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Ridgetop
Herd Master
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.
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.
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!
