Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Bruce]

It’s getting a little crowded, somebody’s got to go.

Your "argument" doesn't hold water. People go but even more come.
LA metro population went up 50% from 1950 to 1960, double that now to over 12M. It is STILL a desert, just more asphalt than scrubland. The population is up 3M from when I moved to Vermont in '79, a 33% increase.

 

[farmerjan]

I think @Baymule was referring to the actual home living conditions with having family that has moved back in with @Ridgetop and the house getting more crowded and them having less and less space to call their own .... kids are supposed to move out and have a life, not all keep moving back in once they have been out on their own for awhile. While it is nice to have family visit... sometimes it is just too much on a 24/7 deal.....

 

[Mini Horses]

Yeah, they move back. . Mostly do not pay when they do!!

 

[Baymule]

Yup, home itself, not LA area.

 

[SageHill]

Politics in CA stink - anyone in their right mind (no pun intended) wants out. But the land and the climate draw us.
TX looks darned attractive to many of us. Land is more affordable than CA, politics are not lefty loosey.
Overall from where I sit, family is sort of being "redefined" - sort of as many are becoming what the realtors like to call "multi-generational". There are many places around here that hit the market with that label, as well as the phrase
ADU on site or 'room for and ADU' (Accessory Dwelling Unit). I don't know about all of CA but at least down here there are 'leniencies' given in permitting for them as well. Kind of like when farmers and their children stayed on the farm - add a house, etc. Though not all ADUs are on farms/ranches --- large parcels of land are not required to do that. There are also a lot of places on the market with more than one house (second being larger than an ADU).
Making the jump to another locale far away - even in the same state is not easy. We even looked. Almost did it - but local laws stopped me dead in the tracks ("no more than 4 domestic animals total" - irreguardless of acreage. I'd love for @Ridgetop to stay in CA (hey we've got some deals down here! ) -- but there's still the politics to deal with and the tree-hugging legislation to live with -- yuppers - buy all those small gas powered mowers, chainsaws, blowers etc NOW because 01/01/24 you won't be able to buy them here.

 

[Ridgetop]

Nope, no matter what we are moving! We might decide to move back, but we will go and experience it. Occasionally I get a bit down at all the stuff that has to happen but then I bounce back.

Poor Robert has 7 STITCHES IN HIS BIG TOE! It happened at DDIL2's mom's house. A stool fell on it and it burst like a ripe tomato. He was fine walking around on it when he got home. Then hi Lola arrived to go with DDIL to doctor's appointments with kids. Robert who adores her took one look at her nd ran away. he ran nto the famioy room and hid behind the couch! We were all lughing so hard abut this. Then he would peek out from behind the sofa and hide again. His mom picked him up and tried to give hiim to his grandmother and he pushed her away! His poor Lola was about in tears. I told her that stitches were a Ridgetop tradition - a 2 year old Rite of Passage! All my kids had stitches by the time they were 2-2 1/2. DDGS1 had a badly scarred hand from putting his hand on a glass fire screen at his uncle's house when he was 16 months old. His sister has twin scars on her forehead from falling out of the car then getting jumped on by her older brother. DGS4 carried wheel tread marks on his face for 3 weeks after his older brother ran over him in a battery powered car. Aaah, family traditions . . .

Anyway, DH got the new tires on the flatbed trailer Thursday morning. He told me the shop opened at 9 am but in his crafty way did not tell me his appointment was not until 10 am. He is slick. DS and I were all packed and loaded in the car so when he returned, we drove to the bottom of the hill and just transferred everything into the truck. Left the car keys on the kitchen table and DDIL2 brought the car up when she and her mom returned from Robert's doctor appointment.

We were on the road to Nipomo to drop the trailer by 11:00. I was supposed to be in Vacaville by 6 pm for the welcome dinner but i am also crafty and didn't pay in advance for the dinner. That was lucky since we got tiedup in terrible traffic after dropping the trailer and barely made it to Vacaville by 7 pm. The restaurant where we met DS1's friend closed at 8 pm so we were able to eat, then Leen and DS1 got his stuff and took off for his place and we continued to our motel. To bed by 11 pm and up at 6 am for the class at UC Davis. The combined junior and senior cclass was taught by 2 South African judges. We had the entire day in the classroom the first day. On Saturday the junior class all drove to AAC Dorpers ranch for a live judging class with one of the judges. Jose only breeds black Dorpers so there was a lot of concentration on pigment. We had to judge the animal according to the score chart, then we all explained why we marked them down as Class 5, 4, 3, or cull. Then the judge explained what he judged them as and why. Since I have White Dorpers, I had trouble at first with the color and pigment portion. The second day we drove to Willow Creek Dorpers and judged in the morning again. This time we judged half and half White and Black Dorpers. We also got to see judging of 3-month-old lambs which I really appreciated since they are a lot different from mature animals. You want to know what to keep before sending off the wrong ones to the butcher. Judging pgment on Whites was very hard since you have to examine the eyelids up close. After lunch we all split into 2 groups for the tests. There was a 4 page written test, and a practical on 4 groups of mixed black and White Dorpers. Each sex has 2 age groups. We won't know our grades or if we passed for about a week.

The judging class was really informative and taught me a lot. There were


However, I tried taking Naproxen once a day and it has helped my back pain.

 

[Ridgetop]

OOPS. My computer is jumping around. The sentence should read:

The judging class was really informative and taught me a lot. There were about 4 people from Texas there taking the class, 2 from Utah, 3 from Idaho, and 1 from Oregon. Brad Raeder, the president of the national Dorper club was there as well as the Executive Director from Missouri. This is the first time this class has been held in the western states. It is normally held in Duncan, OK. The judges are also Inspectors ad are doing typing for all those who signed up. I didn't sign up for typing this year as I have a lot of animals under 10 months old. I did typing last year and will do it again next year.

DG and I are also going to go to the Western States Dorper show in Reno the end of May. I told DH that we would go in the car and leave the stock trailer behind so I wouldn't buy anything this time. When he got through laughing hysterically, he said he would rather drive up with the trailer instead of have to go home for it and come back. How well the man knows me. But no rams. None. < duct tape over mouth < handcuffs

Came home yesterday after picking up the flatbed and tractor. DS3 had loaded it for us and showed DH and DS1 how to hook up all the different attachments. The post hold digger is super heavy and DH was saying he would have to rig up something to get it off the trailer. I reminded him that we had the engine hoist in the shed that we could attach to a beam un the barn like we did in MJ's barn to load the short block engines. He thought he had given it to DS3 but I reminded him that I said we needed it for Texas. We can rig it to the TX barn rafters to remove the post hole digger from the trailer, and also to hold it upright while we attach it to the tractor.

I have a call in to McCoy's in Mt Pleasant about the Sta-Tuff 75" fencing. I am going with the 6" vertical wires like AFarmerJan said to do. The manager will call me about ordering it. He s said that if we order 10 rolls he wil do soe sort of discount. I would have ordered the 10' T posts as well, but he doesn't have a supplier for that length. I called TSC in Sulphur Springs and they have 120 but I need 400 for the dscunt. The manager is ordering 400 on a "rain check". So the majority of the fencing is planned out. I need some 10' posts for corner braces and boss posts but we have a number of cross arms that we are taking back. I also checked and can get 10' treated posts at Lowes for about $15 each. I can use the short posts we have for kickers and the longer ones for braces on the corners, and gate posts.

Next, I called in an order to Valley Vet, and they sent me some forms (both California and Texas) to fill out that everything I ordered was for livestock and it did away with sales tax on the items. BTW, when I bought the sheep mineral in Dixon, CA, they had my Texas tax card on file and did not charge me any tax on the minerals. Probably because minerals are considered feed but since the card was in their system, I did not pay tax. I don't pay tax on hay or other feed but have to fil out a form at each store saying that it is for food animals. I sent an email to Jeffers asking if I can submit forms to them as well. I am not sure if it covers medical supplies or just minerals and feed, but I will check. I'm not sure if the Exemption Certificate covers fencing materials or not. It doesn't qualify for barns. Hopefully the wire and posts will arrive at the stores in Texas when we get there. We can start on the fencing or at least pick up everything and put it in the back of the barn out of sight behind the tractor ready for our return trip in June. That reminds me that I have to take the box of wire back to Texas for fencing too.

Forgot to mention that while we were on the way up to Nipomo we got a call from DS2 about 4 pm who informed me that we had a new set of twins in the barn. Apparently, the ewe that had a baby udder decided she would lamb after we left. I had checked them all before we pulled out and no lambs. DS1 had noticed that she looked like an udder was forming and he put her in the barn on Wednesday. DS2 iodined the cords and said that the ram and ewe lambs were dry and nursing. The next day during class I got a call from DDIL2. 2 more young ewes had lambed on the field. She did the iodine on them. So another set of split twins and a single ewe. Add 2 rams and 3 ewes to the total makes 7 ram lambs and 8 ewe lambs. I hope lamb prices stay high for the next several months.

Tomorrow I will go out and set up the mineral feeders/bucket for the sheep in different pastures. Since we are moved the rams down to the front pasture, we can separate the young stock and the open-to-be-bred ewes, using the rams' corral. Then when we leave for Texas, we will have DS2 and DDIL2 start to increase feed slightly for the open TBB ewes. We need to get to Texas and make more pastures, we have too many ewes now that we have to move around to be bred, lamb, and wean! Not to mention the young stock that just need to grow.

 

[Ridgetop]

DS1 wants to dock, vax, and tag the new lambs today since we hope to leave for Texas this weekend after DH replaces the stock trailer tires and gets 2 new front tires on DS2's truck. When he gets back, we will start loading the trucks and stock trailer.

I got the quote from McCoy's on the fencing wire. They quoted more than the suggested retail price but they don't normally stock this wire. Mt peasant McCoy's said it is stocked in southwest Texas in some stores along the Mexican border but not sure if the price would be any cheaper. They did give me a discount on 10 rolls, but I may have to buy 12 rolls since he was not sure if the factory would ship less than 2 pallets - 6 rolls per pallet. Not a problem to buy the extra rolls since we can use them on more of the perimeter, just more money up front. I still haven't heard from the Co-op about the price so will call them back today. Good news is that my Texas farm card allows me to avoid sales tax on the wire. Called Co-op and mgr will call back with prices. Fencing is gonna be pricey $$$ - mainly because of the 6' height for the dogs. But without the dogs, coyotes will eat all the sheep so . . . ?

 

[Baymule]

4’ wire here and no dog issues. But I may have to hot wire the top, Buford already puts his front feet on the top of the wire to bark at Bennett when he comes on his 4 wheeler.

Putting up 6 foot wire might be a tough job. What about putting up all the corner posts, brace posts and T-posts, getting ready to roll out wire? Then hire your lawn guy or somebody to help put up and stretch the wire?

 

[Ridgetop]

We will be putting up the posts first since it will take 6-8 weeks to get the wire after we order it. We will be setting the taller t-posts and putting in the H braces and corner braces. I would not be concerned about putting up lower height wire except since the house is located on Hwy 154, I am worried that they may decide to go after something and get hit by traffic. While there is not a huge amount of traffic the speed limit is 70 mph. Putting up the 6' wire will still be easier than putting up 2 layers of wire. We will ask Jeremy if he knows someone willing to help put the wire up. This will be the first time we will be able to stay in our house and get an actual feel for it. Hope we like it! If not we can reno the house, repair the barn, landscape, sell, and buy another ranch. Hopefully we figure out if we like it before putting in the fencing. LOL At least we can take the fencing we ordered to another house before installing.

Got the lambs vaxed, tagged and docked today with DGD1's help. She is turning into a good little sheep worker. She chased them up from the lower field, then caught the lambs and held them for shots, tagging, and docking. All done until the next round of vaccinations. Checked the mineral feeders and the minerals have all been eaten. I will replace them in another couple days.

Talked to Dr. Lau today about Bo-Se for the sheep. She is going to check on dosage and when is optimal to vaccinate. So happy I found these large animal vets. They are not cheap, but they come from the next county to take care of my flock, then call back to make sure everything is ok. Dr. Nenn and Dr. Lau are wonderful young women who deal with large animals. They are not only good vets, but wonderful with the animals. Getting hard to find large animal vets. Dr. Lau said that in her grad class of 158 only 13 went to large animal practice and a few of those have left large animals and gone into small animal practice. Same thing was being discussed at the Judging Class. No vets and we can't get the meds to treat them ourselves! I guess that is one way to force everyone into vegetarianism.

DH just came in and said that there were hailstorms today 90 miles west of Dallas!

Got notice from the Dorper society that I passed the Junior Judging exam. I have asked for my score since they didn't include that in the notification. I would like to take the class again since I am sure I did not score very high on the practical.

Our truck is back in the shop - this time for a routine oil change. BUT when we went to northern California it was fairly warm and we discovered that the A/C is not working. Most likely they forgot to hook something up after replacing the engine. I am so done with this shop. I thought DH said he would take it to an A/C shop but he told the service manager that it was nit working and so they did the oil change and then sent it back to the diesel shop. I am not holding my breath to get it back in time to go to Texas since once it disappears into the black hole of the diesel department it is gone for a long time. I no longer say anything to DH but apparently the quality of my silence speaks louder than words.

When we get back from Texas we have another round of doctor appointments, and then the Reno Dorper show over Memorial Day. Then back to Texas with the flatbed loaded with corral panels, corral shelters, etc. We'll be going back and forth for the rest of the year.