Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[farmerjan]

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????

 

[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.

 

[Bruce]

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.

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.

 

[Ridgetop]

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

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.

 

[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.

 

[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?

 

[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.....

 

[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.

 

[Ridgetop]

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!

 

[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?