Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Margali]

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.

 

[Baymule]

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.

 

[Ridgetop]

 

[Finnie]

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!

 

[Ridgetop]

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!

 

[Finnie]

 

[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.