 2 panels on the end with the horizontal seam off and substitute the single complete piece that cracked.  We can cut that end off, I think.  Of course, then the shorter pieces of cap molding would have fit just fine.  Doing projects while piecing together scraps is economical but can be frustrating.  Baymule said she still has extra strips.  i might have to bring my miter box and bradnailer and finish my repairs in TX.  

Anyway, took photos of work in progress and will upload later.  Now I have to go shower and wash my hair for PT at 1:00.


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## Baymule

I have a whole double wife’s worth of trim strips! Get all you want! LOL


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## Ridgetop

I will! Since I messed up the measurements on the upright ppece that had to 45 into the horizontal piece. That was not the goof since I could just recut ot - the goof was installing first! Then when I installed the horizontal piece butting up to it, the horizontal piece rested 1/2" higher than it was supposed to!   At first, I thought I had cut the 45 wrong since the piece did not cover properly, exposing some of the wall above the paneling
a
No problem, pry off the installed cap molding and cut it 1/2' shorter.  _Except_ when prying it off the wall, the glued-on strip separated and popped off.   This meant cutting an entirely new piece of cap molding.  

Both pieces fit properly now BUT in the Ridgetop way when cutting the new piece the edge of the glued-on piece came loose there too.  Only a couple of inches so I am inside for breakfast and coffee while the new glue dries under the clamp.  Next piece to go up is the 88" horizontal cap piece.  Got to 45 one end first.   

DGSs 1 and 2 (15 and 12) are here to shovel a load of dirt out of the truck and wheelbarrow it to DH's "wall project".  DGD1 (9) is also here and was helping hold molding while I cut it.  However, she has asked to be able to help shovel dirt with her brothers.  Apparently, molding is boring but shoveling dirt is good stuff.  Whatever floats your boat.

This 8' retaining wall has taken about 4 years to build and is supposedly going to supply me with a prime garden spot of good dirt.  The flat area he is making is 20' x 20'.  The ground squirrels will love it.  It is the thought that counts.   He says if the ground squirrels get this plot we can use it for the sheep since it already has fencing around 3 sides. ??? It keeps him happy. I just don't understand why he bought new dirt for it instead of tractoring over the mounds of dirt that have already been dumped in various places on the field. However, he says _that_ dirt is not good and this purchased dirt is _better_.   Gotta love 'em.

Breakfast is up courtesy of DS1.  Gotta get mine before the ravening horde fall on it and I get nothing.


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## Ridgetop

DS1 even made BACON!!!    I got 3 pieces.  

I had to recut several pieces of molding to get them to fit.  Still not done, need to put in bottom molding on long side.  That will require splicing 2 pieces together since my long pieces are not long enough.  The splice will be behind the couch though so won't show.  I will also need to do a lot of nail hole filling - not only my brad nail holes but the pre-existing holes from the nails where Bay pulled them out of her house.  I think they will look ok after filling though.  I finished the short side, and tomorrow will finish the long side.

I was feeling very old and depressed that I did not do the entire project in one go but this evening my buttocks hurt (or are those the glutei muscles?).  I realized it was from *squatting down* instead of kneeling on my new knee! Then there was the climbing in and out of the trailer to measure, cut, fit, remeasure, recut and install. Not old, just still crippled a bit from the knee replacement. I really thank God that I did all the removal of the banquette before the knee replacement since I removed most of it kneeling down! 
I stopped before finishing the last side because the miter saw was sitting in the sun and had gotten too hot to use!  The last couple days have been very hot -100's plus.  I hope it cools down a bit before the ewes lamb.  So hard on them in the heat.  I may have to send DS1 to get a couple large box fans for the barn.  I had two of the large barn fans for livestock but sold them when the kids graduated from 4-H.  Wish I had kept them.  May have to buy more in Texas for the lambing barn.  

DH got two truckloads of dirt and the grandsons shoveled it out and wheel barrowed it to the fill site.  If we were on flat land we could use the tractor.  I love my mountain views, but working on hills is too labor intensive.  Anyway, the boys got it all unloaded and while DH was getting another load they cleaned the barn and creep.  DH announced he would get a third load, but he arrived just as the dirt place closed.  So the boys collected their pay (less the time they were goofing off, arguing as to who should shovel and who should wheel barrow, and DGS1 sat in the bathroom reading!) and went home in time to swim in their pool.  School starts Monday.


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## Baymule

I’m torn between putting a goodly amount of trim in the shipping container or leaving it out in the weather or lack thereof. I suppose I’ll put some up in the container for you, leaving valuable trash outside has done nothing to encourage rain!


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## Ridgetop

I won't need much more.  I pulled off the two horizontal pieces and recut the larger piece so won't need a large horizontal piece to cover the splice.  I am hoping to get everything done with what I have but having some extra left in the shed would be good.  I will store it in the loft of the toolshed.

Made coffee and about to go out and mark the bottom molding to cut.  Hopefully I can get everything installed and then nail holes filled.  Then I will clean and polish the paneling, take photos, push the couch back into place, clean up the mess and put away tools.  Then next step rent a carpet scrubber to clean the carpet.  Trailer carpets get incredibly filthy since they are walked on with dirty shoes constantly while camping in dirty areas, are washed, and are small spaces.  I knew the carpets were dingy, but removing the banquette revealed the original carpet under them.  Shock!  Horror!  Ick!  

No lambs yet.  Need to band 2 ram lambs in barn since we can't get the sheep to the butcher till we get back from Texas.  This way they can go out on the field with their mamas who need to be rebred.

Finished the bottom molding then put in the vertical and horizontal pieces to cover the seams.  I had just enough oak trim to finish the job.  Looked great when I was done except for the nail holes.  Hunted down the oak-colored filler. (Tip: If you are looking to color match precolored filler don't buy the color that your cabinets/furniture is supposed to be.  It never matches.  The "golden oak" is too yellow, some colors of medium oak need cherry colored filler which is too light red for cherry stain, and some wood needs a combo of several colors.)  Filled all the nail holes, miter joins, etc.  Then took pix.  

As I stood there admiring the job before gathering the tools to put them away something did not look right.  _*Remember the gap that needed one piece of molding to cover it? *_That original area that needed to be covered before I decided to panel two walls of the trailer?  
 *I had forgotten to keep a piece for that gap!   * *OOPS!* 

Luckily Baymule had suggested I take some of the white trim pieces and I put one of them in that spot.  They are a little narrower than the oak trim but I made it work.   Phew!


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## Ridgetop

Heard from Erick about Bubba.  He is doing very well and Erick has said that i did not ruin Bubba.  At least not totally.  LOL  He also said that Bubba is _not_ an aggressive Anatolian and he has an exceptionally sweet temperament.  Bubba loves Erick and Erick has introduced him to several new persons and he was very sweet to them.  

Erick and I discussed the problem we thought we had and agreed that Bubba was probably sensing my fear that he would be aggressive with strangers.  Sensing my discomfort with having strangers around made Bubba feel he had to be more protective since I was obviously uncomfortable with whoever it was.  While we agreed on this, Erick also said he could understand my worry since Bubba is massive and would be hard, if not impossible, to hold back physically from any attack.  Especially since I am now much older than I was years ago when I would have had no problem even with his size.  

At any rate Erick is giving my dog some extra training and has said that I did a good job with him since he was my first Anatolian I trained from puppyhood.  And a male as well.  Wonderful praise from the Anatolian Whisperer and my guru.  LOL  I am just worried that he will love him so much that I might not get him back!  LOL  Erick is so happy with Bubba's temperament and looks that he is now searching for some approved bitches to breed him to.  He has his breeding partner on the east coast looking too.  Maybe Bubba will have some puppies eventually.


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## Ridgetop

Can't sleep so catching up reading posts on here.  Went to bed yawning at 11 pm and have been lying awake for over3 hours!  Still yawning but still can't sleep!  

Won't be putting any drawers under the bed base in the 5th wheel.  Measured the base today and the drawers will take 2" more than the space available.  I can beef up the base and cut in openings.  Then use the drawer fronts as doors to access the space.  Would make it easy to store shoes out of the way since I took out the banquette.  I used the banquette drawers to store shoes.  Now either we take no shoes, or I find another place to put them.  DH stores his right in the walkway so I guess any storage space will just be for my shoes!    Now that I took out the banquette and we have additional space, maybe just a basket at the end of the sofa would work to toss shoes into.  Probably easier than climbing the steps to the BR and leaving over to shove them through a small door.  Even easier than having to kneel down to reach in under the bed to retrieve them!  The space on either side of the bed is so narrow that once I got down I might get stuck!


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## Ridgetop

Time to start emptying the trailer cabinets and checking supplies for our trip.  Since we will be dropping the trailer and leaving it unplugged while we go to Tennessee, the refrigerator will not be left running.  I don't want to leave it running on propane with no one around.  I might just buy all the perishable stuff in Texas on our way up to the campground in Mt. Pleasant. Plenty of Walmarts in TX.  

I have to get out the card table and folding chairs we will be using in the trailer for our dining area.  Also need to get out the new light fixtures I have in the shed, and the 2 new medicine cabinets.  Bought them for the apartments and never used them so will be able to use them in the new house.  I will store them in the tack room with the wire.  We also have a large heavy duty shelf unit in the milk shed that we aren't able to use - no wall space - that we can disassemble and bring to set up in the tack shed.  With the banquette gone, we will have space to transport some items in the trailer.  Maybe even some of the large pasture water tubs (100 gal)?  If the house was empty, I would bring back some bedding to leave for when we come out with more loads.  But I don't want to leave anything in the tack shed that might get chewed up for rat nests.  Once the tenants are out, we can bring back trailer and truck loads since we will be able to camp out in the house.


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## Ridgetop

Went to bridge today for the first time since my knee surgery.  Sitting at the card table was harder than I expected.  My knee started hurting from being in one position for hours. Maybe I am not as completely recovered as I thought.  Doing well though.  Soon they will add ankle weights to my ankles to do the exercises.  Maybe I should buy some myself.

Robert found the Super Hero capes that were in the toy box today.  He wore one and ran around the house until it sipped around to the front.  I fixed it for him and he was happy again.  Gave me a fist bump.

More skin cancer surgery for DH tomorrow.  Going to cut out the 3rd basal cell cancer.  The 4th one will wait until we come back from Texas.  Results from the first 2 were clear of malignancy.  ￼ Hopefully this one will be as well.  

Got our reservations at the Mount Pleasant KOA.  It is about 20 minutes from the ranch. There are closer campgrounds but in the TX summer heat we only stay at campgrounds with pools. A lot of campgrounds are on lakes and don't have pools since the people go there to fish.  I don't swim in anything where I can't see the bottom.  Next February if the tenants are not out of the house, we can stay in a closer one.  For the March 3 wedding in Athens, TX, we will stay in a motel for 2 nights.  Our niece's daughter is getting married.  The bride and groom currently live in Tyler.  She is hoping we move to TX soon since we will be her only relative closer than CA and Idaho.  Better go on her website and check what they want for wedding gifts.  If our entire family goes in together we can get something big.  Have to check what is on their list.


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## Baymule

This might not work out well for you……. Remember my waffling on whether or not to pick up those trim pieces and put them in a container to protect them from rain? Or leave them out in hopes that it would rain? Exhaustion made that decision and I never picked up any of them, even though I decided to trim out the back side of closet doors with some of those strips. 

It stormed last night. It poured down rain in a frog floater for over an hour. It’s almost 9 AM and I’m still sitting here drinking coffee. I’m so tired, I’m taking a day off, sorta. I’m going to town and run errands. 

Now I suppose I should leave those trim strips out so they can dry out. LOL


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## murphysranch

Did DH have Moh's surgery? Hubs has had several due to his surfing days back in the 60's. That surgery works wonders!!


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## Baymule

It rained again. Not as much as last night, but a good shower. I’m sure glad that you want these trim strips! Leaving them outside is lovely seeing them get rained on! LOL


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## Ridgetop

murphysranch said:


> Did DH have Moh's surgery? Hubs has had several due to his surfing days back in the 60's. That surgery works wonders!!


UCLA only does MOHS on facial cancers.  He has had that several times.  These are on his chest, back, and arm.  They prefer to cut them out for some reason.  4" slices to remove tissue pieces smaller than a thimble.  Probably from water skiing on the Colorado river in the summer desert sun.  The sun was considered our friend back then.  

I only need one strip.  And I put one of the white ones up where I ran out of strips.  It doesn't look that bad although the pattern doesn't quite match the other walls.  It does cover the open gap though so that is ok.  I'm worried that when we pull in the slide out, travel, and then go to set up that all the brad nails will have popped out and the paneling and strips will just fall off the walls.    I think I might have to pack the brad nailer to bring with me just in case.

I found another couple spots to repair in the trailer.  The quarter round around the bathroom door needs to be reattached.  It has actually been loose for a couple of years and I keep forgetting to take care of it.  Now the molding has come off the wall and the nails are sticking out.  OUCH!  Guess how I found out?!

I went out to empty the pantry and see what is there and what needs to be restocked. Only groceries that don't need refrigeration will go with us.  Since we are leaving the trailer in Groveton while we go to Tennessee (Thanks Layne!) I won't leave the fridge turned on.  I don't like leaving it running on propane unwatched.  We will buy all our frozen and cold stuff in Sulphur Springs on the way to Mt. Pleasant KOA after we get back.  Anyway, I emptied and restocked the top shelves where I keep extra toilet paper (special type for RV septic), paper towels, and basket of cleaning supplies.  Removed the pullout wire baskets from the 2 lower shelves and the contents.  One basket had the front bent probably from when we had canned goods come out of the cupboard during a very bumpy ride over a dirt lot.  Wiped out the shelves, then emptied the middle shelf where I have can racks for the canned goods.  The shelf looked funny and on closer inspection the shelf was dropping down in one corner.  Uh Oh!  

Apparently, the supports were put on the top of the shelf and the shelf was attached to them from under the shelf with brads.    How dumb is that?  It took me several hours to get the shelf supports unscrewed from the wall.  Only 2 screws in one support and 1 in the other but for some reason 2 of the screws refused to unscrew.  Back to the tool shed for a locking pliers.  I finally had to use a locking pliers to clamp onto the screw to turn it. Naturally I was unable to get it to grip for about 20 minutes.  Finally, I got it gripped on but wasted 5 minutes turning it the wrong way while the tool slipped off the screw again.    Finally got all the screws out and then had to pull all the brads out so I could mount it again UNDER the shelf.  Then I tried to raise the shelf into the proper position.  It did not want to go.  I finally measured the height it was supposed to be to be level.  Then I got some pieces of wood and a box that would be the right height and shoved them under the shelf to raise it into position.  Now I have to raise it a bit more so I can mount the support on the wall under the shelf.  By then it was dark, I was dripping with sweat in spite of the AC so I decided to finish later.  Have been too busy to go out and finish installing the shelf supports for a couple days now (doctor appointments and bridge) but will try to finish tomorrow.  One problem is although I have good movement in my knee, I have trouble kneeling on the floor at the moment.  It is hard to get into the pantry cabinet to work since it is only about 12" wide but 18" deep.  I will have another go at it tomorrow.

Arrived home yesterday from all day doctor appointments to find BL12 had lambed.  I had her written down as BL13 which annoyed DS1 when he tried to locate her among the 40 ewes in various pens.    She lambed in the large pen on the field and he and DGD1 had moved her and the tiny ewe lamb into the barn.  She was still very large and her lamb was very small.  It also had turned under feet at the knuckles which is usually a sign of being crowded in the womb.  She had some afterbirth with liquid still hanging so DS1 said to just leave her and see if she would produce another lamb.  She had just lambed 2 hours previously.  This morning I went down and she was hunched up and looked unhappy.  Her udder was engorged although the lamb had nursed.  The afterbirth was in the pen.  I decided to check her since I just had that feeling something was wrong.  I put on my barn clothes and a pair of gloves, haltered her and tied her to the pen.  She was laying down, so I lubed up and sure enough she had another lamb that was stuck.  His nose was turned down, presenting the top of his skull to the birth canal, and front legs were back.  I maneuvered his head into the right position then got a foreleg out and out he came.  Dead of course.  Complete with afterbirth and covered in orange showing that he was stressed during trying to be born.  

I might have saved him if I had followed my first impression that she had another lamb in her when we got home the afternoon before.  I should have checked and pulled him then, maybe he would have still been alive since the first lamb had her own afterbirth.  This is why it is so important to follow your instincts.  And why I hate to be away during lambing.  This ewe is the only surviving daughter of 8040 "The Knee Fixer".  I do have a daughter out of her but she was rated a 5, and her last lamb is also a 5.  This new lamb looks kind of spindly, but hopefully will grow out well.  BL12 was bred back to her father Moyboy that produced so many 5's for me.  Hopefully that inbreeding will produce another good ewe.  If not, there is always the auction and I still have the ewe.  Having the ewe survive is the best part, and a live ewe lamb, and not having to feed a bottle lamb.  I still haven't forgiven myself for not checking inside AAC when she had a retained lamb and died.  Always trust your instincts if the ewe doesn't look right.  If you check and there is no lamb stuck inside, no harm - no foul, but if you don't and she is in trouble you won't forgive yourself for something as simple as not pulling out a lamb.  Anyway, 1 down and 6 or 7 to go.  By the way both this ewe and AAC both had lambed before with no problems so . . . .

Spoke to Rafael about the 5 sheep he has here still.  They are costing me a bale of hay ($25/bale) a week.  He said he has ordered a pen and it has not arrived, but he will pay for the bale a week for me to keep them.  Since they are in with other sheep, they are no trouble, just as long as he reimburses us for the hay.  I will write on the calendar the date he came to purchase.  I wrote out a sales slip so I will add the hay to it and show the full total he owes.  

Next week we will start packing for Texas.  DS1, DS2, and DDIL2 will give us most of their stuff to bring back since they will be flying with the baby.  We will bring DDIL2 and DS2's luggage when we pick up DS1 at the airport since he and DDIL2 are flying out together into Dallas.  She is being picked up by an uncle at the airport in Dallas so we will take her luggage to her when we pick up DS1.  The uncle and aunt are taking her to San Antonio where they have a vacation home.  They live in Wichita Falls.  DS2 is flying to Austin to meet with combat army buddies for a reunion - no wives are allowed to go.  He will rent a car and drive to San Antonio after the 2 day reunion, meet up with DDIL2 and her family, and sightsee in SA.  Then he will drive them back to meet Kris in Fort Worth and eventually meet up with us at the campground.  

While DS2 and family are sightseeing TX, DS1, DH, and I will be emptying the tack room of all the junk.  If we can find a dump, we will take all the trash there.  Otherwise, we will stash it in a corner of the barn (the cattle have been fenced out) until we return in February and rent a dumpster.  We are taking a large heavy duty shelf unit back with us to set up and store stuff on.  Also, some items that we had left over from the apartment reno that we will use in the new house.  I hope to take as much as possible in the 5th wheel on this trip.  We are hoping to take a big truck and trailer load in February.  DS1 wants to get DS3's flatbed trailer and have us bring a lot of fence panels back in February. We have a lot of panels that we are not using that can come back and be stored in the barn.  We still need to arrange the exterior high fencing for the dogs.  I need to make an appointment with the district conservationist about getting on the 2023 list for fencing money for the sheep pens.  We need exterior fencing before we can get a grant, but I realized since we do have exterior fencing already for the cattle, we can apply now for the fencing for rotational grazing pastures.  

Lots of appointments that I have to make now for Texas.


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## Baymule

Layne’s job ended and he got in late Monday night from Nebraska. He picks up his tractor today and 10 round bales for me, today

I’m moving Saturday, moving sheep and dogs Sunday. Getting internet and Direct TV on Monday. I will finally be living at the farm. 

You have a full month in September! Have you told your DH yet about our detour? LOL. Poor man, you are so bad! 

That’s too bad about the lamb. At least you didn’t lose the ewe. In a few days, the lambs feet ought to straighten out.


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## Ridgetop

Marv doesn't know about our other stop.  (You naughty girl!)   I did tell him that we wanted to detour through Arkansas on the way back from Tennessee to see another friend.  He got this long suffering look on his face and wanted to know why.  I told him that our BYH friends liked to meet other BYH friends in person.  He sighed and said "Fine".  LOL

Yes, saving the ewe was more important than the lambs.  She is a very good ewe, this is her 3rd lambing, and she normally doesn't have any problems.  The lamb wasn't even overly large, it was just the position.  However, all good now.  I hope the ewes that lamb while I am gone will be okay, I have 3 that are due after DH and I leave for TX.  

Getting my hair trimmed before the TX trip.  Next week getting my nails done although DH has a favorite place in mind near Rusk.  It does fantastic pedicures with half hour foot massages.  He had one last trip and can't stop talking about the foot massage.  LOL   My darling can't trim his own toenails due to his pecs having fallen into his abs.  He has since become a pedicure fanatic and connoisseur.  LOL

September 3rd is a joint family birthday party for DS2 and DGD2.  Maysie has already turned 5 but this is the family celebration.  I got her some cute clothes for school at Ross (SR discount day) but didn't have time to look for anything for DS2.   I will stop at Burlington today after my hair appointment.  

Today I am driving for the first time alone.  Last night I had a terrible nightmare about having to drive an old Ford Falcon which was a loaner car.  2 of the police characters from one of my books were with me and they made me drive the car for some reason.  The steering was horrible, and the brakes didn't work.  One of those awful dreams!  Naturally I hit something, but it wasn't my fault because the brakes didn't work.  The brake pedal broke off and the steering wheel broke too.  Then the engine wouldn't turn off!  Finally, I got the car wedged against a wall and got out.  I left the police doffers trying to figure out how to turn the engine off with the ignition key which wouldn't work either.  Then I had to empty all our possessions out of the car.  For some reason a load of dirty clothes were in there from some wedding, also 3 blankets, and a bunch of other stuff which I had to fold up and fit into a garment bag!  I was exhausted when I woke up!   

I will fix the trailer shelf after my hair appointment.  DS1 has been trying to get the sheep into the barn so he can sort out the heavily pregnant ones that are due on Friday.  He has tried different methods for the last 3 days.  Why he doesn't use his regular method I don't know.  That method works well but he has decided to try something different. Different never works with livestock if they are used to tried and true.  His problem though - since he tells me to go back inside when I go out to help.  I wanted him to do this last week but he waited until now so . . . .   When we are in TX I want a better chute.


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## Mike CHS

I am so happy that I don't have those kind of dreams.


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## Ridgetop

DGS1 and dgs2 came over today and helped DS1 with ram lambs.  DS1 taught DGS1 how to flip the lambs and he has gotten very good at it.  Ran the 2 rams to be castrated into a pen, caught them, flipped them, banded them and it was done in about 15 minutes!  

8219 had twin ewes in the large pen this afternoon with no trouble and we were able to get her to follow her lambs into the barn and into a jug.  That took about 20 minutes since she kept losing them and we had to keep showing them to her.  However, they got settled in and then we had to move the ewes that are due tomorrow into the jugs.  I scrubbed out the water buckets and put hay in each jug before moving the sheep into the barn.

Herding the sheep into the barn to separate the heavy bred ewes out did not go so well. They used to run down into the barn at any opportunity to eat the hay they know is there. However, for the past 3 days DS1 has tried to get them into the barn, and they refuse to go through the gate into the yard to get into the barn.  This morning DS1 told DH not to feed and to leave the sheep in the large pen.  He expected that going without feed during the day they would stampede into the barn this evening hoping for hay. Nope!  They still refused to go into the barn.  DS1 was not happy.     It took quite a while to get them in the barn, then we had to put the bred ewes in jugs and then turn the junior ewes back out onto the field.  After that was done, we had to rearrange a couple of ewes since we have 6 ewes to go in 5 jugs.  We put 2 that are due in 2 weeks in the larger jug. They could probably go back on the field but DS1 doesn't want to catch them again. LOL   One ewe that we thought was in the breeding pen turned out to be on the field and looks open.     Will need to get her bred asap.  She can go with a couple of ewelings and the ewes that are still in the creep pen (we will be pulling them off their lambs this weekend) to the breeding pen with Lewis.  That will be 6 ewes plus another yearling or 2 to go in with a ram before we leave for TX. We might have some problem with keeping track of the marking though unless we can get them all marked before DS1 flies back to meet us in TX.  We need to remove the young ram lamb from that pen and turn the ewes out on the field.  I hope DS1 can put together some sort of pen for that ram lamb.  He will turn 5 months old September 5.  I could leave him in the pen and put the ewes to be bred in with him, but I don't like to use rams that young.  I like them to get a bit more growth on them before using them.  If we can set up another pen, he can go in with the two 3 month old wethers for company.  Our butcher date is October 29.  We can figure something else out when we come back.

Poor 18003 is so large she can hardly waddle.  She also looks like she has some sort of eye irritation.  I will doctor her eye with some pink eye powder.  No one else has anything so I don't think it is pink eye - she may have gotten jabbed in the eye with a stick of hay. Once she lambs I will give her some Penicillin.


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## Baymule

Those ewe’s aren’t stupid. They knew they would get jugged and they didn’t want to!


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## Ridgetop

No lambs this morning yet from anyone.  The ewe with the bad eye (18003) has some slight swelling under it so it probably has some infection.  She also has long rear toes that need clipping.  I will take care of all that after she lambs since I don't like fighting with them right at lambing time.  They are easier to handle in the jug after lambing.

Today I am going to finish the pantry shelf then reload the rest of the pantry.  I need to get it ready for the trip.  

Sometimes I don't understand DH.  I asked him to put the dishes in the dishwasher that were left on the sink during the day while I was gone.  I was exhausted after being out all day, doing some shopping, then dealing with the sheep, scrubbing water buckets etc., cooking dinner, and needed a shower before serving dinner. Apparently, I said "Please *do* the dishes" instead of "Please load the dishwasher". I went to put the dinner dishes in the dishwasher after dinner and it was running with a just few cups, 2 glasses, one plate and one bowl, and a frying pan. Almost empty!!! And we have a drought!!! When I asked why he ran it almost empty he said, "You told me to do the dishes!"  At least he loaded them.  I will empty it now and load it again.  Our old dishwasher used to finish a load and dry it in 30 minutes.  Our "ENERGY EFFICIENT" dishwasher takes from 110 minutes to 230 minutes depending on the cycle!  Same thing with our "ENERGY EFFICIENT" washing machine which now takes 126 minutes to do a simple load.  Used to be 30-40 minutes depending on the cycle.  Not very efficient if you ask me.  The gas dryer only takes 46 minutes.  I am worried about when we move since our appliances will all be electric and I understand that electric dryers are not very efficient, taking 90 minutes to dry clothes.  Oh well, it is what it is.


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## farmerjan

CLOTHESLINE.... VERY EFFICIENT.  I have not had a dryer in the house in over 20 years.  Clothes go out on the line.  Winter and summer... you pick the days you do laundry.  In TX you ought to be able to do most of the laundry on nicer days since you do not get the rain there that we get.  And even being the only one in the house, I seldom do anything that is not at least a half load or mostly a full load.  I cannot see the point in wasting water and we certainly are not in any type of drought conditions.  
I have my mom's old washing machine and am looking whenever I see a yard or estate sale, to pick up another older type washing machine.  NOT going in for the electronic crap.


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## Ridgetop

Loved my clothesline at the old house.  Put all linens and DIAPERS on the line.  I had grass at the old house and they dried fine.  The sun actually a sanitizing agent. Have not had one here, and won't put it up.  Here I don't have a place where dust and dirt from the livestock wouldn't blow onto the wet clothes.  Not sure what the Anatolians would make of all those flapping clothes.  Since my kids that are living here do their own laundry ever since Jr. Hi they wouldn't hang anything on the clothesline so . . . .  Might make a change in TX if there are any old clothes poles up to restring lines.


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## Baymule

My dryer only takes 40 minutes to dry blue jeans.


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## Mike CHS

Our dryer is also pretty quick with a full load.


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## Ridgetop

Must be our super energy efficient dryer that just takes so long!

Finished the pantry shelf.  Only used the support on the side since the rear of the cabinet has water damage that has pretty much destroyed the thin layer of plywood veneer that is there.  Wondered why the screw just pushed into the back of the cabinet instead of biting into anything!     I put 2 baskets in there to hold lightweight objects, but they are going to be awkward - I will have to remove each of them to find what I want.  I think I have a pullout wire basket in the shed bought for some project and not used.  I will look for it and then I can mount it in that shelf.  I put wire pullout baskets in the 2 lower shelves already.  Next, I pulled off the tiny quarter round that was acting as the door stop for the bathroom door. Then removed all the tiny brads.  I am not happy with it since it is so small, I don't think it will hold up and I will be doing this repair again in a few months.  Looked for some larger quarter round in the shed but only found base shoe which would have worked and was already finished in the right color oak, but it was too flat.  Then I held a piece up on the doorframe the door almost went over the top of it!  Got a piece of oak door stop at Lowes this morning.  Came home and cut it to measure (the bathroom door on the trailer is only 74.5 inches high so duck if you visit us).  Then had to sand it and stain it.  Tomorrow I will put a coat of Varathane on it and install.  That should compete the repairs, I hope.  After I install the pullout wire basket, of course.  Emptied the cabinets and brought half of the kitchen towels inside since I really don't need 25 kitchen towels in a trailer.  

After my ceaseless vigilance watching P1 and 18003 as they try to waddle around in the jugs, the 2 ewes that were penned together (since they did not look ready yet) lambed. Singles for each first timer.  P4 had a ram lamb, while 0R9 had a ewe lamb.  P4 took care of everything easily and in silence while OR9 was a total butthead.  

I knew she was lambing from her grunts and moans, but she kept stopping and trying to clean off 8219's twins in the next pen.  I pulled P1 out of the jug and gave OR9 an additional half hour with the water bubble hanging out but no progress so DS1 came down with me to help. Just as I went into the pen, she managed to push out the lamb, but the sac did not break open and stupid OR9 left it laying as she again tried to claim 8219's lambs through the bars!     I went in to break open the sac and the lamb did not try to breathe so I picked it up by its hind legs to swing it.  Just then OR9 freaked at the sight and ran past me hitting the lamb with her head as she did and knocking the lamb flying from my grasp. The poor thing landed with a thump and lay there lifelessly.  I dumped some cold water over it and it shuddered, so I went to work on it.  I had to use the snot sucker to get mucous out of the nostrils before it actually took a good breath and raised its head. Stupid OR9 was still huddled in the corner of the jug talking to 8219's lambs!  I iodined the cord, rubbed the lamb a bit with a towel, then stuck it over next to OR9.  She suddenly realized that she actually had a new lamb OF HER OWN and started licking it.  So dumb.  

Then DS1 caught 18003 so I could do a quick pelvic and she is not ready to lamb yet. She can barely walk, and her belly is hanging only 8" above the ground!  When she lays down she has to lay on her side and looks dead.  Both DS1 and I are constantly checking to make sure she is breathing.  

P1, on the other hand, is huge but perky.  DS1 put a panel across the creep gate so P1 can go in the creep for now.  

I have 2 others written on my calendar to lamb in 2 weeks but they are not on the field so . . . ?  If they are in the breeding pen, they can lamb there since we don't have anywhere to put them in the barn.  LOL   We need to put up more jugs, but where?


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## Ridgetop

OK   OR9 has another strike against her for stupidity.  She hardly looked pregnant and after lambing one ewe lamb which I had to rescue, she looked like she was done.  An hour later I checked on her and another lamb was laying in the pen TOTALLY ENCASED IN THE SAC WITH LAMB 1 LAYING ON TOP OF IT.  The lamb in the sac was still warm but of course had suffocated.  Since P1 had been removed she couldn't help (if she would) and since they were in jugs the dogs couldn't get to the lamb.  Rika probably would have cleaned it off and saved it but instead we lost the lamb.  It was a nice little ewe lamb too.  So total now is 4 ewe lambs, 1 ram lamb alive and healthy, and 1 each sex dead lambs.     And of course, neither 18003 nor P1 show any sign of lambing yet.  P1 has a second due date of September 2, but 18003 only marked once.  However, she may have rebred without marking since the crayon fell out.   She is obviously bred!  You can see the lambs moving around inside so hopefully they are positioning themselves properly for birth.  Or since they are sheep, repositioning so I have to pull them out from a bad position.   

DS1 is finishing the new pen for the ram lamb and wethers.  Once he is moved from the breeding pen we can turn those bred ewes out onto the field.  Once that pen is empty the 5 ewes in the lamb pen can go in there and we will add one or two from the field, along with Lewis.  

This will be so much easier once we are established in Texas with proper pens and a good chute.  If we ever get there.


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## Finnie

Sorry about the dead ewe lamb.


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## farmerjan

Sadly, some of them just don't have a maternal  instinct... some will develop it and some just never get it.  Sad you lost the 2nd lamb, but it may have been born dead too.... still her not even showing any signs of mothering....

see how she does with raising this one.. if an indifferent mother than maybe needs to go???? 
We will normally give a cow a 2nd chance.... sometimes being a new mother as a heifer has them all "discombobulated"....
 little or no milk now means a permanent trip off the farm.... I would rather a little over protective than not caring... fine line there....


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## Baymule

Aww that’s too bad about the dead lamb. So frustrating! Hope  18003 and P1 give better results.


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## Ridgetop

farmerjan said:


> Sadly, some of them just don't have a maternal instinct... some will develop it and some just never get it. Sad you lost the 2nd lamb, but it may have been born dead too.... still her not even showing any signs of mothering....
> 
> see how she does with raising this one.. if an indifferent mother than maybe needs to go????
> We will normally give a cow a 2nd chance.... sometimes being a new mother as a heifer has them all "discombobulated"....
> little or no milk now means a permanent trip off the farm.... I would rather a little over protective than not caring... fine line there....


She is a first-time mom so she will get another chance.  Seems to be doing well with the surviving lamb.  Probably just stupid.  She is a SHEEP after all.  

DS1 is swearing he will never go to Tractor Supply again.  Yesterday he, DSIL1, and DH went to TS to look at dog kennels for DSIL1 and pick up 4 more large shallow tubs for the sheep water and hay.  More about the kennel later.  Having bought the tubs DS1 asked the clerk to send someone to bring them out since he got the only one inside the store.  The others were behind the locked gates.  DH backed up to the gates to make it easy to load them. After waiting 20 minutes in the parking lot, DS1 went back inside to find out what was taking so long.  They were the only customers at this point.  DS1 also noticed that the clerk had charged $20 more each for the 4 tubs!  When he got to the checkout the clerk and another "associate" were chatting.  DS1 said he needed another 3 tubs brought out at which point the "associate" rudely said "You have to pay for them first", in a nasty tone.  DS1 waved he receipt at him and the clerk said "They already paid".  The associate went to the back of the store.  DS1 pointed out the error and the clerk returned the tubs and rerang them.  At this point the manager arrived and said "You could have just returned the difference instead of reringing the entire receipt.  DS1 went back to the truck to get the credit card for the new total.  The "associate" still had not appeared to open the gates and give them the other 3 tubs.  DS1 asked the clerk if the guy had gone to get the tubs and the clerk assured him he had.  Finally DS1 returned to find DSIL1 loading the tubs while the "associate" stood watching.  DS1 was furious.

So the dog kennel - we have been dog sitting DD1's family dog, a Labrador Retriever, since he was 10 weeks old.  This was ok when he was small because of the coyotes in the area that would jump over the fences and eat him.  We told them they needed to do some more work on their fence, but DD1 was worried about coyotes while he was a pup.  I told DD1 to get a kennel with a top to protect him.  She refused because she didn't want him confined to a kennel all day.  (I don't believe she is my daughter, but she looks like DH's mom so she must be.)  Now Sirius (yes, big Harry Potter fans) is over a year old, and mildly interested in the sheep.  To protect him from our LGDs we shut and tie the gate between the front patio and the rear yard.  After the first 3 months of dog duty, we told DD1 that she would have to pick up the piles after her dog.  She passed this job on to DGD1 (8) whom we babysit after school every day.  Elizabeth is very good about this.

After summer vacation, during which we babysat the dog while they went on vacation, they again brought the dog over when school started.  We told them that they needed to keep the dog in their back yard.  DSIL1 works from home Monday and Friday and likes having Sirius with him.  On Tuesday they kept the dog in the house.  But not in the entire house.  Instead, they locked him in a bathroom.  Granted, this is a large bathroom, but it has a glass door to the pool deck.  The room got hot, and the dog got bored.  DS1 picked up DGD1 and on the way home detoured by the house to let the dog out.  

The room was hot, humid, and smelly because the dog had peed.  In addition, the dog had chewed the molding of the door to a bedroom, then ripped it off the wall completely destroying it.  He also chewed the door jamb, and some of the drywall.  DS1 brought the dog home with him and took pix of the damages.  This was the reason for finally deciding to get a kennel in the yard for when they are gone.  DSIL1 went with DS1 and DH to check out the kennels at TS.  They were $50 more than at Lowes, and the top was extra $$.  So after Tractor Supply the men went to Lowes to get the kennel there.  Then they went to DSIL's and helped him put it up.  

Today DS1 finished the pen for the young ram and the wethers.  He wants to do something with the tubs for the pen - he is installing a ring bolt so he can chain them to a stake and they won't get pushed down the hillside. Then this evening we will move sheep around.  A big job since we have to: 
Separate the little ram out from the bred ewes and move him back to the new pen,
Move the sheep from the breeding pen onto the field, 
Separate P9 from the sheep on the field and move her into the breeding pen,
Check P5 to see how close she is to lambing since she got left in the breeding pen, 
Separate the ewes in the lamb pen from their lambs and move them to the breeding pen,
Separate the wethers in the lamb pen and put them in the new pen with the little ram, Leave the ewe lambs in the lamb pen for a week before moving them to the field, and 
Finally harness up Lewis and put him in with the ewes that need to be bred.  
Whew!  Might not get that all done in one day.  We like to do it either early in the am or in the pm when it is not so hot.

Today I remembered my dental appointment just in time to get there.  I thought it was just to put the permanent crown on, but the dentist said that she had to do more work on the root canal!  Now I am on antibiotics for a week and will have a temporary crown on our trip to TX.    She also said that when the Novocain wears off my jaw will "be tender".  That is dentist speak for hurt badly!  

I finished up a lot in the trailer today.  I replaced the smoke detector, replaced the clock batteries (they have needed to be replaced for about 5 years) and sorted out the books and DVDs we keep in the trailer.  Brought 4 bags of books back inside the house, and also cleaned out some other stuff that we don't need in there.  Made room for DS1's 
sodas, and clothes when he joins us in Texas on the 18th.  Still got lots to do to finish up the trailer and remove all the tools and repair debris.  Also need to clean the AC vents. Then I need to get out the items I am bringing to TX to store in the tack shed, wrap them in moving shrink wrap, and pile them next to the trailer to be loaded.  Also the large heavy duty shelf unit that needs to be take apart and loaded.

DH has been watching the weather channel looking for hurricanes in Texas.  He is worried about crossing the desert in the heat.  His plan is to leave on Saturday night after the birthday party and drive all night long until it starts to get hot.  He said then we could get in the trailer and sleep during the heat of the day.  🥵  During the day the trailer is hotter than it gets at night!  After I pointed this out to him, he was very testy.  I told him that we could leave at 2 or 3 am like we did a month ago and travel until evening.  He suggested we run the generator during the day while we sleep in the AC.  Propane is expensive and driving all night gives me a major headache.  We need to keep discussing this.

Since I am being so unreasonable his new plan is that we will go the "northern route" because it will be "cooler".      I told him that once we were in northern TX or OK it would be just as hot as the southern route which is faster. He insisted due to higher elevation it would be much cooler.  We are still "discussing" our route.  We have a week to decide.


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## Baymule

North Texas is hot. West Texas is hot. South Texas is hot. East Texas is hot plus humidity. Take the shortest route. Duh


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## farmerjan

Reading your posts @Ridgetop , makes me kinda glad I am "single"... no one to disagree with where and how to go somewhere....


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## Mike CHS

farmerjan said:


> Reading your posts @Ridgetop , makes me kinda glad I am "single"... no one to disagree with where and how to go somewhere....



All of that made me feel grateful that Teresa married me and eliminated all of that.


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## Baymule

Mike CHS said:


> All of that made me feel grateful that Teresa married me and eliminated all of that.


You and Teresa were made for each other. Y’all took the long way around to get there, but your lives “before” just makes y’all appreciate each other so much more.


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## Ridgetop

DH makes me crazy sometimes, but he is a good guy.  Coffee in bed as I wake up and lets me put my icy feet on him in winter.  He also supports me in all my wild schemes.  We are having to cross some of the hottest states to get to east Texas during a major heat wave across the country.  There is no good route to take.  At least Texas is getting some rain finally.  

I worked on finishing the trailer today.  The repairs are done so I worked on removing all the stuff that was left from the repairs.  Tools needed to be put away in the shed and in the house, bathroom and kitchen scrubbed, all surfaces dusted and wiped down.  Cleaned the AC vent and washed the filter.  Removed DS2's giant boxes (2 large, framed pictures he bought to surprise DDIL2 which he had to store UNTIL NEXT CHRISTMAS!) Made the trailer bed, emptied the trash, and replaced the trash bags.  Packed some tools.  Made dinner and noticed that 18003 was in labor.  Finally, since she was due last Friday.

After an hour 18003 was having trouble.  She might even have been in labor all day.  In the end the water sac arrived, but the lamb did not.  I had DS1 help me and found 2 legs but no head.  I finally found the head twisted under the body but could not get the lamb moved into the right position.  DS1 turned the ewe on her side, then on the other side, then on her back to try to get the lamb into position but no luck.  I went up to the house for reinforcements.  DH came down to help.  DS2 had fallen 2 days ago on the hillside moving up a large bathtub we used as a livestock tank and popped the cartilage from a rib.  He had originally injured those ribs in Afghanistan.  He went to the doctor and was told it would take 3 weeks to heal up again so he wasn't able to help much.  The ewe was tearing badly and beginning to bleed heavily.  I was covered in blood, birth fluid, and sweat.  DS1 was covered in sweat, blood, and birth fluid.  The temperature was still in the high 90's.  After an hour on my knees struggling in the ewe, I called the vet and left a number for an emergency call.  I tried pushing the legs back inside and turning the lamb, I was not sure if the legs that insisted on popping out were both forelegs, or rear legs, or a combination but the lamb was totally stuck, and the ewe was in big trouble.  After another hour on my knees, I called the vet again and managed to get hold of her.  She said she couldn't come out for an emergency C-section and didn't know how to do one on a sheep???!!!  She also said she was leaving for a horse emergency.  I pointed out that I had called at 8pm and left a message on her emergency answering service.   She said she didn't get the message.  (Second time I called for an emergency and couldn't get her out, I won't be calling again.  )     DS1 took a turn at trying to pull the lamb out by the legs that were presenting but no luck.  The ewe was bleeding very heavily now.  DS1 and I discussed the options - all bad.  At this point we had lost all hope for the lambs, and now we figured we couldn't save the ewe.  She was suffering badly.  

I went up to the house and had DS2 load his .22 and come down to dispatch the ewe.  DS1 moved her out of the barn onto loose dirt on the hill so if the bullet went through it would not ricochet off the cinder block walls.  We spread a tarp and DS1 and DH walked her onto that.  DS2 got ready to shoot her.  When he was 14 he had to shoot his favorite dairy doe for the same reason.  I heard him say "I hate killing our animals like this" and remembered how traumatic it was for him with Kiwi.  He had also seen a lot of action in Afghanistan and come home with mild PTSD.  I told him to give me the rifle.  I put 18003 down.   

DS1 and DH tried to get her into the wheelbarrow as I tipped it and steadied it.  DS2 finally took over for DH.  Then DS1 took the tarp wrapped carcass into the barn so the dogs wouldn't bother it.  Then while we gathered the lambing paraphernalia up DS1 called large animal pickup for the next morning.  18003 was a Grade 5, one of my best.

At that point, I noticed that Snowflake (P1) was lambing.  The lamb's head was all that was out and appeared to be stuck.  One leg was back, and one leg and the head were forward.  I pulled it out and it was a large ram lamb.  He was covered in orange meconium showing a stressed birthing, but right away he started struggling and moving around.  Snowflake immediately took care of him.  She was still big enough for a second lamb and remembering OR9 who was slender having a second lamb about an hour later, DH and I waited in the barn for another hour to see if she would have another.  Nothing. At last, a bubble appeared.  After waiting for another half hour with nothing happening, I removed the lamb since sometimes this will hurry the process.  Still nothing.  Finally, DS1 came in and held Snowflake while I checked inside.  No lamb.  We returned her son to Snowflake and dragged ourselves up to the house for a shower.  We had started working on 18003 at 7:00 pm and it was now 11:00 pm.

Finally clean we went to bed where I felt my back starting to seize up, along with my shoulders.  Even my hands started cramping.  Surprisingly my knee on which I had been kneeling in the barn for several hours didn't hurt.  Apparently, it was numb.  I can't take aspirin since on Thursday I have an appointment for an echo cardiogram, so I lay suffering for a couple hours wondering if I am too old for this.  After 2 hours trying to get comfortable, I got up and went to check on Snowflake in the barn.  I love having our barn 30 feet from the house and 4-5' below grade since I can just peek through the windows at the jugs.  Snowflake had a second lamb!  I went down and iodined the cord.  He was still wet but on his feet.  Another large ram lamb.  Snowflake looked a bit surprised at this new lamb arriving 3-4 hours after her first one.  She kept going back and forth as if she thought she was seeing double and was not sure where he had come from.

Like DH said, it was good that they did not go into labor after we left.  18003 would have suffered for a long time before the family realized she had to be put down.  This was 18003's 3rd lambing.  On the other occasions she had no trouble.  I have a daughter from her same breeding as this) who graded 5 as well.  That daughter BL14 has a 3-month-old ewe lamb that the inspector really liked out of my Lewis ram.   

I hate being away from the sheep when they are due to lamb.  

I guess I should go to bed and try to sleep.  I better make sure that Snowflake is taking care of the new arrival first.  I don't want to be traveling with a bottle lamb.


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## Baymule

I’m so sorry about 18003. You gave her your all and tried your best. My heart goes out to you. You lost one of your best ewes and her lambs too. I’m so sorry. Sometimes you have to ask yourself if it’s all worth it, and the answer is yes. Snowflake presented you with 2 lambs. We have our failures, our losses, our hearts get broken, but we have many more successes, many more precious little lambs and our hearts are healed. Big hugs.


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## farmerjan

Sorry about the loss of the ewe and her lambs.  Sometimes it doesn't seem to be worth it.  Been there, done that enough times.  
At least the other ewe surprised you with a second, LIVE lamb.  

Are these the last that are due to lamb before you leave for Texas?  Hopefully no more to worry about for a bit. 

I was "tongue in cheek" about being glad that I am single and no one to answer to about the "travel route".... I am sure he is a great guy and you just "roll your eyes" and go with..... .  
Sometimes would like someone to have the roll the eye's situation...... but better to be single and content,  that to be with someone you are at odds with all the time.


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## SageHill

Just read your posts (albeit years old posts  😉 ). A fellow So Cal person. I competed in herding trials in San Fernando / the San Fernando Valley about 30 or so years ago. Drove through the area about a year ago or so and
wow it has changed A LOT.  As with many of those I trialed with we got our own ranch and now have sheep but really don't trial much any more. We're in Valley Center a couple/few hours south of you.
LOL - hot day so I'm perusing the boards here before I head out to the feed store.


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## murphysranch

I'm sooooo sorry. I'm sure it hurts really badly, and takes a while to get over. You tried your best!


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## Bruce

SageHill said:


> We're in Valley Center a couple/few hours south of you.


That puts you about 15 miles SE of my younger sister in Fallbrook


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## SageHill

Bruce said:


> That puts you about 15 miles SE of my younger sister in Fallbrook


Practically neighbors!! 
Does she have sheep?


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## Ridgetop

farmerjan said:


> I am sure he is a great guy and you just "roll your eyes" and go with..... .


 Sometimes I think I'm getting eye strain from all the eyeball rolling.   A cold cloth over my eyes and a quiet lay down with the blinds drawn is sometimes necessary!

Yes, it's rough to lose animals but that is part of being a rancher or farmer.  Most people don't understand the risks and the monetary losses it means to farmers and ranchers.  We are lucky that this doesn't affect our main income stream.  August has not been a good month though.  One ewe and about 4 lambs lost.  But many people have lost a lot more to this drought and to flooding in different parts of the country.

A couple more need to lamb still.  P5 and P9 show as due September 6, and 8174 did not mark but has giant udder and should be lambing anytime now.  We moved her up and she is sharing a small pen with lots of shade with the young ramling.  DS1 says he will try to get her into a jug in the barn tonight when it cools off.  If she lambs where she is at it will be fine as long as she stays at the top in the shed or near the water and feed where it is level. Otherwise there is a lot of hillside - don't want those lambs rolling away.  Hopefully she will lamb before Sunday.  P9 is due 9/6 with a definite marking, but P5 did not mark.  She seemed to have been overlooked when everyone was moved to the breeding pen.  I don't know how she shows as being in the breeding pen since she is on the large field.  I also don't know how she got on my calendar with a lambing date!  She will go in with the next group to be bred.

*Super hot here - 111 degrees yesterday and 91 degrees at midnight.  Today supposed to get to 112 degrees!*  This is one of those summers that California occasionally has that are off the charts hot and it does not cool down at night.  This is *not* gobal warming since I can remember some years like this from childhood on.  When we moved to this house with no AC, we had at least one summer like this and the kids slept on the patio on cushions to catch whatever breeze there was.   Also had a couple in our old house where we only had AC upstairs.   That house had 10' ceilings and stayed bearable downstairs with ceiling fans.  

Governor Gruesome has figured out how to reduce pollution and vehicle congestion on our California roads.  He passed a law that no gas engines can be sold after 2035, that at least 35% of all cars to be sold must be electric after 2025 *BUT NOW SAYS THAT WE SHOULDN'T USE ANY ELECTRICITY BETWEEN  4 pm AND 9 pm!* No AC, no appliances, and no EV charging.    All electric car drivers will be having issues with this.  Since it is voluntary compliance how many do you think will obey?  I bet Pelosi, Gruesome, and our rulers will all have AC.      They don't have to drive either, they can take their private planes.

On a happy note, Abbott is now sharing Texas' wealth of illegals with Chicago.    Having declared Chicago a "sanctuary city" and continually stating her support for the illegals crossing the border, Lightfoot now is screaming about the havoc this will cause to her city.  Apparently sending people to her city is racist and cruel.  Not so sure about racist but with all the murders in Chicago is it cruel to send people there?   I say, keep those busses rolling!  

I have finished packing and loading our clothes into the trailer, DS1 has gotten the stuff we are taking to store in TX out of the shed and it is ready to load.  However, looking at DH is still tracking storm patterns and weather.  Maybe we will travel back in heavy rainstorms instead of intense heat.  

Hard to judge which would be worse   ⚖️   or better.  I have decided to wait until Saturday to discuss our route since weather and temps may change.


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## SageHill

Ridgetop said:


> Sometimes I think I'm getting eye strain from all the eyeball rolling.   A cold cloth over my eyes and a quiet lay down with the blinds drawn is sometimes necessary!
> 
> Yes, it's rough to lose animals but that is part of being a rancher or farmer.  Most people don't understand the risks and the monetary losses it means to farmers and ranchers.  We are lucky that this doesn't affect our main income stream.  August has not been a good month though.  One ewe and about 4 lambs lost.  But many people have lost a lot more to this drought and to flooding in different parts of the country.
> 
> A couple more need to lamb still.  P5 and P9 show as due September 6, and 8174 did not mark but has giant udder and should be lambing anytime now.  We moved her up and she is sharing a small pen with lots of shade with the young ramling.  DS1 says he will try to get her into a jug in the barn tonight when it cools off.  If she lambs where she is at it will be fine as long as she stays at the top in the shed or near the water and feed where it is level. Otherwise there is a lot of hillside - don't want those lambs rolling away.  Hopefully she will lamb before Sunday.  P9 is due 9/6 with a definite marking, but P5 did not mark.  She seemed to have been overlooked when everyone was moved to the breeding pen.  I don't know how she shows as being in the breeding pen since she is on the large field.  I also don't know how she got on my calendar with a lambing date!  She will go in with the next group to be bred.
> 
> *Super hot here - 111 degrees yesterday and 91 degrees at midnight.  Today supposed to get to 112 degrees!*  This is one of those summers that California occasionally has that are off the charts hot and it does not cool down at night.  This is *not* gobal warming since I can remember some years like this from childhood on.  When we moved to this house with no AC, we had at least one summer like this and the kids slept on the patio on cushions to catch whatever breeze there was.   Also had a couple in our old house where we only had AC upstairs.   That house had 10' ceilings and stayed bearable downstairs with ceiling fans.
> 
> Governor Gruesome has figured out how to reduce pollution and vehicle congestion on our California roads.  He passed a law that no gas engines can be sold after 2035, that at least 35% of all cars to be sold must be electric after 2025 *BUT NOW SAYS THAT WE SHOULDN'T USE ANY ELECTRICITY BETWEEN  4 pm AND 9 pm!* No AC, no appliances, and no EV charging.    All electric car drivers will be having issues with this.  Since it is voluntary compliance how many do you think will obey?  I bet Pelosi, Gruesome, and our rulers will all have AC.      They don't have to drive either, they can take their private planes.
> 
> On a happy note, Abbott is now sharing Texas' wealth of illegals with Chicago.    Having declared Chicago a "sanctuary city" and continually stating her support for the illegals crossing the border, Lightfoot now is screaming about the havoc this will cause to her city.  Apparently sending people to her city is racist and cruel.  Not so sure about racist but with all the murders in Chicago is it cruel to send people there?   I say, keep those busses rolling!
> 
> I have finished packing and loading our clothes into the trailer, DS1 has gotten the stuff we are taking to store in TX out of the shed and it is ready to load.  However, looking at DH is still tracking storm patterns and weather.  Maybe we will travel back in heavy rainstorms instead of intense heat.
> 
> Hard to judge which would be worse   ⚖️   or better.  I have decided to wait until Saturday to discuss our route since weather and temps may change.


Sorry about you ewe and lambs. Never easy - highest highs and lowest lows in this. 
Dang - wish I'd been here earlier - you are a wealth of knowledge. 
I'm slowly adding more sheep - and always looking for Dorpers. Having come from the dog world of herding I've switched over to having sheep rather than only trialing my dogs (huge different between working and trialing).
Fingers crossed for cooler weather - 105 here and mid 80's at night - ugh from San Diego.
Safe travels to your TX ranch.


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## Bruce

SageHill said:


> Practically neighbors!!
> Does she have sheep?


Uh, no.  Not ag people. Not sure they even have a dog anymore.


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## Ridgetop

Do you still train herding dogs?  Considering getting one eventually, but will have to train the sheep to the herding dog.  Also, would have to put up the LGDs before working the herding dog.  As we get older and the flock grows, a herding dog to bring in and separate the sheep would certainly be helpful.


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## Ridgetop

After trying to pull lambs for hours the other day, my back, shoulders, arms, wrists, legs and KNEES have been aching badly.  My new knee feels bruised after kneeling on it for 3+ hours the other night and is a bit stiff now.  It did not hurt until the next day surprisingly.  I took aspirin, Tramadol, and Alleve last night to get a good night sleep. Then woke up 3 or 4 times to go to the bathroom.  I need to drink lots of water during the _day_, not at night when I collapse after dinner and cleanup! LOL Drinking several large glasses of ice water at night just means I have to get up several times during the night! Luckily, I can get to our bathroom, do my business, and get back to bed without opening my eyes!  

8174 is in the jug.  She is breathing heavily, but in this heat they all are.  Doesn't look stressed.  Luckily, they are Dorpers so bred for this type of heat.  So glad they are not one of the wool breeds.  They are mostly shed out with just a small mohawk along the spine. DS1 will move the ewes to be bred into the breeding pen and put Lewis in with them just before he comes to TX.  Need to remind DD2 and DSIL2 to write down the ear numbers of any that get a crayon mark.   

Tomorrow, we have a joint birthday party for DS2 and DGD2. Then we will leave for Texas on Sunday am. Not looking forward to driving in the heat - DH is worried about tires blowing in the heat. He still wants to drive during the night and sleep during the day with the AC running on the generator.    We will see what happens.  Worst comes to worst, we will stop at a motel, use the pool, sleep till around 3am, then travel.  Really hope we hit rain somewhere along the route since it will help with the heat.  BTW supposed to be 113 degrees Sunday!  DS1 suggested that I take the personal cooling fans that run on rechargeable batteries in the truck with us.  I also have some camping fans that are rechargeable that we take with us.  I hang those over the bed when we sleep on the road since the trailer gets very hot.  DH says he will turn on the generator and run the AC when we stop.  

DS2 just had me try his homemade Pico de Gallo for tomorrow's tri tip.  Very hot!!!  He chopped Jalapenos into it.  I told him to tone it down with a couple more tomatoes.  Very good though with lots of cilantro.  He is making Tri Tip for dinner tomorrow then we will bring them over to DD1's house for the party.  She has a pool so we will all be in there.  

This morning DS1, DS2, and DG put in the hitch.  This evening we will pull in the trailer slide out and load the stuff we are bringing to Texas in the trailer.  I am not sure if we will try to look in the connex for the 3rd medicine cabinet.  If it is 110 degrees outside it is probably 150 degrees inside the connex!  There is quite a bit of space since we removed the DR banquette.  I am so happy we did that.  Using a card table and folding chairs I can actually sit on a chair and use my computer now, instead of crouching on the sofa causing major backaches!     Speaking of the computer I will be packing it up tomorrow along with my Texas files, cables, and office stuff.  Tomorrow DS1, DS2, DDIL2 will have to give me their extra luggage and toys/diapers for Robert.  We are taking them back for the kids in the trailer since they are flying and are trying to only take carry ons with the baby.


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## Ridgetop

Tonight I had to pull 8174's twins.  Why?  She did not push and was barely dilated.   The lambs were small, and I was able to coax her vulva to stretch and managed to coax it over the lamb's head, at which point the lamb slid out.  The second lamb was the same.  Both survived but if I had just left her to it, she would probably not have delivered live lambs. She did not eat last night or this morning and just lay in her jug. That is exactly what 18003 did, making me wonder if I had tried to pull her lambs before she was in trouble if I could have saved her and/or the lambs.  Second guessing is non-productive unless it leads to changes in what you do in the situation next time.  That is why when DS1 told me to let 8174 try for herself I didn't pay any attention.  She was calling to her lamb and smelling the amniotic fluid on the floor of the jug with a long string of placental material hanging out with no contractions.   The foot was out and the head just inside the vulva but no pushing going on.  Usually if you pull the first one out it is blocking the second and the second arrives promptly but not this time.  She was still not pushing and #2's foot was hanging out along with the sac so again I eased the vulva over the lamb's head and out he flopped.  Thankfully both survived and are up and nursing.

I think the excessive heat must be causing the trouble I have had lambing this August. Out of 8 ewes lambing I had to pull lambs from 5 ewes!  18003 died with her lambs and I lost 2 lambs from not pulling in time.  4 of the ewes were second or third time moms that had all lambed fine with twins before.  I had one ewe that I pulled a lamb then she delivered another one an hour later but did not clean it and it suffocated. Another ewe delivered her first lamb but the second had to be pulled the next day, dead. Then there was 18003 with the lamb so stuck that I had to euthanize her with lamb still inside.  Even Snowflake had some trouble with her first lamb and needed help.  She delivered the second fine 4 hours later.   Both were very large ram lambs.  A couple ewes lambed without trouble, but I have pulled more lambs just in this lambing cycle during this intense heat than I have ever had to do.  Usually pulling lambs is rare.  Now I am worried about the ewe(s) that are due on 9/6.  They are out on the field still.  Maybe I should just leave them there instead of having DS1 bring them into the jugs.  I really believe that the excessive heat is making problems for the ewes in lambing, dilating or pushing.  DS1 said he will go to Lowes and get a couple large fans to hook up in the barn to give the ewes some relief from the heat.  That is all we can do for them.  BTW 8174's lambs are small but lively and she is a good mother.  AND that trick of Dr. Pol's of tossing a bucket of cold water over an unresponsive newborn actually works!  I have used it several times along with swinging the lamb upside down to revive it.  Swinging the lamb upside down drains liquid from the lungs and breathing passages after a hard birth.  The cold water makes the lamb jump and try to breath.  I still use my snot sucker too if the lamb is still having trouble breathing.


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## Baymule

I think you are right. The excessive heat is causing problems. Do you have a swamp cooler? They are much better than a fan. A fan only blows hot air around, a swamp cooler actually cools the air. In your dry heat, it would feel like an air conditioner.


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## Mini Horses

Agree...your heat is extreme and oppressive right now.   Even a mister in front of fans would help cool at least some amount.  The heat is exhausting, also....they're already too tired to push!


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## SageHill

Ridgetop said:


> Do you still train herding dogs?  Considering getting one eventually, but will have to train the sheep to the herding dog.  Also, would have to put up the LGDs before working the herding dog.  As we get older and the flock grows, a herding dog to bring in and separate the sheep would certainly be helpful.


Yup - I still train them. Mostly I teach others how to train their own dogs - saving my poor old knees for training my own dogs! 
If/when you get one for herding check out how the parents work - at least one of them should work. Starting a pup is fun but also a lot of work. You never know - there may be some border collies that are retired from herding competitions that might be available when the time comes. Big bonus training is done. Of course that also comes with a dog who is old and comes with aging. 
A good herding dog is worth it's weight in gold - knowing you can get things done more quickly and with less effort. But you know that already 
I don't have border collies - they're to obsessive compulsive for me  . There are other herding breeds that are easier to live with. With the last 40 yrs of breeding them for herding they are getting better and better - though seeing at least one of the parents working in this case is a must. Balancing the prey drive and work-ablity is a work in progress. Some breeders who don't know herding will sell the most rambunctious pup as a "great herding prospect" which is about as for from the truth as it gets.
With an LGD - yup you'd probably have to put him/her up when you work the herding dog - but ~it could be that with time your LGD would know your herding dog and let him/her do it's job - though I don't speak from experience on that one. It would all depend on the animals involved.
Stay cool - it's roasty out here -- typical September Summer in So Cal.


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## Ridgetop

Finally have internet and the computer working - for a while at least.  

DG got his wish to leave at midnight of the 3rd and drive all night through the next day. We drove for 19 hours with one meal stop and several gas and potty stops.  Exhausted! Finally stopped at a truck stop to sleep for the night.  Spot looked level, but the trailer was tilted to the side.  I was on the upper side of the bed so all ok.    Very early start in the morning and made it to Groveton around 10:00 pm at Baymule's son's place where she said we could drop the 5th wheel while we went to Tennessee to pick up her new ram. . Baymule drove over took us to her new place.  Next day we did a few errands, dropped the trailer, gassed the truck, showered at Layne's place (still no hot water at Bay's!) Thank you Layne!!!   Then went back to Bay's and hitched the stock trailer for the trip to Tennessee.  Next morning we left at 6am and drove 1500 miles to Mike and Theresa's and collapsed.  Mike and Theresa's place is amazing.  So neat and tidy.  We had delicious food and such a warm welcome we hated to leave.  While we were there Theresa, Bay and I went shopping.  As true and loyal BYHers, we went to the Co-op and feed store instead of the mall.  LOL Got a lot of good stuff.  2 of Mike's ewes lambed while we were in the pasture admiring the ewes and yearling ewes.  One ewe was the ewe that had a C-section the previous year.  She had triplets!  Sadly, she decided that she did not like one of them and Theresa and Mike had to put him on a bottle.  He is doing great, and the ewe was taking good care of her other 2.  On the way back we detoured through Arkansas to visit Palomino and see her new place and her beautiful horses.  We enjoyed our visit with her and her family.  

Back to Apple Springs and unloading Cooper.  He went right into his pen and did fine. Mike was worried that he might be a bit stand offish but he was gobbling cookies from Baymule as soon as he got out of the trailer.  Bay moved a ewe in with him right away and he was very happy.  

We are in Mt. Pleasant now and took most of the items we brought from California to the property to store them in the barn.  We were putting them in the tack room when we noticed that ALL the cows had arrived to watch.  No problem until the bull showed up. LOL  He was more interested in one of the cows though.  DH said he wasn't worried until the bull mounted one of the closer cows.  LOL  DH made sure to stay away from the courting couple and ept his eye on the bull while unloading.  The herd all watched us curiously until we drove off to check the pond level.  It has filled back in a bit with the rain, and the grass looked good.  Not very tall with the drought but looking healthy.  

DH and I decided that for our sheep we won't need all the 15 acres at first and can just fence sections for the sheep.  I guess we will have to do it ourselves after all since the new bid came in at over $^%<))  Sorry fingers in the wrong place - *$65,000!!!* to fence 15 acres. However, it was quoted with deer fencing, clearing the fence lines, water gaps, and forestry mulching which I did *not* request.  The additional culvert was about $1800 but needed to be okayed by Texas DOT.  They also included lodging and meals for the crew for a number of days.  I'm trying to get in touch with the conservation guy about the interior fencing.  Since the perimeter is already fenced, we should qualify for the interior fencing program.  I think we can use the current driveway and road by putting gates into the field for Cody to access his cows.

Got to go.  Hope I can get back on here tomorrow.  At first it told me that the BYH page was not available.  DS1 arriving at DFW tomorrow.  Had to replace our traveling BBQ since the old one was burned out.  Also bought a small vacuum for the trailer and a toaster for DS1.  The BBQ has a stove burner so he can cook breakfast outside on it.  We eat instant oatmeal when we are in the trailer.  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Tomorrow I will try to catch up with everyone's threads.


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## Mike CHS

We really enjoyed all of you visiting and you have an open invitation anytime that you want.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> We are in Mt. Pleasant now and took most of the items we brought from California to the property to store them in the barn.


I didn't realize yout TX place was in Mt. Pleasant. So sad that Joe died, 1) because he was such a character and nice guy and 2) his place was in Mt. Pleasant. You would have had a BYH buddy RIGHT nearby.


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## Ridgetop

Baymule and I were just saying that.  In fact, he passed away the year we came back to Texas and met Bay, BJ, and Devonviolet.  We were hoping to meet him too and it was a shock to read that he had died.    Our place is actually in Yantis which is closer to Sulphur Springs and about 30 miles from Mt. Pleasant.  But 3o miles is nothing!

We took DS1 over to see the property and discuss how to fence for the sheep.  We looked at the "tack room" in the barn and went to Lowes, Tractor Supply and Walmart to outfit ourselves for the chore of cleaning it out.  

Armed with a rake, snow shovel (better for picking up debris), contractor trash bags, trash can to hold said bags while filling them, gloves, and drywall masks, we returned the next day to empty the 10 x 10 room.  Nope, we discovered that the hornets and wasps had made nests in the room and the surrounding barn!  We shoved the tools and trash can inside and went back to Lowes for some heavy duty wasp killer with plans to return today. While DS1 and I were looking for boots in Tractor Supply DH was chatting to a fellow who told him about a dump in Yantis.  

This morning, armed with the map and address, we located another dump in Quitman as well.  Since none of the dumps were open on Sunday or Monday, we went on a road trip to find them so we would know where they were on Tuesday.  The one in Yantis is only about 5 miles from the house!    Armed with the knowledge that we could dispose of the garbage we were about to encounter we headed for the ranch and the tack room. First DS1 went around the barn spraying all the wasp nests.  DH got our folding chairs out of the truck and set them up in the barn.  We put on our special drywall masks and hauled out the tools, garbage can, boxes we had brought from California, and the heavy duty shelving pieces.  Then DS1 started raking and shoveling..  We filled fourteen 50 gallon contractor bags with debris and dirt shoveled off the floor.  We also kept pulling trash wood (none of which was salvageable) out of the room, 5 old window frames, 3 large window screens, miscellaneous junk, canning jars that had been packed in cartons that had disintegrated, rusted parts of toys, an old countertop, bits and pieces of barbed wire, and what seemed to be parts of a disk or plow for a tractor - hard to tell.  I can't believe the amount of stuff that was in the room!  There was also a really old top loading dish washer of some sort which we left in the shed until next time since it was really heavy.  We salvaged 4 wire calf bottle holders, and a small wagon wrench.  LOL  We may have to make 2 trips to the dump with all the junk.  I have pix but am not sure if they will send tomy computer.  Sometimes they do, sometimesthey don't.

After sweeping the empty room out, DS1 set up the heavy duty shelf unit and we put our boxes on it.  Then we came back to the trailer for showers and supper!  Tomorrow the dump it closed so we are going to go to the Priefert outlet that sells "scratch and dent seconds".  It is here in Mt. Pleasant and we are hoping to find some cow panels or gates to close off the barn.  I haven't received my Texas ag number yet - it is probably waiting for me in California but if we can find some good deals then we will pick up some panels.

We found out that the amount of junk had pressed against the walls to the point that the bottom of the walls had pulled out from the supports!  We will have to remove the wood and galvanized panels, clean out the debris there, and replace the walls when we come back.  We are also missing a piece of roofing tin on the north side of the barn which will have to be replaced and one board on the west fascia looks like it might be damaged. Otherwise, the barn seemed to be pretty sound.  We will have to rent a tractor or Bobcat to clean out the years of cow manure, but that won't be too hard to do.  We can dump all the manure in the garden area.  We discussed how to use the barn, where to put the jugs, where to store hay, etc.  DS1 had some good ideas about fencing.  

Speaking about fencing the NCRS fellow from Quitman got back to me and we have an appointment on 9/26 to meet and tour the property to put in a request for a fencing grant.  Apparently, you can put in more than one request, so we can do the fencing in stages.  He will discuss our options when we meet.  

DS2, DDIL2, and baby Robert will be arriving here around the 21st or 22nd from San Antonio where they are visiting DDIL2's uncle and family.  They plan to see the Alamo, the Riverwalk, then are going to Fort Worth on the 20th to meet Kris.  We told them to go to the "longhorn drive" to show Robert the longhorns.  They are flying home on the 25th so we are going to try to have lunch with our great niece in Lindale on the 24th.  Of course we will take them to see the ranch.

My tenant called tonight to say that their AC is not working.  We are planning to replace the entire HVAC system so I gave him the name to call to get the man out tomorrow.  I will call in the am to find out if he has an appointment and maybe we will run over there to meet with the HVAC guy.  We might as well have it replaced now.  His mother-in-law lives with them and has taken a turn for the worse.  The hospice nurse comes every day for her but of course poor Vikki is under a lot of strain with her mom, so I want to make sure that the house is livable for them.  Larry is very worried about her trying to take care of her mother 24/7.  The temps had dropped to a pleasant temperature for 2 days, but today the temps went up and it got humid as well.  I will check tomorrow with them to make sure the HVAC guy will come out.  The tenant was very apologetic, but I assured him that if we couldn't get it working or replaced that we would go to Lowes and get him a couple window AC units until we could get it replaced.  We can always use the window units in outbuildings later.

DS3 called last night and asked if we wanted to take Skittles back.  Apparently, he is working almost permanently out of Salinas which is 150 miles north of Nipomo where he lives.  He is living up there in his trailer and only coming home on weekends.  My poor DDIL1 is in Nipomo on her own with the 2 boys.  Having DS3 gone all week is difficult for her.  Her sister was renting a trailer on their property, but she moved to Oregon and DDIL1 feels very alone and is very depressed.  It didn't help that 2 of their 4 horses got colic several weeks apart!  Skittles is the TWH that we bred out of DH's TWH mare.  She is a lovely little jet black mare, and of course we said we would come get her when we get back to Los Angeles.  I also said I would take Sage who is a little grulla mustang I originally adopted through the mustang program.  DDIL1 wanted him so I gave him to her, and she did all the groundwork and then had him trained.  She had sold him to a lady, but the lady brought him back because he was pining for Skittles (they have been together since they were both yearlings) and the lady's other horse was beating him up. He is small - about 14 hands - so I can probably get on him.   Anyway, we will bring both horses back home and eventually bring them to Texas along with Josie the Mule who is about 2 years older.  They were friends before so will be glad to see each other again.  

Off to bed before another big day of ranch stuff tomorrow.


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## Baymule

Yay! Clean up the barn! It’s a start, lot more to do, but that is one real nice, big barn! Glad DS1 likes the farm. Boo on the wasps, spray them! 
I hope the HVAC guy comes out and gets the AC going again. Or you could replace it now and charge it off to your rent house!


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## Ridgetop

Worried about the tenant's poor MIL in the heat all night so called the HVAC person first thing this am and left a message.  Then called tenant and spoke to him.  He said that they left the AC off all night, and it started up this am.  Thought it was probably frozen up and would last for another month now.  In the middle of our conversation the HVAC man called me, so I talked to him and had him go check the C to make sure it stayed on.  I also asked him to call me back to arrange a meeting about replacing the entire system.  The tenant said that the heat does not work in the back 2 bedrooms anyway, so the entire system needs to be replaced.

Today we are going to Walmart (return), Prieferts (checking the scratch and dent outlet), and doing laundry here.  I would like to see the Dairy Museum in Sulphur Springs too.  Each time we tried to go before it was closed.  It is closed on the weekends, go figure. We have to check on renting some equipment to scrape out the years of manure in the barn and dump it in the garden space.  Looking forward to growing a great garden eventually.  Also have to plant fruit trees this winter.  Have to look up what varieties do well here in Texas.  Want to plant apricots, plums, nectarines (don't like the fuzz on peaches), apples, cherries, pears, and whatever else will grow well.  Need to be varieties that take winter chill.  Maybe also some grapes and berries although those take a lot of pruning.  Of course, all fruit trees need proper pruning since some fruit on new growth branches while other varieties fruit on 2nd year branches.  Prune the wrong way and you don't get any fruit.  I also need to learn what plants and flowers grow well in Texas since I am second generation southern Californian and only know those plants.  For instance, some perennial plants and flowers in so Cal are annuals in cold winters.  Learning curve coming up.  LOL

This am we are watching the royal funeral while we have breakfast. Major change in the world order.  Hope Charles can hold things together.  Maybe assuming the throne will be formative for him.  He already commanded William and Harry to behave and reconcile. Had to laugh when I read that "Uncle Joe" was relegated to a seat behind Poland, in front of Czechoslovakia, and across from Korea.  DS1 says "So much for our special relationship"    The grandchildren and great grandchildren of QE11 are really grieving. She had a close private relationship with them and having to appear in public while mourning her passing has to be hard for them, particularly the younger ones.  Very sad to realize that they have lost a well-loved mother and grandmother, while the people of England have lost the focal point of patriotism. No wonder the Brits dislike Meghan and Harry for causing her so much distress in her last years.  They wouldn't bring their children to see her either.  Such a pity.  The pomp surrounding the funeral and interment is magnificent to see.  So sad to see the end of an era.  I hope that it will not be   

Anyway, so glad that DS1 likes the property and is thinking of how to set up the rotational grazing fencing as well as the jugs in the barn.   We only drove around in the truck and he wants to walk the property.  Here are some photos of the junk we removed from the 10 x 10 room.   If they will load.


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## Ridgetop

Each picture is taking about 20 minutes to load!  SLOOOOW internet here!  
First 2 pictures are of the 10 x 10 room halfway through the emptying process.  Yeah, incredible that half of the garbage is already gone and it still looks like that!  LOL



Next picture is of big lumber pile including some of the window frames that we removed from room.  Fourth picture shows the little room that was bud as a "tack room" in the barn, with DH standing in front of it, and 14 bags of garbage in front of him.  Incredible that it all fit in that 10 x 10 space!  There is still more to remove - including a decaying door up on the rafters.  LOL
   More boxes of trash are to the left of the bags.  There is a large pile of metal (tractor parts?) behind the post to the left of the room.

The room is empty now except for 2 shelving units and the few items we brought out in our trailer.  But it is ready for more shelves and more items we will gradually bring out. Once we get into the house, we will have to do another emptying job on the 12 x 20 storage building in the back yard of the house.  We assumed that the tenant was using the building for storage but he said that only the few bits of fishing equipment in the front belongs to him.  Everything else in the building was left by the previous owner.  He says it is packed with junk!  DH looked through the windows and says it is full of old paint cans, small aerosol cans of stuff (WD40 type stuff) that will need to go to the hazardous waste dump.  we will enquire as to where that is when we take the lumber and garbage to the dump Tuesday am.

Luckily, unlike a lot of the places we looked at, the pastures are pretty free of junk other than some goat weed.  Cody said they sprayed for it but missed some spots which is where the weed is coming up.  He said they will be back next week to cut some weeds and burn some of the brush they already removed.  He said to just throw our stuff on the pile, but we will just take it to the dump and check out the place since we will be removing stuff from the house later too for replacement.  

Check out the huge garden spider that is living on the face of the barn.  Her body was about 1.5" across.  With her legs she would be about 4-5"!  She has a giant egg sac too. These spiders eat wasps as well as other insects.  We were careful to let her alone to encourage more wasp eating.  LOL  Keep up the good work girl!


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## SageHill

Wow wow wow - just reading makes me tired then looking at the pics and YIKES! You're rocking through this - you've got the vision!! WTG


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## Mike CHS

I can relate but you are getting it done.


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## Baymule

It's so nice that your DS1 is there to help, he will be so valuable in cleaning up the place and running the sheep farm. Y'all have a lot of work to do, it's smart to get a head start on it. At least the dump is close by.


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## Ridgetop

So yesterday since we did not have anything else to clean out and the dump was closed, we went to the Priefert outlet. We priced gates and panels in the "seconds" yard and then scored in the "thirds" yard that had 2 panels and a 6' gate with wire on it. DS1 immediately wanted the small gate for the property in California to replace a chain link gate. If had a BIG dent in the top arch (no wire on that) and we called it an "Art Gate". I told the salesman that it would be a "statement piece".   One 12' panel was pretty damaged, one 10' panel did not look damaged at all, and we got all 3 pieces for $65.  The seconds - 16' gates with wire were $210 each and they looked just as good as any you would find at Tractor Supply.  Like DS1 said, after coming home in the truck, being unloaded, and a couple months use on the ranch they ALL look like "seconds"!  

Really glad about the dump being only about 10-15 minutes away!  We went early and loaded up a load and went to the dump.  3 trucks ahead of us and the guy said that if we had a lot of wood to dump we might have to wait until next week since it had been really busy that morning already!  We dumped the garbage and went back for the wood and metal.  (Metal dumps for free in another spot of the dump.)  We quickly loaded the wood and metal and another bag of garbage and got back to the dump.  As we were dumping the last of the junk and wood 3 more trucks and a trailer  pulled in to dump.
  Here is the clean tack room.  

You can see the opening in the corners where the walls have pulled apart at the bottom. The area at the bottom of the walls needs to be cleaned out and the walls reattached to the floor.  Not a hard job once we are there.

DS2, DDIL2 and Robert are having a good time visiting places in Texas. They bought tickets for the rodeo Saturday night in Fort Worth for all of us. On Friday we will drive to Lindale to the all-you-can-eat Eastern Buffet.    They fly home on Sunday.  DS1 will stay here with us and travel home by car with us.  DS2 asked where Baymule lived and when he found out she was down near Houston said he wished he had known he would have gone to meet her.  DS1 said that would be hard since she was my imaginary friend then laughed uproariously.  Bad DS1, no biscuit!  

Still didn't get the laundry done today.  Went to Walmart and grocery shopped.  Will have to find another grocery store once we are living here since Walmart is expensive.  We will check out Aldi for produce, and a couple of bargain grocery outlets.  Also will put in a large vegetable garden and can a lot of the veggies.  I have 2 pressure canners, 2 hot water bath canners, and boxes and boxes of canning jars in our shed which will be coming with us.  I really would like to try the new electric pressure canners.  I saw one in Washington State but the store closed up during Covid.  I will check on line and also check the reviews but being able to set it and have it keep the pressure without always adjusting the heat would make canning lots of jars a lot easier.  

Got an appointment tomorrow with the Legacy Land Bank which does farm and ranch loans to discuss interest rates and possible loans.  We need to put up a large carport to protect our trailer and vehicles from hail, also a storage tank for the well since we will be using the well to water the sheep and garden.  And possibly a tractor loan eventually.  Just a discussion so we know what is available and doable.  Next week we meet with the NCRS fellow for Wood County.  

Our tenant, Larry, wants lamb and said he usually gets about 4 deer each year.  He will trade venison for lamb.  He also gets a lot of hogs.  He said young gilts cook up beautifully in the pressure cooker with a recipe he uses to make pulled pork.  Yum!

Really have to do laundry tomorrow!


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> But 3o miles is nothing!


I don't think that is even a measurement in Texas!



Ridgetop said:


> snow shovel


They actually sell snow shovels in Texas? Wow, talk about a space "taker upper".


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> I don't think that is even a measurement in Texas!
> 
> 
> They actually sell snow shovels in Texas? Wow, talk about a space "taker upper".


30 miles is just a quick trip to town.   

They are not called snow shovels, they are STABLE shovels. No snow to speak of, but PLENTY of manure!


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## farmerjan

At least all that pork is the epitome of true "FREE RANGE"  animals!!!  I know all the ranchers I am in contact with would much prefer to not have all that free range pork running around and would rather have to go buy confinement raised pork because that would mean their fields are not all dug up like a bad tilling job.


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## Baymule

Feral hogs are pretty good meat. Shoot, clean/skin, chill in an ice cooler several days, process.


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## SageHill

Ridgetop said:


> So yesterday since we did not have anything else to clean out and the dump was closed, we went to the Priefert outlet. We priced gates and panels in the "seconds" yard and then scored in the "thirds" yard that had 2 panels and a 6' gate with wire on it. DS1 immediately wanted the small gate for the property in California to replace a chain link gate. If had a BIG dent in the top arch (no wire on that) and we called it an "Art Gate". I told the salesman that it would be a "statement piece".   One 12' panel was pretty damaged, one 10' panel did not look damaged at all, and we got all 3 pieces for $65.  The seconds - 16' gates with wire were $210 each and they looked just as good as any you would find at Tractor Supply.  Like DS1 said, after coming home in the truck, being unloaded, and a couple months use on the ranch they ALL look like "seconds"!
> 
> Really glad about the dump being only about 10-15 minutes away!  We went early and loaded up a load and went to the dump.  3 trucks ahead of us and the guy said that if we had a lot of wood to dump we might have to wait until next week since it had been really busy that morning already!  We dumped the garbage and went back for the wood and metal.  (Metal dumps for free in another spot of the dump.)  We quickly loaded the wood and metal and another bag of garbage and got back to the dump.  As we were dumping the last of the junk and wood 3 more trucks and a trailer  pulled in to dump.
> View attachment 93590  Here is the clean tack room.
> 
> You can see the opening in the corners where the walls have pulled apart at the bottom. The area at the bottom of the walls needs to be cleaned out and the walls reattached to the floor.  Not a hard job once we are there.
> 
> DS2, DDIL2 and Robert are having a good time visiting places in Texas. They bought tickets for the rodeo Saturday night in Fort Worth for all of us. On Friday we will drive to Lindale to the all-you-can-eat Eastern Buffet.    They fly home on Sunday.  DS1 will stay here with us and travel home by car with us.  DS2 asked where Baymule lived and when he found out she was down near Houston said he wished he had known he would have gone to meet her.  DS1 said that would be hard since she was my imaginary friend then laughed uproariously.  Bad DS1, no biscuit!
> 
> Still didn't get the laundry done today.  Went to Walmart and grocery shopped.  Will have to find another grocery store once we are living here since Walmart is expensive.  We will check out Aldi for produce, and a couple of bargain grocery outlets.  Also will put in a large vegetable garden and can a lot of the veggies.  I have 2 pressure canners, 2 hot water bath canners, and boxes and boxes of canning jars in our shed which will be coming with us.  I really would like to try the new electric pressure canners.  I saw one in Washington State but the store closed up during Covid.  I will check on line and also check the reviews but being able to set it and have it keep the pressure without always adjusting the heat would make canning lots of jars a lot easier.
> 
> Got an appointment tomorrow with the Legacy Land Bank which does farm and ranch loans to discuss interest rates and possible loans.  We need to put up a large carport to protect our trailer and vehicles from hail, also a storage tank for the well since we will be using the well to water the sheep and garden.  And possibly a tractor loan eventually.  Just a discussion so we know what is available and doable.  Next week we meet with the NCRS fellow for Wood County.
> 
> Our tenant, Larry, wants lamb and said he usually gets about 4 deer each year.  He will trade venison for lamb.  He also gets a lot of hogs.  He said young gilts cook up beautifully in the pressure cooker with a recipe he uses to make pulled pork.  Yum!
> 
> Really have to do laundry tomorrow!


WOW!! Fantastic work on the tack room - amazing!!
I got a Presto Electric Pressure Canner and LOVE it. sooo easy. Pricey - but I can fill it, turn it on and leave it.


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## Ridgetop

Just what I want!  With 2 of them and the 2 stove top ones, I can process at top speed instead of standing for hours in front of the stove and sink!   

Met with Marc at the AG bank yesterday and learned a lot of good info about Texas farm loan rules which will be useful for the ranch operation.  Had a really enjoyable conversation with him.  He told us NOT to borrow for a tractor since many of the tractor sellers give 0% interest.  Then DH decided he needed a pedicure, so we went there.  Had it in mind to go price trailers (info only) afterwards but got our wires crossed - I thought he wanted to go to the one on the way back to the KOA while DH meant the one on the way to the ranch from SS. Different directions from SS so we grabbed a Chick Fillet, came home and did laundry instead.  No rush on pricing trailers.  I thought DH wanted to price _cargo_ trailers (he had a lead on a 24' used one) but it turned out he wanted to price _flatbeds_ so he could haul a tractor, panels, and hay.  I guess we need to discuss our plans more fully.  With the extra space in the 5th wheel from removing the banquette we will be able to bring a lot of stuff back inside the 5th wheel as well as in the truck bed.  I will go through the stuff we will be moving to decide what we don't need that can come back now.  We have about 4 36x30 rabbit cages still in the shipping boxes not put together, along with boxes of feeders, auto watering system parts, nest boxes, etc. that can all come back.  Not to mention the older cages that I need to take apart and they can be boxed up flat pack to bring back.  Oh yes, and the chains and clevises/hooks with which to hang them.  Those can all come back in the trailer along with some other boxes of equipment, etc. for repairing the house and barn.

The 30 acres next to our place is on the market again.  The buyer decided it would cost too much to build the 12 houses he planned and has put it up for sale by owner.  DH wants me to call him to see what he is pricing it at.  Interest rates are around 8% plus right now!  DH wants to buy it but don't know if we can manage the payment right now.  And our stocks (along with everyone's) are in the toilet so no use selling them.  I really miss Trump and his economy!

Speaking of whom (indirectly) did everyone catch Biden's speech to the UN?  He started off ok but at the end he lost his way, mumbled confused stuff, and then couldn't figure out how to get off the stage.  It wasn't even laughable, just embarrassing and sad.  Another person got up on stage, thanked him, and kept talking to cover up but poor Biden sort of wandered around on the wrong side of the stage.  I feel really sorry for Jill Biden having to see her husband deteriorate and having to cover for him.  I also felt bad for the USA to have our president shown in this sad light.  It is no wonder Russia and China are feeling their oats.     However, a wandering disoriented Biden is better than a cackling Kamila!  Or Pelosi!  At least for another 2 years if we can hold out.  

Got hold of the fence guy our electrician recommended.  He is local and actually lives a few houses from us (so a few miles LOL).  This guy works for Coca Cola and does fencing on the side so I am hoping we can get our fencing in and can work with him as we extend our fencing.  We are meeting on Saturday morning.  We are meeting with the NRCS guy on Monday.  Maybe we will get an idea of how to fence to start, and what it will cost.  Hopefully we can get started on doing the fencing now.  

Also got hold of the HVAC guy and have set up to meet with him to discuss tenant's concerns about the HVAC - no heat in winter in back bedrooms, etc.  HVAC says unit is new - 2015 - and in good condition so maybe an inexpensive repair or new ductwork for bedrooms.  

Might be back sooner than February to get some of the work done.  Getting anxious to get stuff done for our move next year.  Fencing is major requirement.  We can rent a Ditchwitch to put in water lines for the sheep pens with little trouble.  Once the tenant is out of the house, we will be able to come back with a truck and flatbed or cargo trailer of supplies, tools, and equipment since we can stay in the house while working.  The fridge and stove stay so will only need to bring card table, chairs, blowup mattresses (don't tell DH), TV, VCR, and camp chairs while working on place.  Once we are moved in, I will paint the rooms one by one and shampoo carpet in the BRs for now.  Redoing floors can wait until we decide what to install.  Setting up ranch operation is more important than house at the moment.  That is why most ranches/farms have good solid barns and outbuildings while the houses are little and sometimes need paint!  LOL


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## Baymule

By the time y’all are ready to come back, I’ll be better and can come help.


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## Ridgetop

Went to pick up Baymule from the hospital and take her home after her surgery.  Then I stayed with her for several days.  That woman is hard to keep down!  After the 5th time of telling her to stay in her recliner and I would get the drinks, I threatened to duct tape her to the chair.   She kept trying to wait on me!!!  We enjoyed our extra visiting time.  she was up on her feet and barely using either the cane or walker.  Such a showoff!  But I was so happy that she said the surgery took away most of the pain she had been suffering.  What a relief or her.  I was worried about leaving her when DH came back since i didn't quite trust her not to jump up and go to work.  

While I was with Baymule, DH and DS1 emptied out the other storage shed on the property and took the junk that had been left there to the dump.  DS1 found an antique oak school desk when cleaning out the shed.  The tenant was going to throw it out but he saved it.  It is the kind with the fancy scroll work sides that hold the writing portion to the back of the seat in front.  I will refinish it and put it on the front porch with a flower pot on the desk.  It will look very cool with a couple of outdoor rocking chairs and hanging pots of flowers on the front porch.  And my old farm milk can.
Then they went out tractor comparison shopping looking at what they could get, prices , and ease of use. Some brands were less comfortable for DH with his knee problems.  There was a large difference in prices too.  DH talked to Baymule's son about tractors and he advised not to get the rocker type forward and back transmission.  DH and DS1 enjoyed their father-son bonding and got a lot of information.  We will probably get the attachments used or elsewhere instead of buy them all new from the dealer.  Some implements are made better by different manufacturers, while the amount of work we want to do with them will have a big effect on whether to buy a costly one or cheaper one.  We are not making hay or ploughing for crops, so we can get by with cheaper makes of some things.

DS1, DH and I met with the NRCS representative and drove around the ranch.  He told us a lot of the info we needed to understand about how to apply for a grant for rotational graze fencing.  We will need a water source in each pasture with a plan for supplemental water source in case of emergency.  We have 2 ponds but don't want our sheep drinking from them due to the dreaded liver fluke.  They will be used for the cows.  Instead, we will use a ditch with to put in water lines to each pasture which will end at 100-gallon troughs with a float valve.  We have a lot of 100-gallon trough so just need to pipe the water from the well to the troughs.  We can turn the water off and on to each trough as we move the sheep out of the pasture into the next one.  Since we have city water that would count as an emergency source.  DS1 and I need to draw up the boundaries of the property and locations of the current barn, etc. then figure in where the fences will go.  After we are sure of where to put the fencing, we submit the plans for approval and apply for the grant.  Once the grant is approved, we sign a contract and have a certain amount of time to get the fencing installed.

DS1 is now on board with the plan of the ranch and says that he will miss his little nieces and nephews badly but sees that the ranch can be doable.  DS1 is worried about the expense of the farm equipment and wants to look at used equipment.  I think we would be better off to buy a new tractor and get everything else used.  I think that DS1 is getting more interested in the ranch since we are encouraging him to do a lot of the planning.  

DH caught a bad cold while I was at Baymule's from sitting directly under the AC in the trailer.  I made him stop at Walmart on the way home and bought some Delsym cough syrup and cough drops.  On the way back DS1 called and asked us to check at Tractor Supply for some of the Country Vet home and dairy spray that goes in the time-release battery-operated sprayers.  Apparently, we were out of the dspray (99% pyrethrins) at home and they couldn't find any for less than $29 per can on Amazon.  This was at 5:30 pm on Saturday night!  Called 3 different TS stores on the way home but all out.  Then called Atwood's in Mt Pleasant and they had a different brand but thought it would work.  We went there and it would fit so I bought 20 cans for $11 each.  DS1 said he thought we could get buy with 5 cans and he might be able to get some on Amazon at a different supplier cheaper, but I wasn't taking any chances.  Each can lasts 30 days, and we have several sprayers in the house.  We went through this same problem about this time last year since this is technically after fly season and everyone is sold out with no idea when the new stock will come in.  On the way out of Atwoods I walked past the vaccine fridge and discovered they had PENICILLIN!!!  I can't get it here and tried in Tennessee and TX but no one had it.  As of January 1 it is a vet only prescription drug!  I turned right around and bought 12 bottles - they only had the 100ml size and they were pricey.  The next day after thinking it over though I went back and bought another dozen vials. 
We arrived back in Mt. Pleasant after a 4-hour trip, and I sent DH straight to bed with Actifed for the runny nose and Delsym for the cough.  I also threw in a couple antibiotic pills just in case.  He slept all night then had a hissy fit in the morning when I made him go back to bed.  He wanted to get up and pack for the trip home so we could leave but I flatly refused to do it.  Then I hid the truck keys.  I kept him in bed the next day with the meds and he slept most of the day.    He was a lot better by Monday so we packed up ready to pull out early Tuesday.  By then I was coming down with his cold.  I loaded up on the Actifed and Delsym and slept a lot of the trip Tuesday.  DS1 drove half of the way and we made good time.  We hit rain in New Mexico.  We stopped Tuesday and Wednesday nights to sleep.  On Thursday - only 49 miles from home the truck just stopped running.  DH was able to coast onto an off ramp where he and DS1 found that we had lost a water hose and the radiator was dry.    

This required a tow truck for the truck -  under the 50 mile limit to Galpin (our truck's second home) so 2 hours later off Twinkles went.  DS2 came out for us in our car since we needed to transfer some of our stuff to the car before the trailer was towed away.  The tow truck for the trailer took longer so we all sat around in our camp chairs outside the trailer in the shade on the off ramp waiting for it to show up.  After another 2 hours we were trying to decide if we should just camp there like homeless people and assigning sleeping areas when the tow truck showed up.  He had bad news.  He did not have time to take the trailer to our house that night.  The trailer would be stored overnight in a locked impound lot with a loose guard dog so would be pretty safe.  The traier wuld then be delivered the next day.  But that meant we had to scramble to get our meds, toothbrushes, etc. out of the trailer.  DS1 reminded me to get the Penicillin out of the fridge.  I decided take all the frozen food (a couple steaks and some ground meat) and some of the perishable fridge items home too.  5 hours after our earlier eta of 2:00 pm we finally dragged homecaround 7:00pm.   

Oh yes, did I neglect to say that when we got into the car we discovered that our 2 daughters had used the car and the gas tank was almost empty?!    DH was very irate to say the least.  He favored us with a diatribe on the thoughtless behavior of children who use your car when you are out of town, run your car out of gas, and then don't fill it back up.  The rule has always been that you can use the car with permission, but it comes back with a full tank.  This rule had been broken and DH was sniffing for blood.  Luckily, we made it to the gas station before we ran out.  Had we run out of gas the situation would have been dicey.  DH spoke severely to both our daughters later that night.  Both had used the car and each denied that she was responsible for using all the gas.  Did we care whose fault it was?  NO.  These are adult women.  Their father snarled at both of them equally for several hours.  They were wise enough to listen and apologize.  I unloaded the car, took a shower, took meds and went to bed.  

This morning DS1 got us all up to meet the trailer at the shop.  The tow truck was a larger one and the driver didn't think they could get it up the hill so DH decided to have them deliver it to the trailer repair shop since we had some trouble with the brakes on the trip.  This meant that DS1, DH and I all went over to retrieve all the clothing, dirty laundry, etc., and possessions that needed to come out of the trailer after a month-long trip.  While DH discussed the problem with the trailer guy, DS1 and I unloaded everything from the trailer.  I had brought 2 very large suitcases for our clothes, & shoes.  Our jackets, tools, the inflatable mattress, camp chairs, etc.  would also come home.  _*The car was almost completely full when DS1 remembered that the trailer shower stall was full of DS2's and DDIL2's excess suitcases from their Texas vacation, along with all their souvenirs, etc. *_   He managed to get everything into the car with the exception of the mounting block.  We use it to get up high enough to reach over the sidewall of the truck and plug in the brakes.  

Once the truck is back from Galpin we will retrieve our trailer which now requires another repair job on the drawers.  The drawer glides on 2 drawers need replacing.  I will take care of that when it comes home.  We also found out that the card table and chairs we used are too large for the trailer space.  Mainly the chairs which are large, molded, folding chairs and very comfortable but also large.  However, we wrapped them in plastic and left them stored in the shed at the ranch.  We can use them in the house when we are moving in.  

Came home from unloading the trailer and put all the clothes and stuff away.  Doing laundry.  Got to figure out what to do for dinner.  Probably do roasted chicken.  While DS1 gassed the car yesterday on the way home DH and DS2 went in and bought 2 BBQ chickens.  The head of lettuce and tomatoes from the trailer will do for a salad.


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## farmerjan

Your truck problems were like ours....only we were in Pa so not close to anywhere for anyone we knew to come get us... and it turned out the electronic crap could only be fixed by the dealer... and we were on our way TO,   NH... 
It seems to have been a year for vehicle problems for everyone going on trips... us with the truck then the flats on the trailer.... the friends from NH when they left to go south to Ga and all those truck problems... at least not on the way back to NH when they took me... you problems @Ridgetop  this trip and didn't you have some issues before, @Baymule  with her new car back a bit ago.... my Explorer with the AC and in the shop for over 6 weeks... just keeps on....

Glad you are home... and yes, the "adult kids" deserved every bit of dressing down.... 
Glad the NRCS meeting went well... so glad that you will be able to get some money... hope the country doesn't go to "he// in a handbasket before then",  and the money dries up...


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## Baymule

I’d say except for the breaking down part, y’all had a good trip. Y’all got a lot done and as Chairwoman of Entertainment , we had a great time! LOL 
I thought I had after surgery care nailed down and when that blew up on my face, you were there to make sure I was ok. I sure appreciate that.


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## Ridgetop

I thought that was just a ploy to get me some "vacation time" away from my husband and son.  We had fun!


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## Baymule

Ridgetop said:


> I thought that was just a ploy to get me some "vacation time" away from my husband and son.  We had fun!


SSHHHHHH!!!! Don’t let them know!


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## Ridgetop

DS1 came in this morning and told me that we have to sort out sheep.  The older ewe lambs will remain in the barn/ creep pen and their mamas will go onto the field.  The youngest lambs will get their second vaccinations, get tagged, and they and their mamas will move into the barn/creep pen leaving the jugs to be cleaned out and limed.  The other ewes will be sorted as to who needs to be bred and who are already bred.  Knowing that DD2 and SIL2 wouldn't bother keeping track of the ear numbers if they were in a breeding situation, DS1 pulled the ram from the breeding pen before he left for Texas.  All those ewes now need to be sorted as to when they will lamb and who needs to go into the breeding pen.  

In addition, Raphael called and said that he finally got his fencing up for the sheep he bought from us.  He bought them the second week in July and left them here until he got his fencing.  I told him that we would have to charge him for the extra feed while he kept them here and he agreed.  They have been here for 3 extra months now, and I gave him a low price when he bought them since I wanted them off the feed bill.  LOL  He will pick them up on Tuesday.

Finally finished the laundry from the trip.  Everything has been put away.  We are all exhausted.


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## Ridgetop

Found the picture of the antique school desk!  Here it is.  Once I sand it off and varnish it with exterior grade urethane it will look great.  I have just the spot for it on one end of the front porch.   Now I just have to figure out what cool project to do with the cow stanchions I brought home from the old barn in Yelm. There is one in the barn in Yantis too.




 

    Desk will go on far right end of porch along with antique milk can.  2 white outdoor rockers will go on left side of porch.  Change of paint color on trim, power wash of exterior, and some pretty flowering shrubs around base of porch.  Maybe hanging plant baskets on porch overhang too.  The tenant has a gardener who mows the lawn.  I think we will hire him too since we will be pretty busy renovating the house after we finish fencing the pastures.  Eventually I would like to have some sort of fence in the front of the house as well.  Then the sheep can mow and fertilize for us.


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## Baymule

That low price to get ‘em off the feed bill backfired. LOL Sure you can charge for feeding them, but you can’t rip his head off for it. Nice of you to keep them for him, he’ll be back for more because y’all treated him so good. 

Laundry! That’s a chore!


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## SageHill

The desk will be a fun project, it's going to look great on the porch. Beautiful home too.


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## Ridgetop

He bought the sheep July 16, 2022.  *That is almost 4 months ago!*  According to when the younger ewe was exposed she can lamb as early as the end of this month!  I had DS1 figure out the amount of hay they were eating.  28 bales at $25.00 per bale.  I knocked off a couple bales and am only charging for 25 bales.   I don't think that is exorbitant since we are paying $25.00 a bale buying our alfalfa from him.  On the other hand if I had known he was not going to pick them up for* 4 months,* I would have taken them to the auction and not bothered breeding them for him.  LOL  "No good deed goes unpunished" as they say.  He is picking them up today.  We still have to dock, tag, and vaccinate and move the jugged ewes into the barn/creep pen with their lambs.  Then we start cleaning the jugs and getting ready for the next crop.  Th first one - 7088 - is due to lamb 10/30!   These are my money crop of January/February auction lambs.  12 due to lamb.

My cold has almost finished up.  I have not taken any cough syrup today and have hardly coughed at all.  Got the porta crib packed up and ready to go into the shed.  It was not being used for the past 5 months but couldn't seem to find time to package it up and remove it.  The highchair can go to the shed too since Robert now sits on a booster seat and chair.  New baby due in 2 months!  

Made 60 chicken enchiladas yesterday and froze them.  I will go out today and pack them up in freezer bags.  I freeze them without sauce and then can remove however many I need for dinners, add the sauce and bake them.  They take up less space in the freezer that way.  My back was killing me after a whole day on my feet, deboning the chicken, chopping the green onions, filling and rolling the enchiladas.  Hurt so bad that I couldn't stay up for dinner.  They are done now.  I guess I need to watch for sales on ground meat - beef, chicken or turkey, pork, etc. to make meatloaves.  I like to make about 40-50 lbs. of meatloaves and freeze them.  I used to shop for all this stuff and spend 3 days making meatloaf, chicken enchiladas, spaghetti sauce, chicken divan, etc. for the freezer.  I guess I can't manage that type of cooking marathon anymore.    When we move to Texas I can make smaller portions to freeze since there will only be 3 of us.  Making vast quantities of food comes from cooking for 6, and when I did licensed daycare I cooked for 4 extra children that stayed for supper.  Moving into my "prime" is difficult!

Surprise!  Overcast today and now it is sprinkling - not exactly raining yet - just getting the ground wet.  I wonder if we are going to have a wet winter.  That would be wonderful.  

Got the heating replaced in Yantis.  Apparently, there was good AC but no heat pump.  The electric heat the tenant said was costing a fortune and did not warm up the house.  He was running electric heaters in all the rooms.  This will be warmer and cheaper.  He also said that the fireplace worked great to warm up the main room and kitchen so we might use that more when we move back there.  There is a lot of dead wood and some dead trees to take down.  Hopefully it will be good wood to use to heat with.  Some wood is too oily and some burns too fast to make a good fire for heating.  Either way, we will cut a lot of the dead stuff up and rent a log splitter to get the usable stuff set aside next year.


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## Baymule

I know where you could get a lot of free firewood……….. LOL

You did good cooking up all those enchiladas!


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## SageHill

Oh man - now I'm hungry after that post!!!
We got some wet stuff from the sky down here too. I had to use the wipers coming home from TS. Slow going on the twisty roads - not complaining at all - slow is good for the mpg. Of course the ranch got all of 10 drops 😆 . A wet winter would be a good thing 🤞.


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## Ridgetop

Thunder and lightning right overhead today and heavy rain - for about 10 minutes!  Then blue skies and sunshine.  Heavy clouds to the northeast though so   

last week. Rafael came today to pick up the sheep.  Typical Ridgetop mess.  

Last week I asked DS1 PLEASE let's dock, vac, tag, and move ewes and lambs out of jugs and into the large creep pen.  All I got was tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow  I wanted to empty the jugs and sort Rafael's sheep into them so we could just run them up the ramp and into his trailer. But *NOOOO let's not do that the easy way, because SOMEONE knew exactly what pens they were in and would be able to sort and load them easily straight into Rafael's trailer.*  *RIGHT*.

My cold is much worse and I had to cancel several doctor appointments that I had been waiting for due to my horrific coughing.  Naturally when Rafael arrived I had to get up and come out to give him the paperwork.  He wants more sheep if I have any more for sale so I tell him about the ewe with matitis that has half her udder and has a ram lamb at side.  He wants to buy her so ok I put a cheap price on her and warn him about the mastitis means that he will have to make sure she can raise twins on half her udder,  He says he is fine with that.  It saves me a trip to the auction yard and I give him a couple tubes of mastitis treatment.  

Then DS1 can't find one of the ewes.  I tell him she is in the breeding pen but he insists that she is not.  So much for DS1 knowing exactly where each sheep is.  DS1 insisted that he had put 0439 in the breeding pen "just a couple days ago" because she had a lamb with her in the creep.  *WRONG*. We had separated 0439 and O5 in July and moved them into the breeding pen back then. Their lambs are over 6 months old now. I don't argue since my head is pounding and DS1 is now complaining that I don't know where my sheep are.  

After a bunch of messing around for an hour they still can't t find O5.  Was she a retag?  I told Rick she would be the one without a red or blue tag in her ear.  WHY?  Because she was not a grade 4(red tag) or 5(blue tag) which are the only ones that get tagged during the inspection!  And that is why I am selling them, thy r Grade 3 Commercials.  DUH!  Doesn't he listen?  why *NO*!!!  I am his mother so naturally I don't know anything. *GRRRRR!*  I walked out to the sorting chute and pointed her out to him.  Just about then one of the younger ewes takes a flying leap in the pen, gets tangled in the hose and* BREAKS OFF THE WATER PIPE!* Not just a small water pipe but the large reducer from the 2" farm feeder pipe coming up the hill.  *Now we have a huge gusher in the yard. *No need to go to Yellowstone - we have our own Old Faithful.  Much yelling and screaming with many people running back and forth hysterically trying to decide what to do about this catastrophe.  Raphael and his buddy have a front row seat for the confusion that is Ridgetop.     We should have charged admission.

DH rushes to the car to drive 1/2 mile down the hill to the street to the main shutoff.  I keep yelling at the boys that *there is a shut off at that pipe connection* but they inform me that I am WRONG.  I keep insisting that there _*is*_ a shutoff there since it was installed for this very reason - to avoid having to drive down to the street to turn the water off at the main.  I am ignored.  Finally, DS2 goes to look and *OH WOW!  MOM IS RIGHT! THERE IS A SHUT OFF AT THE CONNECTION! * About then DS1 remembers that he installed one.  Just shoot me now!  The shut off connection is right at the gushing geyser.

Big discussion between DS1, DS2, DGS1, DGS2, etc. about how to reach in and shut off the valve without getting wet from the Old Faithful geyser.  Really?   DS1 grabs a bucket and hands it to DS2 to try to put it over the gusher from the other side of the fence.  No go, the bucket is catapulted away by the force of the water pressure. By now I can barely stand up, my head is pounding, my nose is running and I am out of Kleenex and patience.  I grab the bucket, ignoring cries from my children that I "will get hurt", wade into the water and cap the spray.  DS1 and DS2 are mad that I have gotten all wet so DS1 pushes me aside to take over which immediately causes the bucket to fly off the gushing fountain.  Now I am completely soaked.  The weather has turned chilly.  Disgusted I go inside to dry off and change.  I no longer care about turning off the water.  I hope they all drown.  By the time I change and return outside DH has come back up the hill to say that DWP has changed the water meters and his old water main tool won't fit to turn off the main.  DS1 has managed to turn off the shut off and he and his father shout at each other for a while.  DH insisting they need to call the utility to turn off the water and DS1 trying to make his father understand that he has turned it off at the shutoff.  Finally, things calm down and they are again looking for O5.  I point her out again and this time they load her up.  

Finally all the sheep are loaded in the trailer.  The month old lamb is in a box in the cab to avoid getting trampled.  Rafael and his friend pull out - but OOPS!  DD1 is blocking the driveway with her car while she complains about her sister with whom she is having another of their usual spats.  I go in the house and get dinner out of the oven.  DS1 and DS2 go to the hardware store to get the plumbing parts to repair the broken water main so they can take a hot shower.  DD1 takes her children and dog home.  

I go into my room and collapse.  Another Ridgetop day is ending.  But we still have to dock vacc, and tag.  Oh right, that is for tomorrow . . . .


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## Baymule

Your family should be on a reality show. You had ne howling with laughter. Your reality show wouldn't even have to be scripted, y'all have plenty of crisis and screw ups.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> DH talked to Baymule's son about tractors and he advised not to get the rocker type forward and back transmission.


Did he say why? My Mahindra has that type and I like it. I can ease forward and backward with barely a movement of my foot.



Ridgetop said:


> Found the picture of the antique school desk!


Very nice! Stand up desk with a seat. Don't forget to get an inkwell for that hole, I doubt they made the desk with a cupholder.



Ridgetop said:


> I go into my room and collapse. Another Ridgetop day is ending


I bet. Good thing you don't know Jack about anything on your farm


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## farmerjan

That old desk was designed to have another directly behind it... they were made that way to prevent having separate desks and seats....  but maybe I am saying something that you were kiddingly saying tongue in cheek about a stand up desk.


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## Baymule

Bruce said:


> Did he say why? My Mahindra has that type and I like it. I can ease forward and backward with barely a movement of my foot


Because he has a bad knee and it is difficult for him to bend it back.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Very nice! Stand up desk with a seat. Don't forget to get an inkwell for that hole, I doubt they made the desk with a cupholder.


What?!  No cup holder?!  You mean kids actually went to school to learn instead of just fooling around?  Yes, I know the desks were all attached together.  Didn't naughty little boys (like Penrod) dip girls' pigtails into their inkwells?  Does that age me talking about Booth Tarkington's Penrod stories?  

Went down today to the barn with DS1, DGD1, Robert, and DS2.  We tagged, docked, vaxed, and moved everyone into the larger pen with the creep.   No crazy Ridgetop fiasco, everything went easily and quickly.  If only everything would go that way.

4 of the 5 ewes in the barn with lambs were tagged Excellent #5.  The lambs are all sired by Moyboy who had such a large percentage of #5 daughters.  I decided to tag and dock both of Snowflake's twin ram lambs since she was judged as just about perfect by the evaluator in July.  I will register them and may decide to take them to a show. If not and we eat them, I am only out a couple of ear tags.  LOL 

DS2 is a very good judge of sheep and he said that he liked both of Snowflake's ram lambs and also several of the other ewe lambs.  One in particular he really liked is both a daughter and a granddaughter of Moyboy.   Her grandmother is 8040 who was a really nice ewe.  I am thrilled that BL12 had such a nice daughter since she is the only daughter I had out of 8040 before she died.  B12 is a #5 Excellent.

DGD1 is a big help with catching the lambs and bringing them out for shots, etc.  Robert stood in the barn holding his Josie carrot and watching.  He almost got run over by a ewe only once.   LOL   DS2 said to put him in one of the jugs to be safe, but I figured he would play with the dirty hay and eat poop.  It would build immunity, but his mother might not like it.  Towards the end of the job he got bored and complained that he wanted to go feed Josie his carrot.  Pretty good for only 9 months old.  When we finished DS2 took him and DGD1 to feed Josie.

Now that the jugs are empty, we can clean them out and lime them.  We need to get ready for the next batch of lambs who are due to arrive in November.  7088 is definitely pregnant and is due on 10/30 according to my notes. She is the first one to lamb.  I am not sure whether or not to move the ewes that are due into the jugs yet.  I might just pen them in a communal pen and let them lamb together then move them into jugs once they have their lambs.  They are easier to catch in the small jugs to vax, etc.  Once we are in Texas I can let them pasture lamb on grass then move them into jugs.  

I read an article about a farmer in one of the really cold northern states that lambs November through January.  He turns his barn into a communal lambing pen then move the ewes and their lambs into jugs situate around the sides of the barn after they lamb.  He says it is an easier method, and he feels it is better for the ewes to be with their flock when lambing.  I can't take the chance on "pasture lambing" since my pasture is on such a severe slope. The lambs will roll to the bottom of the gully (happened once), the ewe might get cast (happened once), or they disappear into the gully bottom and we have to go find them and carry them uphill (happened a lot of times).     We are getting too old to do this anymore.  I mean too much in our prime!


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## Ridgetop

Baymule said:


> Because he has a bad knee and it is difficult for him to bend it back.


I think Layne also said that that type of transmission change wears out faster.  Not sure, but DH has decided not to get that type because he his bad leg is the one he has to use for that pedal.


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## Mike CHS

Ridgetop said:


> I think Layne also said that that type of transmission change wears out faster.  Not sure, but DH has decided not to get that type because he his bad leg is the one he has to use for that pedal.



I wish I had thought about that while you were here as we could have let him drive ours to see how it worked for him.


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## Ridgetop

He tried a Kubota with the rocker type pedal - just sitting in the cab.  We will keep looking at different manufacturers for a tractor,  DH and DS1 looked at John Deere and Kioti (sp?) and another one.  I was not with them.


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## Margali

We have a New Holland dealer near us. The cab was roomy and my 6'2" had enough leg room. Dominic liked it cause the 55hp had a jump seat.


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## Bruce

farmerjan said:


> That old desk was designed to have another directly behind it... they were made that way to prevent having separate desks and seats....  but maybe I am saying something that you were kiddingly saying tongue in cheek about a stand up desk.


No, actually I said what I thought was the case! 

I wonder how many kids annoyed their up front neighbor by kicking their desk and thus the seat of the classmate.



Ridgetop said:


> I think Layne also said that that type of transmission change wears out faster


I don't think the rocker pedal vs twin pedals has any effect on the transmission, it is just another way of doing the linkage from pedal(s) to transmission. 

Transmission types are Hydrostatic, Geared (like your usual manual transmission), Shuttle shift, Power shuttle. Given DH has a bad leg, he would probably want a hyrdo or power shuttle as no clutching is involved when going between forward and reverse. Still need to clutch to change gear range (mine has L-N-M-N-H, I almost always have it in Medium) and at least in the case of my Mahindra, start the tractor and to engage/disengage the PTO


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## SageHill

Ridgetop said:


> He tried a Kubota with the rocker type pedal - just sitting in the cab.  We will keep looking at different manufacturers for a tractor,  DH and DS1 looked at John Deere and Kioti (sp?) and another one.  I was not with them.


Good he got to try other types. I've got a Kubota and love it - it doesn't take much - but if he's got a bad knee then that would be a good reason not to go with the rocker.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch

Have you watched any YouTube videos from Sandi Brock / Sheepishly Me? She is a sheep farmer up in Canada and has a huge barn where the sheep all lamb. they are in a communal pen and as they lamb she moves them into jugs at one end of the pen so they can bond and the lambs don't get stolen by greedy ewes. She has moveable panels to put the jugs up as needed. She does a lot of videos each lambing season and has a lot of sheep.


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## Ridgetop

That is the same way the farmer described doing it in the article I read, except it was a guy in Minnesota or Michigan.  I will look for her videos.  Lambing in very cold areas is harder than lambing in warmer areas.  I had l9ts of trouble in August, losing a ewe and several lambs due to excess heat.  I have lambed in the heat of August before without that sort of trouble, but this was the hottest August in years and was also humid.  

We can lamb all year round here in southern California.  Our only climate problem is when we have a rainy season like El Nino.  Then we need to lamb under shelter so the lambs don't drown in mud, or get pneumonia.  Texas will be a big change in management practices as well as in feed and parasite control.


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## Ridgetop

I am worried about Barber Pole worm when we move to Texas with our White Dorpers.  Dorpers (referring to the black headed Dorpers) have a reputation of limited resistance to Barber Pole.  Katahdins have a reputation for Barber Pole resistance due to the St. Croix breed in their early development.  

However, I remembered that Wes Patton told a seminar that they had started their White Dorper flock using St. Croix sheep which they then bred to Fullblood White Dorper rams, registering the offspring ewwes as ercentges until they reached the necessary % to register the final products as Purebreds.  Reading Pal Lewis' home page I saw that he did the same thing using the St. Croix base ewes and upgrading with imported Fullblood rams and using AI.  have calls in to Paul Lewis and Wes Patton whose bloodlines I use heavily.  I want to discuss the Barber Pole problem with them.  Since most of my foundation White Dorpers were purchased from Wes and Paul, or go back to their flocks, the White Dorpers I have may be less susceptible to parasites.      Paul Lewis is located in southeast Oregon and Wes Patton is located in northern California above San Francisco.  Both of these places get considerably more rain than we do in southern California. Oregon is considerably colder in the winter, and northern California where Wes lives get a lot of humidity in the summer.  Neither seem to have much problem with parasites so a discussion with them seems in order.  Both of them sell a lot of sheep to Barber Pole afflicted areas so maybe checking with those breeders about parasite resistance would be helpful too.  Gotta do my homework.


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## Baymule

You might have parasite resistant stock and not know it. The change will be hard on your sheep. 

I know with cattle, taking cattle from lush green east Texas to west Texas and they do very poorly. You’d think bringing west Texas cattle to the green grass of east Texas would be great for them, but it ain’t so. 

You will have to be careful with the sheep. Let them out on the grass for limited time daily.


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## SageHill

Oh those lush green pastures that us So Cal folk dream of. Now you're taking the fun out of it!


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## Ridgetop

I hope that the flock will be somewhat resistant to parasites.     I will have to do fecals to make sure of the worm load.  Even if the sheep prove to be somewhat resistant I will have to keep up the fecals.  

On the rare seasons that we have water (El Nino) we have to be careful about turning our animals out to graze.  We have to still feed them with dry hay in the mornings before turning them out to avoid founder and clostridia.  Then they don't always want to come back in at night if there is sufficient green grazing.  This draws the coyotes and makes the LGDs work harder.  If we get a rainy season this year, I will pull all the sheep off the barn/creep field and off the breeding pen pasture in order to get some forage to grow.  It won't be enough for the number of sheep I have now, but those 2 pastures will give them some grazing just for their enjoyment.  When I had fewer sheep and we had an El Nino couple of years, we didn't have to buy hay for 4 months!    And the lambs made 80 lbs. by 4 months on grass alone.  Of course I now have about 4 times that number of sheep.

Any change in feed is a problem and there will be a *BIG* change in feed for the sheep when we move to Texas.  I will have to gradually change the sheep over from alfalfa to grass hay and pasture.  If I move the sheep back during the winter, and feed them on hay until the pastures come back in spring, I might be able to get them switched over to pasture easier.  

I need to double check the protein content of alfalfa against pasture.  And do a soil test to find out what minerals are present or lacking in my soil.  Since I am currently feeding prime alfalfa (southern California alfalfa is some of the best, containing a good measure of selenium and other necessary minerals) I will have to test for selenium and other minerals in my pastures when switching the sheep onto Bermuda grass.  Alfalfa is 14-20% protein while Bermuda grass hay is only about 8-10% protein, with changes in protein count depending on whether the hay is first, second third cutting and when it is mowed. Considering protein percentages, I may have to provide a protein supplement during breeding and lambing, particularly to my lactating ewes and lambs.  Loose mineral and salt will be much more important on pasture.  Right now we use a good quality trace mineral salt block in all pens which seems enough.

The calcium percentages in alfalfa are much higher too (about 3X) which can lead to a lack of phosphorus.  This is why feeding alfalfa hay or pelleted feed to rams and bucks can lead to urinary calculi.  Urinary calculi are tiny calcium stones that form in the bladder and when passed through the urethra can cause blockages.  These blockages prevent the animal from urinating and can cause death if they are not dissolved or removed.


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## Baymule

Is your Yantis pasture grass Bermuda or Bahia? You keep talking about Bermuda. Did the NRCS rep recommend Bermuda? 

My sheep don’t want the Bermuda. It’s the LAST grass they will eat. They love Bahia and other grasses, forbs and weeds. Bermuda monoculture is the Golden Standard here, sprayed for those pesky weeds, lush, green and makes lovely pastures to look at hurtling down the highway. Those monocultures may make good hay, BUT are a wasteland for sheep. The sheep eat the Bermuda HAY, but don’t want the fresh grass. Go figure. 

In the lack of hay this summer, I bought Bahia hay from son’s cousin. Guess what? Sheep loved it! Bahia hay is brown and ugly, but they like it. 

When y’all come back, I want to walk your pasture with you. Maybe load up the Kawasaki mule and we’ll ride the pasture, since the 3 of us are members of the “Knee of the Month Club”. LOL

What I’m trying to tell you, is get off the Bermuda fixation. It is contrary to what the Ag experts preach, but when did either of us ever follow the status quo?


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## Ridgetop

According to the NRCS guy most of the acreage is in Bermuda pasture.  The front 2/3 of the property is straight Bermuda while the rear leg (1/3 of the property) is Bahia.  The cows don't bother to graze that rear section.  The cows stay up in front and near the pond.  Since Bermuda is what we have the sheep will have to eat it.  Too bad for them since I don't plan to feed them anything else. LOL I can overseed the front pastures with clover and broadleaf pasture mix.


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## Baymule

Sow some Bahia seed. it will come up.

You DO have California sheep. They probably wont know any better.


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## Bruce

Easy solution Ridge, leave the sheep in California and get some Katahdins from Mike


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## Ridgetop

No offense to any Katahdin breeders but I _*love*_ my White Dorpers.  We have put a lot of effort into getting our flock to be consistently meaty, healthy, with a very high weaning weight.  I never have to worm even when we get rain and the green stuff grows high and heavy and the sheep are completely on it.  Not very often does this happen, but when it does it is wonderful.  I don't have Barber Pole here, but we do have other types of worms.  I feed exclusively alfalfa hay with no pasture so my exposure to any type of worms is minimal.  I will just have to be careful to fecal test and cull.  Having reached a very consistent level of conformation, growth, and shedding I will start culling for parasite resistance in Texas.  

I did talk to Wes yesterday.  He said that although by now his original St. Croix based flock had been diluted with Fullblood and Purebred White Dorper bloodlines, he felt that they were probably as parasite resistant as any other breeds that had not gone through extensive culling for parasite resistance.  His opinion was that once we are in Texas if we test rigorously and cull heavily that we should have a pretty resistant flock in a couple years.  His opinion is that parasite resistance is not confined to a specific breed, but to specific flocks whose owners test and cull.  

Mike&Theresa and Baymule fecal test and cull heavily which is how they have reached the level of parasite resistance they have.  Not all Katahdin breeders do that.  Not all Katahdin sheep are parasite resistant either.  Some are just as susceptible as any other breed to worms, particularly Barber Pole.    




Baymule said:


> Sow some Bahia seed. it will come up.
> 
> You DO have California sheep. They probably wont know any better.


I will oversow the pastures with a Bahia seed and sheep mix.  My sheep haven't had any grass pastures so any green stuff they eat they will think is delicious.  LOL


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## Mike CHS

Every once in awhile I see posts on Facebook where someone is having losses that they can't explain and would just about guarantee that they don't do or get fecals done.

I don't know if it will grow in Texas but Lespedeza also helps with control of Barber Pole.   The tannins in the legume are thought to control parasite levels by creating an unfavorable environment in the rumen that hurts parasite productivity and fertility.  We first heard about that at a pasture walk up in Kentucky.  We had quite a bit of it but the sheep kept it down enough that it didn't come back.


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## Baymule

Yes, it will grow here.


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## Ridgetop

I wonder if the Lespedeza would get blister beetle.  I understand that is why you can't grow alfalfa in Texas (south of the Red River).  If it is a kind of clover it might be ok.  I will check into it.

I am checking with Dorper breeders in east Texas about their experience with Barber Pole.  The more I know the better prepared we will be to avoid problems.  At this point I think frequent rotations through the pastures will be the best bet.  There was an article in the latest issue of Dorper Report about setting up and finding funding for small farms.  I am going to look into that too since there are low cost loan programs you can get for equipment fencing wells etc.  Some of these programs offer special things for women farmers.  Worth a look - when I can't sleep at night!  LOL

Our 45-year-old Casablanca ceiling fan finally stopped working.  Actually, it will still work - just the high speed has stopped working.  But as DH says, after 45 years it won't be long before the other 2 speeds quit as well so he bought another one.  Normally we would just take it down and take it to our friend to repair but Art passed away about 10 years ago.  The original Casablanca was expensive.  That was when ceiling fans were just becoming available to the general public.  We couldn't buy them at the hardware store.  We had to go to a specialty lighting store.  It cost several hundred dollars 45 years ago and was a major investment.  We had several of them and brought them from our old house.  This bedroom fan gets a lot of use, running most of the time during the spring, summer, and fall until the weather gets really cold.  We have one last Casablanca fan in the formal living room but it seldom gets turned on so will probably last forever.  When we moved here we installed ceiling fans in the other 3 bedrooms but not Casablanca fans.  They lasted for quite a while, I even took them down and spray painted them to match the decor when I redid the kid's rooms!  We did not have AC in this house when we first moved in and we have replaced them only once in 35 years so they have been a good investment.  Hopefully this one will last for several years.  Not 45 years of course, but we usually get 10 to 15 years out of our ceiling fans.  And they help with the AC and heat costs.

We did bring our rooftop AC with us though and were able to install it.  Since the old house was torn down for apartments, we made sure to have right of salvage and brought a lot of stuff with us which we were able to install in this house.  Built in appliances, doors, dual pane windows, our custom kitchen cabinet that Daddy made, etc. What we didn't use Daddy used when he built his retirement house.

DH has started walking across the field for exercise.  H has measured how many times he has to walk across to make a mile.  I think I might start walking with him.  I am steadier on my feet since the knee replacement, and it will help strengthen the knee muscles.

I made lamb stew today with purchased lamb shanks.  You can tell the difference in our home-grown lamb and those commercial shanks.  The smell cooking them was different and you could smell the sheep smell.  They were still tasty.  I will do a pork roast in the Instapot tomorrow.  I am trying to use the older meat from the freezers before we take the 3 lambs to the butcher the end of the month.  I am getting several meals out of each piece of meat I cook.     Just like when the kids were small and I could get several meals out of one chicken for 2 adults and 4 children.  LOL  I am serving smaller portions too which helps tye meals go farther.  I have to make sure to feed us either before or after other children show up and sniff longingly with their puppy dog eyes.

Today I decided that I will start going through my cabinets and box up some stuff to take to Texas  I have some hand thrown pottery mugs with hand painted horses on them that I bought over several years at the annual Horse Expo.  I would like to take them to Texas with us.  I also have some bedding and linens that can go.  DS1 had a set of china that we packed up and brought home from his apartment in Reno.  We can take it to Texas and leave my other china here or leave this hear and take the Pfaltzgraff to Texas.  Haven't decided yet.  I also haven't decided whether to take my Tupperware canisters or get new airtight cannisters in Texas.  A lot of stuff I will just buy new instead of bothering to pack it up and transport it.  Some furniture, paintings, and rugs will come with us along with some pieces of furniture.  I hate buying new furniture since a lot of my stuff is older ad better made than what you can get now.  I will have to buy DH a new office desk but will bring my oak desk and all our file cabinets since we need them for our office and business records.  DH wants to buy a new sofa and recliners in Texas instead of bringing the ones we have out.  I think there is a Laz-E-Boy outlet back there.  But some of the wood pieces we have will be coming with us.  We will just buy new beds in Texas.  No, not inflatable ones!  Although we might use those at first while we are painting ad redoing some of the rooms.  

I realized when we got back from Texas that I forgot to take the 3 oak cabinets that we had left over from the apartment renos back with us!  They are still sitting on the patio!  DUH!  They will fit in the 10 x 20 shop building behind the farmhouse to hold tools and equipment.  We will need to do repairs on the barn tack room before we can put anything in there because of the dirt coming through the walls.  The walls are pulling off the floor and leaving a large gap where the dirt blows in.  We will have some repairs to do to the walls as well as running electric to the barn.  However, we want to put a fridge in the barn to hold bottled water when we are working out there as well as the meds I will be keeping on hand for the livestock.  In fact, I can use the freezer to store goat milk, colostrum, and the powdered lamb formula to keep it good.  There is some sort of washing machine/dish washing machine out there too that is very old and has a lift up lid instead of a drop-down door.  Not sure exactly what it was used for.  I think we tossed the racks that were supposed to be inside it though.  We meant to take it to the dump, but it was too heavy, so we left it there till next time.  I will check it out when we go back since it might make an airtight container for grain or dog food to keep the rats out of it.  Although my niece said she can get us barn cats and kittens whenever we want which will help the rat problem.

I couldn't sleep again last night so got up at 1:00 and did some computer research until 4:00.  Alarm was set for 7:00 since I had a PT visit scheduled for 8:00.  At 6:00 the phone rang, and some guy was talking about being at the door with a rental something.  Turned out that DH had rented a lift to work on the overhead lights on the barn over the driveway BUT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DELIVERED AT 9:00AM!  Naturally I fel back asleep while DH and DS1 went out to get the dogs in and bring the lift onto the drive.  I missed the alarm and was late to PT.  DS1 and DS2 are working on the electrical wires and lights and have to keep going to Lowes for stuff.  DS2 has gone to the neighbor's custom metal shop to fabricate some brackets since they couldn't find any to fit at Lowes.

I am working on the fencing layout now to send it to the fencing guy so we can get a price.  I checked with FSA about a loan for the fencing which must be paid off in one year.  A Micro loan will end up to $50,000.  The interest rate is low.  They won't loan for buildings or wells without the property being free and clear so they can put a lien on the property.  The woman is not sure if the land has to be free and clear for a lien though before loaning for fencing.  The woman is checking with the supervisor.  They will loan for equipment and livestock without a lien on the property since the collateral is the equipment and livestock.  These loans are supposed to be for startup farmers.  I don't know any newly starting farmers that can afford to have free and clear land though.  I only need to have the 5' fencing to get the dogs and sheep moved on the property, then we can do the NCRS applications and start the rotational pasture fencing.  There are additional loans for buying farms etc. up to $600,000 though.

The good news is that as a woman I am considered to be a "socially disadvantaged person" and thus eligible for special stuff.  The bad news is that at the moment there is no special stuff available.  On the other hand, when I mentioned that DH was a disabled military vet, she said that there were extra programs for them.  She said both of us should apply.  Maybe we will be able to get a loan for the fencing and can get it installed now.  DH said that he could sell some stock but we will take a real loss on that.


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## Baymule

I hate that 2 AM wake up call!! Toss and turn, no sleep and feel groggy. Blech. You have a lot on your mind and you need to turn it off so you can get some sleep.


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## Ridgetop

No way to turn it off without drugging myself with tranquilizers.  LOL   I have resorted to them occasionally when having anxiety attacks or after 3-4 consecutive sleepless nights.   Last night I slept well since I was exhausted.  LOL

I just looked back over this post and am wondering if this information would make a better article for one of my sheep magazines with a little better intro and a bit of tweaking.  Or even as an interview article.  What do you all think?  

Called a Dorper breeder in Sulphur springs who was able to give me more information about Barber Pole in northeast Texas and Dorpers.  He has the black headed Dorpers not the White Dorpers.  He allayed my fears somewhat about Barber Pole and other parasites.  This gentleman runs several thousand purebred Dorpers and commercials.  He also uses Katahdin ewes in a crossbreeding program for several thousand more sheep that he uses on contract to clear windfarms.   Mr. Howard spent at least an hour on the phone with me discussing pasturing Dorpers, rotational grazing, management variations, worming, possible problems, and ways to deal with them.

According to Mr. Howard _*no*_ _*sheep coming to northeast Texas or other areas of high rainfall will escape Barber Pole and other parasites.*_  Good management is what will make the difference in a successful sheep ranch. When discussing the claims of Barber Pole resistant/free flocks, his belief is that many people that are advertising that they have a BP free or resistant flock are rotating their sheep flocks daily through very small pastures.  He believes that the breeders rotating their sheep so frequently are working with flocks of 50-100 head or less.  If you are rotating the sheep that quickly they will usually not pick up the infection* if* the grass remains 3-4" tall or taller. These BP "resistant" claims may be due to the frequent rotation on grass averaging more than 4". The frequent rotations on high grass mean that the sheep will avoid a heavy worm presence since Barber Pole usually can't climb higher than 3-4" on the grass stems.   This may be why the owners think their sheep are more resistant.

Daily, weekly, or even monthly rotations are not suitable for large commercial flocks of 1000 head or more running on thousands of acres.  He rotates his sheep, but the pastures are much larger since he runs so many sheep commercially, and he rotates more infrequently.  Daily or even monthly rotations are not financially feasible for commercial producers.  He believes that some small flock producers are fencing in very small pastures in order to make daily rotation easier.  He feels that the pastures can be larger, and you can rotate less frequently as long as you keep an eye on the growth of the grass.  The magic number is 4".  Keeping inedible weed growth controlled is also necessary for successful larger pasture rotational grazing.

Mr. Howard also agreed that testing and culling are the _only _way to make sure you maintain a BP resistant flock. Since frequent fecal testing (or even Famacha) is not usable for large commercial flocks (hundreds to thousands) he believes that a judicious use of fecal sampling along with biannually worming with BP wormer is the best way to ensure you maintain a flock that is pretty BP free or resistant.  He recommends combining this with fall lambing to make sure that the lambs are older and more resistant when they go onto fresh pasture.  By checking those sheep that look peaky and culling any that need frequent worming he manages to keep several thousand sheep on large pastures free of heavy BP infestation.  I discussed with him worming ewes as soon as they lamb when their worm shed and load are heaviest.  He agreed that this should be sufficient with another fecal check 6 months later. Any sheep that require more worming should be culled.  He said that he also worms his lambs once at weaning when they go onto fresh pastures to fatten for the slaughterhouses.

I asked him about Katahdins and their reputation for being more resistant to BP.  He agreed that they had some extra resistance and said he was experimenting with using Katahdin ewes in his commercial flock.  He is doing some crossbreeding with several hundred Katahdin ewes in a commercial flock to see if he can add more muscle meat to the lambs and possibly combine the best traits of the two breeds. His opinion is that they are good mothers, reliable twinners, and raise good, healthy lambs BUT they don't carry the meat that the Dorpers are known for.  Katahdin lambs weigh 30% less than the Dorpers at market age.  This means that you have to pasture or feed Katahdin lambs several months longer, thus raising your overhead which reduces profit.  For commercial producers that 30% lighter weight at the slaughterhouse means a lot less $$$ on the check when selling by the lb. This is the reason that larger commercial growers are not turning to pure Katahdins for commercial use.  He said that Katahdin rams do seem to be more docile and laid back than Dorper rams.  His main problem with Katahdins is their lack of meat compared to Dorpers.

While keeping Katahdin lambs on pasture for an extra several months doesn't cost the same as dry lotting them, it takes away from the growth of pasture grass.  * Pasture is not just grass.*  It needs to be considered the same as other feed when figuring your costs of raising livestock.  Keeping your pasture healthy and growing requires healthy soil, occasional fertilizing, liming, *and water*. In drought years like the past summer in Texas, pastures suffered, and fewer head could be grazed.  If you are having to carry slower growing lambs on pasture an extra several months this can be a problem during drought.  f you have a very wet year, you have other problems.   When the pastures are flooded the flock and lambs can't feed and sometimes the pastures are washed out.  The farmer has a lot of problems to surmount!


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## Ridgetop

My almost new double oven malfunctioned last night just after putting in the potatoes to bake.    It worked fine when I programmed it but about 10 minutes later DS1 walked in and asked what was wrong with it.  First the LED display showed random bits of light instead of the temp and control commands.  Then it went blank except for 2 tiny LED lines flashing at the top of the display panel.  The oven was still hot, but not for long.  We thought it might have been something that the guys did while working on rerunning the electric wires for the barnyard lights, but no. Repeated turning on and off of the circuits did not reset it either.  Luckily DS2 saved dinner by firing up his Trager and baking them on it. However, what happened to the oven?  The repairman is coming today - $90 to look at it, shake his head and say "I dunno"?  Hopefully he will be able to figure out what is wrong.  The company said he would be out today between 3 and 5 pm.  At least we don't have to wait for weeks to find out what is wrong with it.  That wait time is probably reserved for any repair parts to arrive.  LOL  DS1 tried to get an idea of the problem but got nothing from the GE people.  He might be able to repair it  - he has done repairs on our first oven and on the dishwasher.  He knows how to replace those pesky computer boards but without knowing what is wrong with this one he is stuck.  Hopefully we won't have to get another oven.     This one cost a lot and is only 6 years old.  I don't want to spend any $$ on another oven - I want my Texas fencing installed.  I wonder if I can do Christmas baking on a Trager.  

At least the guys got the barnyard/driveway lights up and working yesterday.


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## Baymule

That oven will still be useful. Dig a hole in the yard, build fire. Then go get the racks out of the oven and place them over the fire. Baking dinner rolls can be accomplished with 2 greased pie pans. Put rolls in one pie pan, cover with the other. Halfway through, flip pans over. Done! Take your bows and amaze your family. ANYBODY can use a Trager, but you are the QUEEN of survival cooking!


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## Ridgetop

One of the girls in my ETI group used to make sticky buns and cinnamon rolls that way at horse camp.  First person to set up camp saved her a campsite.  She camped in a pup tent with her one-horse trailer pulled by her small SUV.  The person who was lucky enough to camp next to her was assured of cinnamon rolls and sticky buns!  She was very popular!  She was also a lot of fun.  My best memory of horse camping was when the two of us were on a ride and got lost.  Most of the trail signs had blown down and were laying on the ground next to the sign reading 
*"DANGER!  COUGARS IN AREA!"*.  
Luckily, she had a map of the trails.  Unluckily, it was a very windy day and when she took it out of her saddlebag to read it tore in pieces and blew away!  Eventually we found our way back to camp.   GOOD TIMES!

The repairman came and collected his $90.00.  He believes it is the control board.  He is checking on how much it will cost to order the part and replace it.  DS1 said that he priced the part online and it is $200.00.  He thinks he might be able to replace it himself, but we will see what the repairman wants to charge.  If not too much will pay the repairman his pound of flesh.

Making soup in the Instapot using last night's leftover pork roast and gravy, the lamb stew from the night before, with the addition of some beef bouillon, several carrots and potatoes.  Good thing it is something that can be stretched because I was just notified that I will be feeding 3 older grandchildren as well.  Better go make a salad to feed the horde.  Biscuits would be a good way to stretch too but no time to build a fire.  Maybe cook the biscuits on the BBQ as per Baymule?


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## Ridgetop

Made a large pot of soup and just as we were serving it DSIL1 showed up to take his kids home.  Much loud lamentation from grandchildren.  DSIL couldn't stay for soup since he had a Zoom PTA meeting scheduled in 5 minutes.  I told him to go home and return later for kids after dinner.  He decided to do that.  I found some rolls in the freezer and defrosted them in the microwave for the family.  Soup and rolls a big hit along with salad.  Went to get ice cream for desert and found that DS2 had eaten it all.     I might be dropping the "D" in front of certain persons' designations.  DGS2 and DGD1 went to hunt for ice cream bars or popsicles and found none. Instead, they found a frozen tiramisu.  They were thrilled.  I am getting stuff out of the freezers in preparation for putting 3 lambs in next month.     Still have soup left so I will freeze it in a Ziploc bag.  It is enough to feed 3 or 4 of us for a meal.


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## Ridgetop

PT this morning.  
Got up and did dishes from last night.  While repairman was looking at oven the boyd turned off the circuits which turned off the DW in mid cycle.  (Repairman obviously not a lineman who would just take a chance on leaving an active circuit.  LOL)   Discovered problem when went to put dirty, greasy dishes away before loading dinner dishes ldt night.     Had a full sink load of dishes, pots and pans from feeding 8 people so left them on sink after rinsing.  This am made coffee, then unloaded DW and reloaded.  Robert was up with mama.  She was sleeping on couch.  He was watching cartoons.  How well I remember those last weeks of pregnancy when you fell asleep everywhere and could barely get out of deep chairs.  Thank you God for menopause!  Gave him a sippy cup of milk and a snack bowl of Cheerios.  He tried to push one into his sleeping mother's mouth and she gagged and woke up.  Thanks Robert - so generous.  

Next played a little bridge online.  Terrible partner.    Took me to 6 Diamonds after I passed on it's (robot) 3 No Trump bid, signaling I wanted to stay at game in NT.  Naturally we went down.  Playing online is unsatisfactory since you can't ask your partner "What were you thinking?!" I ask anyway and answer myself for the computer - "Well, I _wasn't_ thinking, duh."  

Need to clean barn jugs for new set of lambing ewes.  *IF* they lamb.  For some reason, in spite of being marked enthusiastically by ram none of them seem ready to lamb.  A couple of the older ewes are definitely pregnant, but
no udders yet and several due dates are October 30.  The rest are due mid-November.   Only 3 of the 11 are first timers so I think we should throw a ram in with them again and see f the summer heat caused anyone to resorb the pregnancy.  Breeding now will give us lambs in March/June.  Ugh.  Although not the hottest months it gets pretty hot in May.  If we are lucky June Gloom will cool down June.  California weather patterns are odd.  Grandsons said maybe they will come to work in barn on weekend *IF* they are not busy. Right.    Moving to Texas and being without family round "to help us" won't be much of a hardship.  And we will have a tractor.  

Got to take my shower and get ready for PT.


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## Ridgetop

Repair company called and want $341.00 to order part and install - it would be $431 but the $90 we already paid for service call is put against the total.  The repair person said that there was a 70% chance that would fix the problem but there were 2 other control board that might be broken.  If so, they would have to order more arts and another charge to install them.    DS and DH were not happy when I told them the repair company said we had to give them our credit card # before they would order the part.  ????  

DS ordered the part online for $184 which includes shipping and will install it himself.  If it doesn't fix the problem, he will order more control board parts.  Discussing this at the dinner table DH suggested we just buy a new one! WHAT?!The 30" double oven cost $2900 6 years ago plus installation charge.  Appliances have increased in price like everything else and the same oven now is $4000.  Both DS1 and I vetoed his suggestion loudly.  When we told him what new ovens would cost he was shocked.  DS1 reminded him that we just had to replace the microwave while in Texas and it was $300+ which was $100 more than the last one we bought.  Prices are ridiculous!  The farm has a stove and oven combo which is much cheaper than buying a stovetop and wall oven.  The apartment building was high end when it was built - with all electric appliances, countertop stove and wall oven.  We gutted the kitchens and replaced the wall oven and stovetop with a kitchen range with self-cleaning oven.  If we had replaced the countertop stove and wall oven, the appliances would have cost twice what the stove alone cost.  I wanted a double oven at the time we did this kitchen since I was doing a lot of cooking, entertaining, and all the holidays for the entire family.  I am really glad to have just a stove in the new place.  It has a self-cleaning oven too.   

DH told me to go to Michael's today since they were having a big 30% off yarn sale.  Big mistake on his part.  I buy knit when we drive to and from Texas.   It is very calming.  I have started knitting faster now and often run out of yarn and insist on buying yarn when we go to Walmart for groceries.  I have started making small blankets, the size toddlers will be able to carry around with them.  I need to learn to crochet an edging around them and then will donate them to the abused women's and children's shelter.  Many times, those poor women have to leave their homes in the middle of the night and can't take anything with them because their men will track them down. Being able to have a soft little blanket for a baby or toddler when they come into the shelter would be nice for them, I think.  My grandchildren love the ones I knitted for them, but they can only use so many.  LOL   I do have to knit one for DS2's and DDIL2's new baby coming in early December.  Poor Robert will have a hard time of it having to share his mama.  He is very attached and a bit spoiled.  

We will put Lewis in with the ewes this weekend to see if he marks any of the ones that don't look pregnant.  After 2 weeks we will move any that don't mark (pregnant) out of the pen and move in the yearling ewes.  Lewis is 6 years old and I want to get as many ewe lambs out of him as possible before he gets too old.  Moyboy is 4, and Smalley is 3.  I have a young 6-month-old ram lamb out of Lewis coming along. Snowflake has 2 lovely month-old ram lambs out of Moyboy which I am keeping to see how they grow.  So far Lewis and Moyboy have produced the nicest lambs on appraisal.  Moyboy has produced more ewe lambs (5-5s, 1-4). Lewis produced more ram lambs in the first couple years, but the ewes he has sired are all really good (2-5s, 2-4s). Axtell has been sold (1-5, 3-4s).  We weren't as happy with his lambs and they don't shed as well.   Smalley's lambs have to grow a bit to be appraised but his first crop are looking good and the appraiser liked them.  

Our numbers currently stand at 3 breeding rams, 3 ramlings, 22 breeding ewes, 5 maiden yearling ewes coming into the breeding flock, 5 six-month-old ewelings, and 4 two-month-old ewelings.  We will be adding more ewelings before the end of the year.  We should have a good-sized registered flock when we move to Texas.  
Better order some hay next year for the flock.  Maybe we can bring some grass hay back on our return trips from taking panels and equipment to Texas.


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## Baymule

A tractor will do the work of THREE DS’s. Just saying……. AND it starts and goes to work whenever you want it to.

Tractor works-you ride!


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## Ridgetop

The oven part came, DS1 installed it, and the oven works fine.  

I cleaned out 2 lower kitchen cabinets.  Some of the items will be packed to go to Teas.  Some I will offer to my children.  There is a Kitchenaid popcorn popper with extra parts. Since I made popcorn for 6 people for movie nights, they ate everything before I could get any.  I had ordered extra parts to be able to make 2 batches immediately.   I might offer that to my kids.  I also have an almost new pressure cooker  bught right before I got my first Instapot.  Now I just use the Instapot pressure cooker feature.  I have a Kitchenaid ice cream maker.  It doesn't make much, but also doesn't need ice and salt.  I might take that to Texas.  I have a larger electric one that does use salt and ice in the Conex and that one can go to one of the kids.  I also sorted out a lot of nice, attractive baking dishes that I rarely use except on Christmas - the kids can have those.  Once the 2 bottom cabinets were sorted and cleaned, all the baby bottles, sippee cups, snack cups, etc. that DDIL2 kept in a large plastic bin on the sink fit in one cupboard.  the other cupboard had room for their small Instapot that had been living on the counter for a year.  My Instapot is larger and lives in the top of the small pantry cupboard.  DDIL'2 s small and they use it as a rice cooker.  

I cleaned out the upper shelves in the dish cupboard and sorted out a lot of coffee mugs to go to Texas.  That made room for Robert's sippee cups to go on the shelves which emptied out one of the bins that was holding them in the lower cupboard I had emptied.  More space for DDIL to put her stuff on the counter away.    Next I will go through the Tupperware stuff and sort out what I don't use much.  Some will remain here for DS2 and DDIL2.  I will buy some new stuff for Texas.  

Tomorrow I need to box up the stuff I plan to bring to Texas.  Then I can start going through the other closets and cupboards to sort out what I plan to bring to Texas.  Most of that we will bring back in April/March when we come for the wedding.  I will be able to store it in the house or the shed.  That reminds me that I have to make reservations at Best Western for the wedding for 2 nights.  Or make reservations at a trailer park in Athens.  If we are goig to make a quick trip we can brig a trailer with stuff in it,  If we plan to stay a while, we will bring the 5th wheel trailer and can fit quite a lot of boxes and items inside it.  

DS1 moved Lewis down to the front breeding pen today.  He marked P-9 immediately.  She already was possibly marked 6/25 but it had a ? after the date so who knows.  Like DS1 said he may just have been excited to see the girls.  We will see over the next couple weeks if more ewes mark.  It is possible that some of the ewes that don't look pregnant either reabsorbed the pregnancy, or just did not cycle in the extreme heat.  Any that did not settle, will be bred to Lewis.  The temps for the next week are supposed to be in the low 70's.  We are also supposed to be getting the remnants of a hurricane that is supposed to come up from Mexico.  We can use the rain, and the lower temps will insure fertility in Lewis.

Tonight I cooked the last 2 winter squash Teresa gave me.  (I cooked one in Texas in the trailer.)  I just cut off the hard outer shell, took out the seeds, and cut the squash into large chunks.  I boiled the chunks until they were tender.  Robert loved it!  When I made it in Texas I added cinnamon, butter, and brown sugar.  I didn't do that tonight.  I will have to plant some of those squash in my garden.  I could probably can the squash and use it like pumpkin for pies.  

More kitchen cabinets, cupboards, and closets will be cleaned out and contents downsized over the coming months.  I also have a very nice wooden portacrib with a new mattress and bedding that I have to either sell, give away, or store.   It is sitting in my living room, completely wrapped in plastic ready to be put in the shed loft.  Used it for Annabel and haven't needed it for about 5 months or more.  

One of Erick's bitches has bred and hopefully is pregnant.  We are getting a puppy.  Maybe we will be able to pick it  up when we are back there for the wedding.


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## Baymule

The joys of packing, sorting, this stays-this goes, give this away, trash this……. I don’t envy you that part. Then the “nesting” will begin. Our early knuckle dragging ancestors sure had it much easier. Just kill a bear and take his cave! Build a fire and call it home. No moving boxes, no decorating, maybe paint animals on the walls to capture their spirit juju for a successful hunt, but that was about all. Look at us now! Look at all the baggage we haul around! 

I like painting, prep work, taping off, covering things with plastic, etc. I can get Chris to feed for me and come help. My house isn’t finished, still need to put up 10 or 20 miles of trim, but I think I did a pretty good job so far, of transforming tacky mobile home walls to something I can live with. You have admired my work at Layne’s house. So I think I could do a good job at your house too. Plus I work for Bluebell Ice Cream.


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## Ridgetop

Luckily by the time I get around to dealing with the interior of the Yantis place your leg will be fine!  There will be lots to do there. 

So got the name and phone number of the landscaping company that the tenant is using to mow lawn etc. at Yantis. I plan to keep him on when the tenants move out in 6 months since we will have so much ranch and reno work to do that we won't have time to mow the front and back lawns.  I don't want to buy a regular lawnmower for our small area of lawn and DH hates mowing the lawn.

I called Jeremy and asked if he would be able to plant my fruit trees for me this winter since I wouldn't be back until the end of February which will be past time to plant bare root trees.  He said he would be able to do that and that he had a nursery source in Lindale who was a real expert on varieties that would grow well in the Yantis area. He said that this friend has some older trees also that would bear sooner. Turns out he lives a mile up the road.  Not only does he have a lawncare/gardening business, but he is a pastor at Seymour Bible Fellowship Church also just up the road, so a neighbor.  Today I sent him a plan of the property and told him the fruit trees I want.  He will check with his friend and let me know the recommendations for varieties.  I want semi dwarf since they will bear plenty and won't get too tall for me to be able to prune properly.  So happy to have found him since I have been wanting to get fruit trees in for the past year and was afraid I would not be able to get them in this year either.  He will be able to water them when needed while we are not there as well.  He will help me decide the best area to out the "mini orchard" and let me know how much $$ he will charge me.  If necessary I can install driplines to the trees in the sprung when we come back for the wedding, but he might need to put some panels around the trees to protect them from Cody's cattle. 

He has 4 children, the eldest is 14 and DH had me ask if the boy would be available to get to know the dogs in order to feed for us if DH, DS1, and I want to go away together.  They homeschool and have a "mini farm" with a couple dairy cows, some pigs, chickens, etc. 

Next thing I did was email the fence person with a copy of the plat map for the property.  I had asked hm if he did fence row clearance and he said yes.  I decided to do the fence in sections with him clearing the fence line except for the large trees (I want them for shade) and put the fence on the property line or just inside.  Decided that allowing a 20' alley around the property line would cost more in gates and not be worth it.  I will probably have the front fence along the highway installed inside the current cattle fence and leave the thick trees and bushes for privacy and to cut the noise.  The long side of the property just got a new barbed wire 5 strand fence last year courtesy of the next-door property tenant and my cattle tenant.  That side will be the last to be done and I might just put my tall fence right against it on my side.  Nathaniel will get me a quote soon.  By doing it section by section I the cost will be less painful.  Since Nathaniel works a regular job, he and his relatives will probably do it on the weekends so this might be easier for the too.  His BIL also does welded pipe fencing and since we have 3 sides of a 30' x 50' area done with welded pipe, I will have him do the 4th side. Unfortunately, that side is 50' along the neighbor's driveway so I will have to have gates cut in and installed in the south 50' side for me to get into the garden plot from the house, and in the west side (near the barnyard) to access the plot with a tractor to rototill and dump manure.  Then we will put wire on the welded pipe to keep pests out of the garden, and also to keep in feeder pigs to clear the weeds and brush.   

Did a bit more office work and it took me almost the entire day.  This evening was DGS1's 15th birthday party for family.   The boys (both large and small) played some role-play games.  Anyone remember Dungeons and Dragons?  He also got a rabbit for his birthday, a gift from DD2.  DS1 and DH were unsure if DD1 and DSIL1 knew about this gift of a live creature, and we all agreed that if DD1 refused to keep it that we would not keep it either. I told DS1 and DH of they refused to keep it we would eat it but it is a rather small English Spot so not much meat.  They were apparently rather squeamish about that since they had been petting it so I told them that I would do the deed and just stew it.  DGD1 was holding the rabbit at the time and was horrified that her dear grandmother would be so cruel.   As it turned out dd1 and DSIL1 had okayed it.  DD1 is hopeful that they will be ok living with it since she and DSIL1 are allergic to cats, which means they are also allergic to rabbits.  (Cat hair and rabbit hair is almost identical.)  DD1 was already getting stuffed up as we left so I told her I would give her some of my allergy stuff tomorrow.  If she takes it on the way home from work every day she might be ok.  Otherwise, it will be relegated to the backyard.  

Tomorrow I will start packing the stuff I plan to bring to Texas that are currently sitting in the dining room table.  DD1 took 2 of the pretty baking dishes I was giving away.  She didn't want the Kitchenaid popcorn maker but maybe DDIL2 will like it for her boys.  There is always Goodwill.  

I also have to stain the oven cabinet.  When we replaced our double oven several years ago we discovered that the new and better heat insulation and shielding has made them smaller.  We had to rebuild the interior of the cabinet for the oven and it left an open 8" space underneath.  DS1 cut a piece of oak to fit but it never got stained.  Every so often DH would mention that I had to do that but I never seemed to have the time.  I finally got some filler and puttied up the seams before we went to Texas.  Returning from Texas I kept saying that I had to sand it down and stain it but . . . .   DS2 has been making a storage cabinet and was sanding it so I asked him if he could jut sand off the kitchen cabinet.  He did and now I have to hurry to stain and varnish it before something spills on the bare wood.  Or the heat, steam, and grease in the kitchen messes up the raw wood over the next few years.    It has been 2 days already so tomorrow I better get it stained.  The stain has to dry 24 hours and then I will put on the Varathane.  Staining it is the important part.  I need to mix the stain to match the color of the oak cabinets.  They were original a light honey color but over the years they have darkened.  I need to get some scrap oak and try the different mixes of stain color to get it right.  

Next the bathroom door is sagging in its hinges (we think) since it now grabs at the bottom and has removed the stain from the oak.  I suggested that I just remove the hinge and put a piece of cardboard under the hinge before replacing it.  That is a quick cure for sagging doors but DS1 wants to sand off the offending door area.  Whatever makes him happy.  The door is hanging up so badly now that it screeches when anyone closes it and opens it back up.  Another easy, but time consuming, repair job.  DS1 will sand it off but wants me to stain and varnish it.  

DH said that we will be coming back for the wedding on March 3 and staying in a motel for several days since he wants to bring a load of corral fencing and panels back using DS2's flatbed trailer.  We will drop the trailer at the ranch and then drive down to Athens and stay for several days in a motel for the wedding.  If the tenants are out of the house we can stay there (inflatable mattress time).  I will bring back some housewares, lamps, towels, folding chairs, etc. to camp out in the house.  If not, I will check on renting one of the small cabins that are available for rent at Lake Fork (or Fork lake - whichever).  We can put up the corral panels around the fruit trees while we are there.  If the tenants are out, I can also measure all the rooms to draw up a floor plan of the house with electrical outlets, fixtures, etc.  If the tenants have not been able to move into their new place yet, I will still bring back boxes of stuff in the bed of the truck and store them in the shed.  I will tarp the load good to keep it dry.  DS2 has replaced his TVs with larger ones several times and we have a couple in the storage sheds so can bring back one and have the cable hooked up.   I will have the water and electricity left on when they move out.  With the house empty we will have somewhere to stay while we do work on the place or we can bring the trailer back and leave it in the barn to use when we come back and forth with trailer loads of fencing, panels, etc.  That way we can bring back large flatbed or cargo trailer loads of our belongings and equipment.  Really want to get on with moving.


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## Baymule

Let the fun begin. And somewhere in there your DH needs his other knee replaced? And then the following PT. Better map it out on the schedule and get it done. 

On the new barb wire fence, don’t roll wire over it. The barbs will hang the sheep and goat wire, making it harder to stretch, the barbs will snag you and it will be unsightly. Take down the barbed wire, then roll out the sheep and goat wire.


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## farmerjan

Is the barbed wire on the inside or outside of the posts?  If the outside, roll the sheep wire on the inside of the posts, and then it won't catch when stretching.  Otherwise it would be better to take it down.  OR you could use electric netting offset a foot inside of it if you are going to use this for rotational grazing.


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## Ridgetop

This is the south side of the property, farthest from the barn and house (see the order in which I put those -  shows the importance in which I hold them).  1,729' of fencing there.  Also lots of mature trees on that side.  Cody and neighbor removed the brush and piled it on the property waiting for a burn day.  I figure that side and the front along Hwy 154 will be the last areas to do.  Since Cody and the neighbor refenced that side (or most of it) I am not sure whether to remove the barbed wire or just fence in front of it.  I will have to talk to Cody about this when we get to that side.    


On another note, the Dorper sheep breeder in Sulphur Springs told me not to bother fencing off the large pond.  According to him the only dangerous pond (liver fluke) would be the small one that is pretty muddy and trampled.  I want to have that one re-dug eventually.  I guess I should start looking for someone to tell me how much that would cost.  Also have to find a glazer for the tub and shower.  I emailed several companies, but they want to tear out the bathroom and rebuild it.  I can do that myself.  I want the tub and shower reglazed like I had done in the apartment.  Cheaper and easier than having the bathrooms torn out.  I need to have it done before we move in since you can't stay in the house during the process since the odor can be toxic.  It is a 3-4 day process per bathroom.  

Hurray!  Found someone in Longview who will come out to Yantis!  I will still have to add a shower in the tub (built in 1972 when they were not adding showers to all tubs) but that will be very easy to do since access to the water pipes is right in back of linen closet.  Refinisher says better to tile the tub (current surround is Formica and only goes up about 18") before doing the refinishing so it doesn't get scratched.  I will get a plumber to do the new shower plumbing.  Will need to get new tub faucet and controls.  Reglazing will cost between $1,500 to $2,000, depending on the size of the shower stall and the difficulty in glazing around the handicap bars.  I think I will remove the glass shower door and have the installation holes filled and covered.  Using a shower curtain is easier than a glass shower door particularly for people like DH and I who sometimes lose our balance.  Easier and cheaper to replace a shower rod and curtain than it is to replace a glass door after you fall through it!  Not to mention, the trip to the emergency room for stitches.  Those glass shower doors are very expensive and hard to install.
Things are coming together!   All I need now is to rob a bank to get the money!  

Couldn't sleep last night so got up at 4 am and packed up the coffee mugs that are going to Texas, then crocheted more of the edging border around one of the blankets.  I found a U-Tube tutorial and have used it to learn a crocheted edging stitch.  Very easy and pretty.  Have edged 2 of the knitted blankets already with contrasting yarn.     This stitch is easy to do and would make a pretty blanket so I may start crocheting as well.  Harder to keep the crochet hook attached to the piece though when you have to stop.  Heaven knows after attending the yarn sales at Michaels and Hobby Lobby I have enough yarn to last for the rest of the year.  Went back to bed at 5:30 and finally fell asleep.  Probably should have just stayed up and done more closet cleaning.  Unfortunately, the closets I wanted to clean were in my bedroom which would have woken DH so . . . .  

DS2 and DDIL2 have taken Robert to a Pumpkin Patch so this would be the perfect time to stain the oven cabinet in the kitchen.  Better go do that now.


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## Margali

Ridgetop said:


> Harder to keep the crochet hook attached to the piece though when you have to stop.  Heaven knows after attending the yarn sales at Michaels and Hobby Lobby I have enough yarn to last for the rest of the year.


Use a wide stitch marker loop or safety pin with a bit of string wound on it. It will leave you a loop you can resize to put the crotchet hook thru.


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## Ridgetop

Well, I tried out the crochet stitch that I learned on the U Tube video.  It made a great edging by going around the blankets twice.  The blankets look finished now instead of just being a large piece of knitted blanket.  I will try to spread them out and take a picture.  I think I have about 9 or 10 little blankets different colors but all in nice soft yarn.  

Saturday, we took the 2 wethers and the ewe lamb with the "in again out again" rectal prolapse to the butcher.  I don't know where the prolapse came from, but she developed it about 3 months ago.  We decided to butcher her but didn't want to spend the gas money for just one lamb.  Then when I called Kent he couldn't fit me in until October 29.  It kept appearing and disappearing for several months and doesn't seem to bother her. 

Naturally once the 2 wethers were loaded into the trailer Friday, Lewis Junior began to scream.  Saturday DS1 had enough and wanted to toss him into the pen with the big rams.  I was opposed to this since he is half their size. Then DS1 suggested he build a smaller pen inside the large ram pen so they could get used to each other without being able to physically mingle.  We all thought that would work.  DS1 made the pen with heavy portable panels in a corner of the ram pen for Lewis Junior last night and moved him into it.  Not a peep out of him all day and he is still alive!  DS1 is going to try letting him out with the big boys tomorrow.  I am worried about this but DS1 thinks it will be ok.  The rams are used to living with other rams except when breeding a pen of ewes, so I am hopeful.  I told DS1 he needs to remain with the rams to make sure they don't try to kill Junior.  If there is any problem, he can remove Junior and put him back into his little pen for a while longer.  He really looks nice - long, thick and elegant but with a huge thick butt.  

Tomorrow, we need to clean out the barn for the pregnant ewes.  Again, DS1 came up with a great idea.  He plans to move the ewes that are ready to lamb into the new pen that Junior and his freezer buddies just vacated.  It is just below the milk shed and although it has a flight of stairs down to it (or more importantly when carrying new lambs *up* to the barn jugs) it is closer to the barn and will be easier to move the new lambs and mamas into the barn. We also will avoid having to clean the jugs until the ewes have actually given birth. Sometimes when the ewes are in the jugs, we have to clean them for an extra week or so if the ewes don't stick to the schedule when lambing!  

On the ranch front, I have asked the fence guy for his estimate for clearing the property line and installing the fencing.  We will be doing it in sections.   He is on vacation until November 7 so when he gets the estimate to me I will bite the bullet and give him the go ahead.  $$$   I also asked the landscaping person for his bid to obtain and plant the fruit trees.  John (our electrician) will be redoing all the electrical lines in the house now that the weather has gotten cooler.  When we move back I think we will have to roll out extra insulation in the attic.  
DH wants to replace all the windows with dual pane, but I will try caulking them first.  We have a lot of stuff to do in the house so if we can wait on the windows and do them a couple at a time ourselves it will be better cost wise.  I also want to replace the door from the LR to the patio with a dual pane glass garden door.  The current door is a solid wooden door and mas the house dark.  I wrote a list of everything we need to do to the house and the approximate cost of materials.  $$$   

I also have located 4 different Enrolled Agents to do our taxes in Quitman.  I will be calling them tomorrow to interview them over the phone.  I need them to be able to do farm schedule as well as the business property and file the appropriate special 1031 forms for California.  I also located a vet that will take care of the sheep and horses.  The vet originally recommended to me because his father owned and bred sheep only does dogs and cats!  And he is located right across from the auction barn!  The new vet practice has 4 vets in a communal practice.  I will take the copies of the health papers on the dogs, horses, and sheep to them when we arrive and sign up as a client.  I have to get health checks on all animals, Coggins on 3 horses, Brucellosis on all rams over the age of 6 months and foot rot clearances on all sheep.  I will have the horses microchipped at the same time.  I had all the horses microchipped after the last big fire but these are younger and we didn't have them at the time.  Our SHPOA homeowners' association arranged for Animal Control to come out and do it since during fires we have to evacuate horses and they are often moved around.  Took some people several months to locate their horses after being evacuated.  Might just have the new vets do a ranch call so they can see and check over all the animals.  They are in Sulphur Springs so in case of emergency we can easily take any injured or sick animal up there..  

Also tomorrow I will check the cost of having a propane tank installed.  Won't do it until next year but need to check on availability.  Mainly for the generator we want to install, but DH also wants to install "instant-on" hot water heaters instead of the 2 electric hot water heaters currently in the house.  Yes, 2 of them.  No idea why they installed 2 when they built the house, but we have them.  I also need to make reservations online for Best Western in Athens for the wedding in March.  Need to make the reservations on-line since we have free stay points and can only redeem our free nights using the online app. 

Next, I need to start getting my tax receipts together for 2021.   Better to do it now, although if I do it too early DH will sometimes decide he wants me to separate out stuff at the last minute into a different category.  Next year we are filing the ranch schedule since we will have all the fencing expense as well as other things.

I also have to wrap up the highchair and huge baby walker (it has a car body on it) so we can store them.  I already did the porta-crib.  There is a baby furniture consignment store in Burbank and I might check to see if they will sell the wooden porta-crib, some strollers, etc. that I still have in the shed.  In a month we will have to get the baby swing and play pen down for the new baby.

Got to get to bed, just noticed that it is 3:48 am!!!


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## Margali

Ridgetop said:


> DH wants to replace all the windows with dual pane, but I will try caulking them first.  We have a lot of stuff to do in the house so if we can wait on the windows and do them a couple at a time ourselves it will be better cost wise.  I also want to replace the door from the LR to the patio with a dual pane glass garden door.


There is a clingwrap type kit you can put over a leaky window that turns it into faux double pane. They worked okay in Iowa for me.


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## Baymule

Your house is brick. Installers cut out the existing windows and install a special window inside the brick frame. Otherwise it means taking the brick down and then putting it back up and nobody wants to do that. 

In your typical fashion you are this very organized whirlwind of preparedness. All around you chaos May reign, but you are the eye of the hurricane, the calm center, around which everything else revolves.


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## Finnie

Ridgetop said:


> 2 electric hot water heaters currently in the house. Yes, 2 of them. No idea why they installed 2 when they built the house, but we have them.


I don’t think I have heard you mention whether the ranch has a geothermal system. But we have 2 electric water heaters in our house because of our geothermal system. In the summer when we run the AC, it heats the liquid in the system which then goes underground and cools. But before it goes underground, it first heats the water in the hot water heater tanks. So we get two full tanks heated for free. We could have just stuck with one, but why waste all that free hot water? Only 1 of them is hooked up to heat water in the winter.


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## Mini Horses

Ridgetop said:


> take the copies of the health papers on the dogs, horses, and sheep


Horses????  Thought you only had a donk.


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## Ridgetop

No geothermal system.  House was built in 1972 after old farmhouse burned down.  

The retrofit windows are made to the measurements of your existing windows.  Correct measurements are crucial.  You have to order the windows in advance and they usually take about 3 weeks to arrive.   Once you have the window, remove the old window glass by lifting out the sliding portion of the window.  In some windows the stationary pane of glass is held into the frame with a screw-on frame or vinyl.  Once the glass portions of the widow are removed you cut out the existing window frame with a Sawzall.  Dryfit the window.  Then place heavy caulking (this is special caulking which is also a heavy-duty glue specially for retrofitting widows) in a strip around the inside of the window frame.  Then slide the new retrofit window into the hole.  Made sure it is level and plumb or the window won't open properly.  Screw the window into the opening through the sides.  Then caulk the inside edges of the new widow and install trim on the inside of the window.  This will hide the screws and help to seal the opening.  We did some retrofit windows in the apartment, and you don't have to cut out any of the surrounding drywall or exterior brick or plaster.  We used new dual pane vinyl windows in the apartment and will eventually do the same in this house if caulking the existing windows doesn't do the trick in holding out heat or cold.  It needs some knowledge about building and using tools.  These windows are easier to retrofit because you don't have to do any new flashing around the widows since the originally flashing around the window is not disturbed.  The caulking will keep the new window watertight and the exterior brick is not disturbed.  

I have been thinking about converting the oversize single carport to a utility/mudroom.  Looking at the exterior of the house, I see that we can probably remodel the garage into a new double garage by extending it to the depth of the house.   That would be expensive, and I don't want this place to become a money pit.  The existing carport is larger than a single carport and would fit 2 small cars.  We can convert the existing carport to an enclosed garage/mudroom and it will fit our small SUV in it with room for the freezers and some storage.  The carport also has overhead attic storage which will be usable once we exterminate the wasps.  LOL   We can fit our small SUV in it with room for the freezers and some storage.  The carport also has overhead attic storage which will be usable once we exterminate the wasps.  LOL   And add plenty of insulation, a light, and pull-down stairs.

I wanted to attach a large carport to the rear of the existing brick carport, but our septic is there, and I don't think it would be wise to park on top of it even though it is an aerobic system.  I then thought about parking the 5th wheel inside the barn but it is not tall enough - DH measured it.   So we are back to installing a tall metal carport for the truck, 5th wheel and tractor.  Just have to decide where to put it.  I think the large area between the barn and the house would probably be a better place since we could park the stock trailer there as well.  That area is large enough to turn the 5th wheel, a flat bed, and the stock trailer around.  And we still have covered parking for our car next to the house for grocery shopping, etc.

I just want to get back there and do room measurements so I can figure out any reno.  The large bathroom is large enough that we could actually divide it into a master bathroom and powder room.  However, that would mean that the 2 secondary bedrooms would have to cross the living room to use the shower in the other bathroom.  Bad for resale. 

I have wrapped up the highchair and baby walker for storage.  I also wrapped up the nice wooden portacrib with the bedding.  I finished the edging on the 11 knitted blankets I made.  I have t check the size of the yarn I bought and may return it if the weight is too light.  I prefer the chunky soft yarn for the little blankets.  I called our church which helps an abused women's home.  Until Covid they would put ages and sizes of children and women on cards and hang them on the tree for parishioners to take off and buy gifts for them.   Hopefully they will do that again this year.  Anyway, I called the rectory and asked to have the contact person call me to arrange to donate my nice soft blankets, portacrib, extra highchair, car booster seats, and baby items.  Then I am going to go through my closet and dressers and remove all clothes that no longer fit properly.  I have a lot that barely fit that I keep saying I will lose weight to wear.  Instead, I will give those away and if I ever do lose any weight, I will treat myself to a new wardrobe.  DH's bank account is safe!      Since those poor women often leave home with nothing but the clothes on their backs, the donated items will at least be useful for them.   Most of the things are almost new since I usually just schlep around in my old jeans and work clothes.  Naturally O won]t be giving them any f my wrk clothes since no one except me would be seen in them!  LOL

DS2 went to a shooting competition with his brother, DS3, over the weekend.  They had a good time together. DS3 won 2nd place.


----------



## Ridgetop

The retrofit windows are made to the measurements of your existing windows.  Correct measurements are crucial.  You have to order the windows in advance and they usually take about 3 weeks to arrive.   Once you have the window, remove the old window glass by lifting out the sliding portion of the window.  In some windows the stationary pane of glass is held into the frame with a screw-on frame or vinyl.  Once the glass portions of the widow are removed you cut out the existing window frame with a Sawzall.  Dryfit the window.  Then place heavy caulking (this is special caulking which is also a heavy-duty glue specially for retrofitting widows) in a strip around the inside of the window frame.  Then slide the new retrofit window into the hole.  Made sure it is level and plumb or the window won't open properly.  Screw the window into the opening through the sides.  Then caulk the inside edges of the new widow and install trim on the inside of the window.  This will hide the screws and help to seal the opening.  We did some retrofit windows in the apartment, and you don't have to cut out any of the surrounding drywall or exterior brick or plaster.  We used new dual pane vinyl windows in the apartment and will eventually do the same in this house if caulking the existing windows doesn't do the trick in holding out heat or cold.  It needs some knowledge about building and using tools.  These windows are easier to retrofit because you don't have to do any new flashing around the widows since the originally flashing around the window is not disturbed.  The caulking will keep the new window watertight and the exterior brick is not disturbed.   

I have been thinking about converting the oversize single carport to a utility/mudroom.  Looking at the exterior of the house, I see that we can probably remodel the garage into a new double garage by extending it to the depth of the house.   That would be expensive, and I don't want this place to become a money pit.  The existing carport is larger than a single carport and would fit 2 small cars.  We can convert the existing carport to an enclosed garage/mudroom and it will fit our small SUV in it with room for the freezers and some storage.  The carport also has overhead attic storage which will be usable once we exterminate the wasps.  LOL   We can fit our small SUV in it with room for the freezers and some storage.  The carport also has overhead attic storage which will be usable once we exterminate the wasps.  LOL   And add plenty of insulation, a light, and pull-down stairs.

I wanted to attach a large carport to the rear of the existing brick carport, but our septic is there, and I don't think it would be wise to park on top of it even though it is an aerobic system.  I then thought about parking the 5th wheel inside the barn but it is not tall enough - DH measured it.   So we are back to installing a tall metal carport for the truck, 5th wheel and tractor.  Just have to decide where to put it.  I think the large area between the barn and the house would probably be a better place since we could park the stock trailer there as well.  That area is large enough to turn the 5th wheel, a flat bed, and the stock trailer around.  And we still have covered parking for our car next to the house for grocery shopping, etc.

I just want to get back there and do room measurements so I can figure out any reno.  The large bathroom is large enough that we could actually divide it into a master bathroom and powder room.  However, that would mean that the 2 secondary bedrooms would have to cross the living room to use the shower in the other bathroom.  Bad for resale.  

I have wrapped up the highchair and baby walker for storage.  I also wrapped up the nice wooden portacrib with the bedding.  I finished the edging on the 11 knitted blankets I made.  I have t check the size of the yarn I bought and may return it if the weight is too light.  I prefer the chunky soft yarn for the little blankets.  I called our church which helps an abused women's home.  Until Covid they would put ages and sizes of children and women on cards and hang them on the tree for parishioners to take off and buy gifts for them.   Hopefully they will do that again this year.  Anyway, I called the rectory and asked to have the contact person call me to arrange to donate my nice soft bankets, portacrib, extra high chair, car booster seats, and baby items


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## Ridgetop

Must have hit a wrong key.  It deleted all text and posted pics on previous post.  Top picture are 11blankets I have finished for the abused women's home.  They are for babies and toddlers.  Super soft acrylic yarn - easy to wash.



Mini Horses said:


> Horses???? Thought you only had a donk.


No donkey - only Josie the Mule at the moment.  16.2 red TWH mule. She shares guardian duty with the dogs and her sheep love her dearly.  Other 2 horses are black 15.2 Twh mare and 14.1 grullo mustang gelding.  DH bred the TWH mare, imprinted her, and we had her trained and shown.  She won pretty consistently but showing horses is not for us - too expensive.  I adopted the grullo as a yearling from the Wild Mustang Adoption.  He came from Nevada.  Both are broke to ride. We gave both t DDIL1 when she was riding a lot and wanting to train. She asked us to take them back now since DS3 is working out of town and only comes home on weekends.  She said that taking care of all 4 horses and all the poultry and running the boys to different games, etc. was too much right now.   DDIL1 is very emotionally dependent on DS3.  The little mustang is a good height for me, while the TWH is a fabulous ride.  DDIL1 had sold the mustang but the purchaser brought him back because he refused to eat, pining for Skittles.  They have been together since they were each 1-year-old.  Skittles is still registered to DH, but I couldn't leave the mustang (Sage) behind to pine after Skittles.  He will come home with her and then they will both go to Texas with us.  

Next 2 pix are of Lewis Jr.  He noticed me when I tried to take the picture.  When stretched out the hump in his rear back lengthens to add about 6" or more in length.  He is thick, has a good leg, great front, and giant testicles which will make him a super breeder.   

The last 2 pix are of the ewes in the breeding pen.  Also long and thick with heavy butts.  Some have more elegant necks and heads, but all are 4's and 5's.  We will move about 5 of them out to the new pen tomorrow since they are close to lambing.


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## Baymule

What about putting the carport on the garden side of the house? You gave a lot more room there and you won’t need that huge garden space, even with planting fruit trees there. Drive in on that side of the house, extend the back porch like you want to do, and connect to the carport so you have cover in case of bad weather. Use the back door to come and go. Or maybe turn off the road on the garden side, put carport at back, by existing carport that you want to use for utility room. Come and go through the future mud room. Because of the septic spray field, you really don’t have much room on that side of the house. A driveway won’t take up much of the garden space.


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> I will still have to add a shower in the tub (built in 1972 when they were not adding showers to all tubs) but that will be very easy to do since access to the water pipes is right in back of linen closet.


Or do it cheap (no expensive plumber needed), EASY and vastly more functional! Get a replacement spout for the tub that has a diverter to a hand held shower hose fitting. Get a slide rod for the hand held shower head.

Personally I find "standard height fixed shower heads" to be immensely stupid. They are the right height only for the "standard height" person (or in the case of a few hotels I've been in, useful only for people under 5'8" - I am 6' 2").

A handheld on a slide rod is the right height for everyone from a kid to well over 6' tall people. You can rinse areas that don't rinse well with water falling down from 6'+ up. They are also useful when cleaning the tub and washing dogs if one does that.

I told the plumbers here I wanted a hand held shower head for the tub upstairs and the downstairs walk in shower. So they put in a standard height pipe with a hose fitting in for the tub  I did the above and the "stub" up top goes unused. Connecting a hose to that makes the hose fairly unusable for tub and dog cleaning.

Another case of "If you want it done right, do it yourself". They got a "shower only" valve and stubbed the pipe out a few inches above the valve in the downstairs shower. That makes the hose have to loop down past the valve before going up to the rod. It also means the hose doesn't reach as far to the end of the 6' wide shower. I did the plumbing in the prior house 30 years ago. I got a "tub only" valve so the pipe came out below the valve.



Ridgetop said:


> Once you have the window, remove the old window glass by lifting out the sliding portion of the window. In some windows the stationary pane of glass is held into the frame with a screw-on frame or vinyl. Once the glass portions of the widow are removed you cut out the existing window frame with a Sawzall.


35 years ago I got double pane replacement sashes for the old house a few years before the rehab. They came from Marvin. NO window frame removal!!!!! They were measured by the company sales guy and come with side pieces that screw to the existing frame. The sashes pop into the side pieces and tilt down for cleaning the outside glass from inside the house. Unless the current frames are rotted, I see no reason to rip everything apart.


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## Ridgetop

November 1 - 
Decided to put dates on this as I often forget to upload then come back and add stuff days later!

Marv wants to put carport on north side between garden and house.  Problem is that we would have to back the trailers into it since we can't get a new culvert and driveway put in without state approval.  Not too much problem For DH and can address permit, culvert and additional driveway later. 

Talked to gardening man today.  Buying 12 fruit trees, tilling and planting them in new orchard space and caring for them until spring will be $1,000.  Wrote the check immediately.  He will also care for the trees and make sure to poison any fire ants and watch for gopher damage.  He will water as well is necessary.  I emailed the varieties I wanted and he will discuss with his Lindale supplier which would be best in the Yantis area.  I was only planning on about 6 trees but he said that with the fire ant danger planting 2 of each would be better.  No problem.  Any fruit I don't use or give away, I will put a hog pen around trees and turn hogs into the orchard to eat the fallen fruit.  Can also rake up and shovel into the compost pile. 

Next, I got hold of an Enrolled Agent for taxes in Quitman.  DH wants an EA since they are approved by IRS to argue any audits, etc.  He is a CPA in Quitman.  Has farm clients, NNN clients, etc. and is familiar with everything we need.  Has had his own office for 6 ears so hopefully he will outlive us, and we won't have to find another tax person.  LOL Our old tax man retired then died on us and while we are ok with his partner, we don't like her as well as we liked Mel.  Kevin is in the process of reworking some office staff but since we don't need to change tax preparers for the 2022 taxes, he is willing to take us on for 2023.  I told him we would make an appointment during the summer and bring our returns back for him.  He gave me some info on farm taxes which I appreciated.

Third, I ordered some yarn online which is the brand and kind I really like working with.  On sale lots of different colors.  I realized that the yarn I had bought at the Hobby Lobby sale was the wrong size. I prefer the chunky yarn that is worked with a size 10-11 needle.  I will return all the Hobby Lobby yarn.  Love the colors but don't like knitting the baby blankets with a lightweight yarn and small gauge needles so back it goes.

Checked with a gentleman about buying some square bales of Bermuda to bring back to California after we unload the flatbed trailer in March BUT since eastern Texas is a "fire ant quarantine area" The hay must not be stored on soil and has to be inspected when entering California for evidence of fire ants.  If any infestation is found (even one ant) the load must return to east Texas or be destroyed.  I will check with the hay guy - he keeps it in a barn but it is probably on soil. Fire Ants have already established in Orange County and a county in New Mexico.  The entire southeastern part of the US is infested.  In Texas the only counties not infested are the panhandle and the farthest west southern counties.    I emailed the CA USDA for more info so we'll see.  We had hoped to bring in some Texas hay to start the sheep getting used to it. 

November 2
*NOTICE!* *Can't bring any hay into California from most of Texas and points east.  There is an "Imported Fire 
Ant Quarantine" on all of east Texas and LA, MS, AL, GA, FL,SC,NC, most of AR and southern OK.  The only areas in Texas not affected are the panhandle and a couple of the farthest SW counties of the state.  One county in NM and one county in southern CA are also infected and under the quarantine.  *So no Texas hay for the sheep to get used to.    Instead, we will have to bring California alfalfa to TX while the sheep get introduced to pasture.

I hope we did not make a mistake in selecting east Texas as our Garden of Eden.  Instead of a giant snake, we have Barber Pole worms and the Imported Fire Ant Quarantine!     At least the snake offered Adam and Eve refreshments in the form of apples!  We do like Waldorf salad.  

Our garden man said he is picking up the trees today and will plant tomorrow.  He has to run an etra hot wire to keep cows out of orchard.  Is planting "12 trees total, 2 of each kind (Plum, peach, nectarine, fig, pear, and apple). Apricots will be available in December. Your Peaches are Freestone varieties Red Haven and Majestic. Your plums are Santa Rosa and Methley(Desirable raw and processed). The nectarine trees are not labeled, but were the only variety he recommended for East TX. Your figs are Black Mission. Your pears are Moonglow and Kieffer. Your apples are Granny Smith and Honey Crisp. "  
Hopefully they will survive.      And they will be in a year earlier than I could do it myself.  Wish I had known about this guy last year.  

Still waiting for the fence guy to return from vacation to get quote on fencing.  We will be doing it in 800+/- sections one after the other.  Then DS1 and I will draw up scale drawing of property to decide where to put in the sheep pastures.  According to the Sulphur springs Dorper grower, I don't need to fence off the ponds.  Once we get back there I will get geese and ducks from Erick.  The geese and ducks will hopefully deal with the liver fluke snails and pond weed.  Then I can get the large pond stocked through Texas F & G.  More to check up on.  I have been told that the correct pond mix of fish will keep the pond healthy too.

Speaking of Erick - got a text today that he had his bred bitch x-rayed and she "is full of pups" according to the vet.  The puppies are due the end of November.  We will pick up our new protector in March when we are back there for the wedding.  Angel has taken over most of the guardian duties.  She works all night and during the day too.  She has taken to sleeping on the patio and driveway where Bubba used to lay to guard the approach to the house.  She will welcome the help once we get the newbie trained.  Rika is still working but has started slowing down and is willing to come into the house more often.  Once we get to Texas I will let Rika be the house/yard/baby lamb jugs guardian while the younger dogs cover the pastures.

DS1 and I went through his magnet sheep tags showing where each sheep is.  He had me give him the tag numbers and verify which ones were sold, died etc.  We found a discrepancy in that the number of young stock on the field did not compute with what should have been there.  We agreed on the correct number but he had 12 ear tag numbers and one should not have had an ear tag.   Finally realized that he was counting the ewe lamb that was sold as one of the 12, while the ewe lamb that was not tagged was not being counted.  All correct in the end and we agreed we needed to tag that ewe lamb.  Then we had a missing ewe in the barn until I realized that I was working off the Application for Registration form and she was not on it because her single ram lamb was destined for auction instead of registration.  The only ram lambs being registered were Snowflakes twin rams.  I have pretty much decided to take them to the Western States show in Reno in May.  Entries there are shown and auctioned.  I am considering looking at the ewe lambs and maybe taking a couple of them too.  Of course, I have to train them on halter, and shear if they don't shed out.  Minor shearing since they don't carry wool lower than halfway down their sides.  Will have to start working with them soon.


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## SageHill

You've been a whirlwind of busy for sure. 


Ridgetop said:


> I hope we did not make a mistake in selecting east Texas as our Garden of Eden. Instead of a giant snake, we have Barber Pole worms and the Imported Fire Ant Quarantine!



Nah - you did good. You found a great place that's going to be even greater when you finally get there full time. 
Any where you go there will be something. Better to know now than before you get there. 
Bummer on not being able to bring in the TX hay though   that would have been awesome if you were able to do it.


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## Ridgetop

Bruce said:


> Or do it cheap (no expensive plumber needed), EASY and vastly more functional! Get a replacement spout for the tub that has a diverter to a hand held shower hose fitting. Get a slide rod for the hand held shower head.
> 
> Personally I find "standard height fixed shower heads" to be immensely stupid. They are the right height only for the "standard height" person (or in the case of a few hotels I've been in, useful only for people under 5'8" - I am 6' 2").


That is what I planned and what we did on the 5 tubs we added showers to in the apartment.  In this case, I have the option to go into the wall from the tub side or the cabinet side.  Originally I planned to go into the wall from the cabinet side, but since I will be removing the Formica tub surround (only 24" high) and putting in cement board for the new tile that I will carry to the ceiling, it makes more sense (and gives me more working room) to simply remove the Formica surround and the wall above the tub spout to relace the tub controls and faucet.


Bruce said:


> 35 years ago I got double pane replacement sashes for the old house a few years before the rehab. They came from Marvin. NO window frame removal!!!!! They were measured by the company sales guy and come with side pieces that screw to the existing frame. The sashes pop into the side pieces and tilt down for cleaning the outside glass from inside the house. Unless the current frames are rotted, I see no reason to rip everything apart.


The retrofit windows don't require actual frame removal in the siding etc.  You just have to saw off the aluminum frames after removing the glass window parts.  About 1" of aluminum channel that the windowpanes fit into.  No destruction of drywall or exterior cladding.   If you measure the replacement yourself, be sure the measurements are dead on accurate.  Windows are only returnable if the seller measures wrong.  And be sure to measure *each individual window *since even though some windows are supposedly the same size, they can vary up to 1" either way for retrofit due to original construction.

I have also been designing the 36" x 72" new kitchen island that I plan to construct out if base and overhead cabnets.  Lots of ideas with fancy quirks like wine racks, etc. which I have now discarded.  The existing kitchen cabinets, with stove and sink are in an L design.  I will use a 36" wide base drawer cabinet - the kind with deep, wide drawers for pots and pans.  That cabinet will face the stove location. Then another 36" wide base cabinet with drawers* same as first one attached to the first at right angles.  Those drawers will face the sink side of the kitchen. On the opposite end from the stove I can build a base cabinet 12" x 36" using a 36" wide overhead cabinet.  Those doors will face the LR/DR.  The rear of the 36" drawer base (which faces the sink) will not have another cabinet. This will give me 12" deep x 36" wide for an eating bar overhang.  Since that side of the island will face the walkway through the kitchen from the utility room, garage door, to the LR/DR.  The only things to reach on that side are the door to the MBR and bath, and 2 pantries.  If I decide I want storage more than a place to perch in the kitchen, I can fill in that 12" deep area with another 36" wide upper cabinet.     I have not decided whether to paint out the kitchen cabinets yet, but I will probably paint the island.  *I might be able to use the existing cabinets I am removing from the end kitchen counter run to obtain 36' of wall space for the larger refrigerator.  I can use those 36" base and wall cabinets to build the island.  That will only leave the 36" large drawer base to buy!    Love saving money!  I also like the existing cabinets for their flat face doors.  Those flat doors will be easy to copy for the island.  My current kitchen has fancy doors, and they tend to collect dirt and grime requiring heavy cleaning.  Flat face doors will be much easier to clean which is important in the kitchen.  I haven't decided whether or not I will paint the cabinets since they are growing on me.   I think once I paint out all the dark paneling in the house I might like them natural.  The quartz counter tops will probably take most of my budget so reusing the existing cabinets will be good, although since they are not "box" cabinets, we will have a lot of work to remove them without damage. The now empty refrigerator space (34" x 36") will get a prehung door and become a large deep pantry.  Somewhere to house my 2 water bath canners, 2 pressure canners, equipment, and boxes of jars.  

Anyone else think by the time I finish the house remodeling it may be time to retire to nursing home?

On a happier note, 7088 lambed in the breeding pen this morning, twin ewes.  At 9:00 am the cords were still wet, they were cleaned up, and nursing.   It was very chilly with a strong breeze.  When we went down to move them into the barn half an hour later 7088 had moved her twins behind the solid fence out of the wind.  What a good mama!  One of the twins is very large, the other very small.  Since she was due October 30, it is not inconceivable that one was from the original breeding and the smaller one was from a second breeding.  I will watch them to make sure the small one gets enough to eat.  Her udder never did fill very large before lambing but she is an experienced ewe so her body knows what to do.

I will have to watch the others in that pen.  The ram is interested in several of them and actually marked 8111 on November 1.  She had marked twice, and her first due date is 11/17.  It was very strange year for both breeding and lambing.

It rained lightly yesterday and today we were supposed to have more rain, but it is cold, breezy, and sunny.  Just as well we did not have rain last night or this morning with 7088 lambing.  The trampoline is in that pen on the flat area, but the sheep don't often shelter under it.  On the other hand, the rams love their old trampoline for both shade and a rain shelter.

Yesterday I returned all the yarn I had spent 2 days choosing and purchasing.   I loved the colors, but the yarn was a thinner gauge than I like working for the little blankets.  I found the brand and weight I like on sale online on the Walmart website.  They didn't have a lot of the prettier colors, so I ordered the ones that I liked (some I had used before).  Then I found the manufacturer's website which had some gorgeous color blends.  I bit the bullet and bought those pretty colors at regular price.  However, since I can knit one baby blanket from one skein of that yarn while the lighter weight yarn takes 2 skeins, the price was actually cheaper per blanket overall for the full price yarn!  Since I like making the blankets with variegated color yarn, I did keep the solid colors from Hobby Lobby and Michaels that were on sale to make the crocheted edging.  The lighter weight for crocheting works well and the solid colors make a nice contrast with the variegated color blankets.  The Walmart order was delivered the same day!  I am waiting for the other order to arrive.  Once all the yarn is delivered, I will separate it into color matches to store.  Makes it easy when we travel to grab the large, variegated skein for the blanket body and a coordinating solid for the border.  

I guess I will start going through more closets and packing boxes for the abused women's home.  It is in Los Angeles so want to have a full load before driving that far.  It has gotten quite chilly today.  Supposed to be a cold front for the next week.


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## Ridgetop

SageHill said:


> Nah - you did good. You found a great place that's going to be even greater when you finally get there full time.
> Any where you go there will be something. Better to know now than before you get there.
> Bummer on not being able to bring in the TX hay though  that would have been awesome if you were able to do it.



Finding out about the Fire Ant Quarantine in Texas and all southeast US was a big bummer for us.  We will have to haul the empty flatbed back to CA.  Come summer we will probably be able to buy alfalfa hay in New Mexico and Arizona to haul to CA for the sheep.  Maybe it will be cheaper than what we pay here since here we are paying for shipping.

I am trying to locate all workmen, resources, etc. that we will need once we get there.  Also making calls now to find out about anything we need to do.

Working in the office today and doing all my filing.  Also starting my receipts for my taxes.  🤢\


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## Baymule

We have plenty of Fire Ants. To say that in Texan, it’s Fahr Aints. LOL Anyway we got lots of them, willing to share, but nobody wants them.


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## Ridgetop

You are in a "quarantine area" because of those Imported Fahr Aints.  There are 2 varieties - one is black and the other is red.  Both are *BAD*!  They snuck into this country between 1919 and 1930 from 2 locations in South America entering US ports in imported goods.  I learned a lot since trying to figure out how to get hay into California on our return trip with an empty flat bed trailer. 

I am trying to convince DH that we should make another trip to TX with the flatbed and the horse trailer.  We will borrow DS2s Black Dragon.  DS1 can drive one truck and DH the other.  We will load the 20-24' panels on the flatbed, and load the 16' stock trailer with shorter panel.  Other equipment and boxes can go in the truck beds.  We will also bring more industrial shelving as we empty our plastic bins of reno equipment and parts to bring to TX.   The rabbit cages that are still flat packed, watering system, feeders, etc. can come back on this trip.  I need to break down the rabbit cages that are set up (36" x 30") as well so they won't take up any space in the trailer.

DH is worried that we won't have anywhere "secure" to store all these things.   ???  Didn't we just empty out the barn tack room, and the tool shed in the rear yard during our last trip?  I have receipts for 3 trips to the dump that say we did.  I reminded DH that I also put a hasp and lock on the barn tack room.   Then he said that we could use the corral panels to block off the barn entrances to the cattle.  Then said that no one would go looking to steal our junk with a tenant in the house and cattle in the field.  Right.  I would like to get back there again with some stuff BEFORE gas prices get any higher.  We will stay in a motel and it will be a turnaround trip - no visiting anyone this time.  That will keep the gas price lower.  DS2 will stay here and feed for us.  Working on my menfolk to get a move on with this moving.  If we are going to move we need to get with the program.  

The twin ewe lambs that arrived 2 days ago are doing alright.  7088 is allowing me to pet her as well which is surprising.  I will see if she will take a peanut butter filled cracker from me this afternoon.  I am considerng whether to supplement the tiny lamb with a bottle.  She is half the size of her sister.


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## Baymule

Load ‘em up and take it to Texas!


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## Mike CHS

We had several thousand dollars worth of material and tools in unlocked sheds for three years and expected serious loss but it never happened.  We made a point of letting our neighbor young ones know what kind of security we had but never did show them where the cameras were.  You have been here so we have the advantage of only having one way in and one way out which bad buys don't like.


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## farmerjan

This is a warning to @Baymule ... "this is a turnaround trip and no visiting anyone this trip".... NO CAROUSING or gallivanting with the knee feeling better....!!!!


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## Ridgetop

I know - so sad about it but need to get on the ball with moving stuff not just talking about it and having fun with friends!  
Once we have moved we can carouse and gallivant!  

So mini orchard is planted - just in time for tornado to hit Sulphur Springs.   Actually, it hit Powderly, TX which is miles from Sulphur Springs. North and slightly west in fact. DH read it online and immediately told me. I looked it up and no problem. If it _had_ hit SS or Yantis it would just be normal Ridgetop Luck.  I checked with the Jeremy (who planted the trees) and he also does spraying and bush hogging for the goat weed. So another item checked off my list. As to the fencing I got permission from the neighbor to go on his property when working on the fence.  He owns the northern side and part of the western sides.  I figured it would not be a problem but needed to get permission.  Been watching Lone Star Law and don't want my fence guys hauled off to jail.  Or have to pay any fines for their trespass.  

DH is now worried that there will be no diesel fuel available by December since apparently reports are that we only have a month worth of diesel fuel left in the country.  He is now on board with making a trip to Texas with both trucks, the flatbed and the stock trailer.  We will take back corral panels, stall covers, and whatever large flat fencing we need to move back and are not using currently.  I will load DS2's truck bed with the cardboard boxes since he has a tonneau cover that will protect them.  Plastic bins can ride in the stock trailer with the rabbit equipment.  I can free up at least 2, possibly 3 sets of the large industrial shelving in the milk shed once I have removed the rabbit equipment, electric fencing parts, tile saw and tools, drywall tools, etc.  I will also free up an entire shelf unit when I load the boxes of canning jars and equipment.  Might as well bring all that back now since I won't have any veggies or fruit to can until we harvest in TX.  Anything that is coming back to TX that we are not using now might as well be brought back now.  Especially since we now have 2 empty sheds to set up shelves and store stuff in.  

Finally got the 2 coats of varnish on the oven cabinet.  When we replaced the oven 6 years ago the new double oven was shorter than the original so DS1 cut a piece of oak and we pieced it in.  I needed to finish it up but . . . .  I finally got the wood filler in before we went to TX in September.  When DS2 was sanding his new cabinet I had him come in and sand the area with the filler smooth.   I finally got it stained but the stain was too light, so I had to mix a deeper color and re-stain it.  Yesterday I got the 2 coats of varnish o and you can't tell that it was repaired.    Not too bad - only took 6 years.  I usually get things done a lot faster - being in my prime has slowed me down!

Still only one ewe has lambed.  The others don't look like they are pregnant even though they were all marked in June with a few repeats in July.  The ram was in with them from 6/5 through 8/16.   I wonder if the intense heat during that time caused them to reabsorb the pregnancies in August just before we removed the ram.   They will rebreed with Lewis in with them.  We need to change the crayon this weekend.  If they don't re-breed (mark) they could lamb as late as January.  We will have to see.  The tiny lamb is very vigorous.  I am still considering giving her a bottle but she seems fine. 

  DGS6 (Robert) has discovered that baby lambs are nice and soft when they are friendly and gentle.  Robert loves to go out with DH to feed.  Robert insists on bringing a carrot for Josie and will call her.  She comes running when she hears him squealing for her.  LOL

Today I will start separating my business receipts into categories and totaling them.      Our next Texas trip will be fairly easy to add in if we go before January 1.       Need to do my end of year report for the NNN lender as well.  That is more difficult since I have to retrieve figures from other people who don't always have them ready.  

We have been watching the early voting returns.  Or as our family calls it - The Dems figuring out how many mail-in votes they need to "find" to win.      In an interesting spin SC judges Alito and Roberts hearing the lawsuit against Harvard and other universities about affirmative action are giving the Harvard lawyers what for about their ranking process.  The reasons for high acceptance rankings for black and hispanic applicants with low grades vs low acceptance rankings for Asians and whites with excellent grades are not making sense.  More confusing information has come out about the Paul Pelosi attack.  Very odd situation.  I find myself channeling my grandmother almost daily - "I don't know what the country is coming to!"


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## SageHill

(yipe on the diesel fuel - -should fill up the tractor gasp).
LOVE the pic!!!! That is what the world needs. ❤️


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## Baymule

There is only 25 days worth of diesel fuel. This administration sure has F’ed things up. I don’t care which political group anyone is in, it all comes down to the economy, crime and our freedoms. Galloping inflation, criminals turned back out on the streets to pillage and murder again and every “fix” made into law just erodes away our freedoms. 

Remember the Alamo.


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## Ridgetop

OMG!  Not enough fuel to get to Texas and back again.  We planned to go the 2 weeks before Christmas. That gives me enough time to do the Christmas decorations, cookie baking (will store in freezer), gift shopping and ordering and doctor/dental appointments for the 3 of us (DH, DS1, and me).  At least we have enough food here in CA and we use natural gas to heat and cook.  Not sure if the DWP electric plant uses diesel to produce.  Looks like we might have missed the window to move to Texas.   

Like Scarlett O'Hara I won't think about that today.  

On a happy note, DS1's trick with penning Junior (the 6 months old ram) inside the ram pen for several days before turning hm in with the older boys worked.  He hangs out with them like a groupie, even cuddling u at night to sleep.  There was some minor butting and dominance scrambling but he is young enough to agree they are the bosses.  All is now calm in Ramworld.  Of course, Lewis is still in with the ewes.  When he returns things will change again as everyone asserts their pecking order.  Junior will be bottom rung for a while, but unlike chickens the sheep don't see a need to pick on the younger flock members except to drive them away from the feeder if there is not enough room.

We have not seen any more lambs born yet, but on my quick trip to the breeding pen I saw a ewe stringing her plug and standing off a bit from the flock.  She did not approach the feeder and is obviously beginning the lambing process.  No sign of a lamb, alive or dead, so we wait.  DS1 or I will go check in an hour.  We were supposed to have a torrential storm today beginning last night.  This morning we had wet pavement and a slight ongoing drizzle.  If it starts to rain, we will have to get that ewe inside the barn with the lambs. I have a doctor's appointment at 11:30 and need to leave in an hour.  Maybe she will hurry up.  DS2 and DDIL2 are at OB appointment.  Robert is here with us.  When we leave DS1 will have Robert and the ewe to worry about.  I don't like to leave the lambs in the rain but they are born wet after all so . . . .  

BL16 has a crayon mark today. She was just added to the breeding pen.  The next lambing dates are around November 15.  Strange year for breeding and lambing.  Not one I want to repeat either.


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## Ridgetop

Oops!  What was I thinking?  Today is Monday not Tuesday.  Luckily DH reminded me of that before I left for my Tuesday appointment!  We voted on Sunday - DH wanted to vote early because he had jury duty starting Monday.  He has been checking online and he didn't have to go in either Monday or tomorrow.

OR10 marked today.  100123 is the ewe that was starting labor this morning.  She lambed finally.  She had 1 big healthy ram lamb this morning.  DS1 moved her into the barn just before the rain came down.   Kept checking on her but she was quite calm and eating. Kept waiting for her to pass the afterbirth.  Late this afternoon she had a stillborn ram lamb that she didn't clean.  I wonder if I should have pulled it or if it was already dead since she didn't strain or look uncomfortable.  She also didn't udder up much.  At least she delivered it and has a healthy live ram lamb instead of a dead retained one.  This year has been a bad one. I really wonder if this past terrible summer has something to do with it.  Both ewes lambed 5 days after their due dates.  Usually they are all on time.  Not sure if that is something that will continue for the rest of this lambing group.  I remember several years in the rabbitry when all the does would kindle a couple days early or a couple days late instead of at the 30-day mark.  And it would be ALL of them in that one year. Strange things happen with livestock.  At least it gives me hope that some of the other ewes will lamb.  We pulled the ram on August 16, so they have until January 8 to lamb if they are bred.  3 ewes have marked since Lewis went into the pen on October 23.  Two of them had been marked by Smalley so we will have to see if they actually lamb before January 8 or if they will have Lewis lambs after March17.

Been misting and sprinkling all day with just one cloudburst.  Supposed to have a large storm move in tonight and tomorrow.  Robert found one of the "ram-be-good" sticks in the office.  I made 3 of them - 24" of closet pole with a hole drilled in one end for a rope to hang it on the corral post.  We keep then on the corrals where the rams are housed to make sure the rams behave.  He took it out to the family room and proceeded to whack his daddy and grandfather with it.  Several times.  I have no idea why it was in the office since they are supposed to be kept hanging on the corrals where they are handy.  Mr. Not Me has been moving stuff around again.  Just like my ballot that DH insisted he had personally given to me when it arrived.  He found it on his desk (where I told him it probably still was) and tried to sneak it onto my desk when I was out of the room but I came back in and caught him.  

Got my tax receipts sorted out and totaled for our 3 Texas trips.  Took all day to put in date order, compare them to the credit card bills, and total them.  Next, I have to collect the property tax payments, insurance payments, any repairs to the properties, office expenses, etc.  and go through the checkbook stubs to make sure that I have everything.     If I find an entry that has no receipt, I have to track it down.  If it is something in DH's checkbook I am in trouble since he has a very erratic way of filing receipts.  Sometimes he also doesn't see the need to note what the amount was for.  I try to snatch all receipts away from him as soon as I can, but he still manages to lose some between the store and home.       Then I have to transfer everything to the form that DH uses.   If I'm lucky, everything is ok for the tax preparer.  Usually though DH questions stuff and I have to go look it up so it can go in a different category than the place he told me to put it.   By the time I finish I want to go live in a cave.  Alone.  Or overdose on chocolate.

I wonder if any of those stupid ewes plan to lamb in the rain tomorrow.


----------



## Baymule

I moved my flock in February of this year, then again 6 months later. Poor girls. Breeding is all over the place. My “fall” lambs haven’t arrived yet, except for one. Ewes are not even bagged up. Evidently they did not get the memo.


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## Ridgetop

No lambs this morning - just as well since it rained hard last night and is still raining off and on this morning.  Not the tropical downpour that we were told was coming but it is only 9am so plenty of time still for a massive rain today.

Removed the dead lamb from the jug.  Born dead late yesterday afternoon and left it in the jug till today since the trash cans were all 1/2 mile down the hill at the curb.  No new ewes look like lambing but since the 2 that lambed didn't udder up before lambing who knows.  Crazy breeding and lambing season last year.  No ram was in with the ewes from August 16 through October 23.  Normally I wait abut 3-4 weeks then out in another ram to make sure the ewes settle.  Since DS1 and DS2 were in Texas during September no one would have been here to write down breeding dates, so we did not put a cover ram in the pen.  Oh well.  We will just have to wait to see what appears.

Lambs born before Christmas will be eligible as Fall lambs to compete at WSDA show and sale in Reno if we go Lambs born as of January 1 will be eligible as Spring lambs, I think.  The entry catalog hasn't been published yet so I am not sure what the cut off dates will be. I am only considering bringing some lambs since the White Dorper entry is very small and they are bringing good prices.  I may have to shear and train the lambs to lead on halter. 
*@Margali I need a Cassandra!* 
The black head Dorpers have a large entry and their prices are fairly static except for the breeders who normally win everything.  I haven't decided if we will enter although some of the lambs are promising. Not even sure if we will go.  The 2023 show will be in Reno since the premises are booked.  After last year's fiasco when the person in charge FORGOT to book the showground and the show had to take place in July, they got right on it and booked the Reno premises then.  Several members have requested the show move to Idaho so in 2024 they will be holding it in Idaho.  No idea on where in Idaho it will be held.  Since this is the "Western States" breeders' association it needs to move around in the different states.  It was held in California for years, then finally moved to Reno, NV. Now some other states want it to move closer to them.  Since the WSDA covers Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, Idaho and Washington, it is only fair to let the other states host the show and sale.  By moving the annual show and sale to other states we might get some different breeders coming to show and auction.  It would be interesting to see what other breeders are producing.  Of course, those breeders in other states would have to step up to put it on.  Right now, most of the organizers are in northern California.  Having put on different types of shows in my time, I know it is a lot of work and most people thank you by complaining instead of stepping up to help on the day.  

Doctor appointment this am, then possibly some Christmas shopping at the Ross (Tuesday is senior day 10% off) in West LA on the way home, then back to the dreaded taxes.  

DH said that DDIL1 told him that the horses are eating sand and colicking.  Their land is almost all beach sand.  Once these 2 are with us she will only have a 30-year-old left.  She must have sold the other one since they had 4.  DH said when the truck comes back, he will drive up and pick up the horses.  DDIL1 said that DS3 will bring the flatbed trailer down at Thanksgiving.  We need to put up a temporary stall for the horses to see how they interact with the sheep.  Then clean out the stock trailer and load the flatbed and stock trailer at our leisure for our trip to TX.  DH is worried about the weather in December.      I figured at gas prices today (and if the diesel is available) it will cost us about $3,000 in gas to make the trip with both trucks.    But it needs to be done if we are going to move to the ranch.


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## Ridgetop

Went to doctor this am.  Then to Ross afterwards with DH.  He wanted to sit in the car but then he would have kept calling me to complain about length of time I was in store SHOPPING!  He did sit down for quite a while in the shoe department and then downstairs in the furniture department while I shopped.  During the 2 hours we were in the store the heavens opened up and the rain really poured down.  It cleared slightly for us to drive home.  On the way home there was an ALERT about flash floods in Shadow Hills and surrounding areas!  The GPS sent us home a different way to avoid the flooding, but the traffic lights were out when we got off the freeway and a lot of debris had been washed out into the road.  DS1 turned on the heat because inside temp had dropped to 60 degrees!  The skylight in the laundry room had leaked too.  I will have to go up on the roof when it dries out and caulk around it.  Bubbled some of the ceiling paint.  

Shopping trip was pretty successful.  Got cute and warm jackets for both daughters, and a really pretty 
windbreaker for DIL1.  Dressy black sweater for DDIL2 and another sweater fr her that is ok but I might take back.  Then scored 2 really nice shirts for DS2 - one in nice teal color and the other in a subdued Hawaiian print in pretty colors.  Then, on to the children - found adorable matching sweatshirt jackets with sequins for DGDs 1 & 2, the kind that you push the sequins up and it makes a different design, and nail polish kits.  DGD1 and DGD2 both enjoy having matching things.  Also got a cute 4 piece outfit for DGD2 and Disney Princess match game.  Then I got pajamas for both Annabel and Robert, 2 small inexpensive toys for Robert (characters he watches in cartoons), fleece jacket & matching T-shirt for Annabel, a push toy, and hairbows for DGDs2 & 3 to share.  Last one to shop for was DS2's and DDIL2's baby due in a month who got a fleece suit with hood and handcovers, and 2 toys.  No need for more since DGD2's 5 siblings shower Robert with clothes and toys and will do the same for the new one.  There are currently 4 pairs of shoes and 2 pairs of boots sitting on the windowsill in the family.  Looks like we have a set of sextuplets living here instead of one 18-month-old!   These are the only grandchildren (and nephews) in their family so they enjoy them.       
My Christmas shopping is now 60% complete.  Still have DS1 and DS3 to shop for, along with DS3's 2 boys and DD1's 2 boys.  Those boys are aged 15, 12, 11, and 8.   For those ages I can also buy on Amazon since older kids are particular.  !!!   Just remembered that I already have 2 Dungeons and Dragons game books for DD1's boys, and a book and needlework kit for DD1.  I will look in my gift box to see what else I have.  I know I bought a couple tops for DD2 last summer which I was saving for Christmas.  I think I also have another baby toy put away for "Nameless" and a really good teether.  

DGD1 is getting Ikea shelving for a Barbie house using the beautiful handmade furniture I bought and made for her mom.  She not only has furniture for a mansion but also patio furniture and a barn for the 4 horses.  Oh yes and the garage for the car.  I picked up Barbie stuff at the thrift store over the years so DGD1 will be fully equipped.  Not to mention DGD1's Barbies have macho GI Joes for husbands - with weapon.  They must be Texans.  LOL   Ken is their gay friend.  This family does not judge. 

Told DH when he complained that i have done this shopping every year for over 50 years and he needed to just suck it up.  I have to get everything done before we take our 2 truck and trailer loads to Texas in December.  I will do the decorating the day after Thanksgiving and bake the cookies right after that.  I would do the Christmas cookie baking now, but don't have any room in the freezers.    Uh oh!  This might be the Christmas there are no Christmas cookies!   What to do?


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## Mini Horses

One year, many, many yrs back -- when kids were still pre-teen -- I had brilliant idea to bake holiday cookies early and freeze.  Being a working mom, time was a treasure to find!    Things went well until kids realized I was hiding them in freezer and opened a couple containers and enjoyed them! 😫🤣. So much for planning.


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## Baymule

That makes sense about moving the show around. Make it easier for people in other areas to show their lambs, it’s only fair. Y’all should go. 

Christmas shopping! We revamped our Christmas years ago. We do a White Elephant party for adults and pound kids with presents. White Elephant is fun, we draw numbers, pick a new present or steal one. If your present is stolen, you can either steal one or get a new one. #1 waits until last and then can steal. Presents can only be stolen 3 times. It’s a lot of fun. So much easier than trying to shop for everyone.


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## Ridgetop

I will bring that idea up to family.  Yesterday I went through the gifts I bought and decided that the coat I bought for DD1 is not something she will wear but the sweater I bought on clearance is, so she will get that, along with a book of embroidery stitches, and a needlework kit.  She enjoys small needlework projects.  I will return the coat on Tuesday when it is old folks' discount day.   

As to the Christmas cookies - I used to wait till the kids were all off at school, empty the freezer, stack the tins in the bottom, and put all the frozen back on top.  Now the kids are grown, and I just put the tins in the freezer.  They know that I will not make any more so they hold off until Christmas Eve.  Then all rules are off and often I find a couple tins with just one cookie in them!  This must be a guy thing - I also find ice cream containers with a teaspoon of ice cream crystalizing in them.  This crafty plan gives truth to the claims of "I did NOT eat _all _the ice cream - there was some left". This is a very DH thing and includes many items. This year I plan to make the dough for the pressed and roll out cookies and freeze that. It takes less space, and I can bake just before Christmas when we get back from our Texas run. DS1 said that if I want to bake before we leave, he will rearrange the lower freezer in the milk shed to hold the cookies. He said that there is space, the contents are just not arranged properly. Since he wants to do that, I will have him take some of the 7 pumpkin pies that DS2 made yesterday and freeze them. Maybe my Christmas baking will get done before we leave after all.    Next Wednesday I will go to Burlington's for shirts for DSILs and DSs.   I can also go Christmas shopping with DD1 when I get back.


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## Baymule

White Elephant Christmas party simplifies matters. Each person brings one present. No more shopping for EVERYONE and buying stuff they already have, wrong size, color, don’t like it and so on. Not to mention the expense and time. Kids get presents from everyone, teenagers do too, but they can play White Elephant too, just bring a present. 

Bring it up at Christmas, y’all talk about it.


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## Ridgetop

Update:  
1.   Decided to buy nursing tops for DIL since the ones she already had (only 2-3) were tank style and the baby is arriving in a month.  Found a pack of 3 long sleeved in cute colors and layered design with xlt reviews on Amazon.  
2.   Ordering a pair of fleece lined jeans for me for trips to Texas in December and February.  Good reviews, stretchy, comfortable, affordable.  Ordered size larger because of confusing reviews about size.  Still have time to return and order different size. 
3.   Also ordering the companion volumes to the Dungeons and Dragons books for DD1's boys.  
4.   Will go to Ross on Tuesday (old folks day) to buy baking tools for DGS2 who has discovered a special interest in cooking.  Last Christmas I gave him the Harry Potter Cook Book.  He made treacle tart for his brother's birthday.  It was a disappointment because he made it with Panko Crumbs and Karo instead of the bread crumbs and treacle the recipe called for.   He also discovered that his mother does not own a rolling pin and dough cutter.  What?!     I showed him the old way of cutting the shortening into the flour with a pair of knives but told him I would fit him out this Christmas with baking tools.  When he had to roll out the crust for the treacle tart, I showed him how to wrap a large can from the pantry in plastic wrap and use it to roll out the dough.  While it was a stopgap in an emergency, it was not long enough.  I have my grandmother's antique lemon juicer that I will give him too.  I used to have 3 or 4 rolling pins, one was marble that you chill, the others wood.  I use my grandmother's and think that the others might be in the shed.  (I used the marble one for rolling vinyl floor tiles.  LOL)    I promised him that I would teach him cake decorating this summer too. This is the grandchild that does not like the sheep and is finicky about dirt so this is something I can work with him on.     Found some stuff on Amazon that I ordered for him. I also found "baking beans".  Anyone else wonder what those were or the term "blind baking"?  I had to look it up on the internet after 60 years of baking!  Apparently, it is the term for baking the pie crust before filling it with a custard or liquid filling.  You line the bottom of the pie crust with parchment paper and put in dry beans, rice, or "baking beans" to weigh it down to avoid it getting air bubbles.  "Baking beans" are porcelain weights shaped like beans or marbles.  It works better than just pricking the dough with a fork.  I found a set that is made in the USA.  All the others were made in China, and I was worried about the possibility of lead.  For the treacle tart he made we used rice instead which worked but was messy.  Probably not a god idea to use dried corn!    

Rained all night Tuesday.  Blue skies, but cold for past couple days.  No more lambs.  DH watching the election returns.  I am not watching since I haven't had a good election since Reagan and Trump.  Stock market soared when it looked like there would be a "red wave", probably dropped now.


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## farmerjan

The baking beans here are called "pie weights"... very popular and do the same thing.  I have a set... they keep the pie crust from bubbling up and getting air and yep, work better than just pricking it which is still better than doing nothing for prebaking a pie shell. I had never heard of it called blind baking but looked it up and saw that is a common name. 
I like my pie crusts a little on the soggy side.. so......
Nice to find something that you and relate to him on a personal level like that.  Sheep or goats or horses or cattle or turtles are not for everyone....


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## Baymule

How nice that you and grandson have found something to have in common. Time spent with grandparents is precious time and makes lifetime memories.


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## Ridgetop

It was pleasant, and I retained my position as "SHE WHO KNOWS ALL" with my grandson.  I have lost that position with 15-year-old DGS1 who could probably build his own computer from scratch and no longer brings me anything to repair or make.  DGS2 and DGD1 still believe I could repair anything and have the ingredients to make anything. they need for school from my craft closet.  

DGD1 brought me her baby banket that her other grandmother crocheted for her when she was born.  It is an open shell pattern in fine yarn and she caught it on something and tore the edging.  Naturally, I maintained my poker face when she said she knew I could fix it.  DD1 was standing there hopefully as well.  I rose to the occasion and assured them it would be no problem.  However, I don't crochet and don't have wool that weight, feel, or color.  Over the past 9 years it has faded with constant use and washing from a soft yellow to a grayish yellow.  My reputation was going to suffer here.     I kept putting off the repair and telling DGD1 that I hadn't had time to fix it.  Yesterday, I grabbed the bull by the horns (figuratively since I would never keep an animal with horns - dangerous and tear up your fences).  Went through my needlework boxes and found a twisted (not 6 strand) piece of embroidery floss in cream. The yarn looping the shells together was broken.  First I tried using a fine crochet hook to loop through the shells. That didn't work at all.  Then I had the bright idea to use a large crewel needle and just go through the loops that way.  Eureka!  You can't tell where the broken yarn was.     Pau-Pau (Chinese for Grandma) still rules! DGD1 is home with a cold and does not know yet that it has been repaired.   Naturally, I will receive her thanks with aplomb and matter-of-fact acceptance of her grateful kisses.   


Today is 15% off at Tractor Supply for military vets!  If we were in Texas I would buy my gates, T-posts, and wire.  Received my AG tax card so no sales tax.  Sadly, we are in California.  I will have to wait until next year for the next sale.  California won't honor the tax card and tax here is almost 9% which negates most of the discount.  I wonder if TSC only offers the one-day military discount on Veterans Day or if they do it on other holidays like July 4th, etc.  Anybody know?


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## Baymule

No I don’t know about the Veterans Day discount. They conveniently exclude certain items and put a $$ limit on it. If y’all are coming after Thanksgiving, what about calling the store, asking if you can purchase now over the phone, to pick up by xx date?


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## Bruce

Ridgetop said:


> The reasons for high acceptance rankings for black and hispanic applicants with low grades vs low acceptance rankings for Asians and whites with excellent grades are not making sense.


Incorrect understanding. No one gets into Harvard, MIT, etc if they don't have the grades.  There was a discussion about this recently on the radio, one guest was (or had been? I don't recall) an admissions person at Dartmouth. She said that while all accepted applicants had the grades, those accepted under affirmative action were students that didn't have the same opportunities as others due primarily to financial situations. They showed the same promise of success but didn't have the "extra padding" (my words) on their resume which money can "buy" for other students to put in their application letters. She also mentioned some kids pay someone to write their application letters!  

I just looked up acceptance rates
MIT - 7.3%
Harvard - 5%
Dartmouth - 9.2%


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## Bruce

Back to the tractor pedal thoughts  

I was using my forks the other day. To see the front of the forks down near the ground I need to stand up while I move forward (and sometimes backwards).  I'm not sure if I could do that with the twin pedals found on some machines like Deer. With a treadle you push down on the pedal, with the twins you push forward. Easy to push forward while standing? I don't know. 

And since the brake pedals are forward of the treadle, I can inch forward or back and brake as needed while standing. I know I couldn't stand and do that on the "twin pedal" designs with the brake pedal on the left side. We all need at least one leg to stand on!  

I don't know if the treadle pedal on my Mahindra is significantly different than what is found on other makes though the Kubota looks to be fairly similar.

I think when it comes time to buy a tractor you and DH should "try before you buy" rather than write off some brands based on a pedal design you've not tried.


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## Ridgetop

No tractor purchase for another year.  Have to get the perimeter fence up and get moved first.   

Local fence guy is getting estimate together for us now.  Landscaper installed a dozen different fruit trees last week. He put up a hot wire for the cattle - just hope the hogs don't decide to root them up!  Tornado blew through northern Texas but missed Sulphur Springs by a few miles.  



Bruce said:


> Incorrect understanding. No one gets into Harvard, MIT, etc if they don't have the grades.


That is correct, but those grades are then added to other things to determine admission ranking.  There is a "personal score" assigned to students.  Once the "personal scores" are added and subtracted to/from the grades, admission rankings change considerably.  Some of the arguments were reported online with Alito's questions to the defense lawyers.  

Some of the yarn I ordered arrived today.  The rest will be coming next week.     Plenty packed away for many months.  Pretty colors.  No need for tranquilizers when I knit.  It also keeps me from snacking since I keep saying I will get  something after the next row!   Not as good as exercise, but certainly keeps food out of my mouth.  

Still no more lambs!  The next due dates based on the markings will be 11/15, 11/17, and 11/25.  I will have to wait and see.  And if this is a year where all of them lamb 5 days past their due dates (as something happens in herds or flocks) then I need to add 5 days to each of those dates.  Crazy year!  

On a good note, we will hopefully be picking up a puppy from Erick in March when we come out for the wedding.  I say "hopefully" because although the bitch is bred and xrays show at least 5-6 puppies who knows how many males or females will be born.  We will know the end of November.  If we don't get one from this breeding, Erick has another bitch being bred to the same male which will have a litter a month or two later.  He is wondering now if he will have enough puppies for everyone that has been waiting for years.  He hasn't bred a litter for the past 3-4 years due to health reasons and we have all been waiting for Lucky Hit puppies.  We are all owners of previous Lucky Hit puppies and willing to wait for one of his!  I am already on the list for another puppy 2 years after this one.  LOL   When we move to Texas, I hope to have the puppy trained and can move Rika part time to being a newborn lamb, yard, and house dog.  She will be older and ready to retire to easier jobs by then.  One more puppy to train before retirement.


----------



## Finnie

Ridgetop said:


> Update:
> 1.   Decided to buy nursing tops for DIL since the ones she already had (only 2-3) were tank style and the baby is arriving in a month.  Found a pack of 3 long sleeved in cute colors and layered design with xlt reviews on Amazon.
> 2.   Ordering a pair of fleece lined jeans for me for trips to Texas in December and February.  Good reviews, stretchy, comfortable, affordable.  Ordered size larger because of confusing reviews about size.  Still have time to return and order different size.
> 3.   Also ordering the companion volumes to the Dungeons and Dragons books for DD1's boys.
> 4.   Will go to Ross on Tuesday (old folks day) to buy baking tools for DGS2 who has discovered a special interest in cooking.  Last Christmas I gave him the Harry Potter Cook Book.  He made treacle tart for his brother's birthday.  It was a disappointment because he made it with Panko Crumbs and Karo instead of the bread crumbs and treacle the recipe called for.   He also discovered that his mother does not own a rolling pin and dough cutter.  What?!     I showed him the old way of cutting the shortening into the flour with a pair of knives but told him I would fit him out this Christmas with baking tools.  When he had to roll out the crust for the treacle tart, I showed him how to wrap a large can from the pantry in plastic wrap and use it to roll out the dough.  While it was a stopgap in an emergency, it was not long enough.  I have my grandmother's antique lemon juicer that I will give him too.  I used to have 3 or 4 rolling pins, one was marble that you chill, the others wood.  I use my grandmother's and think that the others might be in the shed.  (I used the marble one for rolling vinyl floor tiles.  LOL)    I promised him that I would teach him cake decorating this summer too. This is the grandchild that does not like the sheep and is finicky about dirt so this is something I can work with him on.     Found some stuff on Amazon that I ordered for him. I also found "baking beans".  Anyone else wonder what those were or the term "blind baking"?  I had to look it up on the internet after 60 years of baking!  Apparently, it is the term for baking the pie crust before filling it with a custard or liquid filling.  You line the bottom of the pie crust with parchment paper and put in dry beans, rice, or "baking beans" to weigh it down to avoid it getting air bubbles.  "Baking beans" are porcelain weights shaped like beans or marbles.  It works better than just pricking the dough with a fork.  I found a set that is made in the USA.  All the others were made in China, and I was worried about the possibility of lead.  For the treacle tart he made we used rice instead which worked but was messy.  Probably not a god idea to use dried corn!
> 
> Rained all night Tuesday.  Blue skies, but cold for past couple days.  No more lambs.  DH watching the election returns.  I am not watching since I haven't had a good election since Reagan and Trump.  Stock market soared when it looked like there would be a "red wave", probably dropped now.


I just wanted to clarify- I wasn’t laughing about the election results. Rather about using dried corn for pie weights!


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## Baymule

I hope I can get a puppy out of one of these breedings. I understand about people waiting for years, but if I don’t get one, I’ll have to find one elsewhere. I’m down 2 LGDs and I can’t wait a couple of years. I have a ram and his paramour in the front yard with Carson (half Great Dane-half Labrador) standing in as a LGD. Carson is doing a great job, but I can’t expect him to run a pasture, keeping coyotes out.


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## Ridgetop

Finnie said:


> I just wanted to clarify- I wasn’t laughing about the election results. Rather about using dried corn for pie weights!


Any time I can bring joy to someone is fine with me!  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Call him and talk to him.  He is planning on breeding Dukat when she comes in season next year.  (Which I suddenly realized is only a few months away!)  Now that he had his back surgery and has recovered, he is becoming more active and is hoping to start breeding at least one maybe 2 litters a year.  He loves raising and training puppies.  He will hopefully be attending a couple shows too.

His health was really bad for several years.  That is why people have not been able to book puppies - he didn't breed any litters for about 4 years.  Eventually, the doctors figured out that it was a reaction to one of his meds, so they took changed it.  Once he was feeling better, he was hardly able to walk from spine pain.  Finally, the doctors found he had a huge cyst growing in his spine.  Luckily, they were able to remove it before it paralyzed him.  That was about a year ago and now he is just recovering to the point that he can drive and walk well again.  Our prayers were answered.  He is enjoying his dogs again and was able to go to the Anatolian Specialty show with 3 dogs.  He won Reserve Winner's bitch with a puppy (her sister took Winner's Bitch) and placed in the classes with the other 2.  He is super excited about these upcoming litters and the one he has planned next year.

I was thinking about you when @bethh posted about having to rehome her GPs.  I didn't suggest them because I knew you didn't want any more GPs.  Particularly ones that have formed the habit of escaping their fences.  Those dogs probably should be placed on much larger acreage.  I hope @bethh is able to place them.

Today I am doing housework, laundry, and office work.  🤪   I found some deeper (15-16") cabinet units for the dollhouse but some of them sound too cheap and won't hold up.  I think DD1 will have to make a decision when she returns from her Girl Scout camping trip.  They are flat pack pressboard cabinets (but we won't install the doors which were the items that were considered too flimsy) and they ship free from Amazon.  She needs 2 or 3 of them which will make an 8 - 12 room Barbie abode with stable, garage, patio, and rooms for all the children.  The nice thing about using deeper shelf units like these is that later they can be used for storage in DGD1's room.  We have to go to deeper cabinets because 11-12" bookcases are not deep enough for Barbie size furniture.  Just have to decide whether to have them delivered here for me to work on or DD1's house since they are sort of heavy.  I don't want to work on them at DD1's house since I have to take all my tools there and it is hard to work in the confusion.  If she gives me a key I can go work while the kids are in school but again, no access to my tools and stuff.  Decisions, decisions . . .   It may depend if DD1 wants to work on it with me.  

Going to sew up some shopping bags for DS2 for Christmas to keep in his car.  In California they got rid of paper bags to save the trees.  Then they decided that plastic bags were polluting so they stopped the stores bagging in plastic.  You were supposed to buy your own reusable bags and bring them each time.  Too many people kept forgetting to bring bags.  Ours are in the car and we never bring in enough bags.  We end up having to bag as we load the groceries in the car.  Then the lawmakers got too many complaints and brought back the plastic bags BUT the stores charge you $.10 for a flimsy plastic grocery bag.  So almost as much plastic bag pollution as before but now you have to pay $.10 per bag.  Environmentalists and lawmakers doing their bit to ruin our lives while congratulating themselves on saving the planet.  Anyway, I have some fabric that I bought that is made for outdoor furniture cushions.  Very tough stuff and not too heavy.  (I made our first bags out of old drapery valances from the thrift store).  I will make grocery bags for DS2 and DD2 this year.  I have the fabric, so it is just time.  Buying reusable bags will set you back $5 per reusable light weight bag that doesn't last and $10 for a better one.  We have used our homemade bags for years now and they are usable for other stuff too.  

I am trying to find stuff to do here while thinking about all the stuff I could be doing on the Texas house.  I go to sleep at night thinking about what to do that house and occasionally get up in the middle of the night to look up stuff.   

Still no more lambs.  Stupid sheep.


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## Baymule

You have Jamaica sheep! 

Ja-make-uh-me-crazy!


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## Ridgetop

ll/15/22
Another ewe lambed this morning.  DH fed and came to tell me that she was just cleaning off lamb #2.    I went down to the barn and cleaned 2 jugs.  We will move her in one this afternoon when DGD1 comes from school.  She is good with the sheep and loves to carry the newborns in from the field.  DS1 said that he wants to move the other ewes into the 3 dry jugs and will shovel out the ones in use this afternoon.  One is pretty mucky since that ewe also lambed in it (dead ram lamb after we moved her in).  We will put 7088 with her twins in the larger jug, 123 with her single and the new mom with her twins in the other 2.  I don't know who lambed or what sex the youngsters are yet.  At least I know that Smalley wasn't shooting blanks though.  He throws nice lambs.  This is about the time a group of ewes are scheduled to lamb so maybe the ewes are all bred and just did not take the first time around.  We'll see.  Either way, we put a group of 6 or 7 in with Lewis after Smalley was removed.  

Afternoon -
8192 is the ewe who lambed with twin ewes.  Very small only about 5 lbs.  I am thawing some goat milk now to give some supplemental bottles.  I am wondering now if the sheep didn't eat much during the huge heat wave last summer.  Or possibly Doofus and DD2 didn't feed twice a day like they were supposed to.  At any rate, tiny as they are the twins are pretty lively.  4 or 5 others were due today as well so we may have another couple lambs tomorrow.


Finished 4 of the grocery bags I was making for DS2 and wife.  I'm making them from outdoor cushion material.  I wonder if this material is waxed for water resistance.  My thread keeps breaking and the needle gets sticky.  I keep cleaning it with    Not sure I want to try to make the other 2 I have cut out and ready to go.  

11/16/22
Terrible windstorm all night long.  Santa Anas are bad.  Power went out at 4:45 am and didn't come back on until 4:00 pm.  Poor Robert kept bringing us the remote and asking for his TV cartoons.  LOL   Wind finally died down around 10pm.  

Josie the Mule started screaming this am at 9 am so I went out to see what was going on.  Another ewe was in the process of lambing.  Josie loves lambs and is always hanging around the ewes as they lamb.  I went down and raked out one of the jugs.  DS1 was gone and we needed extra people to move the ewe into the barn.  We have started leaving the ewe and her lambs in the breeding pen until around feeding time.  They are happier and have less trouble with lambing.  We will let them lamb in the pastures in Texas.  The other ewes crowd around the mama and I figure will help her clean up any lamb born.   When he got home DS1 used a new tool he and DH bought - like a mini jack hammer - to remove a 4" layer of matted hay and manure from the jug before putting 332 and her single ewe lamb in it.  He plans to clean out the last jug tomorrow with his new digger.  Then he will start on the creep and ewe pen.    Then work around to the other 3 jugs as we move the ewes out of them.  One of the 2 month old ram lambs is huge.  Looks like at least 50-60 lbs. already.  We should weigh the lambs.  Time for their second vaccinations and we need to vaccinate the new lambs and dock the ewes.  5 ewe lamb, 1 ram lamb (twin ram died) out of 4 ewes.  Good job, but I wish we would get a few more rams otherwise we will have to eat them. Won't go to the auction with only 2 ram lambs (gas prices!) 

Wonder if we will have more lambs tomorrow.  I am also wondering why these lambs are small.  I wonder if the sheep did not get properly fed while we were in Texas with DS1, DS2, and DDIL2.  This has been a bad year for sheep.


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## Ridgetop

GRRR!  Getting really depressed about our Texas move.  Fencing is a big stopping block.  Thought the local guy might be cheaper but he is quoting the same price as the big company BUT with 5' sheep and goat wire instead of 6' deer fence.  Will probably have to take out a loan for the fencing.  Don't ask how much the fencing for 44 acres will cost.    We planned to refinance the ranch but interest rates have doubled.  We should have gotten a loan on the Yelm property before we sold.  Then we could have just put a larger loan on the new ranch and had cash to use for improvements.  I told DH we needed to sell stock before Covid to have a cash fund but he was in love with the dividends and now the stock is in the tank.  We could cash out our IRAs but are leery of doing that in case we need more income.  We don't want to sell our house in CA since the government would take about 1/3 to1/2 in capital gains taxes.  If we have to return to CA we won't be able to afford another place.  Plus our loan on that property is 2.5% interest.  

Anyway, down to last jug.  Then we will have to rearrange the ewes and lambs and put up another creep somewhere. I would like to leave the lambs and ewes in the front breeding pen and will possibly do that in Texas (if we ever get there) but that area is more vulnerable to coyotes even with the dogs.  

Packed 5 boxes of books, mostly on renovating, building, and gardening.  Also some cookbooks.  I sorted out some cookbooks for DGS2 to go in his Christmas box.  DGD1 will get the book abut foldng fancy napkins.  She wants to try folding napkins in fancy shapes for Thanksgiving.  

Looks like I will be stuck with Thanksgiving this year.  DS3 and DDIL1 say they have no one to watch the animals so can't drive down.  This means we will have to make a trip up to pick up the flatbed trailer.  DS3 was going to bring it down and we were going to make the trip for the horses.  At the price of gas, he can bring the horses down one weekend and we will go up for the flatbed.  

DH keeps mentioning that I need to load the stock trailer with the stuff to take to Texas.  Since our truck is still in the shop (over a month now) I can't do it yet.  The mechanic dropped the fuel tank and said the fuel pump was totally clogged and needed replacing.  Now DH learned that there are 2 fuel pumps in the truck.  DS3 told him that and that he has replaced both f his twice.  I guess with the truck being over 20 years old, we are lucky to only now be replacing ours.  The truck is still running rough though and the diesel mechanic can't figure out why.  BUT the shop never mentioned that there is a second fuel pump - does the so-called diesel mechanic even know there is a 2nd fuel pump?  This has been a bone of contention between DH and me for some time now.  DS3 told him that the diesel mechanic at Galpin may not know enough about older diesel trucks to fi things.  DH accepted this as truth from our son and told me like I had never questioned the ability of the diesel mechanic at Galpin before!  Men!   If we ever get to Texas we will be able to find someone who can work on older diesels, I hope.  All Texans can't be driving new trucks!  

This will be a lean Christmas.  I won't spend as much and have pared down the gifts.  The grandchildren will all receive a gift to open and a check for their college fund.  The children and children-in-law will get one gift.  DH and I will gift each other with fencing.  The tears are for my bank account and empty checkbook.  Maybe we should ask the children for fencing money.  LOL  Actually, lean Christmases are good.  The decorations are just as pretty, the food is just as good, and the grandchildren get spoiled by aunts and uncles with gifts just as much.  We still enjoy being together and have a good time.  

DS1 and 2 have decided to make the dollhouse cabinets for DGD1 for Christmas.  They will cost less than half the price of pressboard cabiniets.  They will be sturdier and lighter weight made from solid wood.  We will paint them white to match her bedroom furniture, and eventually can be used for other storage.  The boys are getting too ambitious now though - talking about putting in drawers for her dolls and doll clothes.  I vetoed that due to the level of work and time involved.  DS2 took* 2 years* to build a dresser (originally for himself but in the meantime he married and had a baby who now has the dresser).  DS1 has taken 5 years to build a display cabinet for his brother's antique rifle.  This required some special measuring for the rifle and antique pistol that are going to occupy it but really *5 years*? The child really needs the dollhouse before she graduates from high school! Both boys are off work until after Christmas so they need to get to work on it. After it is finished, I need to do the wallpapering, flooring, etc. before DD1 and I can unpack the furniture and the 3 of us can begin to move in Barbie, GI Joe, and their 6 children (or is it 8?). Barbie can't keep her hands off her macho Joe! Gay Friend Ken can help with the move in. 😂

Got to go now and find the fence money.


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## Ridgetop

*OMG!  THE COFFEE MAKER IS NOT WORKING!   *
After the fencing problems and worry, this is the last straw!  Maybe I should just drink the Kool-Aid!    

DH is on an emergency run to Costco to buy another coffee maker.  I'll try to hold out.


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## SageHill

NO!! TRAGIC!!! If you were closer I could've run a few cups over.  
Yay on the new lambs. That's got to put a smile on your face.
Lean Christmas - only in your eyes - it's family time and all that goes with it - can't wrap it in a box, but it's wrapped in your heart. 
You WILL get to Texas, you WILL get to Texas! *[*can that be wrapped in a box?*]*  - but 100 ft of deer can be put in a box!


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## Ridgetop

AAAAAH!  Coffee maker purchased, installed and 1st cup drunk, starting on second.   

The caffeine has calmed me down and I realize that yes, I AM a caffeine addict.  There is no 12-step program for this addiction and if there were, I would *not* be on it!  Caffeine is the only substance that keeps me going.  I used to drink 3 pots daily and needed a soothing cup at bedtime to sleep.  Now I am only drinking abut 2-3 cups a day. maybe that is why I don't get as much done and worry so much before falling asleep.  My family say I am just a natural worrier.

11/18/22
8189 lambed this am, split twins.  Dry, clean, up nursing at 6:45 am.  Allowing the ewes to lamb in the breeding pen with the flock seems to be working better.  Moving the ewes while lambing or just before lambing upsets them and I am beginning to think makes for more lambs pulled.  We will move her & lambs into the last jug tonight.  Today we will set up scale and weigh the lambs in the creep pen.  They are a week shy of 3 months and need to be separated from moms.  Ram lambs go in new weaning pen, ewe lambs stay in creep pen, moms go onto main field. 7088 and 100123 have lambs that are 2 weeks old and can be moved into the vacated creep pen.  The older weaning ewe lambs will train the babies how to use the creep.  In a couple weeks those older ewelings can go into the field and mamas will go into the breeding pen.  This is beginning to seem like a production line operation.  The teeny-tiny twin ewes seem to be doing ok.  They are vigorous and nursing.  I might try giving the teeniest one another bottle as a supplement to help her grow.

At least the ewes are starting to lamb now.  They seem to be lambing according to their second breeding dates, so recycled.  Looks like a couple more will lamb this week, while a couple will lamb later in December.  We will see.  At least lambing in with the flock, the other ewes are there to help.  It is interesting how the entire flock surround the lambs.  The ewes and ram do not harm them in any way, except if the flock moves away too fast and accidently knocks one down.  LOL

When (if) we get to Texas I will let the ewes lamb in the pasture except in very bad weather.  In severe weather I will move the entire group into a smaller pasture that connects to the barn so they can be under cover.  Then move the ewes and lambs into jugs if necessary.  The older ewes probably won't need to be confined but some first-time mothers appear to be confused by their lambs.  Jugging the first timers is probably a good idea.

Yesterday I went to get a haircut (and a touch up of my naturally blonde hair) but the hairdresser had an emergency, and I didn't get the message.  I went to Burlington instead and just about finished my Christmas shopping.  Only took 4 hours.   Next Tuesday and Wednesday I have to do some returns - wrong sizes and returns where I found something better.  Now I just need a couple T-shirts for DGS3, shirts for DD1 and DDIL1, and gift for DSIL1 who is very hard to shop for.  Even his wife and children have problems shopping for him.  Gift cards?  Another 4-5 shopping hours and I will be done.  🥰 DH and I are giving each other fencing.  I am definitely going to bring up the Baymule's White Elephant Exchange.  However, I am afraid I have the only house full of White Elephant gifts.  If I have the children shop in my cabinets, maybe I can pack less for Texas.     Time for gifting from Mom's Cabinets.  Maybe I can make some fancy price labels on the computer, and it will look like I shopped at a high-end boutique!  Then I will write a huge price on the sticker, and lightly draw a fine line through the high price so the recipient thinks that I spent a LOT on them!  I wonder if they will recognize the stuff.  I won't wrap anything until just before Christmas.  Otherwise, I tend to forget that I have already gotten stuff for people and buy more presents.    Bad, Bad, Bad!!!

11/18/22
We really need to move the ewes and lambs earlier in the evening.  Both this time and last time it was dark.  This time pitch dark.  Moving a ewe and newborn lambs with a flashlight is difficult!  Although this ewe stayed very close to us as we slowly carried the lambs away.  We only had to put them down to call their mother twice.  Good 8189.  Just another 4 or 5 to go.  If they are bred.

I guess I need to pack some more stuff to take to Texas.  Most of the stuff we are taking on this trip are fencing panels, corral covers, rabbitry and livestock items.  Some boxes of household stuff that can be stored.  I think I have another new medicine cabinet in the Connex that I missed last time, a really good bathroom flight fixture, and 3 good oak cabinets sitting on the patio that can go back.  And DS1's full set of dishes and glassware from his old apartment years ago.  They have been stored in the Connex.

Speaking of rabbits, another friend suggested we look into the new TAMU-K breed.  Everyone claims the variety has a great reputation of being very resistant to heat, but when I looked into different reviews, I found some questions about the breed's actual performance based on background.  There isn't much on the TAMU Kingsville website either.  I have written to the Rabbit Project of TAMU Kingsville for more information.  Anyone breeding these rabbits let me know how you like them especially compared to Cals and NZWs.  I started to post here but transferred the posting to the Rabbit forum hoping to hear from anyone with experience in meat breeding.  

DS1 set up a large corral 40' x 50' for Skittles and Sage when they arrive on Monday.  DH and DS2 are driving up to get them.  more hay $$ expense.  They need to go in a corral until they get used to the sheep and Josie the Mule again.  No fighting or attacking sheep.  In a few weeks they can come out and wander around.

We are having another couple days of heavy winds.  40-50 mph in our hilltop area.  The Santa Anas are here.  The only good thing is that they are here now when it is cold instead of in September when they are hot winds, and the fire danger is worse.  DH and DS1 came in yesterday asking who had disassembled the wheelbarrow they use for feeding flakes of hay to the various pens.  According to DS1 the wheelbarrow had nuts and bolts and the wheel scattered across the field!  I guess the wind tumbled it around until the loosened bolts holding the wheel on came apart.  Luckily DS1 was able to find the connections and put it back together!  LOL  

Tomorrow we need to weigh the older lambs and separate everyone so we can clean out the creep to transfer the first new lambs and their mamas in.  The older ewe lambs will remain in the creep for another week or two.  This helps the babies learn to enter the scary creep.  The 3 ram lambs will go to the new lower pen until we take them to auction or slaughter or decide if they are good enough to enter Snowflake's 2 in the show and auction in May.


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## Ridgetop

Another lamb arrived just as I was leaving for an appointment.  I kept going out to check on her from the patio.  she was safely ensconced out of the wind under the trampoline where the old Doughboy used to be.  That area is surrounded by power poles which act as a retaining wall and wind barrier.  She kept straining 45 minutes, then started to yell.  I was a little worried watching the lamb's face appear, disappear, then reappear for about 20 minutes. Just as I was wondering if she needed help and instructing DS! to go check her in 10 minutes I went back out and saw a slimy lamb on the ground.  I was able to go off to my appointment happy.  Just back now and it is a single ewe lamb from BL18, one of the Grade 5 yearlings.    So much less stressful to let them lamb in the big pen where I can't see them.  LOL

Dinner is in the oven.  DS1 is closing off the creep side of the older lamb pen.  Too windy to do much tonight.  She can go in the creep tonight.  I wanted to move the 2 ewes with 2-week-old lambs into the creep but am letting DS1 do whatever he wants.  He said he will move the mamas and 3-month-old lambs into the lower pen, clean out the creep pen, then sort everyone out.  If he wants to move sheep and lambs around twice as many times tomorrow, it is his look out.  I told him that we should just sort the 3-month-old lambs before moving them since the mamas go on the field, the rams go in the new lower pen, and the ewe lambs stay in the creep until mama are dried off in a couple weeks.  He told me he wants to do it another way which entails more work but go for it.  Tired of arguing with adult children.  He will get it done however he wants to do it.  We will bring the new mama and her little girl up this evening.  I thought another ewe was starting to go into labor this morning too.  She was laying a bit away from the flock.  But I guess she changed her mind.  4 (?) left to go now.  Count is up to 7 ewe lambs and 2 ram lambs.  This is the lambing that I wanted all rams since they could go to auction in January/February when prices are higher.  Instead I have 7 ewes = 7 new mouths to feed with expensive alfalfa.  Wish they were on grass in Texas.  I am never satisfied!


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## Ridgetop

No lambs yet today.  DS1 is going t Smart & Final for groceries (turkey on sale), and to Lowes for lumber so he and DS2 can build the shelving unit that will become the Barbie House.  2 shelf units 36" x 16" x 72".  This is their joint gift to DGD1.  DD1 is buying the materials.  The advantage of using a shelf unit like this is that it can be repurposed for other storage when she outgrows her Barbies.  The interior space between the shelves will be 15" high because Barbie and Joe are 12" dolls.   They need to be able to enter the rooms.  LOL  It will be fun decorating the rooms and possibly making kitchen cabinets.  I can't remember if there are any kitchen cabinets in the boxes from DD1's dollhouse.  I can whip some up fairly quickly though.  We replaced the fan in our bedroom and I saved the blades for that purpose.  They are oak.  I also have some metallic aluminum spray paint I used when I made DGD1's kitchen set that I can use on the appliances.  They will look like stainless steel!  LOL  GI Joe is not only macho, handsome, and armed, he is also a good provider for Barbie and their large brood.  

I am filling out the FSA loan application today.  I need 3 years of production records on the sheep, money made (or lost), a listing of all classes I have taken in livestock, etc.  This will require pulling out the 4-H record books and finding the seminars that I took the children to during the years.   I also attended some on my own.  Then I have to show all experience in livestock that qualifies me to become a "first time farmer".  And then the normal loan app stuff - all property, debts, income, etc. etc.  I do have the sheep production records,  the weight charts, sales and purchases of all sheep, feed and equipment receipts, etc.  I plan to flood the loan people with copies of everything so they can see that I keep extensive records.  This will either influence them to my benefit, OR make them deny the loan outright due to the enormous amount of paperwork I submit!  LOL  If we can get a loan for the perimeter fencing it will be worth it.  Maybe.  The perimeter fencing is mainly what is holding us back from our move right now.  

This FSA loan is different from the NRCS fencing grant where you front the fencing costs under rigorous rules, submit your plans for approval, sign a contract, and then receive partial reimbursement for the fencing costs after they inspect to see it is done the way they agreed on.  That does not cover perimeter fencing, only the interior fencing for rotational grazing or watershed.   The FSA loan is a one-year loan and I am not sure we will qualify since the FSA rep was not sure it was obtainable unless the property is paid off.  One bright spot is that we are considered "Socially Disadvantaged" since DH is 80% military disabled vet, and I am a woman.  We are racially incorrect being white, but I wonder if I could identify as a race that gets a more favorable social disadvantage and be sure of acceptance.  If male athletes can do it, why couldn't I?  I wonder why that would be considered ethnic appropriation while men "identifying as women" are applauded for breaking sports records in women's sports.  

DDIL2 has taken Robert to stay with her folks until Tuesday.  DS2 and DH are going to Nipomo tomorrow to get the 2 horses.  DS1 and I will be on our own.  Maybe I will thaw steak for dinner tomorrow.  HEE HEE  Robert had a major tantrum when DDIL2 took the car seat out to her car.  He likes to sit in it in the house and pretend to drive. Then when she left he refused to come say goodbye to any of us.  Instead he just waved from the doorway.  LOL

I will take a break and make 3 batches of cookie dough.  Then finish packig some of the open boxes in the LR.  We need to move the packed boxes outside - keeping the under cover - until the horses are moved up here.  Then a major cleanout of the trailer and start loading the boxes and equipment.  We won't take any lambs to the auction until we get back from Texas.  

Baymule, too bad you are sick because you could drive up to meet us and I would bring back a ewe lamb for you to start your experimental cross-breeding program.  I have 6 3-month-old ewe lambs right now, and 7 (as of yesterday LOL) ewe lambs that will be 3-4 months in February.  Put in your order.  LOL


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## Baymule

If I’m sick hen y’all make this trip, there are 7 more ewe lambs coming up. LOL


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## Ridgetop

I will check before we come back.  Barber pole-wise this is the best time for the lamb, but we will be back again in February/March for the wedding in Athens.

Sunday afternoon, X087 had a nice pair of lambs m & f.  DS1 and DS2 were shopping for wood for the dollhouse.  I finished my mending and made the last 2 grocery bags for DS2's Christmas gift.  Dinner was ready. It was getting dark so I went down to the barn and moved the 2 ewes with 2+ week old lambs into the closed off creep pen.  Then I cleaned out both jugs and moved BL18 and her single ewe lamb into one.  DH went out and fed.  Then we moved X087 and her twins into the remaining clean jug.  DH also hitched the stock trailer for the trip to Nipomo the next day.   All done when DS1 and 2 got home after dark.  DS1 said "why did you do that I would have done it when I got home".    But I hate moving ewes and lambs in the dark.  Easier to trip and fall.  

Monday DH and DS1 went to Nipomo.  They couldn't get the mustang to load.  He was never trained well to trailer but DDIL1 thought he would just follow Skittles into the trailer.  Skittles hopped in and he probably would have gone in if they had shoved him forward with her but they waited.  When they went to load him, she was pawing the trailer floor making noise.  Her mother did the same thing, anxious to get going.  They couldn't even get him close to the noisy banging trailer so decided not to send him.  I asked DH why they didn't just unload the mare and load the mustang with a butt rope.  Then load the mare.  He stared at me blankly and said he let them get on with it.  However, one less horse to feed along with the rapidly growing flock of ewes.  As of now we have 40 ewes, 4 rams, 5 junior ram lambs for auction, and another 4 still to lamb before December.  And 7 more being bred now. Got to get to that Texas grass.

Went to DD1's house yesterday and decorated for Christmas before she left to take DGS1 for a doctor appointment.  DGS2 had gone to Nipomo with his grandfather and uncle so I brought DGD1 home and we made cookie dough.  I am making the dough now and freezing it so I can bake it before Christmas after our trip to Texas.  No room in the freezers for baked cookies and 3 lambs coming from the butcher soon.  DS1 had taken the car for his DDS appointment so DD1 came back and picked me up and we finished the decorating.  She had brought 2 sofa tables int the room but they were all crowded together and I suggested we move them back.  The room is very hard to arrange because the piano and bookcases are on own wall while one complete side of the room has a window seat.  We decided to rearrange the LR furniture.  The DGSs moved the loveseats, chairs, and tables out, and rolled up the rug.   We tried it with the rug at an angle but not too satisfied.  I kept asking her what she thought but she kept saying that she couldn't do furniture arranging or decorating and I needed to do it.  *I called for wine.* After a glass each, DD1 suggested angling the loveseat. I sat in a chair and we had the boys put the rug back in place. They angled the loveseat which looked good. Both sofa tables went on the other window wall (no window seat) with the other loveseat in front of one and a leather chair in the corner. That made room for the other 2 chairs in the other corners. With the coffee table turned crosswise, the room suddenly looked bigger, more welcoming and had a better seating plan. Before the loveseats were in the middle of the room facing each other and the chairs were sort of in the corners behind them. Now the room can seat 8 people in a comfortable conversational grouping. Each seating area has table space for glasses. Looks much larger too. DD1 was happy with it. I channeled my Gammy and directed things from my chair with another glass of wine.   I could rearrange furniture like this all day!  

Scary emergency yesterday when DH called to say they were on their way back early.  Got a call from DDIL2 that her OB/GYN couldn't hear a heartbeat (due on December 14).  She was sent to the hospital for another test.  DS2 still 90 minutes away.  Just before leaving DD1's we got a call that everything was ok.  In hospital doctors heard heartbeat and DDDIL2 was on way home.  Big relief for whole family.   

Dental appointment for me today, then DD1 wants to go shopping.  I have a return at Ross and today is 10% off for seniors so we will go together.   My knee was hurting yesterday, and I had a touch of sciatica in the good leg.  Hopefully I can get my last shopping done, DD1 can get hers started, and all I will have left to do is my return to Burlington and a good zipper front sweatshirt for DS2 which he told me he would like.  I wish I had known during my 4 hour expedition last week.  Hope things are not picked over.  Maybe most people are waiting for Black Friday.


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## Baymule

That’s good news on your DDIL and the baby! I know that is a relief! 

You know the horse trailer fiasco is all your fault. Yup, your fault! If YOU had gone with those adorable dolts, you would have seen to it that y’all came back with BOTH horses! 
Never send a man to do a woman’s job!


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## SageHill

Baymule said:


> That’s good news on your DDIL and the baby! I know that is a relief!
> 
> You know the horse trailer fiasco is all your fault. Yup, your fault! If YOU had gone with those adorable dolts, you would have seen to it that y’all came back with BOTH horses!
> Never send a man to do a woman’s job!


I think @Ridgetop needs to clone herself!


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## Ridgetop

Tuesday - First thing got out the 21 lb. Tom turkey lovingly nested in my freezer.  Only ones available were smaller hens 12 lb.-16 lb. at stores.  We always buy extras at Thanksgiving so I had one.  On the way home from the dental appointment I stopped to return unwanted items at the Reseda Ross and looked for other gifts I needed.  Found a couple items, including super cool rolling pin for DGS2.  It is by Joseph Joseph and has different size rings that attach to the ends to determine dough thickness when rolling it out.  It also has measurements on the pin itself to help when rolling out dough to a specific size.  Perfect for a budding 12-year-old chef. Returned the other one - Thank you Amazon Prime free returns! They only had one and I had never seen one before.  (Turns out DDIL1 wants one so I told my DDIL2 about it and she will get it for her for Christmas.)   Also got a great T-shirt that DGS1 (and his whole family) will love. And a wine bottle tube that I will pack it in. Says 'Santa, Please define "good"'. That is perfect for him also - he's 15.  

Came home and DD1 picked me up to shop for Christmas with 15- and 9-year-old children. Finished exhausting trip to Ross, picked up food and dropped DGS1 off at Scout thing, continued on to Burlington where I could not return my items since they were at my house. However, found a heavy fleece jacket for DS2 - not as nice as the first one i got at Ross but that one the zipper did not work properly - and a perfect shirt for DDIL1. Also found the other 2 T-shirts I needed for DGSs 3. Another day on my feet and I could hardly walk by the end of the day but Christmas shopping finished.

NOT! Wednesday am DS2 said he would like another pair of slippers from LL Bean. LL Bean stopped having their good slipper sales during Covid though, and re not having any this year. I suggested we try the slippers from the My Pillow guy. Bought a pair last Christmas for DH since his size was not available at Bean and the My Slippers were on sale for half the price as the LL Beans. He likes them, they look the same, and have worn well. DS1 & 2 agreed to try them. So the jacket goes back. Sigh . . . .

Wednesday - Had to get ready for Thanksgiving.  Usually, I clean the house from top to bottom then clean again the day after Christmas before putting up Christmas decorations.  This time I had to epty the dining room fo all the boxes that I had packed to take to Texas.  Also the ginormous 2 boxes that had been blocking the room since DS2 removed them from our trailer last summer.  They are framed prints by Thomas Kinkade.  The packing boxes measure 4' x 5' and 4' x 6'.  He didn't check the measurements of the pictures when he ordered them!  He didn't want to remove them to the Connex because one was for DDIL2 for Christmas.  DUH!  Bring it back for Christmas or -even better - take her to the Connex to look at it!  I can't even walk into the living room!  He did that.  I also moved the 5 boxes of books I packed from the bookcases (to make room to store DGS5's toys) out to the patio since no one had moved them on Tuesday when I specifically requested DS and DH remove them from the family room!.   Again sigh . . . .  DS1 found me moving them and did the last 3.  Finally got Living room and dining room emptied and could start on dinner preparations.

DS3 sent a picture of DGS3 with his first dove.  DS3 said they would go turkey hunting - he had 2 tags - but said the turkeys did not want to come out to play.  They got about 5 doves.  Told them it was lucky that I had the turkey already defrosting.  Doves are like Cornish hens - they barely feed 2 people apiece.  I planned to feed 19!  DD2 texted to say that they would not be at Thanksgiving because they were both working.  DS3 and family were driving down from NIpomo.  We would sit down 15 to dinner.  Decided that no children's table would be necessary since with Robert in a high chair we could fit 14 comfortably at the table.

Decided not to make any pumpkin pies since it was already Wednesday afternoon.  DD1 wanted to come over and learn how to make the notorious Cranberry Orange jello with ginger dressing.  Half the family love it, half the family don't.  Apparently, I am doomed to continue making it just for tradition.  But since DH and I love it, leftovers don't go to waste.  And as the children age, they decide they like it.  DD1 finally showed up with DGD1, and DGS2 to make the jello.  They brought a peach pie they had bought.  We had one pumping pie in the freezer that DS2 had made and I decided we would bake the berry pie in the freezer the next day.  3 pies would be enough.  I gave her the recipe and talked them through it.  Just as they were about to make the orange jello to pour over the chopped celery, drained crushed pineapple, and whole berry cranberry sauce   OH NO! The orange jello that DS1 picked up that morning turned out to be PEACH jello.  Same package, same color jello, BUT not orange!  Emergency call to DS1 and DS2 who were out shopping to return with ORANGE jello.  DDIL2 asked about flowers for the table but I told her we would make a centerpiece with the squash, pomegranates, and other vegetables we had.   Normally holiday tables are what I go all out for to decorate but not this year.  For some reason I am feeling a bit down.  Probably because I feel a bit dispossessed from my house due to the family room being one big storeroom for children's items and toys.  When my kids were younger it was the same but I seemed to have more storage and not so many huge children's play items in the rooms.  On the other hand, there were only 2 adults living in the house and the children obeyed me when i assigned them chores to do.  Unlike now.  DS1 returned with the orange jello and DGD1 and DD1 finished the mold.  DGD1 had done the ginger dressing whie they were waiting for him to return.  DD1 also had DGS2 make the green bean casserole ready for the oven on Thanksgiving.
DH chopped the onions for the dressing and DS1 got the turkey roaster down and ready.  The bird was in the fridge swaddled in a wet cloth like Grandmother taught me to do to keep the skin from drying out.  I had already chopped the celery and the cooked giblets.  I made the stuffing and let it cool.  

DD1 announced that she wanted to learn how to stuff a turkey.  Apparently, she was a self-styled "turkey virgin".  She could not recall ever helpng with the turkey.  I told her I had tried to get her to help me one year long ago but she had pronounce the naked turkey "gross" and refused to touch it.  This from a 4-H girl who snatched newborn kids dripping with birth fluids up and dried them off!  Go figure.    Anyway DS1 talked her through it and we got the bird stuffed.  He checked to see if the roaster pan would fit in the fridge, and it would - but only if everything else was removed.  Tom was again snuggled in his wet cloth and placed in the fridge in the smaller pan to await transfer on thanksgiving morning to the roaster pan and . . . .   

Thanksgiving Day - Got the bird transferred to the roaster and basted.  We needed to set the table which normally i do the day before but with Robert on the loose couldn't happen.  At 18 months he has learned to push out the chairs to enable him to climb onto the table.  DS3 and family arrived just as I was stepping into the shower.  DS3 had brought his flatbed trailer so all the men trooped out to park it.  Naturally it takes all 4 men to do this.  

This is when they discovered that DH had not locked the gate properly on the breeding pen when he fed.   Lewis had been having a wonderful Thanksgiving and had marked 3 dof the yung ewes that were waiting their turn in the breeding pen next month.  They were all old enough so not a problem - DS1 marked their numbers down on the board.  The problem was that all 4 men now had to corral abd wrestle the ram off the field and back in with the other 3 rams.    Luckily I was enjoying my shower and did not see this.  The muffled shouts from outside seemed to be normal for our family as 4 men discussed secure placement of a parked trailer.  
DS assured me that he would sort out the ewes later.  No problem.  Later he would discover that the young ram - Junior - discovered he could scramble through the narrow horizontal gap above the feeder where the weight had broken a bar loose from its welds.  Junior discovered the delights of mingling with older women on Thanksgiving afternoon.   I will remain silent on what was said to DH about the entire episode later by 3 men whose father had been strict about gate closing and proper penning of stud animals when they were boys.  DS1 wrote on our breeding calendar that Junior had been loose in the field on Thanksgiving Day.  Any lambs resulting from this episode will end up at the auction since Junior is sexually mature at 7 months of age.  Another day chez Ridgetop.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner.  DDIL2 made candied yams from scratch with fresh yams.  She made them in the oven.  They were fantastic!  She was unanimously put in charge of candied yams from now to eternity.  The cousins had a blast playing outside in high winds.  They had to keep coming inside to clean dirt out of their eyes, but were thrilled to be together.  Robert fell in love with his youngest boy cousin, Luke - age 8.  Luke wasn't too enthralled by Robert's approach since Robert would follow him around screaming at him.  We finally had to explain that since he couldn't talk this was Robert's way of inviting Luke to play with him.  Not sure if this impressed Luke much, but eventually Robert went down for a nap.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving Day.  We have a lot to be grateful for even in this political situation.  

BTW DD1 said that her friends are having to take over caring for their parents.  Some parents are even starting to show signs of dementia, or reduced facilities.  Her family named their blessings that DH and I were still mentally and physically healthy.  Later DH and I reassured each other that we are still in our PRIMES!  We also made a pact not to tell her about our aches and pains in case she decides to investigate Senior Living facilities before we can get to Texas!  We are going to a funeral today for the mother of a very close friend of DS2 and 3 from high school.  She got an infection and it went to her heart and killed her.  Probably septicemia.   We knew 2 or 3 others who had this happen.  The infection gets into the blood stream and goes to the heart, very fast and always a shock since the original infection is not considered life threatening.  Whole family is going.  This is the boy who saw the cougar stalking him in our yard and thought it was the bobcat.  He is engaged to a good friend of DDIL2.  She and DS2 introduced them.  So sad that his mother will not see him get married or hold her grandchildren.


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## farmerjan

AHHH the typical day at the @Ridgetop farm and residence !!!!! 

Love the antics although I am sure you could do without so many screwups since it was human error that the sheep keep getting into such pickles.... 

So sorry about the friend... life does not follow the path that we want it to.  

Time for us to get a bull in with the 30 cow/calf pairs we moved on the hill, and one next door with the 4 that are in there and be ready for the ones to go in there in a week or 2.  Then it will be preg checks for the spring calving cows and calves weaned off them.... 
Never ending cycles...that is life on the farm.


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## Baymule

Family and screw ups are the best memories of holidays. 
Stay away from old folks homes—y’all aren’t old!


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## SageHill

all the guy "screw ups" TOO FUNNY --- esp it takes FOUR to parking the trailer --- takes only one or ~maybe two of us  -- all in all - sounds like a good one for the books (with a few extra lambs next year).


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## Ridgetop

Another sleepless night after dozing through a Hallmark Christmas movie with DH.  I don't know why I can't keep my eyes open until I turn out the light and try to sleep.     Probably nerves.  Definitely nerves - I am clenching my jaw so hard that I have given myself a headache!

Just deleted a very depressing paragraph.  We have 3 freezers full of meat, healthy family, and adorable grandchildren.  We are lucky.  just have to keep thinking on the upbeat.  Tomorrow I will start decorating the house for Christmas.  First the formal living room since Robert can't get in there beyond the baby gates.  I will do the family room while he is sleeping, and finally the Christmas tree.  DDIL2 mother is returning from the Philippines December 4.  Maybe she can go stay with her mom for the day while I put up the tree and block it off with the baby jail.  Very useful for babies and puppies.

I have been doing my sheep inventory, listing all sheep purchased and amount paid for them, sheep in production (bred or lactating) and their value, and young lambs and their value.  Next will be an update of the equipment - sheep equipment takes one whole page - 2 columns and does not include the rabbit and horse equipment which is on another page.  property, banking, savings and checking, plus 3 years financial records and tax returns.  There is more which I have forgotten but since it is for a government loan, you can imagine - possibly even DNA samples from all the children.  All this for the FSA loan application.

Lost another ear tag apparently during the ram scramble on the field.  DS1 came in from sorting out the ewes and returning them to the appropriate pens and demanded to know to whom scrapie tag 0132 belonged.  I searched my registration papers without finding any 0132.  He narrowed it down to one of the blue grade tags which helped.  He further narrowed it down as a mature ewe and had the numbers of those still retaining their ear tags. 20 minutes later, we identified her as BL14.  This ewe routinely sheds her tags like a snake sheds its skin.  She has had both her flock tag and scrapie tag replaced twice which is why her scrapie tag did not match her registration papers.  However, she had a 3rd tag - her evaluation tag from July which also carried a number.  Eureka!  DS1 was able to identify her definitely as being BL14.  We will need to retag her AGAIN!!!  Then he came back in after finally moving everyone back where they belonged.  This time he told me that he forgot that Junior (P17) was a ram.  Apparently since P17 was not on his list of ewes to return to the breeding pen, he kept chasing Junior back into the ewe pen.  OY VEY!  If we keep any more ram lambs, we will reverse the sides where we put the flock tag and scrapie tag in order to immediately identify them as rams.  Junior will also need to be assigned a tag color for any lambs he eventually sires.  We are already using purple, blue, orange, and green.  Orange ram Axtell has been sold, but I don't want to use that color for another year or so since it will be confusing.  Red or Yellow are still up for grabs.

We have to vaccinate and dock in the jugs this week.  We also need to trim feet on some of the ewes.  DS2 suggested that we just trim the ewes when they are in the lambing jugs since we are vaccinating and they are often ore docile then.  That is a good idea since we would only have to do a few at a time.  Lewis really needs to be done. His hooves are so long that he clicks when he walks.  It sounds like something is trampling through dry twigs and leaves.  At first, I kept looking around for whatever was sneaking up on me in the shrubbery.  Then I noticed his feet!  I don't think we have trimmed the rams in over a year.  Most of the ewes are ok since they run on steep hard dirt, but the rams are in a smaller pen.  Feet are a priority now.  DS3 laughed very hard when he described poor Lewis trying to run after ewes with his long hooves clacking like castinets.  I am a bad sheep owner.  The dairy goats were easy.  They liked getting on the stanchion for their grain, we could see their hooves twice a day when milking, and I would trim several every day.  The sheep have harder hooves though and the rams have hooves like cast iron.  Last time we did them, DS1 and DS2 had to use bolt cutters instead of hoof shears.  This year I had DS1 look at the Hoof Boss electric trimmer.  This is actually a mini grinder that doesn't cut the hooves, it grinds them down.  While this might take a lot longer on Lewis whose hooves have curled underneath his foot, at least by grinding the hoof wall thinner, it will be able to be trimmed off with the hand shears and then electrically ground level.  Anybody out there have one?

We will have to pull the squeeze away and use the head catch.  It might be easier than putting the sheep in the squeeze.  I have seen some new squeezes that don't just turn the animal on their sides, but instead flip them completely upside down with all 4 legs in the air.  Wes Patton says this type of squeeze is easier on the sheep who struggle to get up when on their sides but don't when completely on their backs.  Most of these are in the UK or Australia, but there is at least one company here in the US.  $3500.00 for that squeeze and it weighs about 700-800 lbs.  Not any time soon.  I still need my fencing along with other things.  However, I was able to find the Hoof Boss on sale for about $270.00 with 15% off and free shipping so might give it a try.  DS1 and I checked out the goat and sheep trimmer and agreed we would try the goat Hoof Boss.  The only difference in all of them is the type of grinding blades/discs they have in the kits.  The sheep one has a grinding blade that DS1 and I are very leery about since our sheep will be kicking and this looks like a circular wheel of razor wire.  It works like a mini chain saw but the way in which you use it is different, and it shaves off sections of hoof.  We feel more comfortable with the grinding wheels since both of us think that if one of the sheep kicks at the moment we are using the chain saw looking blade they will get cut very badly.  An incident like that would put us off trimming for quite a while.  Kind of like when DS3 sheared a big wether for a friend and accidently cut off the tip of one ear.   I am asking all the children to chip in and get it for me for Christmas.  First, I will post asking anyone who has one and uses it what they think of it.  One problem is that I am left-handed, and it does not adapt well to left-handed operation.  DS1 was not impressed when I said he would have to do the trimming.  

Secondly, DDIL1 said that she has the Presto electric canner.  She has not used it yet, having only done fruits, jams and pickles using her water bath canner.  She promised to let me know how she likes it.  It is on my list for Texas. In fact, I want 2 of them if my garden does well since the hardest part of canning is doing only 7 jars at one time and having to constantly regulate the temperature.


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## Baymule

Your sheep are white, have you thought about tattooing their ear like a rabbit? Then if a tag comes up missing, you could check the tattoo and know who is who. I have a young ewe with a split ear because she ripped her scrapie tag off. Because she is marked like no other sheep I have, I still know who she is. Colored sheep do have their advantages. 

Thanksgiving is behind you, now here comes Christmas! 

The hood trimmer sounds like a good idea. Have you looked at a Dremmel tool? Multiple grinding bits, might be easier to handle. Just an idea.


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## Mike CHS

I don't know how heavy your sheep are but we use the Deck Chair from Premier1 that hangs on our chute.  We had a turn table but got rid of it after having several of the sheep panic and lay down.  Getting them out was not worth the stress on both and us.

We have pretty much quit doing hooves unless there is obvious issues and Teresa uses the hand trimmer while I hold the sheep in the chair so they calm down fast.  If there is any major flattening to do, I use an angle grinder.


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## Ridgetop

I am back after a month-long hiatus.  Haven't posted anything since Thanksgiving.  I have been very depressed about many things.  

Money is always a big one -
Our truck, which coasted to a stop 20 miles from home the first of October, has been in the shop awaiting diagnosis and repair ever since.  As long as they have had it they should be paying the licensing and registration, not to mention the insurance!   First, we were told that we needed to replace the fuel pump - singular.  Our diesel has 2 of them, did they not know this?  Replacement of the fuel pump required dropping out the fuel tank to get at the fuel pump in the tank.  Once that was done, the truck still would not run properly so after DH reminded them that the truck had 2 fuel pumps, they replaced the second one.  Still not running, and after another month to decide what was wrong - we finally got the news.  *Hydrostatic Lock!  *

Our truck needs a new engine.  The cause?  The plastic container that holds the radiator coolant had developed a crack allowing the coolant and water in the radiator to run out.  The engine lights did not show it over heating, but according to the shop this was the problem.  Risking my marriage, I questioned DH as to why in 22 years of truck maintenance, with all the work being done at this dealership, no mention was made of replacing the cheap plastic coolant container.  They have replaced just about everything else on this truck over the years - why not the plastic container?  This question received a rabid snarl from DH who takes extremely good care of his truck, Twinkles, and was probably considering the same question silently.  

*$15,000 for another engine.* However, since we have replaced the turbo, all 6 tires, the leather interior, some of the suspension thingies, and other essential parts within the past 2-5 years and the truck is worth much more than $15,000 we will take the Texas farm fencing money and put in the new engine. With luck the truck will go another 300,000 miles. So maybe we will get our truck back in January in time to make a trip to Texas. 

However, no farm fencing money now.  At least not enough to pay to fence the property.  We will have to do it ourselves in sections.   

Next I lost another ewe.  One of my best OF COURSE!  She came on to lamb 5 days after her due date and made no progress.  I tried to pull the lamb but with rear legs from one and the head of another, no luck.  Couldn't puch it back in either.  My regular vet has stopped treating anything except horses.  I finally found a vet one county over who would come out - luckily it was the morning not the middle of the night.   I gave the ewe some Banamine while we waited for the vet who was at another emergency.  She arrived in the afternoon and sedated the ewe.  Without the ewe straining against us she was able to pull out the extremely dead lamb and his twin sister.  Both big and *very, very dead*.  The vet said that was why they were positioned wrong, and I couldn't rearrange them.  They had been dead for about a week.  Their little hooves were coming off and the skin was slipping.  Very nasty and stinky.  

However, I did not have to shoot another ewe so that was good.  Hopefully she would survive.   The vet didn't have any Penicillin - even vets can't get it since it is all back ordered.  Luckily, I had found and bought 2 cases of small bottles in Texas so could give her a big dose.  The ewe wasn't looking all that good, she was exhausted, we could only treat her and wait. The vet gave me a bottle of Banamine and some syringes of Oxytocin with instructions to give her 4ccs of Penn 2x daily along with the Banamine and Oxy.  Unfortunately, the dead lambs probably poisoned her and she went septic.  She died during the night.  A first freshening 18 months old grade 5 ewe out of my best ewe and ram.    And with twins.  

With the emergency I had missed my hair appointment and every time I looked at my scraggly hair in the mirror I felt more depressed.  I rescheduled and missed my second appointment with another smaller emergency.  

*Now I was broke, ugly, old, and with a dead ewe and lambs!  Very depressed.  *The only good thing was that I had made all but one batch of cookies, and had just about finished my Christmas shopping.  

Next up was decorating the house for Christmas.  Since the family would not understand if I closed all the curtains, turned off all the lights, did not answer the phone ever again, and went into deep mourning, it had to be done.  My sons had brought in the many boxes of decorations, and I proceeded move all the furniture around and put up the garlands over the windows.  Finally, I had everything decorated except for the Christmas tree which I was delaying until DDIL2 was out of the house with DGS5 for several hours.

DDIL2 had a doctor appointment with Robert and I proceeded to drag the Christmas tree box into the family room.  There was a small throw rug that was impeding the box so I tried to move it out of the way but instead I got tangled in it and fell heavily onto my new knee on the concrete floor!  🤪😩😭  PAIN!  DH, DS2, DD2, and DSIL2 were sitting in the family room while I lay moaning in the doorway.  They didn't notice me while they loudly discussed Christmas.  Finally, DD2 did notice me and sent DSIL2 to help me up and drag the box into the room.  I hopped to the sofa and collapsed.  I couldn't stand on my leg and worried that my new knee had broken.  DS2 helped me back to my room and onto the bed with an ice pack.  

*OUCH!*  I couldn't walk on my replaced knee leg for 3 days.  I was finally able to lurch around on a cane for another week at which time I discovered apparently I had twisted my back and hips.  Then sciatica showed up in my good leg.  I have still not completely recovered and am taking aspirin and Alleve.


*Now I was broke, ugly, old, AND CRIPPLED!  *And even *more* depressed.  At this point I began to wonder if God wasn't telling me that moving to Texas was not in the cards.  Just before I decided to sell all the sheep, equipment, Texas farm, and move into a retirement home, I remembered Andy telling me on Thanksgiving about our Farmall tractor that is at his house.  Big Blue has a problem with the front attachment loader arms, *BUT *all rear attachments work. In fact, Andy says he uses it for bush hogging his property. He offered to drive it back on the flatbed trailer. Big Blue will allow us to use a fence post drill, a fence post driver (which I can rent in Sulphur Springs) and bush hog our pastures. In addition, there is a New Holland dealer in SS and Farmall tractors are made by New Holland. Maybe we can get the front loader arms repaired in order to be able to use a front loader. If not, we can bring back Baby Kubota since it is super small but useful as a giant wheelbarrow. With Big Blue DH, DS1, and I can install the fencing ourselves. Baby Kubota can be used to clean out the barn and do some garden work.  

Still unable to move, DS2 and DS1 put the tree together for me.  12-year-old DGS2 needed Christmas $$$ so I had him come over to decorate the tree.  I sat on the couch and unwrapped the ornaments while he hung them.   Tree was done.  I also had him wra y Christmas gifts.  I really like doing it myself, but he needed Christmas $$$ to pay back the advance his parent had given him.  I recovered some mobility to go shopping with DD1 and supervise gingerbread cookie making and decorating with the 4 grandchildren.  Did I mention that I really don't like making cookies with my children and grandchildren?  So much easier and cleaner to do it myself.  I don't make decorated gingerbread cookies though, so I put on my 'NICE GRANDMA' hat and did my duty.   Hope I get credit in heaven.

One wonderful thing that came along was the arrival of our DGS6, named Nicholas in honor of DS2's dearest school friend who was killed in Afghanistan at age 20.  They were scheduled for a C-section on December 14 (her due date being December 21 but the baby being huge) but little Nick decided to arrive earlier.  DDIL2 began having backaches on December 9, and on December 10 I mentioned that she didn't look very comfortable.  She said she was "timing her contractions"!  I asked and she said they were about 5 minutes apart!  Then she said that she was having to go to the bathroom about every 2 minutes!  AAAAGH!  And the prospective parents were just sitting there on the couch calmly!  Don't these kids know anything?  You would think after the first one they would get with the program!
 DH and I rushed DS2 and DDIL2 into their car with instructions to immediately get to the hospital. 2 hours later DS2 called to say they were taking DDIL2 into the delivery room for her C-section. Although I might have been able to deliver the baby normally, since she *had* to have a C-section I would not have been able to attempt that!!!  Litte Nick weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz.  He has gained a pound and one inch in 20 days!!!  

Robert would have gone to his other grandparents while they were in the hospital for 4 days, but DDIL2's family had come down with Covid!!!  They didn't even get to see the new baby until 10 days after he was born!  🙁  Luckily, since my back, knee and hip had rendered me practically immobile, DS1 was able to take care of his nephew.


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## Baymule

You need a hug!


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## Ridgetop

More about Christmas.  

On Christmas Eve I made Mexican food - tamales, chili verde, and Spanish rice.  Peppermint ice cream blls with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry on top for the kids.  I pride myself in being politically incorrect and have no problem with cultural appropriation.  Since the US is supposed to be this big melting pot of immigrants, I don't understand why the politically correct left feels we can't enjoy other ethnic delights.  Anyway I normally wouldnot have had the family over after Mass, but DGD2 fhad to go to her other mother for Christmas morning so we had to give her gifts to her on Christmas Eve.  

We had to do a turkey in our roaster.  DS1 really likes to do this, and has become a turkey expert like his grandaddy.  We used the large 22 lb. turkey we had in the freezer for Thanksgiving and HORROR! discovered we did not have another!  DS1 went shopping and could not find any large ones.  We finally ended up with a scrawny 18 lb. bird.

I think that the producers were running low and using some of their old production hens.  That turkey had little meat, and no fat.  The little bit of fat it had inside was yellow fat indicating an old bird, not nice white fat indicating a young bird.  DS1 and I agreed it looked like the Cratchit's Christmas bird, before Scrooge had his change of heart and sent them the prize turkey!  DS1 referred to it as a large chicken.  You will realize how small it was when I tell you that it only took half a box of prepared stuffing to fill it!  


Since we had the Cratchit's bird, luckily we had a ham as well although DSIL1 texted that he had a problem fitting the ham in the Instapot since the bone was too long.  Did we have any suggestions?  DS2 sent him a picture of a man with a chainsaw.  DD1 has discovered a fascination with the hot air fryer she received from her brother last year for Christmas. She made some kind of steak in it that was delicious.  DGSs5 and 6 have still not unwrapped all their gifts.  We are all too exhausted!


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## Mini Horses

Wow....that's depressing to ME and I'm only reading!!  I will admit, apologetically to some       congrats on the new GS!   Hope that new knee has survived without damage!   Hey, that engine is


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## Ridgetop

BTW, @Mike I looked up the Premier sheep chair and am ordering one to try.  I was going to flip the sheep and just hold them on their butts but the chair looks so much easier on the back (and mine is still not doing well).  DH and DS1 thought it looked like it would be easy to use and work well.  Also, since we move our ewes into the barn regularly, we could use it in the barn under cover and trim feet every time we have a group of ewes in the barn.  For the rams we can use it in their pen, and it would be less upsetting to them than chasing them around the pen to catch and confine them.  I like the look of the bungie style webbing better than the Sydell chair and I think it is the only one that is adjustable in width.  I figure we can use a bungie cord across the chest or neck to help keep the sheep in the chair if they are too wild.  Our sheep are not tame like yours.  LOL


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## Ridgetop

Mini Horses said:


> Wow....that's depressing to ME and I'm only reading!! I will admit, apologetically to some


No apologies needed.

I am feeling much more cheerful realizing that Big Blue will save us $$$ on buying a tractor in TX.  And that we can put in our fencing with less work using BB and hiring just a couple workers here and there.

ALSO, our new LGD puppy was born the first of December.    Erick is choosing us a good female that we will pick up after the wedding on March 3 and bring home.  

I didn't mention it before but shortly after Bubba went back to Texas, and before Erick could collect him, he died.  Not sure from what since he was used to the heat, showed no symptoms, had been fine when he ate his supper the night before.  It hadn't been that hot.  He was just laying there dead the next morning.  After hearing about Baymule's Sentry and his poisoning from possibly eating a toad or frog I discussed it with Erick and he agreed that might have been what caused it.  Erick has a stream on his property and it is fairly close to where the dogs were housed.  We were both devastated to lose Bubba since Erick had fallen in love with Bubba.  He said Bubba was not overly aggressive - that it was him sensing my worry because he was such a large powerful dog that encouraged Bubba to be more protective.   Erick also had several bitches he wanted to use him on.  My new puppy that I am getting is an outcross and Bubba would have been a perfect breeding for her.  Luckily, we had Bubba collected and have his semen in the tank.  But I miss my big beautiful lovable boy so much.


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## Baymule

You have had a lot going on and sometimes things just get us down. Losing Bubba was a hard blow and it takes awhile to come to grips with it. You have lost lambs, ewes, and it seems like it will never stop. Then the truck went down. Taking your fence money to fix the truck just took the wind out of your sails. Falling down on your new knee sure didn’t help any. But you can’t keep a good woman down, especially one on her prime of life. 

I’m real good at clipping T-posts….. just saying. I work for food and somewhere to sleep.


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## Mini Horses

OMG...I've been ready to ask about Bubba, since nothing was being said about him  just cannot express how sad and sorry I am to hear this😞.what a heartbreaker. 😟. An unimaginable loss.


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## Mike CHS

You had a day that made one of my bad ones seem like something that didn't happen. For what it is worth, you have all of our prayers and pleasant thought going forward.


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## SageHill

Ohhh geeze. No wonder you've been gone. All that piled on top of each other. Like a '_when is it ever going to stop_'!
Here I was thinking you'd made it out to TX and back for Christmas - slammed with regular life stuff - not the pile of xx*xx you got. So sorry you had to go / are going through it. 2023 is bound to be better. Fences will happen, you'll heal up, new pup on the ground, new sheep to come. I really don't like it when bad things happen to good people.
You'll be in TX soon - and you've already adjusted plans - Big Blue, etc.
BUT HUGE congrats on your new grandson!! 
Hang in there,
.
On another note - the Premier Deck Chair works great. LOL -- I thought about attaching a seatbelt to it somehow - but haven't. Just make sure it's adjusted narrow enough - too wide and they "roll" out kinda'. AND it's damn comfy too!!


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## Ridgetop

Thanks so much for all the love and prayers.  I couldn't bring myself to write while I was so depressed and trying to figure things out. 

Losing Bubba *is* a great loss.  I didn't realize how much I personally relied on him in our working LGD pack for protection.  Rika is 10, Bubba was 6, and Angel just turned 4.  Hard to believe that they are that old already.  Time flies, particularly in the lives of our beloved dogs.  Rika is still on top of everything but is slowing down. Angel is putting in double time to cover Bubba's duties as well as her own.  She is young and has been well trained by Rika and Bubba.  It is not easy on her considering the layout of our steep acreage and having our flock split into several pens which are not close together.  Our new puppy (arriving in March) will take some of their time to train as well and will make it harder for them to patrol.  Bubba took on a lot of the puppy training duties with Angel.  He was smitten with the puppy as soon as she arrived.  She could do anything to him and consistently stole his bones.  He would just watch her with the proud expression of a new daddy watching his child take its first step!  He taught her to fight predators, be watchful, and was a gentle giant with a puppy who would jump up and grab his ears and dangle from them.  
Travel gentle pastures until we meet again, Bubba.  





My beautiful boy on guard - this is my favorite picture of Bubba showing his beautiful head and expression



Last picture of Bubba taken on the way to Texas - he was a BIG boy
  Rika - 8 yrs    Angel - 2 yrs
  All 3 Anatolians "guarding" Marv as he takes a break.  They are looking out to the sheep and the gully where the danger comes from.  Always alert and watchful.


  L-R Rika, Bubba, puppy Angel (with Bubba's giant bone) Sheep are put up for the night, they can enjoy family time after dinner.  After an hour or two they will ask to go out to do their night patrols.  At this age (3 mos) Angel goes back to the barn for safety at night.

Well enough of that sentimentality for now.  Hard to type with drippy eyes!  

As I mentioned yesterday I am feeling much more positive about our Texas ranch move with the idea that we wi not have to buy a new tractor but will take back the Farmall we already own.  DS3 has put  lot of hours  it instsloig his fencing and building his shed barn.  He now has his new Kyoti (Kioti?) which he uses all the time and Big Blue is only used for bush hogging.  Since he is in California with limited grass growth after the winter rains, he doesn't need it that often.  We will take Big Blue back and leave him in the barn so we can do sections of fencing when we go back with equipment loads.  I am considering taking our 5th wheel back and leaving it on the property so we can live in it while working on the fencing.  Having the trailer on site will save us at least an hour or two in daily commute while working.

Jeremy (yard service) texted that the apricot trees are available for planting and ordering.  He will put in 2 apricot trees now, and later put in the 2 figs.  He also checks on the trees when doing the yard for the tenants.  I have decided to continue having him do the yardwork so the place looks occupied.  I am not sure about whether to rent it out again or not.  We can't move in until we have at least several acres fenced for the sheep.  Then we can use our portable panels to divide off ram, breeding, and lamb pens, etc.  By leaving Big Blue in Texas we will be able to continue fencing on each trip.  We will also leave some renovating and repair supplies in the sheds as well as some folding chairs and cots if we keep the house empty.  I thought inflatable mattresses would do but DH said *"NO!"*   After he suffered through the "earthquake" at Baymule's and fell off the inflatable mattress, he doesn't trust inflatables.

We have gotten some rain this year.  The hillsides are already turning green since the rain comes in bits and we have some sunshine in between.   Dare I hope we will have forage?  Probably not since as soon as it grows the sheep will clean it up.  But it gives them something to do, and hopefully the snowpack will be enough in the mountains to bring us out of drought mode.  It seems that half of the rain comes overnight and although the days are overcast, gray, and cold, the days are dry.  The sheep huddle in their little sardine can A-frame shelter.  Next lambs not expected until end of March/mid-April.  So let it rain.

 I will be taking the larger ram lambs to auction in another week or so.  The younger ones will go in February.  I have another ewe lamb that seems to be prolapsing.  I need her number to check what her parentage is.  She will go to the butcher.  If she is out of the same ram as the younger ewe with the rectal prolapse, he will go to auction too with the ram lambs.  

We had a fellow come out that said he was interested in a small starter flock to graze some land he has in the high desert.  He is Muslim and wants to breed lambs for the Muslim holidays and for Jewish sales too.  Gave him the information and told him that I could put together a starter flock for him if he wanted.  He called a couple days later and said he wanted to buy some ewe lambs BUT his new proposition is he wants us to keep them *here*, care for them, and he will pay for the feed.   What?!  
And then he will collect the lambs and sell them to his Muslim and Jewish friends for their holidays.  ???   Next he would probably want to slaughter them Halal and Kosher here too!  
Our answer - Not "no", but *"NO!"* 

I told DH about his proposition and of course, genial DH said he guessed that might work - WHAT?!  I pointed out the problems:

1.  The amount of work that we do with our sheep we don't want to do for anyone else 
2.  He wouldn't want to pay us enough
3.  The risk of vet care or death to someone else's sheep
4.  Having to breed, keep track of dates, and lamb out someone else's sheep
5.  Hay costs
6.  He wouldn't want to pay us enough
7.  He would want to bring friends over to see "his flock of sheep" 
8.  The amount of work that we do with our sheep we don't want to do for anyone else 
9.  He would want us to breed for specific ethnic holidays for him
9.  He wouldn't want to pay us enough
8.  All of the above X 100

He also suggested that he would get some fruit trees and we could plant them on our pasture.  ???  We are getting rationed for water consumption and would have to fence off the trees from the sheep!  And don't forget the problems with ground squirrels!  I was astonished at his presumptuous suggestions.  Thanks but no thanks.  

Told DS1 and 2 and they both laughed at the idea.  Then they berated their father for thinking that it might be ok.  If he wants to have lambs to sell to his ethnic friends, why not offer to buy lambs from us?  And if he has property that he wants grazed off in the Palmdale/Lancaster area he should put his sheep there.  Maybe next he will want us to mow that brush and bring it home to feed our sheep.  Most people don't know how much work it is to take care of and raise livestock. 

 We were approached by other people in our 4-H days to let their kids raise animals for the Fair and keep them on our property.  My answer was always "NO".   They say they will come to feed and clean up after the animals but eventually you and your kids are doing all the work. They are always busy on weekends, it is "too hard" to come before school to feed, and the kids have after school activities they "can't get out of". Finally, you and your kids are stuck feeding and cleaning up for their animals (which was supposed to be such a great 4-H learning experience for them).  You will be lucky to get any $$$ for the feed and water, and your kids are complaining at the doubled workload which _they _have to fit in before school and around their own after school activities!  If they abandon their animals, you can't just take them to the auction because they are not yours.  Then they show up the day before Fair wanting you to help them wash and fit the animals and transport them to the Fair.  If the animals don't win they blame you for not feeding properly, etc.  I am not falling for that, having seen some of my friends go through it out of kindness.  "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" and "No good deed goes unpunished" as they say.   

This weekend I will have the boys bring in the Christmas decoration storage boxes and start packing the Christmas stuff away for next year.  For some reason this Christmas season seemed to fly by.  Once I have the Christmas stuff packed up and removed, I will be able to start gathering and packing up the stuff we will take back to the ranch.  I am hoping to have the front compartment of the stock trailer free to take a couple ewe lambs to Baymule.  She wants to play with some White Dorpers in her percentage Katahdin program.  I will be able to have her do the fecal checks on different bloodlines and get some advance info about Barber Pole resistance in members of my flock.  I can also reduce my numbers a bit too.  For years I had no ewe lambs born in my Dorset flock.  Now I seem to be averaging 70% ewe lambs.  This is great for growing my flock, but not so great for my hay bill.  Hay has gone up to $30.00/110 lb. bale - about $600.ton for alfalfa.  We go through 15 bales a week or about 3 tons a month.  Really got to get to that Texas pasture.  We bought 1000 bales last year in advance for $25/bale.  We are hoping to beat that price a bit by loading the flatbed woth alfalfa in Arizona on our way home.  We wanted to buy Texas grass hay, but the state of Texas is quarantined due to Barber Pole and we can't bring any Texas hay into California.  (actually you can import it but have to have the fields inspected and guaranteed free of Barber Pole by a state inspector.  All the hay has to be store off the ground too.  I don't think any Texas hay grower is interested in the cost and work involved there.  And I don't don' t want to pay the price it would cost either.  We will just pick up a load of alfalfa in Arizona each time we go back and forth with our trailers.  Our weather has been dry and warm in the southwest and the alfalfa farmers have continued cutting up to December 1.    on the price.


Our first load on the flatbed will be our portable corral panels, horse corral covers, portable sheep fencing panels and gates, as well as the field water tubs and anything we can fit on.  I think we still have quite a few cross arms which we will bring as well.  These are 4" x 5" x 12' treated posts we got when they moved the DWP training yard years ago.  They are sturdy, practically unrottable, and the long ones will be perfect for building additional shelters.  Our barn is built of these posts.  We also have shorter length crossarm lengths which will be suitable for building H-braces, water tub platforms, and decking if we decide not to pour a concrete patio.  The existing patio is tiny and we want a larger covered patio or deck.  With a ceiling fan and possibly misters for Texas summers.  All in good time.  Luckily, we have a covered barn in which to store most of our building materials.  We will fence around them in the barn with the portable fencing to keep the cattle from trampling them.  The stock trail will transport the ewe lambs for Baymule, boxes of building supplies, tools, buckets of corral camps, rabbit cages (broken for flat pack), rabbit equipment, waterers, etc. 
I am making a list, and checking it twice, - Wait!  That was Santa.  Oh well, works for me.

My NEW problem will be the new puppy.  We like to be on site to train our LGDs.  She will have to be penned for a month or more at a time without more than daily supervision at feeding times.  We prefer s lot more interaction with a puppy and supervised interaction with the flock.  We will be home for several months after bringing her home since it will be tax time so we will be able to watch her behavior.  However, often DS1 will be with us and not able to supervise the puppy.  DDIL2 will be home and DS2 will as well, but they will not have time to do more than feed am and pm with 2 babies under 2.  

DGS5 (Robert) at 21 months is having major separation problems with his mommy taking care of Nick.  I was worried about this happening and sadly, I was right.  Luckily, we are here to take some of the weight off by caring for Nick when he screams or has colic, and DS2 is on baby bonding leave too.  DDIL2 is pumping additional milk so Nick takes a bottle, but she has to devote a lot of her time to Robert.  He won't take naps in his bed so falls asleep on the sofa, or she lays down with him, but he won't let her out of his sight.  Oh well, I tried to warn DS2 and DDIL2 when he was a tiny baby, but Robert was their first grandchild, his parents are in their late 30's, and she had 5 siblings always there to hold Robert and spoil him.   I have a feeling that Nick will be a good 2nd child and pretty laid back when the next one comes along.  It won't hurt that he can tag along behind Robert and be amused that way.  LOL

Anyway, as everyone can see from my lengthy posting I am back and more cheerful.  

  HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!!


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## Ridgetop

SageHill said:


> On another note - the Premier Deck Chair works great. LOL -- I thought about attaching a seatbelt to it somehow - but haven't. Just make sure it's adjusted narrow enough - too wide and they "roll" out kinda'. AND it's damn comfy too!!


Good to know.  Between you and @Mike liking it we have decided to order one.  DS1 and I have to check our ear tag stock since I want to order any eartags in the free delivery shipment.  I like the idea that you can carry it around to different locations which we couldn't do with the squeeze.  I am thinking that just another Bungie cord to go over the sheep's neck might do the trick on restraints.  Like horses - if they can't get their necks up then they can't get their bodies up.  Probably would only need it for the wild ones hopefully.  The cut off wheels for the Hoof Boss arrived today.  I will order the deck chair and do more trims next week.  Some of the ewes don't show any growth, others do.  Trimming time coming with the new equipment.


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## Mike CHS

I'm not sure that a bungie would do the job but it possibly could.  The Deck Chairs for us is alway a two person affair with one person calming and supporting the sheep and the other doing the feet.  Most of our adult ewes are on the heavy side so it makes it easier on us and the sheep.  They don't fuss much at all once they have been exposed to the chair a few times.


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## SageHill

Mike CHS said:


> I'm not sure that a bungie would do the job but it possibly could.  The Deck Chairs for us is alway a two person affair with one person calming and supporting the sheep and the other doing the feet.


Two would definitely make it easier and faster!! When I used mine it was just lil' ol' me. Back the sheep up, tip him/her in - ohhhh the biggies - that was a trick and a half   , then settled them with a towel over their eyes. Worked pretty good. I still think a seatbelt would be a good add!! .


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## SageHill

First -- Hugs -- Bubba, we all understand that - 🫂.
.
You've got a great plan for the move - rolling with the bumps and adjusting as you go. I'd definitely say take the trailer to TX to live in while you're there esp if the house is rented out.
Oh yeah - 'I'll buy the sheep - you take care of them, I'll sell them to my friends', NO and HELL NO (unless you charge $$$ for boarding and care - but that still takes copious time and energy when you need to spend the time and energy on the move).
Ya' know - I'm just small potatoes down here, and learning the care side as I go - but I might be able add a couple/few sheep. Of course I don't know what my little ram lamb will do - though there are some hopes he will produce well.


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## farmerjan

@SageHill  and @Ridgetop need to meet somewhere along the way... and a REAL NICE Dorper ram lamb needs to get a new home and learn to go out to graze with the flock ...a la "OBI" style.... and add some lbs for future lambs.... NOTHING against the ram lamb you have already... but a purebred ram lamb like that will add alot to future lambs for eating in a generation.......and if he is going to the sale for slaughter buyers.....
Just sayin"


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## Baymule

X2!


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## Baymule

Or you could buy the ram lamb and “board” it then bring your ewes to be bred……. LOL


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## farmerjan

Baymule said:


> Or you could buy the ram lamb and “board” it then bring your ewes to be bred……. LOL


. Yep just what @Ridgetop needs... another one that wants to buy then board customer.....


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## murphysranch

Oh Ridge. I've not been on here for a week, and come back to all this terrible news. I'm so sorry this all happened! Bubba??? OMGosh...simply horrible.

But there is new life in the family with the new baby, and it points to a great 2023 for all of you!! Hugs.


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## Margali

So sorry you've had such a poor month. *hugs offered*

For the deck chair, a cargo strap with the toggle instead of ratchet would be good. I used 2 of them for securing Snip to cattle panel for trimming his hooves.


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## Finnie

Oh @Ridgetop  I don’t know whether to be happy for you or sad for you!  

Happy of course.


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## SageHill

Margali said:


> So sorry you've had such a poor month. *hugs offered*
> 
> For the deck chair, a cargo strap with the toggle instead of ratchet would be good. I used 2 of them for securing Snip to cattle panel for trimming his hooves.


Love all the "tricks" ew all come up with. I've only got the ratchet tie downs, might have to get the other ones now. Though I'm wondering if the super wide velcro strips would work 🤔


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## Ridgetop

Thanks for all suggestions and love.  I will probably try them all. 

The bad old year is out and the new good one in - or is it?  New Year's Eve our family had a quiet settle down watching movies and resting after the Christmas capers.  I was doing a puzzle, and coming down with a cold.  DH had changed over to the televised New Year celebrations, and suggested I see if I had a bottle of bubbly in the fridge for the Big Ball Drop.  Out to the laundry room where I discover the roof around the skylight is leaking big time.  The paint in the ceiling has large water bubbles, and is leaking along the roof beam.  Oy Vay!!!
    While getting out old towels to mop up the water, I remember last September when DS1 came to Texas he told me that a large rainstorm had come through the previous week and the skylight had leaked badly.  We need to get roofing tar to patch around the skylight when we returned.   Naturally I made a note to repair it with Oh Henry tar when we returned BUT, as is the Ridgetop Way the broken truck and assorted emergencies intervened.  Apparently, it only leaks with a very heavy storm so the light rains we had had in the past month did not show any leaks.  The skylight is located above the refrigerator which also hides the water until it spills across a bean in the ceiling and drips down.  Buckets were placed strategically, New Year's Day dawned relatively dry, and tragedy - in the form of our ceiling falling in - was averted.  DS1 and DS2 went to Lowes where they found that Oh Henry is only available at Home Depot due to some contract agreement.  However, Ridgetop men and women are not thwarted by such trivial brand name concerns.  The rain held off long enough for DS1 to remove the puddle sitting behind the skylight, dry off the roof and apply the roofing repair tar.  This brand being able to be applied to a wet roof as Oh Henry was not.  

The New Year's Eve storm was really bad.  Heavy rains and wind, and in fact some sort of New Year's Eve rave (?) party being held in Grant Park in Los Angeles was pretty much rained out.  40,000 revelers were expected and 1,400 showed up.  The dance floor was flooded, the musicians rushed to cover the instruments, and food and beverage vendors were flooded out.  The news showed the remaining partygoers dancing in the mud.  

Yesterday DS3 and family drove down early for a family get together.  A late Brunch was planned.  DD1 cooked ham and egg scramble, and bacon.  DS2 cooked sausage and a mountain of waffles with his new waffle makers (one is a double which makes 2 at a time, the other one does USA shaped waffles).  There was fruit, whipped cream, and syrup, cinnamon rolls and orange rolls.  DH picked up orange juice and I supplied champagne for Mimosas.  We all had a great time.  Talked to DS3 about Bib blue and he said he would give us his 5' brush hg since he has a new 6' deck one.  He also agreed to give us the post hold digger although he said if the ground was very hard rocky soil it would only drill down about 3'.   figured that would be enough.  He also said that his neighbor has one of the pneumatic post drivers and it works like a charm.  He also said he would come back and spend a week or so helping us set fence.    Told the grandkids to bring their fishing poles since they could hike over to the pond and fish and we would rent a boat (?) and they could go out on Fork Lake for the super size bass.  Big smiles all around.  We will have to see about stocking our little pond.  LOL

Since the leak started *before* midnight, I have decided to allocate that leak to the old bad year.   More rain is expected this entire week, and all across California so hopefully our 10-year drought has broken.  Although DH says we need 3 years of heavy rain to officially be drought free.  Lots of warnings and evacuations in burn areas but since we live on our ridgetop, no danger of that for us.  (Except the leaky skylight of course!)  

The family also got on the website and chose wedding gifts together, and discussed one person making all the flight reservations into Dallas at once.  They will all trave together on the same flight.  Rememberng all the violence on the planes lately I told the men to sit on the outside seats to protect their women and children.  The women stated that they were much more vicious than their men and would be better at defending the family.    Then they will rent either 2 large cars or a van to transport all 10 at once. DH kept saying we would pick them up until I pointed out that 7 of them would have to crouch in the truck bed with their luggage since the truck can only hold 3 additional passengers.  And with the cost of gas, I wasn't going to make the hour+ trip to Dallas airport from Yantis then to Athens 4 times.  They agreed it would be better to rent cars.  DS3 and family will drive down and spend the night at our house with DS2's family.  He is looking into hiring someone to take them all to the airport at once.  They are all staying an additional day so they can come back to Yantis to see the ranch.  We will get blow up mattresses and can camp in the house.

DH is worried about us getting Twinkles back in time for the trip so we might be just bringing the stock trailer. That way we can bring back the ewe lambs for Baymule, the rabbit equipment, canning equipment, shelf units, and other small stuff for renos and painting.  We can put up the heavy duty shelving units in the sheds to hold the stuff we are bringing back.  We can still pick up hay in Arizona on the way back if the price is right.  Not sure if we will come the southern route straight to Baymule to unload the lambs first - that would allow us to drop the trailer in Yantis without a lot of doubling back and forth.  

And I got another gift from DS3.  DS2 had given him the revolver we had retrieved from MJ's safe in Yelm.  It had lain there for years and was almost rusted together.  DS3 took it all apart and redid it so it works now.  A sweet little S & W .32 revolver.  The ammo is .32 longs and he said might be hard to find but it looks cute in my purse for Texas.  I wonder if DS3's skills are great enough to repair the old rusted revolver the boys found in the gully 20 years ago. The 3 boys decided that it had probably been used in a murder then tossed in the gully to dispose of it. * OR* it was lost during a gun battle in the hills between robbers and a posse.  *OR *some poor cowboy fell from his horse during a roundup, was pinned under his dead horse and lost his gun while trying to shoot himself to avoid a long painful death.  *OR *. . . . ??? Their theories were very entertaining. I hung the rusted gun on the wall along with some bridle bits, old tools, and other bits of Americana. 

Hope the New Year goes well for everyone.


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## Ridgetop

The southern California drought is officially broken!  This year anyway.    We have had sporadic rain since September but not enough to really get excited about.  Now we've had heavy rain around Christmas and it has not stopped raining for more than 8-12 hours since the big storm on New Year's Eve.  It has mostly rained heavily every night, and today heavy rain all day and still raining.  The tar repair on the skylight held up until today when the super heavy downpours were too much and it leaked again.  Once it dries out we will repair again.  The ceiling leak is mostly over the spare fridge so no damage.  We might have to prime and aunt a couple spts on the celing but nothing major.

I do feel sorry for my poor sheep in the large pen.  The rams have the old 18' diameter trampoline under which they shelter.  The breeding pen has some heavy pepper tree cover and another 18' diameter trampoline - this one used by the grandkids.  The barn has plenty of cover for the ewes and lambs.  The large pen though only has a tiny teepee of roof panels.  It is 4' wide by 8' long.  Not enough room for all the sheep and they are all covered in mud.  As soon as it gets drier I think I will pull over a stock panel and see if I can wedge one side against the teepee bottom and attach the other end to the corral panel.  Then a heavy plastic tarp can be draped over the stock panel to give them some cover.  Poor sheep.

The shop has said they have now received the engine for Twinkles.  Hopefully it will be installed in time to take both trucks pulling 2 trailers back to Texas next month.  I have been making a list of what will go back in each truck and trailer load.  I will mark the boxes that are to go by putting blue painter's tape on them.  That will make it easier to load the trucks and trailers without me standing over the men telling them what to take.  

Hopefully getting a couple truck and trailer loads back to the ranch will encourage us to keep working on moving. The next load will be the tractor Big Blue, the 5' deck brush hog, and drill.  Then we can start putting in fence posts for the 5-6' fencing.  DS3 said he can come back and help us too.  I am hoping that seeing the ranch that the family will start thinking it would not be so bad to move to Texas.

Robert is staying at his Lola and Lolo's for a couple days to let his poor mama get some rest.  He was running her ragged between Nick nursing and Robert being demanding.  We tend to forget that at 20 month he is still quite a baby himself.  He is spoiled, but hopefully the parents have learned their lesson and will do a few things differently with Nick.  Like hopefully make him sleep in his crib instead of on the floor on a mattress with his mother!  Being a second child Nick will probably be easier though.  As the grandmother I can just go to my room and ignore the crying.  

The rain is supposed to keep up heavily until Sunday.  Welcome El Nino!


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## Baymule

I hope y’all get enough rain to really help the area. Yes, once you actually make a trip to the ranch moving stuff, you’ll be chomping at the bit like a race horse to git ‘er done! I’m excited for the family to see the ranch!


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## farmerjan

From what I am seeing and hearing, breaking the drought has gone to the other extreme with the flooding, mud slides, roads washed out, etc.... Why is it we seem to have to be feast or famine all the time????
I hope that you don't have too much damage, problems there... just wet and muddy....


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## Ridgetop

Fire in the summer which burns off the foliage that holds the hillsides- mudslides in the winter if we have rain because all the foliage has burned off!  Been that way for a thousand years.  Back in the day the hills were covered with stilt houses.  The houses were built on super high stilts jutting out over the canyons from cliff sides.  Any flat land was used for parking and swimming pools.  Terrific views but every year a house would slide into the canyon. If it didn't burn up in the fires.  Did these people learn their lessons?  NO, they rebuilt the exact same houses on stilts over and over again.  Those stilt houses from the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's are no longer allowed to be built. Not sure if it is because of the mudslide danger or earthquake regs after the Northridge quake back in '93/'94.  The storms are expected to continue for 2 more weeks through mid-January with some sort of "Bomb Cyclone" weather cycle.  This might not be El Nino since the storms are coming from the north and meeting the storms coming from the south.  Whatever it is the weather is nasty.  

I need to get more cover over the main night pen.  We have had really heavy rain almost non-stop since New Year's Eve.  It rained all night and day since January 2.  The sheep pens on the flat are flooded.  DS1 has forbidden DH to feed in the mud since it is so slick out there.  The rain stopped this afternoon, so I went down to the milk shed and marked all the boxes I plan to take to Texas next month with blue painter's tape.  Figure that will be easier than standing over the fellows pointing at each box!  Looks like I will be emptying 2 6' shelving racks and a 4' one.    If the weather stays dry for a day or so I will bring up the stock panel I found at the back of the field and make one of those Quonset hut style shelters for the sheep with a tarp.  The ground will still be muddy and wet, but at least they can get out of the heavy rain.  

Got a call from the tenant saying they might not be out by the end of February.  Not a problem for us as long as we can get in and measure the house, as well as unload our trailers and trucks into the sheds.  We emptied those storage areas out last summer so they are ready for us to bring in shelving and unload.  I really hope that we can get our truck back so we have 2 trucks and can take a load of fencing back on the flat bed.  We need to bring Big Blue back on the next flatbed load so we can start on our fencing.  

She said their new house is very small and asked if we would like the king size beds in the 2 bedrooms of our house. The mattresses are almost new and she offered to supply new sheets!  I told her not to worry about the sheets since having the beds there would be great.  She was very relieved that we wanted them since she said she and her husband were worried they couldn't get them out of the house!  DH plans to send her some flowers to thank her for not having to sleep on an inflatable mattress.   Good for us and good for her.  Beds are a pain to move and king-size ones are a king size pain.  This will let us avoid moving our king size bed back to Texas.  It is huge and heavy, mde out of 2' x 10" boards.  It is custom built and we got it second hand.  We put a new mattress on it and can leave it for DS2 and his wife.  I will bring sheets, pillows, and blankets back in a plastic tub and they can be stored in the house in one of the bedrooms.  Probably will bring another plastic tub back to leave some work clothes there as well.  Bed problem solved though!  If our family can sleep in the house after the March 3 wedding, we will only need to take back a couple of the inflatable mattresses we already have.  No need to buy more.   

DS2 is on track with the plane reservations, car rental, and hotel.  The only problem is whether to get reservations for DS1 or will we have the truck back so he can drive one vehicle to Texas for us.    We are not staying at the Best Western for the 2 nights - the family wants to stay at Holiday inn because they have an indoor pool for the 3 children.  The adults will use the hot tub.  We also were deciding on wedding gifts during our post New Yer's brunch.  2 magnums of champagne making Mimosas and we were feeling very generous.  Within a day or 2 we had returned to sanity and instead of buying $400 BBQs or $3500 rugs or $350 moonlight Hawaiian cruise dinners (yes those were some of the choices) for their cousin's daughter (who lives in an apartment) we were all choosing more sensible gifts for the young couple.  Particular after they counted up how much they were spending for a 4-day trip to Texas for the wedding.     have sent the gifts from us, DS1, and DD2 and her husband.  DD2 has no money so I chose a $25 set of bamboo cutting boards from her.  They will not be able to go to the wedding anyway - no money.  DS1 gave her a set of sheets which I consider expensive at $69 - I buy my sheets at Ross for around $30, but since I had found the $129 coverlet set on their registry on sale at Walmart for $69, I was willing to slip in a bit for him.  So our gifts are sorted, I will figure out what to wear.  I have a lovely new pantsuit which is very flattering on me, but it is black and brown which I don't consider suitable colors for a wedding.  I also have a formal navy pantsuit which would be better since the wedding is in March which is still winter.  It is an afternoon wedding too.  Plenty of time to choose something from my cruise wardrobe.    I was informed yesterday that they expect us to take their dressy clothes back with us for them and show up at the hotel on March 2 with them.  Not a problem.  There will be room in the truck.  

I ordered my Premier sheep chair so we can do hooves.  I also remembered to order more ear tags, including more scrapie tags.  Premier offers additional name imprinting for free on the ear tags.  This time I ordered all the flock tags with our flock name on them in addition to the numbers.  I also ordered another 40 scrapie tags also with the flock information which is the assigned scrapie flock ID number.  I really like these Premier tags.  They are larger and easier to read than our old tags.  I also ordered 20 tags in red for the new ram, Junior.  I have retired the orange tags temporarily since I sold the Axtel ram.  I still have orange tags left but am waiting to use them until later since we will probably assume any orange tag ewe is sired by Axtel instead of the new ram.  I figure if we wait another year to use orange tags, either we will recognize the new orange tags or I will have a new ram  siring lambs to use them on.  Oy Vay!  

Dues time is here for the Anatolian Breeders' Society, and the Dorper Society.  Got those checks written, 12 lamb registrations filled out and in the mail.  I register all ewe lambs when I sort them at weaning.  I also subscribed to Livestock Weekly for a year. They have good articles about what is happening with pasture, sales etc.  They report the average prices on goats and sheep as well as cattle at the Texas auction yards.  I have 3 large ram lambs needing to be castrated in the barn right now.  I was going to take them to the auction but with the heavy rain, I don't want to go down there with the possibility of buyers staying home.  Called the auction yard and she said the ram lambs went for about $50.  However, she said they were tiny lambs and larger animals were goig for about $100 plus.  She said if I waited a few weeks that the ethnic buyers would be buying for holidays so I will take both the large rams and the soon to be weaned ram lambs (and any other ewe lambs that don't look very good) in then hoping that prices will be closer to $200.  

My DIL is now on this website hoping to learn about Boer goats.  She says she wants to breed them for meat, but my son says they will probably become pets instead.  LOL  there is an active 4-H group up there and if she can breed them for the proper time she could sell market kids to the FFA and 4-Hers.  Everybody please give her good info.  She is in southern California (Nipomo) so no Barber Pole worms there, but she wants to talk about goats with other members.  DS3 who could help her keeps telling her they are lots of work and trouble.    DS3 is bing a pain in the neck.  

I need to check my tale of Bubba and see how many episodes are left to publish.   The adventures of our LGDs, starting with Rika, have been appearing in The Anatolian Times for the past couple years now.  I have been wondering if I should put them in a posting devoted to them?  I will write about Angel and her entry into our lives. Each puppy has its own personality and problems to work on.  Bubba ate our lawn furniture and had trouble being calm with newborn lambs and their mamas.  Our fault not his.  Angel went through 2 puppy biting phases at different ages, one of which was quite nasty.  Again, we learned how to deal with it and stopped her bad behavior. I like writing about their training, behavior, and our learning curve with each new Anatolian.  Maybe I should do a posting about their behaviors, issues, personalities, and what we learned from them over the years.    Maybe it would be helpful to others to see the behaviors LGDs can come up with - both good and bad.  Angel is barking outside right now.  It is her threatening a predator "I know you are there so don't think you can hide from me. Come in this yard and die" bark.  She is having to work twice as hard without Bubba, and Rika is showing her age.     I need to write the Angel saga and have it waiting to send in before the new Anatolian puppy comes home the first of March and I have to work on her story.  We are picking her up from Erick after the wedding and then heading home.  I have waited 5 years for this puppy from Erick.


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## Baymule

Cow panel hoop shelters work nicely for shelter. I use 2 of them. I put the split foam pipe cover on one panel at the top of the hoop, secured with zip ties, to keep from rubbing and poking holes in the tarp. Then I tie them together with wire or hay twine. I lay the panels flat on the ground. I drive 2 T-posts at one end of each cow panel. Pick up the other end of the cow panel and push it against the posts, to desired height and width. Tie with hay string or wire. Have some of your big strong, handsome men drive in 2 T-posts at the other end. Tie with hay string or wire. Do the same for the other panel, then tie them together so winds don’t flex them in different directions and tear the tarp. Put tarp over the top, tie with handy dandy hay twine. Deep bed with straw, pine shavings or whatever you use for bedding. 

I’ve been using dead hay, that’s the bottoms of the round bales and dropped hay for bedding. It’s rained here, ewe pen is sloppy. It rains, I throw dead hay on the mud, they stomp it in, I throw more dead hay, repeat. It will rain again tomorrow.


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## Mini Horses

Ridgetop said:


> but she wants to talk about goats with other members. DS3 who could help her keeps telling her they are lots of work and trouble.  DS3 is bing a pain in the neck.


All goats can be trouble!  😁 🥰. You know this.

BUT a good lineage Boer is far less trouble than any dairy I've ever had, as a breed.  Their demeanor is generally non aggressive,  if handled as kids, they're very trainable for easy handling.  Being large, you want them to be handled.   I could halter, or collar, my 300 # bucks....tie and do hooves as needed.  In '95 I brought the first registered group to VA.  Sold out in '99 due to impending loss of DH (cancer).  Now I have spent a couple yrs contemplating and searching for old lineage animals to get a herd that produces well.

This year i became the owner of 10 does & 2 bucks that have presented the same good handling qualities and body type.  Its an investment in both money and time.  While some are registered and some not (3 does), the breeding background is there, the body is there.  Bucks are registered fullbloods.  The butcher meat market doesn't care about papers,  just good carcass...which the original Boers possessed and passed.  Stay away from the ones crossbred for mediocre type as breeder base.  You know -- keep best, sell the rest.

I'm NOT against crossbreds...just not for breeding stock if you want stout kids to sell.  That said, all of my dairy does were bred to the Boer buck.  They will have plenty of milk for fast growing kids -- who will bring far more at sale than a full dairy kid.  I have the dairy does, large girls, so making better use of their need to breed for milking.  🤷All kids will be sold.  I'll arrange for a dairy buck to bring along any full dairy in future &/or buy bred does.  Mostly, it will be crossbreds for sale as I downsize dairy numbers.  Plan to always keep 6-8. 😁. I like my milk and milking.

That's just my paltry two cents worth.  Haven't work with other meat breeds because I liked the look, coats, demeanor and growth of Boer.  I'm an old lady handling them alone...tell DS3 to get real.


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## farmerjan

Mini Horses said:


> All goats can be trouble!  😁 🥰. You know this.
> 
> BUT a good lineage Boer is far less trouble than any dairy I've ever had, as a breed.  Their demeanor is generally non aggressive,  if handled as kids, they're very trainable for easy handling.  Being large, you want them to be handled.   I could halter, or collar, my 300 # bucks....tie and do hooves as needed.  In '95 I brought the first registered group to VA.  Sold out in '99 due to impending loss of DH (cancer).  Now I have spent a couple yrs contemplating and searching for old lineage animals to get a herd that produces well.
> 
> This year i became the owner of 10 does & 2 bucks that have presented the same good handling qualities and body type.  Its an investment in both money and time.  While some are registered and some not (3 does), the breeding background is there, the body is there.  Bucks are registered fullbloods.  The butcher meat market doesn't care about papers,  just good carcass...which the original Boers possessed and passed.  Stay away from the ones crossbred for mediocre type as breeder base.  You know -- keep best, sell the rest.
> 
> I'm NOT against crossbreds...just not for breeding stock if you want stout kids to sell.  That said, all of my dairy does were bred to the Boer buck.  They will have plenty of milk for fast growing kids -- who will bring far more at sale than a full dairy kid.  I have the dairy does, large girls, so making better use of their need to breed for milking.  🤷All kids will be sold.  I'll arrange for a dairy buck to bring along any full dairy in future &/or buy bred does.  Mostly, it will be crossbreds for sale as I downsize dairy numbers.  Plan to always keep 6-8. 😁. I like my milk and milking.
> 
> That's just my paltry two cents worth.  Haven't work with other meat breeds because I liked the look, coats, demeanor and growth of Boer.  I'm an old lady handling them alone...tell DS3 to get real.


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## Ridgetop

Sun is out today although cool.  (for us)  Checked the sheep pen measurements and decided not to use the stock panel hoop house idea since we will be loading the stock panels on the flatbed trailer in a couple weeks and don't want them to be bent.  Instead, I think I will try using the old wood/wire gate from the end of the driveway that we replaced with a TSC farm gate.  I can attach a tarp to the top of the corral panels and run it over the top of the gate so the water will run off it.  I just need something to keep water from puddling on top of it.  I really don't want to use straw to bed them down since it packs into the liquid mud and manure and makes ADOBE!  So hard to shovel up and rake out.  Even if they have to lay down on the wet ground the tarp will help keep them dry.  Sort of.  We have 2 weeks more of heavy rain coming then it should dry out a bit.  It is only that one pen that is a problem.  

When we get to Texas I plan to use stock panel hoop houses for shelter in the pastures with corral roof panels over the feeders.  I am very happy about the tenants leaving the beds for us and have been sorting out spare pillows, sheets, towels, and blankets to take back.  Got 2 large plastic tubs packed with everything sealed in plastic inside them.  Our second load back will be with Big Blue on the flatbed and the wrought iron (aluminum?) patio furniture in the truck bed.  The cushions can ride inside the cab.  Have chosen several other pieces to take back for storage in the house.  Also will check for lamps in the Connex.  

I was trying to decide what to take back to wear for the wedding.  I tried on the dressy navy pantsuit which did fit although slightly tight in the hips so can take it along. But I really like the style of the other one and it is very slimming.  So I went on line and found the _identical dressy pantsuit that I just bought (in black and taupe) in plum color.  _Perfect for the wedding since the style is very flattering, perfect color for an older (although still in her prime) woman, *and on sale!  AND WTH A COUPON AS WELL!  *Ordered it right away before the color and size sell out.
I am on a diet - no ice cream or pie, or cookies. Lots of plain yogurt. I need to work on the "sort of" rowing machine I have to strengthen my knee. I think the fall I took before Christmas did tear some stuff since now my knee clicks every time I move it. That clicking is supposed to be normal in fake knees, but it is clicking more than it did before, so I think some muscle tears happened. I couldn't walk for several days so it probably did some soft tissue damage. I also notice that it hurts now when I do a tight bend of the knee. I plan to work with the stretchy band exercises again to make sure I don't lose the movement I had. I am working at climbing the stairs with my bad knee doing the work and it seems to be getting stronger. Will sort out shoes later, will probably take a pair of sandals and a pair of dressy closed shoes in case of rain. March in Texas - maybe even snow with the crazy weather. The wedding is at 3:30 pm. I must remember to sort out DH's suit, shirt and tie as well since otherwise we might be trying to find a 24-hour cleaner in Texas.   Or a Big Men's store.

DGSs 1 and 2 brought up the Christmas decoration boxes so I can begin packing everything up again till next year. Whether here in California or back in Texas is anyone's guess.   I finally got the wrapping paper sealed in plastic bags and back in the shed.  I have a wrapping paper container BUT the rolls we bought this year are too long for it.  Sigh.  I also took the plastic box of cardboard boxes and tissue paper put back in the shed.  Christmas is over for another year.  It really rushed past.  

Talked to DS1 about putting up a tarp arrangement in the sheep pen and he said OK but will have to buy a couple of large tarps for it since all ours have holes and/or are torn.  Hopefully the rain will hold off long enough to rig up something tomorrow.   

Talked to Kent the Butcher yesterday who told me that one of our Fair friends had passed away.  He was younger than us but had colon cancer.  He was doing very well and just before Thanksgiving the cancer came back and he was gone a few days ago.  Talked to a mutual friend and found out that his father-in-law who was actually in 4-H with us had passed away December 7 following a fall.  He was recovering but the hospital dosed him with morphine "because he was restless" and he was gone in a few hours!   NOTE:  Anyone approaching late 70's do not allow the hospital to give you morphine if you are in hospital.  This is what happened to Baymule's BJ - morphine to "calm him down" and it killed him.  My friend Cheryl said she also cured herself of severe Covid by taking Ivermectin.  She couldn't get the liquid so just used horse wormer.  She said one of our local vets told her that he takes 2 ml every week.  A friend of his was diagnosed with some sort of cancer, and his vet said to take Ivermectin.  He did and when he went back for a check the cancer was gone.  I can't verify this, but Ivermectin has been prescribed to humans for various things for years.  I am thinking about putting the whole family on a regimen of preventative Ivermectin.  I do still have 2 250 ml bottles of injectable Ivermectin in the fridge.  Can't hurt I suppose. I used it to cure DH, DS2, and DDIL2 of Covid after Baymule told me the recipe last year.  

DD1 is coming over for a game night soon.  We were going to have steak and apparently when they found out her family all decided to come for dinner.  DS1 got out more steaks.  DS2 is cooking them on the Trager, DS1 said he would do the sides.  I guess that leaves the cleanup for me?


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## Mini Horses

Ridgetop said:


> think the fall I took before Christmas did tear some stuff since now my knee clicks every time I move it. That clicking is supposed to be normal in fake knees, but it is clicking more than it did before, so I think some muscle tears happened.



Any chance you went to surgeon for check of damage?


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## Mini Horses

Ok, ok ..... Worth asking.   🙄     of course we "in our prime" ladies are indestructible!   hope it's rhythmic clicking.


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## farmerjan

Thank goodness, I do not have any clicking in the knees... I would go out of my mind if I had to listen to or feel  that.  I sure hope it is not anything too serious that a little "taking it easy" won't fix.


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## Baymule

WD-40


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## farmerjan

OOPS ... they forgot to put in the grease joint when they installed the new "hardware".....


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## Ridgetop

Well, I have undecorated the tree, put away those ornaments, and many of the Christmas decorations.  Still have 2 garlands in the FM, one garland in the LR, the 2 reindeer boxes (which need to be taken apart), their lights and white poinsettias to be repacked, and a few other decorations to be packed away in their storage containers.  I took down the nativity array and have packed up the fake pine trees, stable, wrapped the figures, and the shale I use to make the wolf cave.  I have shepherds with sheep (lots of sheep and a couple goats) and 2 LGDs with pups guarding them so naturally I added a wolf pack with pups.  LOL Cats, chickens, magi, their camels, and camel boy complete this scene. Normally this scene occupies the top of the 5'6" buffet in the DR.  I measured the table I planned to take to Texas and it is much smaller so I'll have to figure out another spot for it.  I am considering making a backdrop with mountains so that the wise men or shepherds can be in the hills.  It would bring up the question of where to store it unless I could design it in pieces that would screw together. I saw a way to make it on U-Tube by using heavy construction paper (like you put down on the floors when doing renovations.  You take lengths of paper and twist it then open it out so it is now all creased and staple it to a board over small pieces of wood or heavy cardboard boxes. This makes it look like craggy mountains texturally and also gives you a space to put the figures, trees, etc.  Then you use spray sand paint to give it texture like rock.  Next, spray a base color on the sandy paper and touch it up with dry brush colors to add gray granite crags, brown sandy areas, greenish meadows, etc.  Finally, you add moss, trees, bushes etc.  You can make house fronts for a town using cardboard with the same sand and spray paint technique for your backdrop.  Final touch, add the Nativity figurines.  I hope to add some more pieces this year to my set.  Fontanini is having its after Christmas sale and offering up to 21% off depending on how much $ you order.  I have my eye on a well, a drummer boy, and more sheep.  I would like to add some Roman soldiers, but my set is the 7.5 size, and they don't offer them in that size.  The 5" is the most popular size.  I suppose I could sell my set and convert to the 5" size which has a lot more different figures, townspeople, etc.  It has the added advantage of being smaller and each figure is half the price of the larger size.  However, I have had my set for 50 years and really like it so . . . .   Tomorrow I will finish packing the Christmas decorations.  Then DS1 and 2, DGS 1 and 2 will take the large containers back to the Connex.  Christmas is over for another year.  

DS1 got a 20 x 30' tarp and put it up in the sheep pen.  This probably guarantees that we will have no more rain. Or alternatively we will have hurricane force winds to tear it the tarp down so my sons and husband can say "We told you so".    I insisted they put up the tarp and DS1 took a look at the situation ad figured if he put the tarp over the teepee and tied it to each side of the corral that the teepee would hold the tarp up in the middle avoiding a giant tarp bowl of rainwater.     It looks very good, gives the sheep a 12' x 30' covered area in the pen, and if it puddles in the middle of the unsupported tarp area I figure we can release one corner and the water can shed off. Tomorrow I will check at the fire station to see if we can get any sand bags.  If we empty the bags of sand into the stalls in the barn and the pen that are already liquid mud, we can get some harder footing for the poor sheep instead of them laying down in a couple inches of mud.  Looked it up and we have to provide our own bags at some stations, others provide the bags.  Limit of 25.  Grandsons are spending the night tight.  I can send them with uncles and truck to shovel up sand for me tomorrow.     The water seems to seep into the barn. Sometimes it also runs into the house along one of the walls of the new addition.  

DD2 had to have her dad come out to get her car towed today.  The fuel pump is bad.  She starts her new job tomorrow so he has to be at her house at 7:30 am to pick her up with the children, drop DGD2 at school, drop DGD3 at daycare, and drop DD2 at work.  Then he has to pick everyone up and take them home.  Such a good dad.
   She wants to borrow the old blue Explorer.   This car was not good enough for her when we offered it to her in August, but now we have gotten it smogged, and she is desperate.  DH is going to check with DDIL2's father to see if he can replace the fuel pump for DD2.  DDIL2's dad is a mechanic and does "shade tree" repairs on his time off.  We are going to have him do any repairs that need to be done on the blue Explorer.  The Ford dealership is looking at it now while doing an oil change.  DH says he isn't going to spend that much on any repairs so will have Jun do the minimum.  I also think he is disgusted finally about the dealer repair shop.  

Supposed to get heavy rain starting tomorrow evening.


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## Baymule

Beggars can’t be choosers. All of a sudden, a previously rejected mode of transportation sure beats walking. Ahhh…. The joys of being broke and on foot. BTDT

More rain, just what y’all need. I hope the rain helps the farmers and ranchers. The tarp will give the sheep a place to get out of the rain. My sheep can take some rain, but sure crowd into their shelters in a hard rain. 

Your Nativity set sounds like it is something to behold. Next year, take pictures and show us!


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## Mini Horses

Baymule said:


> Your Nativity set sounds like it is something to behold. Next year, take pictures and show us!


Agree!!  I feel we've been left out.  😔🥴


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