Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Baymule]

I almost went with the Royal Whites, but the colors of the Katahdins captured me. The Royal Whites might be fun for you to breed into your line of White Dorpers.

Easter and your sweet DH’s birthday sounds like everyone had a good time. Tell him I said HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

 

[Ridgetop]

I plan to look into them in Texas. Been overcast and dark all day. Supposed to rain tomorrow.

 

[Ridgetop]

In spite of his birthday, DH doesn't look any older than he did last week!

 

[murphysranch]

I absolutely LOVE how your children gather 'round. Its stupendous! Makes me happy for you and DH!!

 

[Ridgetop]

Yes, we are a very close-knit family. A result of spending all their childhood in a working farm situation and not being able to hang around the mall, etc. That closeness and enjoyment of each other's company is is one of the reasons that it will be so hard to move away from them.

 

[Ridgetop]

It rained again last night. Keeping the forage green for the sheep! Southern California is so beautiful with the green hills. I will miss the mountains.

DGD3 (Annabel) arrived at 8 am and stayed all day. She is coming again tomorrow. DGS8 (Robert) was happy to see her and they played very well together considering they are barely 2 years old. They even learned to take turns on the slide. With their dark hair and eyes they look like twins. DGS9 enjoyed watching them play. They pulled out most of the toys off the shelves and had a blast.

DH mentioned that he wants to find a couple Connexes to put in Yantis. We discussed where they would go and decided that they would be good to place on either side of the barn so we could roof over between the barn and the Connex storage containers to make additional covered areas for the tractors, trailers, and livestock. Apparently DH originally wanted to put them where I had Jeremy put in the mini orchard. Ooops! I guess when I tried to discuss the placement with DH he should have actually listened instead of sitting there saying "Uh Huh, yes, I hear you".

Hopefully, we will be going up to Nipomo this Sunday with the flatbed trailer to pick up the tractor and the attachments. Then we will see how much room is left on the flatbed for other stuff. Hopefully we can fit some of the larger corral pieces. Then the stock trailer will be loaded with shorter corral pieces, boxes, spare feeders, etc. With any luck we might be able to fit some of the more comfortable stackable lawn chairs. Oh yes, and I need to ask DS2 if we can take the microwave he has stored from when he was renting an apartment in San Diego. We will make a trip to Walmart to buy cleaning supplies, vacuum, broom, etc. and COFFEE MAKER when we arrive in Yantis. I already brought back some boxes of towels, linens, and some cookware. We won't need much this time since we won't be there very long this trip.

I need to call the tenants tomorrow to find out if they have turned off the utilities and make arrangements to have them turned on or switched to our names on May 1 for us. I checked in March and we can do it all by email. I also have to check about buying fence posts and wire from TSC in bulk for the discount. The lady at Sulphur springs TSC said she can do some sort of "rain check" order. Once we have fence posts, wire and the tractor on the property we will start putting up fencing on our next trip.

Next week I will start putting some ewes out with a ram for lambing in September. Hopefully we can get a few marked before we pull the ram out while we travel to Texas. Then I will put the rest in when we get back in May. I will check to see if they are already cutting alfalfa in Arizona so we can pick up a load if it is any cheaper than what we already have. If not, we will wait until the next trip to load up. We will need at least 6 months or more to get us over to our final moving date.

 

[Baymule]

look on Craigslist in farm and ranch in East Texas for shipping containers. There is a place in Longview that sells them. Also look in Dallas. If the spot where you want to put them is low, you might want to put a rock/gravel pad in to set them on, or block them up to keep them out of the wet and mud. Termites and wet will rot the bottom out. Blocking them up is dicey, me and an equally ignorant friend blocked up son’s two 40’ shipping containers. At one point, one fell off the blocks, amazing that it didn’t tip over and kill us both. I’d go for a good built up pad, dirt first, if it’s low, them crushed concrete for a solid base to put them on.

 

[Margali]

Easiest way to block them up is a pair of railroad timbers in place before container is dropped. Gives enough height for bottle jacks to lift for swapping timbers with concrete block, leveling etc.

 

[Ridgetop]

We have some RR timbers here. I guess we will use them to stack the corral panels on. I will check Longview Craigslist for a shipping container. Maybe we can get the base done while we are back there this trip.

I need to sort out the sheep and put all the yearlings with a ram immediately so we can pull the ram when we leave for Texas since no one will check and write down the numbers on the ewes that mark. I suppose I can just leave him in with them since we will be gone about 3 weeks and I would have a "sort of" lambing time period. A long as we are in town during that period and I cut down their feed in the last month, they should lamb just fine.

Annabel is here again today. Robert really likes her as evidenced by the fact that he shoved her down, tried to drag her to his toys (she resisted), and then fed her fruit from his roll by shoving his finger into her mouth. Normal 2-year-old behavior. 2-year-olds' social skills are somewhat brutal since they don't have language. When he starts preschool next September, his social skills will improve quickly- or he will be crushed by larger 2-year-olds. Pretty much the same thing. As you can see, after years as a mother of toddlers, running my own daycare business, 9 grandchildren, teaching preschool for years, I am rather immune to 2-year-old behavior other than making sure they don't get hurt.

It rained again last night which not expected. The warmer temperatures predicted by the weather report has now changed to lows for next week. Once I sort out who will go into the breeding pen, I will make a creep pen in the night pen and all the ewes with lambs can go out on the main field to forage. We will feed hay to the lambs in the creep and that will keep them growing. I will need to cover the field creep in case of rain.

 

[Ridgetop]

Checked ad in Craigslist - 20' delivered is $2800 which DH says is what we paid for the ones we have here so will do more checking, get pad ready in Yantis, and just buy a couple. Then roof between then and brn, and will have tractor shed, rabbitry, livestock covers, or hay storage.