Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

Actually the fire Department is pretty good about it. First everyone gets a notice of the deadline. Then if you don't comply or you do not clear correctly, they notify you again. Clearance has to be less than so many inches tall, and you have to haul off all the cuttings, clear dead stuff out, etc. The deadline is usually in May, and the third notice of non-compliance is when you get fined. DH has gone to the FD before when we have had trouble clearing in time and they have given us extra time due to the size of our property. If you don't clear, or make any attempt to do so, then the FD will eventually send out a contractor to clear and they send you the bill. We don't usually have any problem now that we have the sheep. We only have problems when the rain keeps coming, clearing to sunshine, then raining again, then sunshine, causing the already cleared areas to regrow. If we have a wet winter, we may have to cut a bit within the 200 feet from all structures, but not too much because of the sheep. I think we had to cut some 3 years ago when we had a wet winter. The good thing is we had plenty of green forage and the lambs grew fast. The downside was that we had to clear a bit. Our grown boys did a lot of it with us though so it wasn't too bad.

But there are people who don't bother to clear and they paid for it last December when the Creek fire hit and burned some of them out. Then there are areas of undeveloped land around homes that the owners are absentee and just don't bother clearing. They are a problem. Before we bought the undeveloped 4.5 acres next door, the owner never cleared. DH and our sons would clear it to keep us safe. We didn't want to take a chance on a fire coming and burning us out. Sure we could have sued the non-compliant owner, but we would still have lost our place. Better to do it ourselves and be safe.

I will be posting a story about our adventures in fire clearance after the children were grown, the 4-H animals sold off, and before we got our "fire clearance" sheep. LOL We tried a lot of crazy things one year before getting more sheep.

 

[Ridgetop]

Here are pix of my new Dorper yearling ewes, both pregnant for the first time. They are getting huge! They still have little udders though those are growing too.
This is Ewegenie. She is due on November 13. See her cute baby udder. She seems to have swelled out a lot in the past week! Her udder has also developed quite a lot in the past week.
This is Lil Sweetie (the grandkids named her Sheepette but she is so tame and sweet I still call her Lil Sweetie). She is the ewe on the left in both pix. She was bigger than Ewegenie until this week, but her udder is smaller. She is due on November 29 or December 22, since she remarked. I don't know if the second marking is accurate. Sometimes the ram get excited and just remarks the ewes for fun. I will be keeping a close eye on her. The 2 older Dorsets are big, their udders are mature but not filling yet. They will probably not fill up until just before lambing. This will be their 3rd set of lambs, due the end of the month sired by the new Dorper, "Rambo".
So excited about these lambs! you would think I never had lambs born here before! LOL

 

[Bruce]

But there are people who don't bother to clear and they paid for it last December when the Creek fire hit and burned some of them out.

They paid and so did everyone who has the same insurance company when they got paid for their loss. Too bad there isn't an out for the insurance company when people don't do what is necessary and required to attempt to prevent loss.

Sheep clearing the vegetation, good reason to have your paddocks right near the house

Only a bit over a week for Ewegenie, I see little lamb pictures in our future!

 

[greybeard]

Or just tell you its not far enough clearance and give you so much time to fix it. Then if you havent, THEN you get fined. Just sounds like they use it to get more money out of people. Tax for this, that, and oh, yeah, this too.
Rights being taken away little by little. Nobody notices. Those who do feel they cant fight it. My Mom says, as long as people can go buy what they want they dont care. Government is taking away more and more all the time. Fining people for not doing something maybe the state should be doing is just one more way to get what people work hard for.

Someone "gets" it!
You can always fight it, but far too many choose to flee it, then carry the same attitude of acceptance to their new "Promised Land".

Support and Acceptance of the Nanny State is not at all what this country was founded upon.

 

[Ridgetop]

Hoping for twin ewe lambs to expand my flock! Probably be single ram lambs. But I have meat buyers so as long as they are healthy and the ewes give birth ok it is all good. DS1 finished setting up the new lambing pens and creep in the barn so we are ready. Lambing box is sitting ready next to the pens. Just have to spread straw in them next week, fill water buckets and put them in.

Still working on Tool/Workshop! Sorting into containers, cupboards, drawers, tool chests, and labeling everything is taking more time than cleaning both the Milking Shed and Tool/Workshop together did! But when finished it will be completely organized and we will be able to find whatever we want without searching through our traveling tool chests. We use them to haul or tools when we go somewhere to work - they are still on the patio from our trip in August to Yelm! I haven't been able to put anything away since a whole lot of "stuff" got shoved into both sheds last year. I hate mess and clutter so this is really a relief for me to get this done. However we brought a lot of tools back from Daddy's place when we cleaned out his big shop. Some of them are very old and I have no idea what they are. Probably some of them are from the days when he and DH used to be able to do all the engine work on their cars themselves. DH will have to go through them and decide what he needs or wants to keep. Then I can put them into bins, label them, and put them onto the shelves.

Will post Fire Clearance tale tonight, hopefully - if not too tired! LOL

 

[Mike CHS]

It's always a good thing to get clutter under control. My shop equipment has always been at the top of my list of things that have to get organized first.

 

[greybeard]

Too much entitlement and think they deserve it even thought they havent earned it.

Unfortunately, I have also seen far too many people even my own age or just a little younger that have that same 'entitlement' attitude.
They think just because they exist, they are entitled to whatever someone else has or even what someone else might have coming.

Covet not!

 

[Rammy]

Tell that to my creepy jerk neighbor.

 

[Baymule]

Tell that to my creepy jerk neighbor.

HEY! GOOBERMOOCHER! OR WHATEVER THE CRAP I NAMED YOU, YOU CREEPY JERK, LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE!!!!

 

[Rammy]

HEY! GOOBERMOOCHER! OR WHATEVER THE CRAP I NAMED YOU, YOU CREEPY JERK, LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE!!!!