Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Ridgetop]

She felt sorry for her. I might have made a mistake raising kind children . . . .

 

[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.

 

[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!!!

 

[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.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

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.

 

[Mike CHS]

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